This week on the TT Show, Jak and Kosta examine Microsoft's new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices running on the Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite chipset and the beginning of the Copilot+ AI PC era. Hardware-wise, it all sounds impressive, with Windows on Arm coming along nicely, but the Copilot+ AI side is a different story.

Microsoft's latest AI tool for Windows users is called Recall. It apparently takes screenshots and snapshots of your PC at regular intervals to build up a searchable database of everything you've seen or done. It sounds like the most invasive piece of software ever created, and Jak and Kosta discuss how it might work and whether there's even a use case for such a feature.

This week, the duo also discuss NVIDIA getting in on the Arm-based CPU business and pairing it with GeForce hardware for a potential gaming handheld to rival the ROG Ally and Steam Deck.

According to a new report at PC Mag, which the outlet has confirmed with the US Trade Representative (USTR), the Biden administration is set to resume tariffs on PC hardware from the Trump era. These tariffs would place a 25% duty or import tax on goods assembled in China, including graphics cards, motherboards, and PC cases.

There's no word on when the tariffs will resume, nor has there been an official notice with confirmation that they're right around the corner. A spokesperson from the USTR told PC Mag, "We are maintaining tariffs on products currently subject to the action, including the two tariffs you've inquired about." Translation: Yes, the GPU tax is coming back.

What does this mean for those putting together PC rigs for gaming, recreation, or even work at home? Higher prices at a time when the last thing you'd want to see is a notable rise in the cost of buying a new GPU or motherboard. Hardware like graphics cards will fall under the new 25% duty, as China is the primary manufacturing and assembly base for PC hardware.

SpaceX is currently undergoing rigorous testing of its Raptor rocket engines, which will be used by the company's next-generation rocket, Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

The Elon Musk-led company has been conducting research and development on its Raptor engines for quite some time now, and it appears to still be in the midst of tweaking and changing the engine design ahead of the highly anticipated fourth launch of Starship. According to a livestream of SpaceX's McGregor, Texas testing facility by NASASpaceFlight, a Raptor engine recently experienced an anomaly that resulted in an initial explosion and a secondary explosion.

The publication reports the secondary explosion on the test stand can be attributed to the vapors in the air from the first explosion. SpaceX hasn't officially offered any update on the explosion, and given how familiar SpaceX is with exploding rocket-related creations, it can safely assumed no one was injured from this explosion. For those that don't know, SpaceX's flagship rocket, Starship, uses 33 Raptor engines in its first stage booster called Super Heavy.

In the United States, the video game era in the late 1970s and early 1980s was defined by two consoles - the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. This rivalry predates the Nintendo versus Sega era by a decade and the current PlayStation versus Xbox versus Nintendo era. It even predates most gamers in 2024, who weren't even alive when the Atari 2600 was a thing that connected to a TV.

Atari and Intellivision aren't big players in the modern video game era, which makes today's announcement that Atari is acquiring Intellivision and its various trademarks and games more of a fun news story than the monumental news that something like PlayStation acquiring Xbox (or the other way around) would be.

What does Atari + Intellivision mean for gaming? The press release states, "Atari will seek to expand digital and physical distribution of legacy Intellivision games, potentially create new games, and explore brand and licensing opportunities."

NVIDIA announced its financial results for the first quarter, and you can probably guess how it went - data center revenue from AI and GPU sales reached record highs, pushing the company's stock price to over $1,000 per share. With everyone all in on AI and NVIDIA leading the charge technology and hardware-wise, you might be wondering how the company's gaming side and GeForce business is going.

Unlike AMD's struggling Radeon and console gaming revenue, NVIDIA's Gaming sector is doing well - with $2.6 billion in revenue, up 18% from a year ago. Granted, it's nowhere near the $22.6 billion in data center revenue or the incredible 427% year-over-year growth seen in that sector - but it's good news for the traditionally quiet quarter for gaming revenue.

