Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup – 2/3 – 2/9

Super Bowl ads over the years, is it worth it for marketers?

WhatsApp on iOS can now be locked behind Face ID or Touch ID

Anker offers cheaper USB-C to Lightning cable with lifetime warranty

Google celebrates Lunar New Year with an AI experiment

Warby Parker app on iOS will let you try on glasses using AR and face mapping

Autoplaying videos on Firefox will soon be played on mute by default

Deidre O'Brien to head Apple's Retail and People as SVP, as Angela Ahrendts departs

‘Captain Marvel’ will be first Disney+ exclusive film

Spotify grows its podcast ambitions with two new acquisitions

Facebook Messenger’s “unsend” feature is finally here

Samsung patent toys with the idea of placing the camera in a stylus

Smart downloads coming to Netflix on iOS

Microsoft Surface Headphones are coming to Canada in March

Opera brings back VPN as a feature in its Android browser

Childish Gambino turns into Playmoji for Pixel phones

‘Aquaman’ spinoff is reportedly in the works

Facebook will let page admins reply to Instagram DMs right from FB

Facebook will let page admins reply to Instagram DMs right from FB

Looks like Facebook is taking that step further into integrating its services together. In a press release for its Facebook Communities Summit, the social media giant announced that Facebook Page administrators can now respond to Instagram Direct Messages right from their Facebook Page inbox. We already know Facebook has plans to unify its messaging apps, and this seems like the logical first step in that direction. Not only would it keep people in the Facebook site itself, but it would give them a competitive advantage over other services. It can offer shared analytics from the user interaction on these integrated offerings that could help the company monetize its services. But as Android Police points out, we’re hoping this doesn’t come at the expense of user experience.

‘Aquaman’ spinoff is reportedly in the works

Warner Bros.

You might be waiting for a sequel to Aquaman, but rumour has it that isn’t happening in the meantime. What we can expect though is a spinoff—and one that involves The Trench. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has ordered a script for The Trench, which puts the focus on the deep sea dwelling creatures in Aquaman. And it seems Aquaman director James Wan and Peter Safran are onboard to produce the project, while screenwriters Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald will work on the script. The approach seems to be a bit more “horror-tinged.” Gardner and Fitzgerald worked at JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot productions during the Super 8 era and have previously written a submarine thriller called The Volos.

If the project gets the green light, the report claims it’s going to get a smaller budget than Aquaman. It’s rumoured Aquaman took around US$160 million to produce—the second lowest of any DCEU film. But it raked in over US$1.1 billion at the global box office.

Childish Gambino turns into Playmoji for Pixel phones

You might have seen these AR stickers of Stranger Things or Star Wars before on Pixel phones. You might have even seen our own post about this on our Instagram. But now these AR stickers, or Playmoji as Google calls them, gains another prominent star: musician Childish Gambino. You can now drop him into your life via these stickers and watch him dance to three of his hits: “Redbone,” “Summertime Magic,” and “This is America.” Google worked with Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) and his choreographer to make sure his dance moves are as true to life as possible. On top of that, you can even use his Playmoji in selfie mode and have him respond to different facial expressions.

Google’s promoting this new Playmoji with the #pixeldanceoff hashtag. You won’t win any prizes but if you want to show off your dance moves alongside AR version of Childish Gambino, then go right ahead.