A Canadian air cargo startup called Ribbit is planning to test pilotless flights for deliveries in remote areas of the country, Northern Ontario Business has reported. The company signed a $1.3 million contract with Transport Canada and Innovative Solutions Canada to start autonomous test flights "over the next 12 months," the company said.

"Many rural and remote areas are served by larger airplanes that fly infrequently," CEO Carl Pigeon said in a press release earlier this month. "Ribbit takes a smaller aircraft and uses autonomy to drastically change the unit economics of that plane. This lets us offer reliable next-day or two-day service and improve supply chains."

The company is starting small with two-passenger recreational-style aircraft. It plans to remove the seats to open up room for cargo, then make the aircraft fully autonomous using remote control software and hardware. The idea began as a project from University of Waterloo students, including co-founders Jeremy Wang and Carl Pigeon. Ribbit said its aircraft would use remote pilots to monitor progress, communicate with air traffic controllers and generally provide a backup.

The company has already signed contracts with retailers and wholesalers, including locally owned businesses that serve the province. The aim is to fill a demand for timely delivery of food, medical items and more. "The goal is really to try and improve that transportation link so that we can get food and other perishables, time-sensitive items, medical supplies, etcetera, into these communities at a lower price to the end consumer more reliably, and more frequently," Wang told Northern Ontario Business.

There are a number of competitors in this space already, most notably Xwing, which has already performed autonomous gate-to-gate commercial cargo flights. That company is using much larger aircraft, namely converted Cessna Grand Caravan 208B utility planes fitted with Xwing's Autoflight software. Another competitor in the space is Reliable Robotics (founded by former SpaceX and Tesla engineers), which has also run successful remotely piloted cargo tests.

Ribbit is smaller than those players, but it knows its customers and the region well. "Be it air cargo, asset monitoring, or maritime patrol, we have identified several applications for the technology," Wang said. "Customers appreciate our ability to understand their operations deeply—then reimagine them with autonomy."

Canon’s mirrorless EOS R mirrorless camera family now sits at a healthy 11 members, but most of those to date have been high-end models priced at over $1,000. Recently, though, the company has been wooing budget-minded shoppers with models like the $480 R100 and the subject of this review – the $680, 24-megapixel R50.

The R50 uses a 24-megapixel APS-C sensor from the $980 EOS R10, so image quality should be on par. Otherwise, you can think of the R50 as an RF-mount version of the older M-mount M50 Mark II – but with updates like uncropped 4K that make it better for creators. At the same time, it’s even lighter and smaller, so it’s ideal for travel, street photography and more.

Where the $480 R100 is aimed at the bottom end of the mirrorless market, the $680 R50 is targeting users a bit more serious about photography and content creation. Does it have enough going for it to entice such users? Let’s take a look.

Body & Handling

The EOS R50 is diminutive in both weight and size, weighing in at just 375 grams with a battery and memory card. With a similarly light and small lens, like the 18-45mm kit or the new 28mm pancake model, it can easily slip into a small bag. Travelers and tourists will often settle for a smartphone rather than lugging around a heavy camera, but the R50 removes that barrier.

There’s a price to be paid in terms of usability, however. It has a relatively small grip that’s effectively unusable with large lenses, though it does have a nice rubber material so it shouldn’t slip out of your hands.

The R50 is also lacking in controls compared to other models. It has just a single dial to change settings, meaning you have to hit the exposure compensation button to toggle between shutter speed and aperture in manual mode. But since the camera is designed for beginners used to smartphones, it’s essentially designed to be controlled by the touchscreen. That works well enough, but the main menu items are a little small and fiddly.

The 2.95-inch touchscreen is nice though, with a relatively high 1.6 million dot resolution. As with all other Canon EOS R cameras, it fully articulates, making it useful for selfies and vlogging. The electronic viewfinder is on the low end though, being relatively small and with a low 2.36-million dot resolution.

With the same small battery as the EOS R10, it gets just 370 shots on a charge – perhaps the camera’s biggest weakness. It is, however, a significant improvement over the 305 shots you get with the original M50 II. Other features include a mic but no headphone port, a single slow UHS-I card slot, USB-C and micro HDMI ports and yes, a built-in flash that’s perfect for its target market.

Performance

One significant problem with budget-oriented cameras is the lack of a good autofocus system – something that’s crucial for camera novices. Luckily, the R50’s hybrid phase-detect autofocus is very solid. A simplified version of the AF from high end cameras like the R3, it tenaciously follows subjects and captures sharp photos.

It can track eyes, faces and heads, along with animals including dogs, cats, birds and horses. It also tracks vehicles like race cars, bicycles, trains and airplanes. You can either let the system choose a subject, or tap the touchscreen to select it yourself.

Steve Dent for Engadget

Performance is a little less dependable for animals and vehicles than it is for people. And subject tracking will often drop the subject if you’re too far away from it. But overall, the AI system is dependable, particularly with people.

That serves it well for burst shooting, which is surprisingly fast for such a small camera. It can grab frames at up to 12 fps in mechanical shutter mode or 15 fps in silent electronic mode. However, you’re limited to 42 JPEG images in a burst and just 7 uncompressed RAWs, due to the small buffer and slow memory card slots.

