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.

Apple is expected to start selling the Apple Vision Pro outside of the United States for the first time after the WWDC event on June 10, according to previous reports. Now, a new report suggests that we can add two countries to the list of countries that we'd already been told to expect that launch to take place in.

Those two countries, we're told by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, are the United Kingdom and Canada, two countries that would normally be included in any first-wave launch of new Apple devices. That made it all the more interesting that neither were added to the list of countries that Gurman believed would be included in the second wave but he has now shared a post on X to suggest that they will indeed be included after all.

This list of launch countries now includes Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the UK. Ap[ple has not yet confirmed that any of these international launches are happening, but Gurman has previously reported that work is underway to train the relevant retail workers ahead of a global launch. The Apple Vision Pro has also already received regulatory approval in China ahead of the headset's launch there.

If you're a fan of Apple's big phones but don't want to have to pay the big money to get your hands on something like the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Plus handsets are always the best way to go. But while we expect there to be an iPhone 16 Plus launched later this year, a new report suggests that it will be the last of the family and be replaced by something new entirely.

Apple started offering a Plus model with the iPhone 14 Plus, replacing the iPhone 13 mini with something very different, and the iPhone 15 Plus carried that on last year. The iPhone 15 Plus has all the same features and specifications as the iPhone 15 but with a larger 6.7-inch display, just like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. But a new report by The Information suggests that Apple isn't happy with the demand for the Plus models and will choose to ditch them entirely when the iPhone 17 ships in the fall of 2025.

That report says that Apple will replace the iPhone 16 Plus with a new iPhone 17 model that will have a slightly smaller display but be thinner and more expensive than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It's possible that this is the Ultra device that was tipped to be part of the iPhone 15 lineup but ultimately didn't materialize.

Phillips is looking to make a smash in the gaming monitor market with the unveiling of the Evnia 49M2C8900L, a 144Hz refresh rate, QD-OLED panel, super ultra-wide gaming monitor.

The newest offering from Phillips arrives under the company's Evnia 8000 premium gaming monitor line-up, and according to DisplaySpecifications the new 49M2C8900L is a cut-down version of the 49M2C8900, which debuted in August 2023. Both of these monitors feature the same identical design, weight and dimensions, with the only major difference on the latest one being the refresh rate (144Hz versus the 240Hz on the 49M2C8900).

As for other specifications with 49M2C8900L, Phillips has equipped the new gaming monitor with a QD-OLED panel that spans 48.9 inches. Phillips' latest offering will arrive with a 5120 x 1440 resolution, making it dual-QHD, an 1800R curvature, 10-bit color depth, and the following color coverage: 153.1% of the sRGB, 125.2% of the Adobe RGB, 127.4% of the NTSC, and 99% of the DCI-P3. Additionally, the 49M2C8900L will have a 0.03ms response time, typical brightness of 250 nits, peak 1000 nits brightness via HDR, and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification.

Apple is planning on releasing its thinnest iPhone yet, according to a new report from The Information that cites multiple sources familiar with the project.

The new report follows the recent release of Apple's latest iPad Pro, which the company said is its thinnest device yet. Notably, the iPad Pro comes in at a width of just 5.3mm, and according to the report from The Information Apple's iPhone 17 lineup could feature a "significantly thinner" smartphone device compared to other iPhone models.

Furthermore, this new iPhone model is slated to replace the Plus model in 2025, and internally, the design changes are being compared to the leap taken with the iPhone X. Notably, Apple hasn't locked down the new design of the iPhone and is still testing various materials to reach the desired level of thickness. Other details mentioned in the report are the possibility of an upgraded front-facing camera, a smaller pill-shaped cutout, and the rear camera array moving to the center of the device.

Reddit and OpenAI have announced a new partnership agreement that will enable the AI developer to scrape data from Reddit's valuable API.

The new partnership agreement has been signed into effect and now OpenAI is able to scrape real-time data from Reddit's API, meaning users will be able to see Reddit posts in responses by OpenAI products when they are appropriately queried. It should be noted that OpenAI isn't the first company to come to Reddit with a bucket full of money to scrape its API for data to train AI models, as Google entered into a similar partnership earlier this year, which is reportedly valued at $60 million annually.

