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Netflix won’t back a new season of ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’

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After Mystery Science Theater 3000 made its comeback via crowdfunding, Netflix backed a second season of the show’s “Return” that arrived around this time last year. Unfortunately, their partnership will apparently end there, as host Jonah Ray announced via Twitter that the streamer decided against doing another season.

Of course, as he notes, the show “always figured out how to survive,” and series creator Joel Hodgson said “It’s not the end of MST3K, It’s just the end of the first chapter of bringing back MST3K.” With a proven capability to raise millions on Kickstarter and new streaming outlets opening every week, the possibility of new episodes is wide open. For now, fans can look forward to the annual Turkey Day Marathon with six classic episodes starting at noon ET on Thursday.



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NYC city council votes to ban non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes

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The move is designed to curb teen vaping. New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot noted recently that there’s evidence of kids as young as 11 using e-cigarettes. Around 1 in 15 middle school students in the city have said they do so.

“New York City is finally addressing a public health crisis which has been mounting for years while state and local governments across the nation did next to nothing. We are finally taking action to address the resurgence of youth nicotine addiction caused by e-cigarette usage,” Mark Levine, who introduced the legislation and is chair of the council’s health committee, said in a statement to CNBC. “With this vote, the City Council is moving to ban the fruity, minty, candy-like flavors of e-cigarettes which were clearly designed to appeal to young people in the first place.”

A lung disease that has been linked to vaping has caused the deaths of 42 people across the US and affected more than 2,100 people. The Trump administration has wavered over whether to ban flavored vape pods at the federal level, or raise the minimum e-cigarette age to 21 to combat teen vaping.

New York City is following Massachusetts, which banned all flavored tobacco last week, and Michigan’s temporary flavored e-cigarette ban. Several other jurisdictions have raised the minimum vape age to 21 or blocked non-tobacco flavored vape sales. Other efforts at state level, such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s bid to block flavored vape sales, have stalled in courts.

This week, attorneys general in New York, California and Washington, D.C. filed separate lawsuits against Juul, claiming that the e-cig manufacturer targeted young people and used deceptive marketing. The company, which stopped selling flavored vape pods over the last several weeks, has been under scrutiny for some time from regulators over similar concerns.

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Sony’s best noise-cancelling headphones are on sale at Amazon

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WH-1000XM3

Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones

Currently, you can get Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM3 headphones for $278, instead of $350 — with both the black and silver models included in the sale. The current sale matches Amazon’s lowest price for the WH-1000XM3s. We gave the over-the-ear headphones a score of 94 when we reviewed them last year. They feature best-in-class noise cancellation and over 30 hours of battery life. They also sound great and are comfortable to wear over extended periods. One of the few issues we had with Sony’s flagship Bluetooth headphones was that their touch controls could be finicky at times. Even with the competition that has popped up since Sony released the WH-1000XM3s, they’re among the best noise-cancelling headphones you can buy right now.

Buy Sony WH-1000XM3 on Amazon – $278

WH-XB900N

Sony WH-XB900N review

If close to $300 is more than you want to spend on a pair of headphones, the XB900Ns are a more affordable alternative. Amazon has discounted them by $100, so that they now cost $148. Just keep in mind that you do lose out on some of the better features of the WH-1000XM3s. For instance, while battery life still comes in at about 30 hours, the XB900Ns take longer to charge than their more expensive sibling. When he tested them, Engadget’s Billy Steele found it took about seven hours to fully recharge the XB900Ns. They’re also not as good at filtering out ambient sound.

That said, there’s still a lot to like about these headphones, and for the price you’ll probably be hard-pressed to find another pair of Bluetooth headphones that sound as good as the XB900Ns and offer noise cancellation.

Buy Sony XB900N on Amazon – $148

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Twitter will start deleting inactive accounts in December

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The company explained the clean-up as part of an effort to “present more accurate, credible information” that people can rely on. While it didn’t elaborate on what that meant, this could help you find the users and tweets you’re looking for instead of having to wade through a sea of quickly-abandoned accounts. This could also make it harder for porn merchants and propagandists to hijack accounts for the sake of spam.

This could help if you’re frustrated that someone grabbed a coveted username years ago. However, there may be a significant downside for anyone who can’t sign in. The deceased, people in extended hospital stays and others might lose their accounts, and thus their entire post histories. You might not revisit a loved one’s post history without delving through archived pages. This could also pose problems for well-known accounts that have fallen silent but still have some cultural value.

We’ve asked Twitter if it can elaborate on how it will handle idle accounts. It’s safe to presume there will be many people hunting for newly liberated usernames in December, though. If you’ve coveted a username for a long time, you’ll want to watch closely in case it opens up.

