It’s been more than 12 years since the release of James Cameron’s Avatar, but we’re finally hearing rumors about the ETA of a first trailer for its long-awaited sequel.
Set to be one of the biggest new movies of 2022 – nay the decade – Avatar 2 is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 16, though we’ve seen reports suggesting we could get a first look at the sci-fi epic in tandem with the release of Doctor Strange 2 on May 6.
The Ankler 's Jeff Sneider claims that Disney hopes to debut the first trailer for Avatar 2 during screenings of the upcoming Marvel movie in the hope of drumming up interest in both Disney-backed projects.
Of course, there’s been no official confirmation of the trailer date from 20th Century Studios (the subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios handling the production of Avatar 2), and a May 6 arrival would mark an unusually early look at a movie not set to release until seven months down the line.
That being said, audiences have waited long enough for a return to Pandora. Avatar 2 has faced delays unlike any other movie in history, having originally meant to release in 2014, and it’s going to take an almighty marketing campaign to plant the movie back on the radar of moviegoers across the globe.
What’s more, the Avatar/Marvel buddy strategy fits. Even if Sneider’s suggestion about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is off, we’d still wager that the trailer for Avatar 2 could arrive alongside another Marvel Phase 4 project, Thor: Love and Thunder , on July 8.
In either case, we’re confident we may get a first look at James Cameron’s sequel in the next few months.
As for what we might see in a first trailer for Avatar 2, the jury is out. We know that Kate Winslet will feature in the movie alongside returnees Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang, but details surrounding its plot are thin on the ground.
Being a big-budget Cameron project, though, we’re expecting big things. The 2009 original marked a groundbreaking leap for special effects, and its sequel is rumored to feature equally boundary-pushing underwater performance capture sequences.
It’s Disney’s world, we're just living in it
It’s easy to forget that Avatar 2 now falls under the Disney umbrella. In 2019, the world famous entertainment studio completed the $71.3bn acquisition of an equally giant brand, 20th Century Fox – a move that brought franchises including Alien, Planet of the Apes and, of course, Avatar under Disney control.
The latter is a particularly interesting case, given that Disney now owns the rights to future instalments of the highest-grossing movie of all time. To date, Avatar has raked in over $2.8 billion worldwide, and its history book supremacy has only been threatened on one occasion – by Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame in 2019 (Avatar has since been re-released and regained the number one spot).
Of course, Disney also owns Marvel Studios. That means, Titanic notwithstanding, the Walt Disney Company currently lays claim to five of the six most successful movies of all time (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: No Way Home make up the latter places).
If Avatar 2 replicates anything close to the performance of its predecessor, then, Disney is on track to further solidify its position as the dominant force in Western popular culture.
Your move, Apple.
Hey Nvidia… where’s the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti?!
Nvidia’s reveal of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti , which will be the most powerful consumer GPU the company has ever made, was one of the highlights of CES 2022 – but where is it?
We only got a quick glimpse of it at CES in Las Vegas, with Nvidia promising that more information would follow towards the end of January. There were even rumors that there may be an official launch on January 27.
However, we’re now in February and so far, the RTX 3090 Ti has been missing in action. There’s been no word on whether or not the GPU has been delayed, but the missed deadlines – and Nvidia’s silence on the matter – doesn’t bode well.
To be honest, we wouldn’t be entirely surprised if the RTX 3090 Ti is delayed. There’s still a global pandemic and chip shortage going on, and that has impacted a lot of manufacturers’ release plans. Nvidia has recently launched the RTX 3050 without any issue – though stock still sold out quickly. Nvidia may be finding it more difficult to source the parts for the more complex RTX 3090 Ti.
It’s worth noting, however, that we were never given an actual launch date for the RTX 3090 Ti, just a promise of more information at the end of January. So, while a product with no release date can’t really be delayed, anyone who was hoping to get hold of this powerful GPU soon may be in for disappointment.
We’ve contacted Nvidia to find out more, and we’ll update this story when we hear back.
Via Tom’s Hardware
Garmin Fenix 8: everything we know so far
The Garmin Fenix 8 is a long way off (the long-awaited Fenix 7 only made its debut in January 2022), but if you're wondering what the next-gen sports watch might have in store, we can already make some educated predictions.
At the moment there's no news to report (it's extremely early days, after all), but we'll be keeping this article updated over the coming months whenever new hints emerge.
Cut to the chase
What we want to see
The Garmin Fenix 6 launched in April 2019, and the Fenix 7 series followed in January 2022. We're therefore not expecting the Fenix 8 to land until early 2025 – though the company doesn't always leave a full three-year gap between launches, so a 2024 release is a possibility.
A lot could happen in that time, but these are some of the features we'd like to see when the new watch arrives (some more likely than others).
Lots of size options
Garmin has made big strides in inclusivity, and we're expecting to see that continue with the Fenix 8. The Fenix 7 was available in three different sizes at launch, and we'd be surprised if the Fenix 8 isn't released with just as many options. In fact, there might even be a super compact version with a case measuring 40mm in diameter or less, like that of the Vivoactive 4S .
We wouldn't expect to see a watch quite as compact as the diminutive Garmin Lily , but the rapid march of technology may means it's possible to pack a powerful multi-sports watch into a new, more compact package.
An AMOLED display
The Fenix 7 made a splash in 2022 as the first Garmin Fenix watch with a touchscreen. We're expecting the Fenix 8 to be touch-sensitive too, and we've got our fingers crossed that improvements in battery technology will allow for the addition of an AMOLED display without the need for more frequent charges.
The Fenix 7 is a superb watch, but when we reviewed it, we found that its display was somewhat lacking in contrast, even when compared to older watches like the 2018 Garmin Instinct. An AMOLED display wouldn't just look sharper (as we've seen with the Garmin Epix and Venu 2), it would also allow Garmin the include on-screen animated workouts, and make the watch's maps much easier to read.
A microphone
In January 2022, Garmin revealed the Venu 2 Plus: a new edition of the Venu 2 with a microphone, which allows you to access your phone's voice assistant or receive calls without taking your phone out of your pocket. It might seem like a small upgrade, but in our tests it was extremely useful, and we found ourselves calling on Google Assistant far more often than we would normally.
Although Garmin may release a Fenix 7 Plus with a microphone at some stage during the coming months, it's something we'd like to see as standard on the Fenix 8.
Lots of pre-loaded maps
We're reasonably confident that the Fenix 8 will offer more storage than existing Garmin watches , and we'd like to see plenty of that space dedicated to maps. Garmin released a set of free map packs with the Fenix 7, and added a new map manager to make it easier to access and download them from your wrist, but only the Sapphire Solar model came with TopoActive maps pre-loaded.
The Fenix series excels at navigation and mapping, and extra on-board storage would allow Garmin to equip the whole Fenix 8 series with a full set of maps ready to use right out of the box.
An ECG sensor
Although ECG sensors are starting to become mainstream in smartwatches and fitness watches, at the time of writing, no Garmin device is equipped with one. The Fenix 8 may be the first to monitor your heart for signs of atrial fibrillation.
For the time being we can only speculate about what the Fenix 8 might bring to the table, but we're keeping an ear to the ground for news (whether it's a leak, a patent registration, or anything else) and will update this article as soon as we have some hints about what's on the way.