A report from The Verge cites a blogpost from Reddit that explains the deal with OpenAI will bring "new AI-powered features to Redditors and mods". It should be noted the new detail will bring OpenAI on to Reddit as an advertiser and that no specific financials were announced alongside the deal, meaning we don't have a specific value of the deal.

A group of scientists have managed to thaw frozen human brain tissue without causing any damage to the tissue itself.

The new research is coming out of the Fudan University in Shanghai, China, where a team led by Zhicheng Shao grew self-organizing brain samples that are called organoids. These organoids are grown from embryonic stem cells and take three weeks to fully mature. Once fully mature the brain tissue has developed neurons and neural stem cells, which means they are ready for experimentation.

The team then took these brain tissue samples and combined them with various chemicals with the goal of discovering which chemical compound would enable the brain tissue to survive being frozen and still enable growth following its thawing. According to the team's results, which were published in the scientific journal Cell Reports Methods, the most successful combination of chemicals was methylcellulose, ethylene glycol, DMSO, and Y27632 - together, the solution is called MEDY.

The team at OpenAI that was dedicated to reducing the existential risk of the emerging technology has reportedly been disbanded, only days after two of the company's founders quit.

According to a new report from Wired, OpenAI's Superalignment team, which was tasked on identifying risks of advanced artificial intelligence-powered systems going rogue and endangering humanity, has been disbanded by the report, and absorbed into its numerous research and development ranks. The report states research into the risk of AI-powered systems will now be headed by OpenAI cofounder John Schulman.

Notably, Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, founders of OpenAI, announced only a few days ago they were departing the company. Both Sutskever and Leike were top researchers focussing on AI risk mitigation, and following his departure from the company, Leike took to X explaining he had been fighting with OpenAI leadership for quite some time about its core values but, unfortunately, reached his tipping point this week.

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher for the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI, recently held its earnings call where the publisher's CEO Strauss Zelnick commented on the release date for GTA 6.

It was only earlier in the week that we heard from Take-Two Interactive a more specific release date for GTA 6, and while it wasn't an exact date, it was more specific than sometime in 2025. The Take-Two earnings call revealed the publisher is planning on dropping GTA 6, saying it will be arriving in the Fall 2025 season. Despite this more accurate release date, Zelnick said that it doesn't really matter when GTA 6 releases as excitement for the next installment in the billion-dollar franchise has already reached "fever pitch".

Zelnick was asked if there is any benefit to releasing GTA 6 during the holiday period, a strategy many game publishers decide to take as game sales typically spike during the holidays. Zelnick replied to the question by saying GTA 6 will likely be a massive success whenever it releases simply due to the hype surrounding the title. However, Zelnick did say the holiday release window is preferable for all developers and publishers.

Valve appears to be working on its next game and it fans of the company and it's title may be glad to know it's going to be an Overwatch-style shooter.

The new Valve title was made available to a select group of competitive gaming YouTubers who would have undoubtedly had to agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to gain early access to the title. Under this agreement, which I can personally verify as someone who has signed many of them, it's typically stipulated that you are unable to share any images, video, or even descriptions of the product you agree to see under embargo. Simply, it's in the name of the agreement "Non-Disclosure".

According to the leaks, the new Valve title will be called Deadlock, and it appears to be an amalgamation of "Valorant, Overwatch, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2," according to Valve reporter Tyler McVicker. As for what was specifically leaked, the above images show third-person gameplay and a character called "Grey Talon," who is armed with a bow and can lay traps for enemy players.

Sony has officially put its stake in the ground on where it stands when it comes to AI models using the company's IP for training, or at least Sony Music has.

According to a letter seen by the Financial Times, Sony Music has warned more than 700 companies developing AI products, along with music streaming platforms, that using any of Sony's music is strictly prohibited, and the company, along with all of its signed artists opt of out any text and data mining. It should be noted the letter states Sony has opted out of data mining for individuals and companies that are using its content for the purpose of commercialization, or in other words, to make money.

Companies that have already received the letter include OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and many more. Additionally, music streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify have received a different letter recommending they implement measures that will align with Sony's new policy. This move by Sony Music is the latest from the Sony arm that has signed artists such as Harry Styles, Adele, and Beyoncé to protect its IP from being used to train an AI model that can then produce its own unique music.