This week, on a more focused episode of The TT Show, Jak and Kosta break down and go through the crazy Helldivers 2 controversy on PC. If you were offline for a few days (and this all played out throughout a single weekend), the decision to force the Helddivers 2's PC players to link their Steam Account to a PlayStation Network (PSN) account caused a veritable backlash storm.

From the review bombing to developers being grilled to Sony and developer Arrowhead's damage control to the surprisingly swift happy ending, Jak and Kosta discuss the implications and consider what might happen in the aftermath.

This week's other big story comes from the world of Apple, with the company lifting the lid on its new iPad Pro lineup powered by the new AI-powered 3 nanometer M4 chip. The big thing here is that it represents Apple's first dip into the world of OLED displays, with a groundbreaking 1000-nit SDR and HDR screen that has two OLED panels in one!

After weeks of beta testing, Apple has today made macOS 14.5 available for download by the public. The update is compatible with all macOS Sonoma-based Macs and comes more than two months after Apple made the macOS 14.4 update available to the world. However, anyone who hoped that Apple had spent those two months adding a ton of new features is unfortunately going to be left very disappointed indeed.

On the contrary, this macOS 14.5 update is far from exciting and while we would always suggest installing the latest macOS software updates, this one isn't going to knock your socks off. These kinds of updates often bring with them bug fixes and other improvements, but in terms of big new software features, you're going to be out of luck. That is, unless you're a big Apple News Plus user who also happens to be a fan of word games. And you like playing them on your Mac, of course.

Just like the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 updates, macOS 14.5 brings the Quartiles game to the Apple News app. It's an original daily word game that's available to all Apple News Plus subscribers, albeit only those who happen to be in the United States and Canada.

When Apple announced the new M4 iPad Pro last week it confirmed, albeit via the company's tech specifications website rather than via the announcement event, that the new chip came in two different core configurations. The base model comes with a 9-core CPU whereas those who buy the iPad Pro with 1TB or 2TB of storage gain an extra performance core, making it faster when performing multi-core workloads. The upgraded chip also comes with twice as much RAM, so 16GB rather than the standard 8GB.

Now, new Geekbench test scores for the lower-core-count M4 have started to appear online and it gives us our first proper look at how that compares with the version of the iPad Pro that has an extra core built in.

The results suggest that the loss of a core is worth around 10% of the Geekbench results, as noted by MacRumors. In terms of cold, hard, figures, the 10-core CPU manages a score of around 14,600 during multi-core testing. For comparison, the 9-core version of the same chip manages around 13,000. Looking for added context? The M3 chip that the M4 replaces has just eight CPU cores and manages around 11,600 while the 8-core M2 chip posts scores of around 9,600.

The Apple Vision Pro has been on sale in Apple's home country of the United States since early February but there has so far been no confirmation of exactly when we can expect the so-called spatial computer to go on sale globally. Apple has said that we should expect that to happen in 2024, but that leaves for a big time window in which a launch could happen, and with no confirmation of which countries will be involved, there's a lot of guesswork. Now, there might be more information on the horizon with a new report suggesting a launch could be imminent.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple appears to be readying a launch in multiple countries with the confirmation set to come at the company's WWDC event that will take place on June 10. That of course means that it is highly unlikely that we should expect Apple to announce the launch of the headset anywhere before then. Gurman also believes that Apple has been training its retail workers in a number of countries ahead of launch, potentially giving us a hint as to which countries will be on Apple's next wave of launches.

Gurman believes that workers in Germany, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China have undergone training which is likely an indicator that those will be the first international markets that Apple intends to target with the Apple Vision Pro. There is ofc course no news on when the headsets will actually be available to buy, although the fact that an announcement is seemingly imminent is enough to get potential buyers excited.

Apple has today finally made the iOS 17.5 software available for download by everyone who has a compatible iPhone after weeks of beta testing. The app update is of course free to download and it brings with it a number of new improvements. We'd suggest that everyone downloads the new update sooner rather than later, too.

Apple made the update available alongside other software updates for the iPad, Mac, and the rest of its platforms, and this one, in particular, brings with it some interesting changes. The most notable change, albeit one that only affects people in the European Union, means that users can now download apps directly from the websites of individual developers for the very first time. The change comes as part of Apple's attempts to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act. Other changes that have already been applied include the allowance for third-party app stores and more.

Other changes of note in iOS 17.5 include the new Cross-Platform Tracking Detection system that will alert people if a compatible Bluetooth item tracker is moving with them but is not owned by them. It doesn't matter which device that tracker is paired with - meaning those paired with Android devices will still alert iPhone users and vice-versa.

Last week Apple announced the brand-new iPad Pro complete with a super-fast new M4 chip and an OLED display that is brighter than anything the company has put into a tablet to date. It's the best tablet that Apple has ever made, and it also has one other accolade to go with all of that - it also happens to be the thinnest device that Apple has ever made, too.

Apple made quite the big deal about the new iPad Pro's lack of thickness when it was announced at the Let Loose event alongside the new M2 iPad Air. The 11-inch iPad Pro measures 5.3mm while the 13-inch iPad Pro is even thinner, coming in at just 5.1mm thick. That's incredibly thin and it makes the new tablet even thinner than the iconic iPod nano. But when you make something that thin - especially something as physically big as the 13-inch iPad Pro - there is one obvious problem that needs to be overcome. How do you make sure that something like that won't bend in the middle? Apple, it says, has the answer.