On top of the usual manual and auto shooting modes, the R50 has creative settings for beginners including something called A+ Advanced Auto. If it detects a scene that’s tricky to shoot due to high contrast or darkness, it takes four shots and combines them into a single JPEG image, much like smartphones have done for years. The results can be pleasing, but may also look overprocessed.

As you’d expect, there’s no in-body stabilization, so you’ll need to rely on optically stabilized lenses for that – and there are only two of those in the APS-C lineup. Those only deliver 4 stops of shake reduction, but it’s enough to allow for sharp shots at 1/10th of a second or so. When using the silent shutter function, beware that some rolling shutter effect is present, but it’s reasonably well controlled.

Image quality

As the R50 shares the R10’s 24-megapixel sensor, photo quality is nearly the same. For normal shooting, I saw color accurate photos with skin tones leaning on the warm side as is typical with Canon’s color science. JPEGs strike a good balance between sharpening and noise reduction, while RAW files allow for a decent amount of room to tweak images.

Low-light performance isn’t amazing, though. ISO 6400 is pretty much a hard limit, and even then you won’t have a lot of room to boost blacks without getting tons of noise. And you don’t have in-body stabilization to help at low shutter speeds.

Luckily, the R50 does have a built-in flash that can fill in if you’re lacking light. Just make sure to dial the illumination levels down in the settings to avoid blowing out your subject.

Video

Where the EOS R10 offers cropped 4K 60p video, the R50 is limited to 4K 30p. Luckily, that is uncropped, however, and supersampled from 6K. You’re limited to 1080p for slow-mo, but luckily it can shoot up to 120fps, though 60fps is considerably sharper.

It’s the cheapest camera on the market by far with 10-bit mode via the HDR PQ mode, though the footage requires some tweaking for normal usage. A C-Log mode that might boost dynamic range isn’t available, but it’s not really necessary for its intended market segment.

Steve Dent for Engadget

For a relatively small and cheap camera, the R50 offers excellent video quality. The oversampled video is very sharp, and colors are accurate and human friendly. The fact that 4K video isn’t cropped is a huge plus for vloggers.

The autofocus is also outstanding for a camera in this price bracket, with tenacious tracking that keeps focus sharp in most circumstances. It also has a “close-up demo mode” that works much like Sony’s product showcase mode, quickly switching focus from your face to any object you bring up to the camera.

The digital stabilization is OK for walking and talking, as long as you try to move smoothly. All of these things make the R50 an excellent camera for vloggers and content creators ready to step up from a smartphone.

Wrap-up

Steve Dent for Engadget

With the R50, Canon has found a good balance between power and affordability. Where the R10 has a lot of competition at its higher $980 price point, the $680 R50 has only a few rivals

Its main competition is Sony’s $700 ZV-E10, which is slightly better for vlogging but not as good for photography. Another option is the $700 Nikon Z30, which offers a similar feature set but lacks an EVF and has less reliable autofocus.

If those models are too much, Canon just released the $480 R100, the least expensive new mirrorless camera on the market. Content creators may lean toward the Sony ZV-E10, but if you’re looking for a solid hybrid camera that can do everything, Canon’s R50 is a great choice.

Elon Musk, Larry Ellison and other current and former members of Tesla's board of directors will return $735 million to settle claims that they massively overpaid themselves, Reuters has reported. The deal wraps up a saga that started in 2020 stemming from a lawsuit filed by a police and firefighter retirement fund challenging stock options granted to Tesla's board starting in 2017. Directors also agreed not to receive compensation for 2021, 2022 and 2023, and change the way compensation is calculated. 

Tesla's current board includes Elon Musk, his brother Kimbal, Fox News mogul James Murdoch, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and former Tesla CTO JB Straubel. The case is separate from a lawsuit filed by shareholders against a $56 billion compensation package awarded to CEO Elon Musk.

The Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit accused Tesla's board of giving itself unfair and excessive compensation in the form of 11 million stock options between 2017 and 2020, saying it grossly exceeded norms for a corporate board. The $735 million settlement will be paid back to Tesla in what's called a "derivative lawsuit" — the largest ever awarded by Delaware's Court of Chancerty, according to Reuters. 

Tesla argued that stock options were used to ensure Director's incentives were aligned with investor goals. Tesla has yet to comment on the affair, but in court documents, said that it agreed to settle to eliminate the risk of future litigation. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is fighting a separate lawsuit to defend his $56 billion pay package. It was brought by shareholder Richard Tornette, who claimed that "the largest compensation grant in human history" was given to Musk, even though he didn't focus entirely on Tesla. In 2020, he received the first of 12 $700 million payments as part of that package. 

Loupdeck, which started as an Indiegogo project with its original Lightroom editing console, has been acquired by Logitech for an undisclosed "non-material" sum, the companies announced. "This acquisition augments Logitech’s product portfolio today and accelerates our software ambitions of enabling keyboards, mice and more to become smarter and contextually aware," said Logitech G general manager Ujesh Desai in a statement. 

After launching an advanced editing console in 2019 (the Loupedeck CT), the company pivoted toward video streaming with the Loupedeck Live and Loupedeck Live S. Those offer an alternative to Elgato's Stream Deck, used by content creators to add titles, picture-in-picture and more to live streams. