How Reddit helped keep the Cowboy Bebop community alive

Image: Sunrise Entertainment

In recent years, Netflix has started to specialize in live-action adaptations of anime. So far, the streaming service has released film adaptations such as Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Rurouni Kenshin. The next anime to receive the live-action treatment is Cowboy Bebop, a show considered to be one of the greatest anime ever made.

The original Cowboy Bebop anime ended in 2001, but it’s seeing a surge in popularity thanks to the new Netflix show. That popularity can be seen on Reddit in the r/cowboybebop subreddit. For nearly a decade, fans have flocked to this community to post their thoughts on Spike Spiegel and his past, funny memes, cosplay pics, and fantastic fan art.

“I created the subreddit in 2012, so a little over nine...

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Nintendo’s early Black Friday deals on games and consoles have begun

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Nintendo’s early Black Friday deals kicked off on Sunday, November 21st, and they’ll last until November 27th. Like last year, the main attraction is the standard Nintendo Switch console that includes _Mario Kart 8 Deluxe_and a three-month individual membership to Nintendo Switch Online. It all costs $299.99. Nintendo confirmed that the Switch console included here is the V2 model with improved battery life. Altogether, these items would cost around $370, so the $299 price point is stellar.

Several games are seeing big discounts, including ones that don’t commonly see such a big price drop. GameStop is hosting the best deals of any retailer right now (plus, these are the lowest prices of all time for these titles) on new physical...

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The Oculus Quest 2 comes with a free $50 gift card starting today

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Oculus Quest 2 standalone VR headset is a great value at its regular $299.99 price. It comes with 128GB of onboard storage, and once you log in with your Facebook account, there’s little else standing in your way of finding some amazing virtual reality experiences and games. It’s even more of an appealing holiday gift idea right now because you can get one with a $50 gift card tossed in at no extra charge through Black Friday until Tuesday, November 27th. Several retailers are honoring this promotion, including Best Buy, Amazon (enter OCULUS50at checkout), Newegg, Costco, Target, and Oculus itself.

This deal extends to the $399.99 headset that doubles the storage to 256GB, which includes a $50 gift card as well. Just note that...

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A new DuckDuckGo tool is supposed to prevent apps from tracking Android users

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

DuckDuckGo’s new tool aims to prevent apps from tracking Android users, first reported by Wired. The tool, called App Tracking Protection, is essentially a watered-down version of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature, which gives users the choice to opt-out of data tracking within apps.

However, DuckDuckGo’s tool hasn’t been rolled out as part of an update to all Android phones, nor is it available as a separate download — it’s built into DuckDuckGo’s privacy-focused browser app, but works across your device. In a post on its blog, the company says that the tool will block “trackers it identifies in other apps from third-party companies.”

GIF by DuckDuckGo

Once App Tracking Protection is enabled, it will run in...

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The best early Black Friday deals at Best Buy

Best Buy’s early Black Friday Deals include discounts on everything from the AirPods Pro the latest Fibit. | Image: Best Buy

Several retailers are getting started early with Black Friday deals in advance of the hectic, no-holds-barred weekend that kicks off right after Thanksgiving. Best Buy is one of a few — aside from Amazon, Walmart, and Target — that got things started particularly early this year. If you’ve been paying attention to our Black Friday coverage, you’ve likely noticed dozens of deals peppered in, but that’s just a sampling. There’s more where that came from.

Before we get into it, we’ve included some resources below that should make your Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping experience a little better. And to make things more fun, you can also enter our sweepstakes for a chance to win a mystery bag filled with stuff from The Verge’s tech...

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The massive 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor is $400 off on Amazon

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

The Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor is on sale right now for $999 on Amazon, down $400 from its original $1399 price tag.

The 49-inch 5120 x 1440 monitor comes with a fast 240Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and supports both G-Sync and FreeSync 2. As noted in our review of the Odyssey G9, the curved monitor offers an immersive gaming experience, stretching around your entire field of vision as you game.

It produces incredibly vivid colors thanks to its QLED display and emits 1,000 nits of brightness. My colleague, Sean Hollister, pretty much sums up what it’s like to game on this behemoth of a screen in his review:

I’m not kidding when I say I have to avert my eyes when I launch Destiny 2 in HDR, and I could swear I felt the flames...

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Cowboy Bebop’s English voice cast has strong feelings about the movie

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is just as important to the Netflix show as the animated series, but it isn’t receiving the same kind of consideration

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Leaked images of the Google Pixel 6A show a more compact device with no headphone jack

The leaked image of the mid-range Google Pixel 6A looks nearly identical to the Pixel 6. | Image: Steve Hemmerstoffer / 91Mobiles

Rendered images of the Google Pixel 6A have been leaked by reliable leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer (@OnLeaks), and give us a glimpse at what the midrange device may look like, first reported by 91Mobiles.

The leaked images show the Google Pixel 6A without a headphone jack. | Image: Steve Hemmerstoffer / 91Mobiles

The rendered Pixel 6A, which belongs to the budget-friendly Pixel A-series lineup, looks almost identical to the standard Pixel 6. It seems to sport the same black camera strip on its rear that houses two cameras and a flash, along with a hole-punch selfie camera on the front. The bottom of the device appears to have a USB-C port, as well as a speaker and a microphone.

As pointed out by 9to5Google, there...

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Astra reaches orbit for the first time with LV0007 launch

Astra’s rocket prepares for takeoff from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska. | NASASpaceflight

Astra is now on the list of privately-owned space companies that have successfully reached orbit. Its Launch Vehicle 0007 (LV0007), which was carrying a test payload for the US military, took off from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak Island, Alaska on Saturday at 1:16AM ET. Following a smooth liftoff, the 43-foot rocket achieved orbit around nine minutes later at 500km above Earth.

Astra just reached orbit! 7.61km/sec at our targeted 86.0 degree inclination at an altitude of 500km. The team worked hard for this. We’re just getting started, folks. #AdAstrapic.twitter.com/NiMhCEsuCI

— Chris Kemp (@Kemp) November 20, 2021

“The team’s worked so hard on this for so many years,” said Astra CEO Chris Kemp during a livestream after...

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Foundation’s first season loses itself in its century-spanning story

Image: Apple

Apple’s ambitious epic takes a while to get going

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The entire Ubisoft library of games is on sale

Great deals across Ubisoft

In case you weren’t aware, the biggest shopping holiday of the year is right around the corner. Yes, Black Friday is nearly upon us, kicking off promptly following Thanksgiving in the US, which happens on Thursday, November 25th. And while some of the best deals are yet to come (don’t worry, we’ll have you covered), we’ve collected some of the best early Black Friday deals you can cash in on right now from various brands and retailers. But for now, here’s what is especially alluring in the deals world.

The Black Friday sale at the Ubisoft store is live, and there are massive savings to be had on its catalog of games. Even brand new releases like Far Cry 6 and Riders Republic are enjoying solid discounts during this sale that runs until...

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In her Theranos fraud case, Elizabeth Holmes is speaking for herself

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

From birth to the year 2006 in her first day of testimony

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In a surprise move, Elizabeth Holmes is testifying at the Theranos fraud trial

Elizabeth Holmes testified in the Theranos trial Friday | Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and CEO of disgraced blood-testing company Theranos, took the stand in her own defense late Friday, in a surprise move by the defense team. Holmes is being tried on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, for allegedly misleading investors and patients about Theranos’ blood testing device.

Holmes took the stand just after 6PM ET on Friday, to the surprise of most in the courtroom. Verge editor Liz Lopatto, who has been covering the trial, said Holmes seemed relaxed as she answered questions about her background and the company.

holmes has been smiling a lot on the stand. she seems relaxed. a lot of you have been asking me about her voice. it doesn’t sound that low to me? but when she...

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The best early Black Friday deals on Amazon devices

The first-gen Echo Show 8 is on sale at Amazon in the lead-up to Black Friday. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

If you’re looking to score a great deal on an Amazon device ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’re in luck. Amazon is already offering up to 50 percent of some of its most popular products, including the latest Echo Show 5 and Fire HD 10. The company is also offering a number of deals across several categories, ranging from Kindles and Fire TV sticks to Blink devices and even the Halo View, which has yet to be released.

For your convenience, we’ve curated a list of the best deals currently to be had on Amazon devices. We’ll be continuously updating this post as well as more deals arrive, so be sure to check back. And, of course, if you want to save even more, check our comprehensive Black Friday hub and our coverage of the best...

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Google seeks recusal probe for incoming antitrust chief over Yelp and Microsoft cases

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Google sent a letter to the Department of Justice Friday requesting that the department examine whether newly confirmed antitrust division head Jonathan Kanter, who has been a vocal critic of the search giant, should be recused from federal antitrust investigations into Google. In his new role, Kanter will lead the department’s lawsuit against Google alleging it has a monopoly in the search and advertising markets.

Kanter has represented a number of companies in motions against Google, which the search giant argues should disqualify him. Most notably, Kanter represented Microsoft in a motion arguing against Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, which was eventually approved by regulators and was closed in 2008.

“Mr. Kanter’s past...

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Hulu with Live TV is raising its price to $70 but will include the Disney Bundle

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Hulu with Live TV is getting another price hike, but the subscription will now include Disney Plus and ESPN Plus at no additional cost.

Beginning December 21st, Hulu with Live TV’s monthly subscription cost will jump from its current price of $65 per month to $70 per month for its ad-supported tier. Its ad-free live TV package, meanwhile, will jump from $71 per month to $76 per month when the change goes into effect. The new pricing will apply to both new subscribers and those already paying for the service.

With the change, both of Hulu’s live TV packages will include ESPN Plus as well as Disney Plus, which cost $7 and $8 per month, respectively. That’s a major benefit to anyone currently paying for one or either of those services in...

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Apple just provided the perfect example of why you can’t trust App Store review scores

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

You pissed off people by somewhat breaking your app, and they’re leaving angry reviews. How can you salvage your reputation? Apple just found one incredibly effective way — get listeners to submit better reviews by interrupting their podcast experience with an in-app prompt to submit a rating.

That’s how the Apple Podcasts app went from a publicly embarrassing 1.8-star score all the way to 4.6 stars in a little over a month without any actual fixes, as developer and App Store watchdog Kosta Eleftheriou points out. And it’s still going up: according to AppFigures data, the app has been getting thousands of ratings every day since November 9th, with the vast, overwhelming majority of them issuing a 5-star score.

How did “Apple Podcasts”...

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Go read this look into how Amazon failed to secure customer personal data

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A new investigation from Wired describes a shocking lack of concern for customer data at e-commerce giant Amazon, where employees took advantage of the faulty system to look up celebrities’ purchases, among other breaches. It seems that despite Amazon’s professed customer-first mentality, company officials failed to prioritize securing its customers’ most personal information. Customer purchase histories were available to Amazon’s global customer service team, with little security or supervision to prevent the employees’ snooping.

One former service rep, who requested anonymity, said he remembered colleagues looking up the purchases of Kanye West and movie stars from the Avengers films, even scoping out a few dildos in a particular...

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NZXT introduces $800 gaming PC with no dedicated GPU

Image: NZXT

NZXT has introduced an interesting pre-built PC for the age of the graphics card shortage — one that’s powered by a Ryzen 5600G, a CPU with a built-in GPU that can reasonably be used for gaming. While, in normal circumstances, NZXT’s $800 Foundation PC might not be the first pick for those looking to get into PC gaming, the low availability and inflated prices of dedicated GPUs (and machines that include them) make it an interesting option for budget-minded buyers.

The AMD processor / graphics card combo is the centerpiece of the build, but its other specs are also respectable: it comes with a 500GB NVMe SSD and 16GB of RAM. And while its 650W Bronze power supply won’t be winning any efficiency awards, it should be able to power...

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A hedge fund billionaire outbid crypto investors for a rare copy of the US Constitution

It turns out the way to beat the collective will of the internet’s cryptocurrency fans is to have way, way more money than them. Ken Griffin, the CEO and founder of Citadel, has revealed himself as the winner of last night’s $43.2 million auction for a rare copy of the US Constitution. A collective of crypto enthusiasts, calling themselves ConstitutionDAO, managed to raise $47 million in about a week’s time in a quixotic attempt to win the document themselves and put it on display to the public for free.

While the DAO didn’t win, they did manage to push the price up on Griffin, with the two parties slowly going back and forth million by million during the auction last night, each seemingly uncertain if they would be able to go a million...

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Next-gen hardware, last-gen games: where the PS5 and Xbox Series X have fallen short

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A year ago, the next generation of console gaming was supposed to have arrived. The Xbox Series X (and Series S) and PlayStation 5 strode boldly onto the scene, with massive chassis and even bigger promises of games with better graphics, shorter loading times, and revolutionary new breakthroughs.

But a year in, and that next generation of gaming has yet to arrive. There are still too few consoles, and more importantly, too few games that truly take advantage of them, leaving the first year of the PS5 and Xbox Series X more of a beta test for the lucky few who have been able to get ahold of one, rather than the proper start of a new era of gaming.

A complicated mess of factors have led to the next-gen bottleneck. The physical consoles...

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Ford drops plan for Rivian-powered EV

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Ford no longer plans to make an electric vehicle with EV startup Rivian, CEO Jim Farley tells Automotive News. The Detroit automaker originally announced it wanted to make a Rivian-powered EV in 2019 when it made its first investment of $500 million into the startup. Ford and Rivian already canceled a vehicle they planned to make for the Lincoln luxury brand in 2020.

“When you compare today with when we originally made that investment, so much has changed: about our ability, about the brand’s direction in both cases, and now it’s more certain to us what we have to do,” Farley said. “We want to invest in Rivian — we love their future as a company — but at this point, we’re going to develop our own vehicles.”

One reason Farley gave for...

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Apple’s new Self Service Repair program is an opportunity to repair relationships

Tools included | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple’s newly announced Self Service Repair program, set to launch in early 2022, will finally provide individual customers access to genuine Apple OEM parts and manuals for DIY iPhone (and eventually Mac) repairs. Although this program has limitations, and there are many lingering questions about how it will be implemented, it is an opportunity for Apple to improve relationships with its customers by making repairs easier. If Apple prices the parts right, the program could also be a way for motivated customers to save money on repairs by going DIY while allowing independent repair shops to remain competitive.