Gaming revenue was down 8% from the previous quarter, but the year-over-year growth is being hailed as a win for GeForce hardware. However, as AI continues to rule the day, NVIDIA's financial results cite 'AI gaming technologies' and 'AI performance optimizations' as critical milestones for NVIDIA's gaming business during the last quarter.

AMD Radeon Anti-Lag 2 has been formally announced and is now available in 'technical preview' form in Counter-Strike 2. Like NVIDIA's Reflex latency reduction technology, the new Radeon Anti-Lag 2 requires game integration - unlike Anti-Lag or last year's short-lived Anti-Lag+.

The choice of Counter-Strike 2 to debut Anti-Lag 2 is an excellent move from AMD because of the whole Anti-Lag+ controversy. Here's a quick rundown: Anti-Lag+ was launched as an in-driver solution for latency reduction in September 2023. Fast forward to October 2023, and Counter-Strike 2 players with Anti-Lag+ enabled were banned for cheating. It turns out Anti-Lag+ worked by accessing and even modifying game code and data.

From there, AMD disabled Anti-Lag+ and then removed it entirely. And now, several months later, we've got the new and very different Anti-Lag 2 that requires game integration.

TSMC has announced that it will build 7 new plants this year, in a bid to "boost its global competitiveness" reports Focus Taiwan.

The 7 new plants will include 3 new wafer plants, 2 new packaging factories in Taiwan, and two new wafer plants overseas. These new facilities are being built, or about to be built, to meet the fast-growing global demand for high-performance computing devices and smartphones, says Huang Yuan-kuo, head of the FAB18 plant in Tainan, at the TSMC 2024 Taiwan Technology Symposium.

TSMC has had bonkers demand for its 3nm process, but the world's largest contract chip maker expects 3nm orders to explode by 3x this year compared to 2023. TSMC is also boosting its production capacity of speciality technology, with the proportion of speciality technology relative to all mature processes is predicted to increase to 67% this year, compared to 61% back in 2020.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is now available on PC and Xbox consoles and is part of the Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass subscription service. Built with the latest Unreal Engine technology, it's being praised as one of the most cinematic and visually impressive games ever made. From character detail to realistic-looking environments to the lighting and other effects - it's jaw-dropping stuff.

The game is also available to play on NVIDIA's GeForce NOW cloud streaming service, bringing the total number of cloud-supported games on the service to over 1,900. Best of all, GeForce NOW Ultimate members can stream the game at up to 4K 120 frames per second on a GeForce RTX 4080 SuperPOD.

Per NVIDIA's benchmarks for Hellblade II running in 4K with Max Settings and DLSS 3 enabled, the only way to experience the game with this level of performance is with a GeForce RTX 4080 or RTX 4090. This makes a GeForce NOW Ultimate subscription (with a stable connection) one of the best ways to experience the game.

SK hynix has announced that HBM3E yields are close to 80% and that the South Korean memory giant has reduced mass production times of HBM3E in half.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times this week, SK hynix's Yield Executive Vice President Kwon Jae-soon said: "We have managed to cut the time required for mass production of HBM3E chips by 50%. The chips have almost reached the target yield of 80%".

This is the first time that SK hynix has publicly disclosed yield information for HBM3E memory, with the industry estimating previously that the yield of SK hynix's HBM3E memory was somewhere between 60% and 70%. VP Kwon continued, saying: "our goal this year is to focus on producing 8-layer HBM3E. In the AI era, improving yields becomes even more crucial to stay ahead".

NVIDIA will be rolling out next-gen GDDR7 memory on its next-generation GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, with the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card reportedly featuring 16 GDDR7 memory modules in a denser design.

It seems NVIDIA is changing up the memory layout for its new GeForce RTX 5090 over the current-gen RTX 5090, with the GB202 "Blackwell" GPU inside, next-gen GDDR7 memory on a huge 512-bit memory bus. If that's true, it would explain why NVIDIA would need to use additional GDDR7 memory modules around the GPU.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5090 will use GDDR7 memory arranged in a denser configuration, with the layout shifting from 3-4-1-4 to 4-5-2-5 (clockwise), which allows the board to support up to 16 memory modules.

