Tag: Arts & Entertainment

Spotify’s 2021 Wrapped is here to chronicle your year in music

In early December, Spotify rolls out its Wrapped year-in-review so that users can relive their go-to artists, songs and podcasts from the last several months. Today, the service is debuting the 2021 installment with some familiar features and a number of new additions, both of which are personalized to each…

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Quest headset owners can capture VR gameplay using their phones

Meta’s Reality Labs unit is rolling out one last major software update for the Quest and Quest 2 before the end of the year. And it’s one you’ll want to download as soon as you can because it adds some handy features. One of them allows you to record yourself…

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Anime film ‘Belle’ highlights when parasocial relationships aren’t enough

For the past few decades it’s been de rigueur for science fiction stories to be set in virtual worlds, from the early neon-lined stylings of Tron to the hedonistic pop cultural temple of Ready Player One. The stories once treated these places like a fantasy world on par with Middle…

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The Morning After: Russia wants local offices from big tech companies like Google and Apple

We'll get into Russia's demands for big tech below, but first — ahead of a four-day weekend for some — let's talk about streaming shows.  You’ve probably noticed by now that we’ve got a reboot problem. Nothing epitomizes that better than the live-action series remake for beloved anime Cowboy Bebop.…

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Netflix’s ‘Cowboy Bebop’ is everything wrong with nostalgia reboots

Cowboy Bebop was like nothing else when it premiered twenty years ago. It was a neo-Western set in space; a noir thriller alongside the spectacle of martial arts action and John Woo-esque shootouts; an existential vision of a broken future where characters were forced to live with their shattered pasts.…

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Sundance’s ‘biodigital’ film festival will try to bridge the gap between VR and reality

Next year's Sundance Film Festival will mark a momentous return to Park City, Utah, after in-person festivities were cancelled last year. But Sundance isn't giving up on the digital platforms it used to stream films and bring cinephiles into a VR social hub last January. As part of its New…

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