‘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.

Facebook cancels launch of teen-oriented app LOL

Facebook has been trying to woo teens back into its circle with a meme app it’s called LOL. It was designed to get memes and other teen-oriented posts from the feeds of popular Facebook pages right into a separate feed. They tried it out with 100 teens but it seems, they weren’t enjoying using said app. That’s why Facebook decided to cancel the app. Online reactions haven’t also been favorable towards it, so that could also be another reason. For now, Facebook is reportedly focusing on an even younger demographic by putting in the work towards developing Messenger Kids, its separate messaging app for children under 13 years old, which is another app that the general public hasn’t expressed particular enthusiasm over.

Source: PhoneArena

Opera brings back VPN as a feature in its Android browser

Opera used to have a standalone VPN that was available to both Android and iOS, but the company discontinued it last April. The feature is making a comeback in the browser’s Android app, though. It’s currently available on the beta version of the app. It’s designed to make it harder for websites or internet service providers to track your internet use. Opera says they will not log information that travels through the service. The feature will let you choose which continent you want your virtual location to be in (Optimal option is set by default). You can also specify when exactly you want the VPN to apply. You can opt to have the VPN be activated when you’re in private tabs or have it disabled when you’re using search engines and you need access to more relevant information. It’s rolling out gradually to users of the app, so be on the lookout for it. There is no word if Opera will be bringing the feature to iOS.

Source: The Verge