What, you don't want a famously creepy doll on your bookshelf? The post <i>Conjuring 4′</i>s Popcorn Bucket Features Annabelle And Fans Don’t Want It appeared first on Kotaku.

The Embracer-owned studio has contributed to the development of Blizzard and Riot Games properties, as well as developing its own titles.

Unity says it's building a better copyright mousetrap.

As a Canadian who has spent the last two and a half years working as an intern architect in Helsinki, these questions have been on my mind. In my current role, I have had the opportunity to participate in numerous architectural competitions arranged by Finnish municipalities and public institutions. It has been my observation that the Finnish system of open, anonymous architectural competitions consistently produces elegant and highly functional public buildings at reasonable cost and at great benefit to the lives of the everyday people for whom the projects are intended to serve. Could Canada benefit from the adoption of a similar model? ‘Public project’ has never been a clearly defined term and may bring to mind the image of a bustling library for some while conjuring the image of a municipal power substation for others. In the context of this discussion, I will use the term to refer to projects that are explicitly in-service of the broader public such as community centres, museums, and other cultural venues. Finland’s architectural competition system Frequented by nearly 2 million visitors per year, the Oodi Central Library in Helsinki, Finland, has become a thriving cultural hub and an internationally recognized symbol of Finnish design innovation. Designed by ALA Architects, the project was procured through a 2-stage, open, international architectural competition. Photo by Ninara (flickr, CC BY 2.0) In Finland, most notable public projects begin with an architectural competition. Some are limited to invited participants only, but the majority of these competitions are open to international submissions. Importantly, the authors of any given proposal remain anonymous with regards to the jury. This ensures that all proposals are evaluated purely on quality without bias towards established firms over lesser known competitors. The project budget is known in advance to the competition entrants and cost feasibility is an important factor weighed by the jury. However, the cost for the design services to be procured from the winning entry is fixed ahead of time, preventing companies from lowballing offers in the hopes of securing an interesting commission despite the inevitable compromises in quality that come with under-resourced design work. The result: inspired, functional public spaces are the norm, not the exception. Contrasted against the sea of forgettable public architecture to be found in cities large and small across Canada, the Finnish model paints a utopic picture. Several award-winning projects in my current place of employment in Helsinki have been the result of successes in open architectural competitions. The origin of the firm itself stemmed from a winning competition entry for a church in a small village submitted by the firm’s founder while he was still completing his architectural studies.  At that time, many architecture firms in Finland were founded in this manner with the publicity of a competition win serving as a career launching off point for young architects. While less common today, many students and recent graduates still participate in these design competitions. On the occasion that a young practitioner wins a competition, they are required to assemble a team with the necessary expertise and qualifications to satisfy the requirements of the jury. I believe there is a direct link between the high architectural quality outcomes of these competitions and the fact that they are conducted anonymously. The opening of these competitions to submissions from companies outside of Finland further enhances the diversity of entries and fosters international interest in the goings-on of Finland’s architectural scene. Nonetheless, it is worth acknowledging that exemplary projects have also resulted from invited and privately organized competitions. Ultimately, the mindset of the client, the selection of an appropriate jury, and the existence of sufficient incentives for architects to invest significant time in their proposals play a more critical role in shaping the quality of the final outcome. Tikkurila Church and Housing in Vantaa, Finland, hosts a diverse range of functions including a café, community event spaces and student housing. Designed by OOPEAA in collaboration with a local builder, the project was realized as the result of a competition organized by local Finnish and Swedish parishes. Photo by Marc Goodwin Finland’s competition system, administered by the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA), is not limited to major public projects such as museums, libraries and city halls. A significant number of idea competitions are organized seeking compelling visions for urban masterplans. The quality of this system has received international recognition. To quote a research paper from a Swedish university on the structure, criteria and judgement process of Finnish architectural competitions, “The Finnish (competition) experience can provide a rich information source for scholars and students studying the structure and process of competition system and architectural judgement, as well as those concerned with commissioning and financing of competitions due to innovative solutions found in the realms of urban revitalization, poverty elimination, environmental pollution, cultural and socio-spatial renewals, and democratization of design and planning process.” This has not gone entirely under the radar in Canada. According to