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Star Wars-themed Instant Pots look like R2-D2, BB-8 or Darth Vader

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While Mandalorian and Baby Yoda merch has disappointed, Williams Sonoma is extending its plot to cash-in on your desire for branded cookware. The latest effort combines two crazes: Instant Pot and Star Wars. The multipurpose pressure cooker is perfectly sized for paintjobs referencing droids and other characters from the series, and come in three size options.

The BB-8 styled Duo Mini 3QT can be had for $79.95, while a six quart version comes in three different paintjobs for $99.95: Darth Vader, R2-D2 or Storm Trooper. The Star Wars Instant Pot Duo 8QT is the largest one with a Chewbacca look, and it costs $119.95.

Need any more reason to pick one up? They also promise custom recipes on the packaging.

  • Darth Vader’s Beef Stew
  • BB-8™ Shrimp Pasta
  • Dark Side Deviled Eggs
  • R2-D2™ Rotisserie Herb Chicken
  • Chewie’s Chili

They’re available for pre-order now, and are scheduled to arrive in stores on December 13th.

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Ford will pass on a tug-of-war with Tesla’s Cybertruck

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Ford added that it was going to have electrified trucks regardless, including a hybrid F-150 in 2020 and a fully electric F-150 in “a few years.”

There might not be a clear-cut winner if there is a duel, official or otherwise (Musk hinted at one next week). As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out, the Cybertruck won Tesla’s pre-recorded battle because its inherently heavy design made the most of the EV’s high torque. The F-150, meanwhile, had relatively little weight over its rear wheel drive system and thus didn’t have the traction needed to fight back. Fully loading both would still favor the Cybertruck, but there could be situations where Ford’s truck emerged victorious.



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Facebook buys ‘Beat Saber’ creator Beat Games

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Beat Games will “continue to ship content and updates for Beat Saber at the same time across all currently supported platforms,” Oculus director of content Mike Verdu wrote in a blog post. The long-awaited 360-degree mode is still scheduled to debut next month, and more tunes are on the way to the hit virtual reality rhythm game before the year’s out.

Things are a little murkier when it comes to future games though. The blog post didn’t spell out whether potential sequels will be available outside of the Oculus platform. As for Beat Saber‘s modding scene, Verdu noted Facebook and Oculus still plan to support mods, but those including pirated content might not fly:

“We understand and appreciate the value that modding brings to Beat Saber when done so legally and within our policies. We’re going to do our best to preserve the value that mods bring to the Beat Saber player base. As a reminder, our most recent policy updates give more clarity to how developer mode is intended to be used, such as helping developers build their apps or for enthusiasts to explore new concepts. It is not intended for engaging in piracy or illicit modding, including mods that infringe on third-party IP rights or contain malicious code.”



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Disney cashes in on baby Yoda with crude online merch

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They’re not cheap, either, with prices ranging from $15 for a tumbler to $45 for a baby-Yoda-badged iPhone XS case from Speck. Yes, Disney isn’t even offering cases for this year’s iPhones at the moment.

Mercifully, this isn’t the sum total of Disney’s The Mandalorian cash-in. CNBC has learned that other, hopefully higher-quality goods are in the pipeline before the holidays, and there will be pre-orders for the inevitable plushies and toys (c’mon, you knew these were coming) in the weeks ahead. Disney’s tentpole online show should have gift-worthy merch in the long run, but you may need to hand that special someone an IOU if you’d rather not receive a look of crushing disappointment.

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Stadia Pro members will get two more free games in December

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They’re the first additions to the list of free games for Pro members (which all Stadia players are for now) since the service debuted last week. Google plans to add more free games for Pro members each month.

Both Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and Farming Simulator 19 were among the selection of titles Stadia made available to purchase on its launch day. The service typically offers a 14-day refund window for games, but only for those you played for less than two hours. Given the short window between Stadia’s initial rollout and those two titles heading to Stadia Pro, Google will relax its return policy for them.

“We know that some users have recently purchased these two games for their collection,” a spokesperson told Engadget. “Because of the proximity between the launch of the platform, and the announcement of these titles in Stadia Pro, we are happy to assist players if they would like to request a refund if they purchased either or both of these titles, even if it’s outside of our normal policy.”



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Amazon ends creepy program that sent samples based on purchase history

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Product Sampling is ostensibly a convenience — you can try items you’d otherwise never consider. However, it also serves as a physical reminder of Amazon’s far-reaching data collection. Even if you’re fully aware that Amazon has a detailed record of your purchase history, it could still be creepy to receive cat food or moisturizer without asking for it.

There’s also the question of whether or not partners get their money’s worth. Participating companies have to pay $2 per sample on top of the costs of the samples themselves, and there’s no guarantee that cost will translate to more sales. It might just be more practical to lean on conventional advertising and retail samples than to ship goods and hope for the best.

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