This week on the TT Show, Lord of the Rings superfan (and also superfan) Jak and Kosta discuss Peter Jackson returning to The Lord of the Rings franchise with the new movie 'The Hunt for Gollum.' They discuss the potential story, timeline, and their hopes for a return to the magic of the original trilogy. And not, you know, The Hobbit.

Another big story this week is Apple's apologizing for its seemingly tone-deaf iPad Pro advertisement that quickly caused a massive wave of negative backlash. Is it as bad as some of the comments? As a fan of retro hardware who doesn't like seeing it get destroyed, Kosta thinks so, while Jak is more on the fence and 'meh.'

And it wouldn't be an episode of The TT Show without GPU news, with all of the latest GeForce RTX 50 Series, Radeon, and Intel graphics talk bundled into a new section of the podcast called 'GPU Corner.' Speaking of new sections, Jak and Kosta play a round of Guess the Headline for some fun.

AMD's next-gen "Strix Halo" Zen 5-based APU has been pictured on Chiphell, showing off its chiplet-based deisgn, using 256-bit LPDDR5X memory.

The new Strix Halo APU will feature a chiplet-based design, with one or two Zen 5 CCDs and a huge SoC die that features an oversized integrated RDNA 3+ GPU, and 256-bit LPDDR5X memory controllers not found on the cIOD. AMD is aiming at CPU and GPU performance that competes with Apple's M3 Pro and M3 Max SoCs, at comparable PCB and power consumption.

AMD is using an integrated RDNA 3+ GPU in its next-gen Strix Halo APU, with a huge 40 Compute Units that works out to 2560 Stream Processors, 80 AI accelerators, 40 Ray accelerators, 160 TMUs, and an unknown amount of ROPs, with GPU clock speeds of up to 3.0GHz.

Microsoft isn't the only one working on a mobile games platform--Sony is also developing its own PlayStation mobile experience.

Earlier this month, Xbox president Sarah Bond confirmed Microsoft's mobile games store would launch in July. But Xbox isn't the only one interested in leveraging the $90 billion market; Sony also has big dreams of releasing its own free-to-play mobile titles.

There's just one problem: Outside of Fate/Grand Order, Sony doesn't actually have any mobile games. That's about to change, though, as Sony ramps up investments in the space, including acquisitions of studios like Firesprite and Valkyrie. Now a new Sony job listing for a mobile platform architect gives clues on what's next for Sony's mobile ambitions.

Microsoft has grand ambitions to capture some of the $90 billion mobile games market with an Xbox mobile store, but the digital shop won't actually sell games when it launches.

Microsoft plans to launch an Xbox mobile store experience in July, but what will it look like? According to Game File's Stephen Totilo, the store will only sell microtransactions at launch. The store has been a long time coming but Microsoft didn't take the plunge until now due not having enough mobile titles to justify an entire competing store.

Emboldened by the Activision Blizzard King acquisition, which armed Microsoft with three heavy-hitting mobile powerhouses (Candy Crush, Call of Duty Mobile, and Diablo Immortal), and European Union's new Digital Markets Act, the company has now decided to flip the switch and greenlight its mobile plans.

Microsoft could raise the price of Xbox Game Pass once again in an effort to combat rising costs of games development.

Game Pass subscribers might be in for another price increase as Xbox chases more growth. Sources tell The Verge's Tom Warren that Microsoft is mulling over a subscription price hike for Game Pass.

This price hike is likely being timed in conjunction with the arrival of Call of Duty on Game Pass--the added value from the series could give Microsoft a reason to raise subscription prices again.

IGN Entertainment has purchased Gamer Network, and it now owns UK sites like Eurogamer/Digital Foundry, GamesIndustry.biz, VG247, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

After today's deal, IGN now owns a considerable portion of the video games media sector. The Ziff Davis-owned media company has acquired Gamer Network for an undisclosed sum.

Gamer Network was founded in 1999, and over its multi-decade run has grown to operate a ring of six popular UK-based websites including Eurogamer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, VG247, Digital Foundry, Dicebreaker, and GamesIndustry.biz, which has become an important resource for video game developers to connect and find work.

Apple and Île-de-France Mobilités have today announced that Parisians can finally add the Navigo card to the Apple Wallet on their iPhone and Apple Watch, allowing them to ride the transit options around the pairs region.