the website of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), “Competitions are common in countries such as Finland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. These competitions have resulted in a high quality of design as well as creating public interest in the role of architecture in national and community life.” Canada’s architectural competition system In Canada, the RAIC sets general competition guidelines while provincial and territorial architect associations are typically responsible for the oversight of any endorsed architectural competition. Although the idea of implementing European architectural competition models has been gaining traction in recent years, competitions remain relatively rare even for significant public projects. While Canada is yet to fully embrace competition systems as a powerful tool for ensuring higher quality public spaces, success stories from various corners of the country have opened up constructive conversations. In Edmonton, unconventional, competitive procurement efforts spearheaded by city architect Carol Belanger have produced some remarkable public buildings. This has not gone unnoticed in other parts of the country where consistent banality is the norm for public projects. Jasper Place Branch Library designed by HCMA and Dub Architects is one of several striking projects in Edmonton built under reimagined commissioning processes which broaden the pool of design practices eligible to participate and give greater weight to design quality as an evaluation criterion. Photo by Hubert Kang The wider applicability of competition systems as a positive mechanism for securing better public architecture has also started to receive broader discussion. In my hometown of Ottawa, this system has been used to procure several powerful monuments and, more recently, to select a design for the redevelopment of a key city block across from Parliament Hill. The volume and quality of entries, including from internationally renowned architectural practices, attests to the strengths of the open competition format. Render of the winning entry for the Block 2 Redevelopment in Ottawa. This 2-stage competition was overseen directly by the RAIC. Design and render by Zeidler Architecture Inc. in cooperation with David Chipperfield Architects. Despite these successes, there is significant room for improvement. A key barrier to wider adoption of competition practices according to the RAIC is “…that potential sponsors are not familiar with competitions or may consider the competition process to be complicated, expensive, and time consuming.” This is understandable for private actors, but an unsatisfactory answer in the case of public, tax-payer funded projects. Finland’s success has come through the normalization of competitions for public project procurement. We should endeavour to do the same. Maintaining design contribution anonymity prior to jury decision has thus far been the exception, not the norm in Canada. This reduces the credibility of the jury without improving the result. Additionally, the financing of such competitions has been piece-meal and inconsistent. For example, several world-class schools have been realized in Quebec as the result of competitions funded by a provincial investment.  With the depletion of that fund, it is no longer clear if any further schools will be commissioned in Quebec under a similar model. While high quality documentation has been produced, there is a risk that developed expertise will be lost if the team of professionals responsible for overseeing the process is not retained. École du Zénith in Shefford, Quebec, designed by Pelletier de Fontenay + Leclerc Architectes is one of six elegant and functional schools commission by the province through an anonymous competition process. Photo by James Brittain A path forward Now more than ever, it is essential that our public projects instill in us a sense of pride and reflect our uniquely Canadian values. This will continue to be a rare occurrence until more ambitious measures are taken to ensure the consistent realization of beautiful, innovative and functional public spaces that connect us with one another. In service of this objective, Canada should incentivize architectural competitions by normalizing their use for major public projects such as national museums, libraries and cultural centres. A dedicated Competitions Fund could be established to support provinces, territories and cities who demonstrate initiative in the pursuit of more ambitious, inspiring and equitable public projects. A National Competitions Expert could be appointed to ensure retention and dissemination of expertise. Maintaining the anonymity of competition entrants should be established as the norm. At a moment when talk of removing inter-provincial trade barriers has re-entered public discourse, why not consider striking down red tape that prevents out-of-province firms from participating in architectural competitions? Alas, one can dream. Competitions are no silver bullet. However, recent trials within our borders should give us confidence that architectural competitions are a relatively low-risk, high-reward proposition. To this end, Finland’s open, anonymous competition system offers a compelling case study from which we would be well served to take inspiration. Isaac Edmonds is a Canadian working for OOPEAA – Office for Peripheral Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. My observations of the Finnish competition system’s ability to consistently produce functional, beautiful buildings inform my interest in procurement methods that elevate the quality of our shared public realm. The post Op-Ed: Could Canada benefit from adopting Finland’s architectural competition system? appeared first on Canadian Architect.

The shoehorning of AI into everything has programmers at Amazon feeling less like the tedious parts of their jobs are being smoothly automated, and more like their work is beginning to resemble the drudgery of toiling away in one of the e-commerce giant's vast warehouses.That's the bleak picture painted in new reporting from the New York Times, in which Amazon leadership — as is the case at so many other companies — is convinced that AI will marvelously jack up productivity. Tasked with conjuring the tech's mystic properties, of course, are our beleaguered keyboard-clackers.Today, there's no shortage of coding AI assistants to choose from. Google and Meta are making heavy use of them, as is Microsoft. Satya Nadella, CEO of the Redmond giant, estimates that as much as 30 percent of the company's code is now written with AI. If Amazon's to keep up with the competition, it needs to follow suit. CEO Andy Jassy echoed this in a recent letter to shareholders, cited by the NYT, emphasizing the need to give customers what they want as "quickly as possible," before upholding programming as a field in which AI would "change the norms."And that it has — though this is less due to the merits of AI and more the result of the over-eager opportunism of the company's management. Three Amazon engineers told the NYT that their bosses have increasingly pushed them to use AI in their work over the past year. And with that came increased output goals and even tighter deadlines. One engineer said that his team was reduced to roughly half the size it was last year — but it was still expected to produce the same amount of code by using AI.In short, new automating technology is being used to justify placing increased demands at their jobs."Things look like a speed-up for knowledge workers," Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard University, told the NYT, citing ongoing research. "There is a sense that the employer can pile on more stuff."Adopting AI was ostensibly optional for the Amazon programmers, but the choice was all but made for them. One engineer told the newspaper that they're now expected to finish building new website features in just a few days, whereas before they had several weeks. This ludicrous ramp up is only made possible by using AI to automate some of the coding, and comes at the expense of quality: there's less time for consulting with colleagues to get feedback and bounce ideas around.Above all, AI is sapping all the joy out of their profession. AI-amalgamated code requires extensive double checking — a prominent critique that can't be ignored here and is one of the main reasons skeptics question whether these programming assistants actually produce gains in efficiency. And when you're reduced to proofreading a machine, there's little room for creativity, and an even more diminished sense of control."It's more fun to write code than to read code," Simon Willison, a programmer and blogger who's both an enthusiast of AI and a frequent critic of the tech, told the NYT, playing devil's advocate. "If you're told you have to do a code review, it's never a fun part of the job. When you're working with these tools, it's most of the job."Amazon, for its part, maintains that it conducts regular reviews to ensure that its teams are adequately staffed. "We'll continue to adapt how we incorporate Gen AI into our processes," an Amazon spokesman told the NYT.More on AI: AI Is Replacing Women's Jobs SpecificallyShare This Article

Last year Hunger Games social media accounts made shocking news when they announced there would be a new book and movie in the series. Shortly afterward, Collins released the novel on March 18, 2025 where it promptly sold 1.2 million copies in its first week in the U.S.—three times more than what Mockingjay, which closed out Collins’ original Hunger Games trilogy, did in the same time frame.  Sunrise on the Reaping follows Peeta and Katniss’ mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, when he is chosen to compete in the 50th Hunger Games, which due to the anniversary means there will be double the amount of tributes. The novel tells the story of Haymitch’s life in District 12 and his rebellion against the Capitol, which led him to become the unfriendly mentor we know from the original series.  This is the second prequel Collins has released after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which followed a young Coriolanus Snow on his journey to becoming the ruthless president in the original trilogy. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie grossed $349 million worldwide, and Collins and Lionsgate are likely eager to repeat that success at the box office with a Sunrise on the Reaping film.  The most successful movie in the franchise has been The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with a worldwide box office gross of almost $845 million. Hunger Games hasn’t been able to recreate those numbers since. But the Sunrise on the Reaping movie will follow a character the audience already connects with (as opposed to despite like Coriolanus), which may encourage more casual fans to see it. The announcement of Sunrise on the Reaping release brought new life to the Hunger Games audience, with many fans speculating about casting and production choices for the already confirmed movie adaptation, which is set to release in November 2026.  The Sunrise on the Reaping movie starts production in July and reportedly has a budget of over $150 million, according to a Deadline report, which could make it the largest budget Hunger Games movie to date. Fans of the franchise have been eagerly awaiting information about the highly anticipated movie adaptation, and they won’t have to wait long to get it. Here’s a look at some of the casting choices so far and what the expectations are for the upcoming film.  Amazon Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy There were many fan castings following the release of the book involving popular actors such as Outer Banks’ Rudy Pankow and Harris Dickinson from Babygirl. Instead the lead role went to industry newcomer Joseph Zada, who will bring a fresh perspective. Zada is an Australian actor who began his career in 2019 in a film directed by his father, Jeremy Cumpston. He continued acting and has only been involved in four projects before his casting in Hunger Games, two movies (Bilched and The Speedway Murders), one small role in the Australian TV show Total Control, and a lead role in the currently airing Australian show, Invisible Boys. The Sunrise on the Reaping movie will be Zada’s first Hollywood blockbuster role.    In Sunrise on the Reaping, Haymitch’s character suffers unimaginable loss and faces treacherous conditions in the arena, so it will be interesting to see what Zada brings to the emotional impact of his journey.  Zada will also be starring in another anticipated book-adaptation, We Were Liars, which is set to release in June. Also of note, at age 20, Zada is actually the appropriate age to be playing a 16-year-old, which differs from both fan casting and a franchise that previously has cast actors over 25 as teenagers. Photo by: Nick Morgulis Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner Maysilee is a fierce but kindhearted character, which is not uncommon ground for Mckenna Grace. Grace is one of the more well-known additions to the cast, having starred in Gifted alongside Chris Evans, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Many fans were in favor of this choice on social media as well.   Grace will have the task of conveying the multiple layers to Maysilee’s arc. At the start of the novel, the character is viewed as a stuck-up rich girl but as the story progresses, Haymitch realizes there is more to her that meets the eye, and the two characters form a strong bond. Grace’s performance will ride on her ability to capture Maysilee’s development in a way that will have audiences empathizing with her until the very end. Grace already has almost three million followers on Instagram and five million on TikTok because of her popularity with a Gen Z audience, which likely appealed to the Lionsgate marketing department as well. She’s also only 18 years old, making this another case of the filmmakers again avoiding the common Hollywood issue of folks pushing 30 playing teens.  A24 Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee Plutarch is a recurring character in the original trilogy, having a pivotal role in Mockingjay where he helps Katniss take down President Snow and the Capitol. In the film version, he was played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of the actor’s final roles. In Sunrise on the Reaping, we see Plutarch’s rise to power and how he gained the trust of the president while also helping the rebel cause. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Jesse Plemons was cast to play a younger Plutarch in the upcoming movie. It will be hard to live up to Hoffman’s charisma and talent, but Plemons seems up for the job. In fact, Plemons and Hoffman have actually shared the screen together when Plemons played Hoffman’s son in the 2012 film The Master. Plemons has been in the industry for a while and, most notably, played a role in the popular TV series Breaking Bad. He was also nominated for an Oscar as a supporting actor in The Power of the Dog. Max/WBD Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Whitney Peak was cast to play Lenore Dove, the musical, free-spirited girlfriend of Haymitch, who is a part of the traveling musical band in District 12, or the “Covey.” Peak is a relatively new actress, best known for her roles in teen dramas like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix and the Gossip Girl reboot on Max.  We will see if Peak can capture the same wild, whimsical energy that Rachel Zegler did when she played a very similar role as Lucy Gray Baird in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie. Zegler captured the hearts of Hunger Games fans, helping her to land roles afterward like Y2K and the latest Broadway production of  Romeo and Juliet. Zegler has already expressed her support for Peak’s casting on social media, writing, “I know she’s gonna do the Baird name proud.” Searchlight Pictures Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Beetee is a major character in the second Hunger Games novel, Catching Fire, where he uses his intelligence and knowledge of the arena to help stop the Games. In Sunrise on the Reaping, we learn about his family and his previous involvement in the rebellion, making his actions in the original trilogy more impactful. Young Beetee will be played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. who has had roles in other major movies like Elvis, The Trial of Chicago 7, Luce, and Waves and has been acting since 2013.  The character was previously played by Jeffrey Wright in the original trilogy, who unsurprisingly did a good job of coming across as shy and dorky while simultaneously using his intelligence to take down the Capitol. Harrison will act as a mentor to young Haymitch in Sunrise on the Reaping and aid him in his rebellion against the Capitol, showing that just because he’s nerdy doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.  Netflix Maya Hawke as Wiress  Wiress is one of Haymitch’s mentors in the novel who won the Hunger Games the year before by outsmarting the gamemakers and the other tributes. Wiress will be played by Maya Hawke, who is known for being the daughter of famous actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman as well as her role in the popular TV series Stranger Things. Many fans of her and the franchise were satisfied with the charismatic choice.  Like Beetee, Wiress’s character is introduced in Catching Fire as the smart but mentally disturbed tribute from District 3. In Sunrise on the Reaping, we see that she used to be able to communicate normally before the Capitol tortured her for her involvement in the rebellion. She was played in the original movies by Amanda Plummer, who embodied her eccentric, odd demeanor well, but Hawke will be playing a more sane and coherent version of Wiress. She will have to embody the young, capable victor who encourages the District 12 kids to use their intelligence to succeed in the Hunger Games without having to kill.  Amazon Prime Lili Taylor as Mags The kind and loveable mentor Mags will be played by Lili Taylor. The American actress has had roles in many successful movies, including Mystic Pizza, The Conjuring, I Shot Andy Warhol and Dogfight. Mags was also introduced in Catching Fire as Finnick’s mentor and a sweet, maternal figure. We see more of her in Sunrise on the Reaping as she helps Haymitch and the District 12 tributes prepare and shows us what she was like before the Capitol’s influence on her.  Mags was played in the Catching Fire movie by Lynn Cohen, but she was nonverbal and frail after years of Capitol torment. The Mags in this movie will be different, more energetic and able-bodied while still retaining the same affectionate nature. We will see her taking care of the tributes and making them feel like human beings even though they are headed to almost certain death.  Sony Pictures Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow Wyatt Callow is one of the District 12 tributes and a mathematical genius. Wyatt is known to take bets on the Hunger Games and calculate the odds of each tribute for his father, which Haymitch doesn’t like. The two characters get off to a rocky start, but Haymitch eventually realizes Wyatt is a good person with how loyal he is to their group.  Ben Wang will be playing Wyatt in the upcoming adaptation. Wang is also about to star in Karate Kid: Legend and has also appeared in the Mean Girls remake and the Disney+ series American Born Chinese.  Wyatt is socially awkward, but kind-hearted, and Wang will have to portray the depth of his character beyond just his intelligence.  Focus Features Ralph Fiennes as President Snow The ruthless President Snow will be played by the legendary Ralph Fiennes. The British actor has received multiple Academy Award nominations for his roles in Schindler’s List, Conclave, and The English Patient. His legacy also extends to some of the most popular movies of the last 30 years, running the gamut from Skyfall to The Grand Budapest Hotel. Fiennes is one of the most veteran members of the cast and someone that the younger actors can look up to as a mentor.  Of course Fiennes is no stranger to playing ruthless dictators either since his transformation into the role of Voldemort in the Harry Potter series is etched into the memories of generations. Fiennes will be playing the heartless president of Panem in Sunrise on the Reaping when he confronts Haymitch, the rebellion, and the 50th Hunger Games. There is no doubt that Fiennes will be able to portray Snow in the movie just as intimidating and coldhearted as fans have imagined him to be. Hulu Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket The most recent casting announcement has been Elle Fanning as the Capitol mentor Effie Trinket. Fanning was actually who many fans suggested should play the role, and it seems like the Hunger Games producers that request seriously. Fanning is the sister of the actress Dakota Fanning and has been in a number of popular films including A Complete Unknown, Maleficent, and The Great TV series.  Effie is a constant character throughout the original series (where she is played by Elizabeth Banks onscreen), and in Sunrise on the Reaping, we get to see how she obtained her position in District 12 and her first meeting with her fellow mentor Haymitch. Effie is sympathetic toward the district kids, but the Capitol propaganda prevents her from fully understanding their struggles. She thinks it’s sad they have to go into the Hunger Games but believes it’s necessary to keep the peace. Fanning will have to play the naïve and extravagant character who has a very ignorant outlook toward the real world. HBO Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman  Caesar Flickerman is the charismatic entertainer and showman we see in the original trilogy interviewing the tributes before they enter the arena. In Sunrise on the Reaping, we get to see more of a younger Caesar conducting interviews before the 50th Hunger Games, but we also get some insight into how he can manipulate and sell a certain narrative to the Capitol audience. The character was previously played by Stanley Tucci who completely transformed himself into the role and really brought the preening media personality to life. And now Kieran Culkin has been cast for the upcoming prequel where he will get the chance to commit to the same eccentric hair, makeup, and outfits that Tucci made iconic.  Culkin is a seasoned actor and will almost certainly be up for the challenge. After all, he just won an Oscar for A Real Pain, and before that he won an Emmy (and was nominated for several more) due to his turn as Roman Roy on HBO’s Succession. Of course for a whole generation of movie watchers, he will always be Fuller from Home Alone. Molly McCann as Louella McCoy and Iona Bell as Lou Lou Louella and Lou Lou are two very similar looking characters who will each have to play very different roles. Louella will be played by Molly McCann who will have to play the sweet, innocent girl who Haymitch vows to protect when she is reaped in the Hunger Games at just 13. McCann is a young Irish actress who has already been a part of 19 projects, including movies and TV shows, and nominated for an Irish Film and TV award in 2021.  On the other hand, Iona Bell is cast as Lou Lou, who is an unknown girl from District 11 who was tortured by the Capitol and has been driven to almost insanity as a result. Bell is a British actress who has only been a part of one project before this casting. The teenage actress is currently filming in a few independent films, as well as a movie with Taika Waititi (Fing!) which will come out later this year. Her character in Sunrise on the Reaping is an odd one, but you can’t help but sympathize with her because of what she’s been through. 

Back in my day, the phrase used to be “there’s an app for that,” and that’s still the case, though with one major amendment: now, it’s “there’s an AI app for that.” In fact, there’s even an AI app for making apps—buckle up, kiddos, things are about to get meta. Let me explain: Rork, which I stumbled across while scrolling X, is—if we are to drink the Kool-Aid—the app to end all apps. The font from which all other apps may flow. The cold fusion of coding. Alright, I’m exaggerating, but it’s exactly what I alluded to: an app that makes apps, which is like a hat on a hat if the first hat actually made the second hat. To make things even more meta, Rork used an AI ad with Google’s new Veo 3 video generator to promote its tool. Is your head spinning yet? Mine kind of is. When I say Rork makes apps, I mean it really makes the damn thing (at least I think it does since I wouldn’t know a functional piece of code if it sat on my chest and suffocated me like a sleep paralysis demon). But on the surface, it does the whole thing. I went to the web version of Rork to try it out (there’s no mobile app that I’m aware of), and it seemingly took my text prompt, “I want to make an app that matches me with similar-sized people in my area to fight. Like Tinder but for fisticuffs,” and ran with it. Once I punched the prompt in (pun intended), Rork got to work (thinking for a while as AI does) and then used its corresponding large language model (Anthropic’s Claude 4 model) to start drawing everything up. And I mean everything—colors, features, parameters, basically every aspect of an app that you might need to launch. And the conjuring doesn’t stop there. Once everything is devised, Rork’s interface splits everything off into packages if you want to look at the code (that is, if you’re capable of reading it, unlike me), and then it does my favorite part—it generates a usable preview that you can test on your phone or another device. After the AI had coded everything, I was able to scan a QR code and generate a preview using ExpoGo, a tool that lets you deploy code in a preview mode. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: FightMatch, Tinder for kicking ass. © Rork / Screenshot by Gizmodo It’s worth noting that I tried to make this even more meta by prompting Rork to make an app that uses generative AI to make images or video—an AI app that generates AI—but it ran into some issues that I wasn’t able to fully wrap my head around. Per Rork, they were “critical errors,” and even when I clicked the “fix” button, it wouldn’t budge. No AI app inception today, folks, sorry. On one hand, as someone with no coding experience, I’m impressed. Rork, as promised, was able to take my very simple text prompt (Tinder for fighting) and write up all the code to make it happen in about a minute or so. Again, a coder I am not, but that feels pretty extraordinary from a sheer idea to preview perspective. I’m fairly certain whatever Rork and Claude generated wouldn’t be enough to push to an app store right away, both from a technical and aesthetic perspective, but as a first draft, it’s at least serviceable, if very far from perfect. Also, if I’m being honest, I was looking for more of a Fight Club-type app over MMA, but I suppose Claude played this one safe. There’s obviously vast potential here to expedite app creation, but just like with every generative tool like this, there’s also potential for something less exciting—slop. Like I wrote earlier this week, tools like Google’s Veo 3 and Flow are impressive technical feats, but they also feel primed to further bloat an already overwhelming bucket of AI slop. There’s always that question: do we need more apps or do we need better apps? I’m a proponent of the latter philosophy, but if there’s one thing I’ve come to expect in the tech world, it’s more. But hey, if I get rich quick with FightMatch, I can’t really complain, can I? And if you disagree, swipe right, and let’s settle this the old-fashioned way.

Next Super Mario movie title quietly announced then quickly removed by NBCUniversal Blooper reel. Image credit: Eurogamer News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on May 14, 2025 We're now less than a year away from NBCUniversal's next Mario movie, but almost nothing's been revealed about the sequel so far beyond a release date. We might, however, finally have a name to go with that limited information, thanks to a hastily deleted official leak. In a press release shared overnight, NBCUniversal detailed a few of its key movie, TV, and streaming releases for 2025 and 2026. On the film front, these included the likes of Wicked: For Good, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, plus more Shrek and Minions - and, most notable for the purposes of this story, a little something called Super Mario World. It appeared to be quiet confirmation that a name for NBCUniversal's Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel has now been settled upon; one immediately conjuring visions of an adventure set beyond the familiar confines of the Mushroom Kingdom while also giving grown-ups of a certain age a little blast of nostalgia as memories of the 1990 Super Nintendo classic resurface. A reminder of the original Super Mario Bros. Movie from 2023.Watch on YouTube However, no sooner did NBCUniversal give, it tooketh away, quickly scrubbing all mention of Super Mario World from its press release. Presumably, an irate Miyamoto had hightailed it to the doorstep of the NBCUniversal boss' house, steam blasting from his ears and a tea table held aloft in his shaking palms. If Super Mario World is the new movie's name, it's likely Nintendo will be wanting to reveal that itself in a special Direct, much like it did last time. Here's NBCUniversal's statement before it was snipped. | Image credit: NBCUniversal Whatever it ends up being called, the second animated Super Mario Bros. movie is currently set to hit US cinemas on 3rd April, with a Japanese release scheduled for 24th April and all other territories likely somewhere in-between. And if it's anything like its breezy but entertaining predecessor, expect plenty of bums on seats and more smashed box office records. To date, the original has generated over $1.36bn, making it the highest grossing film based on a video game of all time - although this year's Minecraft movie is closing in fast.