The news came via someone who really should know the correct answer, too. Apple SVP John Ternus told YouTuber Arun Maini that Apple has redesigned the iPad Pro's internals to try and make sure that it's as rigid as possible. One of the changes includes a new metal cowling that sits above the logic board and then runs down the middle of the tablet to essentially form a sort of rib. That rib then adds additional rigidity to a device that could otherwise flex in ways that would be problematic.

If you're waiting for May 15 to roll around so that you can get your hands on a hot new M4 iPad Pro or M2 iPad Air, you won't have to wait too much longer, thankfully. We're just a couple of days away from the big release, and there's yet more good news for people who are concerned that they might have to deal with a huge fee should they accidentally damage their new device.

The displays on the new iPad Pro and iPad Air are big and look stunning, especially the OLED display found on the 13-inch iPad Pro. So the thought of accidentally breaking one would be enough to give anyone the cold sweats. Thankfully, MacRumors reports that Apple has extended its $29 iPhone screen repair program to the iPad Pro and iPad Air for the first time. The move means that it will be cheaper than ever to get a new display installed. The catch? You'll need to be an AppleCare Plus subscriber to benefit from the reduced pricing. Unfortunately, breaking the rest of the iPad will still result in a $99 fee.

All of this makes the AppleCare Plus subscription a no-brainer if you're someone who tends to drop things or is likely to take the iPad on trips. It's easy for something to bang into a bag and accidentally damage what's inside, and replacing the display on one of Apple's new tablets is a very expensive experience. Without AppleCare Plus, a new display will cost between $449 and $999 which is a huge sum of money.

Apple last week announced a flurry of iPads during the Let Loose event, adding the M4 chip and an OLED display to the iPad Pro and an M2 chip and all-new 13-inch display size to the iPad Air. But there was no mention of updating the iPad mini and the beloved mature tablet hasn't received any attention since it was last refreshed in 2021. That will surely change soon enough, but how soon that will happen is a matter for debate. Now, a new report suggests that while a new iPad mini is indeed part of Apple's plans, we shouldn't expect it to debut any time soon.

Writing in the paywalled version of the Power On newsletter that was reported by MacRumors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman noted that the updated iPad mini isn't something that is likely to be announced within the next couple of months. In fact, the way Gurman was speaking, it seems possible that the new iPad mini might not arrive until 2025 although there remains hope it could debut before then.

When answering a reader's question about when the new iPad mini would debut, Gurman said that they would likely have to wait until the end of this year at the earliest, perhaps hinting that Apple could choose to hang fire on the new launch until 2025. It's absolutely clear that there won't be any iPad mini news at the WWDC event that is set to take place on June 10, however.

By the end of the decade an asteroid that measures approximately 1,000-foot-wide will approach Earth, and this asteroid has been named after the Egyptian god of chaos and destruction.

The closest approach of the asteroid called Apophis will occur on April 13, 2029, and due to its incredible size and close proximity to Earth, a safe but extremely close 30,000 miles, skywatchers will be able to observe the asteroid with the naked eye. Apophis has been at the top of the European Space Agency's (ESA's) "impact risk list" of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) and NASA's Sentry Risk Table for 17 years, but further analysis by NASA determined it won't hit Earth for at least the next 100 years.

So, what's the big deal? NASA plans on using the close approach of Apophis as an opportunity to learn more about near-Earth asteroids, and space rocks in general, as Apophis formed around the same time the as the planets, making its material extremely valuable to researchers that want to piece together the long evolution of the solar system.

CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 has certainly come a long way from its release in December 2020, when at the time was met with extreme criticism from console players that nearly resulted in CD Projekt Red investors suing the developer.

If you remember the release of Cyberpunk 2077, you will likely remember absolute chaos, widespread criticism, performance issues across the board, and overall thousands of unhappy gamers - so many that Sony even gave refunds to those who wanted them before pulling the game from its marketplace altogether. Since its release, Cyberpunk 2077 has been slowly climbing its way back to where it should have been at launch, and now the game is stable, playable, enjoyable, and, most of all, gorgeous.

A testament to the Cyberpunk 2077 community turning around the game is CD Projekt Red's Phantom Liberty DLC, which has been well-received by gamers. 95% of the 7000+ reviews left in the last month are positive, and according to Cyberpunk's director, Paweł Sasko, he "always believed" it was possible, but "never thought [he] would actually see it".

NASA has taken to its website to highlight a "rocky" planet approximately 41 light-years from Earth within the constellation Cancer.

That planet is called 55 Cancri e, and is referred to as a super-hot super-Earth exoplanet by researchers as it has a diameter twice that of Earth and has a composition similar to our planet's. As for super-hot, 55 Cancri e orbits its host star at approximately 1.4 million miles, or about one-twenty-fifth the distance between Mercury and the Sun. Due to its extremely close proximity, 55 Cancri e is believed to be tidally locked to its star, meaning only one side of the planet is facing the host star - exactly how from Earth we can only see one side of the Moon.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) pointed its sensitive infrared images at the planet and measured the light coming off it. By measuring the light researchers are able to determine what elements are present in the atmosphere, and the first indication 55 Cancri e could have a substantial atmosphere came from temperature measurements, or the heat energy given off in the form of infrared light.