NVIDIA's next-generation GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card is being teased, with a sophisticated PCB design.

In a new post on X, leaker "kopite7kimi" said that the RTX 50 FE graphics cards have 3 separate PCBs: the motherboard, I/O rigid board, and a separate PCIe slot component, that the leaker adds "perhaps it should not be considered as the third PCB".

The new GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs will have a bunch of new tech: a next-generation Blackwell GPU architecture, and next-generation GDDR7 memory (and some more surprises, I'm sure). We should expect NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card to feature up to 16 x GDD7 memory modules surrounding the GPU, something we've learned in new leaks, too.

NVIDIA has just posted its Q1 2024 earnings, reporting record quarterly earnings of $26 billion, destroying analysts' expectations of $24.59 billion. $26 billion in revenue for Q1 2024 are up 18% from the previous quarter, and up 262% from a year ago.

NVIDIA profits and revenues skyrocketed in Q1 2024, with record quarterly data center revenues of $22.6 billion, which is up 23% from Q4 2023, and a gigantic 427% year-over-year.

Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said: "The next industrial revolution has begun - companies and countries are partnering with NVIDIA to shift the trillion-dollar traditional data centers to accelerated computing and build a new type of data center - AI factories - to produce a new commodity: artificial intelligence. AI will bring significant productivity gains to nearly every industry and help companies be more cost- and energy-efficient, while expanding revenue opportunities".

If Apple sticks to the tried and tested plans of recent years we can expect it to release a slew of new software updates this fall, one of which will surely be the macOS 15 software for the Mac computers. Apple is set to preview the changes at WWDC on June 10, but we might not have to wait that long to get a feel for what's in store.

According to a new report by AppleInsider, Apple is planning a number of changes for the big release including one that will be welcome news to many. The System Settings app has been lambasted by many since it replaced the familiar System Preferences, and now the report says that Apple intends to make some changes this year.

One of the changes coming to System Settings is the removal of the Apple ID section with a new Apple Account section taking its place. There are also going to be changes throughout the System Settings app to accommodate new Apple Account settings and features, we're told, with new animations or redesigned interface elements arriving. AppleInsider also believes that the Apple Account rebrand will see the arrival of a new feature called Printable Account Recovery Summary, or PARS. It's not yet clear what that feature will be but it's likely designed to give users easier access to important account information.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on its first foldable device, but it won't be a phone or a tablet as other companies have brought to the market. Instead, it'll be a foldable laptop. We'd been told to expect that Apple would sell the laptop with a large 20.25-inch foldable display but now a new report suggests that Apple will instead shrink that display to 18.76 inches.

A recent report by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple was working on testing both sizes of display which could have suggested that both would reach the market. However, in a paywalled X post that was picked up by 9to5Mac, display analyst Ross Young says that Apple has ditched the 20.25-inch display plans in favor of one that's smaller at 18.76 inches.

Young has a strong track record of detailing Apple's plans based on information gleaned from within the display supply chain and he believes that Apple has now settled on the smaller 18.76 display or, more likely, a rounded figure of 18.8 inches.

The Navi 48 and 44 GPUs have been confirmed by AMD - kind of - to be the only chips that'll make up Team Red's next-gen range of graphics cards with its RDNA 4 architecture.

VideoCardz noticed that Kepler flagged up on X (formerly Twitter) that in an update for its ROCm software, AMD specifically mentions Navi 44 and Navi 48 as gfx1200 and gfx1201 respectively.

There are no other chips in the update, so that all but confirms that Team Red is keeping things down to just Navi 44 and 48, as all rumors have pointed to for some time now.

Apple is yet to enter the world of the foldable phone and there is little to suggest that it intends to change that any time soon. But Apple is indeed reportedly working on a foldable device of some sort and that's believed to be an all-screen laptop. We've seen reports of a potential 20-inch foldable device before, and now a new report by the usually well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests that Apple is also testing a foldable laptop with an 18.8-inch display.

Ming-Chi Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple is still working on a 20.25-inch option with LG Display being the exclusive panel supplier. But the smaller model is also being considered with the two different foldable panels corresponding to the design of 14- to 15-inch and 13- to 14-inch laptops. What's more, he believes that Apple is aiming to have the displays ready for assembly towards the end of 2025 or early 2026 which means these laptops could go on sale in just a couple of years.

In a lengthy Medium post detailing Apple's plans, Kuo said that Apple is working to put the M4 family of chips into the new laptop. Apple is expected to launch new M4 machines later this year, but the bulk of the lineup - including new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs - won't go M4 until 2025. That would then leave Apple's M5 ready for a 2026 debut.

Following its launch in Japan just a few days ago, Apple has today launched its Tap to Pay on iPhone feature in Canada for the very first time. The feature offers small businesses a new, easy way to accept contactless payments via bank cards, mobile wallets, and Apple Pay using nothing more than their iPhones.

The feature is already available in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, the U.K., and Ukraine and the expansion will surely continue. Apple's press release says that businesses will be able to accept Tap to Pay on iPhone using apps from Adyen, Moneris, Stripe, and Square at launch while Aurus, Chase, Fiserv, and Helcim will all come online in the coming months.

Accepting Tap to Pay on iPhone payments is easy for businesses so long as they have an iPhone XS or newer that has also been updated to the latest version of iOS that it supports. Payments are handled securely using similar technology to that which powers Appl Pay, but other payment methods like contactless cards are also supported.

Apple iPhone owners in Japan may one day be allowed to install third-party app marketplaces if new legislation goes ahead. The move would mimic that of the European Union and the Digital Markets Act. That act means that third-party app stores are now available across 27 member countries and it now appears that Japanese officials may bring similar legislation to their country as well.

A Japan Times report says that the legislation is currently being debated in parliament and that it would apply to Google as well as Apple. The bill has been submitted by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and would force dominant platforms, like those operated by Apple and Google, to allow third-party app markets as well as alternative payment options. The move would also prevent technology companies from giving preferential treatment to their own products, the report explains.

Developers have long argued that Apple's high fees and App Store restrictions inhibit innovation, with those in Japan suggesting that they would be able to reduce the prices they charge customers as a result of third-party App Store alternatives. It remains to be seen whether that is how things would ultimately pan out however, especially if Apple chooses to roll a similar system out to the one that's in use in the EU. There, Apple charges a core technology fee and other fees to reduce the loss of revenue that comes about as a result of apps being sold outside of the App Store.

Windows 11 24H2 is entering the final phase of testing ahead of its likely fall release later this year, and Microsoft has made a big move with Copilot.

In preview build 26100, which is now in the Release Preview channel (the last stage before general availability), Copilot has been transformed into a fully standalone app.

That means the AI assistant is no longer confined to a panel at the right side of the desktop, but it's now in its own window which can be moved around the desktop and resized, just like any other app.

Activision has taken to its official Call of Duty X, formerly Twitter, account to share a short teaser video that confirms the next Call of Duty.

The above teaser video was released only an hour ago, and it confirms the next Call of Duty will be called Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which Activision writes will bring in "a dark new chapter of the Black Ops franchise." The coming Call of Duty is rumored to be releasing this October on the following platforms: Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. The reason that's worth mentioning is because of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision, which led many to believe that Call of Duty was going to become an Xbox and PC exclusive, only to be released on PlayStation at a later date, but that isn't the case.

The current agreement Microsoft is under is to continue launching the Call of Duty franchise on multiple platforms. As for Black Ops 6, there isn't much officially known about the now highly anticipated game, but we are scheduled to find out more about it at the Xbox Games Showcase penciled in for June 9. Rumors indicate that Black Ops 6 will take players, at least in part, to the Gulf War.