Apple said via a press release that people can buy passes from the Île-de-France Mobilités iOS app or directly from Apple Wallet and then use them to "tap and ride." The announcement also noted that beginning this week, real-time transit information for Apple Maps is now available in pairs to make it easier for people to navigate their way around one of the most famous cities in the world.

Navigo cards can be used to quickly and easily access transit by double-pressing the iPhone's side button just as iPhone owners already do when making Apple Pay payments. Alternatively, those who have Express Mode enabled simply need to hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near a compatible reader without having to first unlock or authenticate the device. What's more, the iPhone will continue to work in this way even when it needs to be charged thanks to a reserve power mode.

Small businesses in Japan now have a new way to accept contactless payments from their customers using contactless cards or Apple Pay as well as other mobile wallets using nothing more than their iPhones. The Tap to Pay iPhone feature can now be used by businesses in Japan just as it can in other parts of the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and others.

Apple's press release notes that businesses in Japan can now access payments via three different financial services including Square, Recruit Co, and GMI Financial Gate Co while Ayden support will also come to Tap to Pay on iPhone users within the next few months. It's also to be noted that Tap to Pay on iPhone will also be used in Apple Stores across Japan, too.

Being able to take contactless payments using nothing more than an iPhone can be a huge boost for businesses that need to accept payments away from a shop or other physical location where a traditional point-of-sale system may be used. The system requires an iPhone XS or newer running the latest version of iOS available to it.

If you're a Comcast Xfinity internet or TV customer you can now get your hands on a trio of top-notch streaming services under a single monthly fee. And if that sounds like the cable of old, that's probably because it's very similar indeed - except your content will now come over the internet instead of a traditional TV signal.

The new offering, dubbed Xfinity StreamSaver, bundles Apple TV Plus, Netflix, and Peacock together under a $15 per month fee and will launch next week across the United States. We're told that StreamSaver will include Netflix Standard with ads, Peacock Premium, and Apple TV Plus with savings of almost $100 per year when compared to paying for all of the subscriptions separately.

Those who want to add another service to their bundle can choose to add NOW TV for an additional $15 per month, making the full bundle $30 per month. That'll give streamers access to more than 40 live TV channels including AMC, A&E, Hallmark, History Channel, Lifetime, and WEtv, as well as more than two dozen integrated FAST channels including AccuWeather, NBC News, TODAY All Day, and Xumo Movies.

Apple is expected to announce as many as four new iPhones this coming fall, with the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max making up the lineup for 2024. We've been hearing various leaks over the last few months that give us an idea of what the new devices will have to offer but there is obviously no confirmation from Apple one way or the other. Now, a new leak appears to have given us more information about what the camera situation will be at the very top of that lineup.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max will be the best iPhone that money can buy later this year thanks to its huge 6.9-inch display, among other things. Now, Weibo leaker OvO Baby Sauce OvO has suggested that buyers can also look forward to a bigger main camera sensor. Both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will also feature a 48-megapixel ultrawide camera for the first time, we're told.

The leaker claims that the main iPhone 16 Pro Max camera will be an advanced version of the 48-megapixel Sony IMX903 sensor while the iPhone 16 Pro will use the same 48-megapixel custom Sony IMX803 sensor that is already used on the iPhone 15 Pro models. That doesn't mean that those who don't want to buy the huge iPhone 16 Pro Max shouldn't look forward to some camera improvements, however.

Sony has taken to the official PlayStation YouTube channel to share a new trailer for V Rising, revealing the release date for the popular title on PS5.

V Rising, developed and published by Stunloock Studios, has been available on PC for quite some time, gaining quite a lot of attention for its new take on the survival genre with a meticulously thought-out combat system that is reminiscent of Diablo. V Rising has earned itself a "Very Positive" review score on Steam, with some players saying the game is like if ARK: Survival Evolved and Diablo had a baby, and that baby was into Anne Rice novels, the American gothic fiction author best known for The Vampire Chronicles.

Along with the announcement the game is coming to the PS5 on June 11, developer Stunlock Studios announced three purchasable editions for PlayStation. The Standard Edition includes just the base game, while the Legacy of Castlevania Edition includes the base game, Legacy of Castlevania Premium Pack and 5 days early access. Lastly, the V Rising Completed Edition includes the following.