Gadgets
DC’s New Gods, Aquaman Spin-Off The Trench Cancelled at Warner Bros.

The Hollywood Reporter first brought word of New Gods and The Trench being shelved with a statement from Warner Bros.: “As part of our DC slate, some legacy development titles including New Gods and The Trench will not be moving forward. We thank our partners Ava DuVernay, Tom King, James Wan, and Peter Safran for their time and collaboration during this process and look forward to our continued partnership with them on other DC stories. The projects will remain in their skillful hands if they were to move forward in the future.” DuVernay addressed the news on Twitter.
Tom, I loved writing NEW GODS with you. I’m upset that the saga of Barda, Scott, Granny, Highfather and The Furies ends this way. Diving into Kirby’s Fourth World was the adventure of a lifetime. That can’t be taken away. Thank you for your friendship. And remember… #DarkseidIs pic.twitter.com/XyyIjcB8Wv
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 1, 2021
Warner Bros. is predictably keeping the window open for DuVernay and Wan to return. Interestingly, both THR and Deadline have offered varying reasons as to why their projects aren’t moving forward right now though.
New Gods has been scrapped because Darkseid just appeared in Justice League Snyder Cut, THR notes, while Deadline adds that New Gods went beyond the standalone structure that Warner Bros. had in mind for the movie. If the former is indeed true, Zack Snyder’s Justice League might be non-canonical and the end of the SnyderVerse, but it’s still affecting the future of the DC Extended Universe.
As for The Trench, THR says the spin-off lost out because it has no connect to Aquaman or the rest of the DCEU, while Deadline believes it’s due to Wan’s busy Aquaman 2 schedule. Aquaman 2 is enough Atlantean action for Warner Bros. right now, THR adds.
The Trench in Aquaman
Photo Credit: Warner Bros.
Both New Gods and The Trench would’ve given DC something different than what it’s been cooking up, and would’ve been in line with its dual strategy of DCEU tales and standalone stories. But Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff has been speaking about how she wants to pursue a unified strategy (again), which involves more and deeper links between its movies, TV shows, and video games — akin to what Marvel has perfected, but which DC has once already failed in doing. It’s why there is no future for the SnyderVerse in the DCEU, and why there won’t be a Justice League 2 from Zack Snyder.
Instead, DC is focused on crafting a multiverse that will theoretically give it infinite room to craft more adventures. The centrepiece of that is believed to be The Flash, the Ezra Miller-led movie that will involve two versions of Batman and Supergirl, slated for November 2022. Before that, we will get James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad soft reboot in August, Robert Pattinson-led The Batman — it’s not part of DCEU and exists on an alternate Earth — in March 2022, Dwayne Johnson-starrer Black Adam in July 2022, Jason Momoa-led Aquaman 2 in December 2022, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods for June 2023.
Warner has also begun charting the multiverse future beyond The Flash that involves a Superman reboot from writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, its first Latino superhero movie in Blue Beetle from director Angel Manuel Soto, a Hourman movie from Gavin James and Neil Widener, a Plastic Woman movie with writer Cat Vasko, a Static Shock movie with Michael B. Jordan as producer, and a Zatanna movie from Emerald Fennell. Wonder Woman 3 is also in development with Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins. Additionally, there are several TV series in development for HBO Max as well.
Gadgets
Microsoft Partners With Inworld to Bring AI Game Development Tools to Xbox

“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”
The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.
Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.
Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.
Gadgets
BSNL Offers Free 4G SIM Upgrade: Here’s How to Get It

In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.
To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.
Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.
The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.
Gadgets
Realme GT 5 Pro Teased to Feature 3,000 Nits Display; More Details Revealed

Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.
The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.
For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
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