Until now, access to factory OEM parts for iPhones and Macs has been restricted to several Apple-blessed places, including Apple...

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Rockstar promises fixes for GTA remaster mess, will relist original titles on PC

A screenshot from_Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — Definitive Edition._ | Image: Rockstar

Rockstar has published a blog post apologizing for the rocky launch of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — Definitive Edition, which packages together remastered versions GTA III, GTA: Vice City, and _GTA: San Andreas._The company is promising a “Title Update” in the coming days that will “address a number of issues” and plans to make the original PC versions of the three games available as a bundle “shortly.”

“Firstly, we want to sincerely apologize to everyone who has encountered issues playing these games,” the company wrote in a post attributed only to Rockstar Games. “The Grand Theft Auto series — and the games that make up this iconic trilogy — are as special to us as we know they are to fans around the world. The updated versions of...

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The new Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition is $45 off

The new Kindle Paperwhite Kids edition matches the base model but with extras added in. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg

We are seven days away from the actual Black Friday, but if you have been paying any mind to our ongoing coverage for this shopping season, you know there are excellent deals happening every dang day. We have all kinds of excellent early Black Friday deals, including some retailer and brand-specific roundups, and there’s still a whole lot more to come. For now, let’s take a quick peek at some select deals that just popped up today.

First off, Amazon’s latest version of its acclaimed Kindle Paperwhite — released just last month — is $45 off for the Kids version at Amazon and Best Buy. This is a killer deal on the new Paperwhite, complete with its better screen that adjusts color temperature, wireless charging, and USB-C port.

Since it is...

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Halo Infinite’s campaign co-op isn’t coming until May 2022 at the earliest

A screenshot from_Halo Infinite’s_campaign. | Image: 343 Industries

Halo Infinite’s co-op campaign and Forge mode, which won’t be in the game when it officially releases on December 8th, are going to launch even later than previously expected. In an interview with Eurogamer, Halo Infinite head of creative Joseph Staten reiterated that campaign co-op would launch with season 2, but since season 1 was extended by three months to May 2022 this week, that means the second season is at least half a year away.

Forge is still set to launch with season 3, according to Staten, but we don’t know when that might arrive. And those timelines are still only goals; things may change if other priorities come up, Staten says.

Here’s Staten own words on the matter, from Eurogamer’s interview:

So our goal still remains...

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Tesla accused of ‘rampant sexual harassment’ in new worker lawsuit

Tesla is being sued for sexual harassment | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A worker at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, is accusing the automaker of creating a hostile work environment where sexual harassment was “rampant.” As first reported by The Washington Post, Jessica Barraza, who was hired as a production associate in 2018, said in a lawsuit filed this week that she was subjected to constant harassment at the factory, including catcalling and inappropriate physical touching.

“Nearly every day for three years, my female coworkers and I were objectified, threatened, touched, and propositioned on the factory floor,” Barraza said in a statement emailed to The Verge. “I wanted to come to work, do my job, and support my family without having to endure constant sexual harassment. I felt degraded,...

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Amazon Smart Thermostat review: a $60 stunner

The budget thermostat Nest should have made

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Google Stadia is celebrating its second birthday with hardware for free or cheap

Image: Google

On November 19th, 2019, Google launched its Stadia cloud gaming service as a work in progress, and it’s arguably still one today. But one thing that’s consistently improved is the price of entry, and Google’s bringing it down even further to celebrate Stadia’s second birthday.

You should now be able to purchase a Stadia Premiere Edition hardware kit with the Chromecast Ultra and Stadia Controller for just $22.22 or €22.22 in fourteen countries including the US and UK “while supplies last.” In the US, you’ll also be able to get one for free when you purchase any game in the Stadia store until November 29th. Google says it’s launching a wide variety of deals on games there today, too.

Google has given away a lot of hardware already

It’s...

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Visualizations show the extensive cloud of debris Russia’s anti-satellite test created

A screengrab of a visualization, created by Hugh Lewis

Satellite trackers have been working overtime to figure out just how much dangerous debris Russia created when it destroyed one of its own satellites early Monday — and the picture they’ve painted looks bleak. Multiple visual simulations of Russia’s anti-satellite, or ASAT, test show a widespread cloud of debris that will likely menace other objects in orbit for years.

Early this week, Russia launched a missile that destroyed the country’s Kosmos 1408 satellite, a large spacecraft that orbited the Earth roughly 300 miles up. The breakup of the satellite created at least 1,500 pieces of trackable fragments, according to the US State Department, as well as thousands of smaller pieces that cannot be tracked. All of those pieces are still in...

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