Kalakshar US

Hilarious co-op video game Overcooked is making the move to the real world. A24 has acquired the rights to the popular indie hit and Deadline reports that the company is working with Netflix to develop the concept into an unscripted competition reality TV series. I adore this idea, and with the right people behind it, I think it could be a masterwork of reality TV. According to the reports, this is the first time independent film and TV studio A24 will make a reality show, but Netflix has already had some success with food and cooking programs, such as with the absolute gem that is Nailed It! 

The often ridiculous antics of Overcooked are a wonderful match for that type of lighthearted competition show. In the game, one to four players work together to cook customers’ food orders as quickly as possible while the environment creates silly, unexpected obstacles. Unfortunately, there’s no way the Netflix legal team will green light challenges where contestants might fall into actual lava, and recreating the space travel levels would probably blow the budget. But I can see all sorts of Overcooked-style mayhem from sliding on icy floors or suddenly moving countertops. I’m also imagining a lot of dashing between inconveniently placed kitchen appliances and occasionally plunging the contestants into total darkness. There’s no timeline given in Deadline’s report, but I cannot wait for this to exist.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/co-op-game-overcooked-may-become-a-competition-reality-tv-show-on-netflix-222406920.html?src=rss 

DAZN, a sports streaming service that covers everything from MMA to golf, is now available as an add-on subscription through Amazon Prime Video in the US and UK. The streaming service was previously available in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Canada.

Subscribing to DAZN requires an additional $30 a month subscription on top of what users already pay for Prime Video ($9 a month for a standalone plan or the cost of an Amazon Prime subscription). The service includes access to a mixture of live sports coverage including “more than 185 fight nights per year” and “over 300 live soccer games from Italy’s Lega Series A,” according to Amazon. 

While it costs extra, the service makes for a nice complement to the sports content that’s already available through Prime Video for no additional fee, like Thursday Night Football, select NBA games, the NASCAR Cup Series and the Masters golf tournament in 2026.

Access to live games is increasingly the defining feature of most video streaming platforms. Amazon has its carveouts, YouTube TV has NFL Sunday Ticket and Apple continues to hold down MLS and now, F1 racing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/dazn-is-available-through-amazon-prime-video-in-the-us-and-uk-195348836.html?src=rss 

Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley has unveiled his latest venture and yes, it’s another location-based social app. But, rather than the check-ins Crowley first popularized more than 15 years ago, “BeeBot” has a very 2025 take on the concept. Instead, the app is an AI-powered “DJ” that can deliver contextual audio updates to your ears as you move through your day. 

Crowley describes BeeBot as an “app for AirPods,” though it will work with any type of headphones, as well as smart glasses with audio capabilities like Meta’s. “Whenever you put your AirPods in, it turns on,” Crowley explains in a post on Medium. “Whenever you take your AirPods out it turns off. And when it’s ‘on’ it’ll push you snippets of audio about the people, places, and events that are nearby.’

To do this, you’ll need to give the app access to your location and share a handful of “keywords” about your interests. You can also share your contacts to get updates from friends who are using the app. The BeeBot “DJ,” which of course has an AI voice, will then be able to talk to you as you throughout the dat and alert you to interesting events, landmarks or updates from friends who happen to be nearby. 

In some ways, it sounds like Crowley is trying to re-create some of the serendipitous IRL social interactions enabled by the original version of Foursquare. BeeBot doesn’t have “mayorships,” badges or any of the gamification features that helped popularize FourSquare, but it’s meant to have some of the “same playful spirit,” of OG Foursquare, according to Crowley. (Foursquare shut down its city guide app of the same name earlier this year, though its check-in app, Swarm, lives on.)

 And, because it’s 2025, there’s also a whole bunch of AI thrown in, including “a mix of different LLMs” and “synthetic voices.” The app is “powered by a TikTok-style algorithm,” Crowley says, “but one that’s focused on what’s happening nearby and IRL.” 

There also seems to be a bit of DNA from Marsbot, the short-lived (and IMO very underrated) chat-based app Foursquare launched in 2016 that could proactively provide personalized restaurant recommendations. While BeeBot isn’t as heavily focused on neighborhood recommendations as Foursquare, it is meant to proactively let you know about nearby happenings you might be interested in or even a bit of gossip from friends. In addition to friends’ status updates, the app will draw on local Substacks and newsletters for relevant info about a given area.  

Crowley says the DJ’s audio cues may “occasionally” interrupt your music or podcast to give an update, though users should expect to hear these only a couple times throughout the day. BeeBot won’t interrupt voice or video calls. 

BeeBot, which is the inaugural project of Crowley’s new company Hopscotch Labs, is out now in the App Store, though it’s still “very much a work in progress,” according to Crowley. “I feel like the version of the product we’re sharing with folks today is kind of where Foursquare was when it launched at SXSW in 2009 – an interesting vision, a good-enough execution, but something that still needs to be shaped by the people using it to fully blossom.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-foursquare-founders-new-app-is-an-ai-powered-dj-for-neighborhood-updates-202326296.html?src=rss 

The outlook for future generations isn’t looking so great. The UN released its annual Emissions Gap Report on Tuesday, and the news is mostly bad. The world’s projected climate path falls far short of the Paris Agreement targets. Although the 2025 projections are slightly better than last year’s, some of that improvement is due to the report’s methodological changes. The UN also notes that the upcoming US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will basically cancel that out.

The UN measures progress based on projections of rising temperatures (relative to pre-industrial levels) by 2030. The Paris Agreement’s goals are to limit that to 2 degrees Celsius (while pursuing a path to 1.5 degrees C). The current projections are well above both numbers: 2.3 to 2.5 degrees C.

Those numbers compare to 2.5 to 2.8 degrees C in last year’s report, but the improvement is partially chalked up to methodological changes. The report states that the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in January 2026 will wipe out around 0.1 degrees C of progress.

Wildfires

Getting the temperature rise down to 1.5 degrees C by 2100 is still possible, but it appears increasingly unlikely. To get there, the world would need to cut emissions by 55 percent by 2035. Meanwhile, to achieve 2 degrees C of warming by 2030, those cuts would need to reach 35 percent. As the report bleakly puts it, national pledges and the current geopolitical situation “do not provide promising signs that this will happen.”

“Given the size of the cuts needed, the short time available to deliver them and a challenging political climate, a higher exceedance of 1.5 degrees C will happen, very likely within the next decade,” the UN says. The best hope for reaching the long-term goals now lies in reversing that change after the fact. However, that carries the risk of crossing “irreversible climate tipping points,” such as the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet.

Of course, rising temperatures alone aren’t the only things to worry about. Cascading effects would include crop losses (and food insecurity), water scarcity, wildfires, coastal flooding and coral reef collapse. You also can’t ignore the geopolitical implications, as desperate migrants flee uninhabitable regions, crowding the more livable ones.

A small silver lining is that solar and wind energy development has exceeded expectations, making their expansion easier and cheaper. The UN notes that CO2 removal tech could eventually help supplement policy changes, but that approach is “uncertain, risky and costly.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/un-emissions-report-the-planet-is-falling-well-short-of-its-climate-targets-184255639.html?src=rss