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.

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.

Experts at Digital Foundry discussed the possibility of the next-generation Nintendo console being able to output a 4K resolution at 60FPS.

The tech experts over at Digital Foundry, the gold-standard for video game hardware/software analysis, recently discussed the Nintendo Switch successor being able to output games at a 4K, 60FPS using NVIDA DLSS. According to the team, the purported Switch 2 may be able to deliver a 4K resolution at 30FPS, but 60FPS will more than likely be off the table due to how expensive it is for the console's GPU to upscale the content.

Digital Foundry referenced a test they conducted with a T239 chip wherein their goal was to replicate the rumored hardware inside the Switch 2, specifically the test where they upscaled Death Stranding from 720p to 4K with DLSS Ultra Performance. The team found the upscaling added 18.3 milliseconds to frame time over native resolution, meaning 60FPS wasn't possible. However, upscaling to 1440p from 720p only added 7.7 milliseconds.

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, is concentrating on over-delivering with the next installment in the series, Grand Theft Auto VI.

The CEO of the publisher, Strauss Zelnick, was asked during a recent earnings call about pricing for the publisher's catalog of games, particularly the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Zelnick responded by saying Take-Two aims at delivering "great value at any given time" and that its rubric for any new game it plans on releasing will provide more value to a gamer than the price tag on a game.

Zelnick said when Take-Two lands on a price for a new game, it makes sure it's "good news" for gamers, and the game's "experience vastly over-delivers". All of this alludes to the mystery surrounding the price tag for Grand Theft Auto VI, and unfortunately, Zelnick dodged direct questions regarding the highly anticipated title's price tag. However, we do know Take-Two is more than comfortable charging $70 for a new game, with Zelnick saying last year that players seem to be happy paying $70 for games.

Google has released a new white paper that outlines everything that is "wrong" with Microsoft security, particularly highlighting its recent failings.

The new white paper is titled "A more secure alternative," and Google explains across 14 pages all of the problems with Microsoft's approach to security while also recommending better alternatives, Gmail and Google Drive. The paper is mostly based on the recent discoveries by the US government's Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), which stated last month that Microsoft's approach to the June 2023 attack on its Exchange Online service was lackluster.

The CSRB reprimanded Microsoft for its lack of knowledge on when attackers were able to infiltrate its Exchange Online service that resulted in the hackers being able to sift through email inboxes. Additionally, the CSRB criticized the Windows owner for having a seven-year-old security key still be valid, which was used by the hackers to gain access to the Exchange email service.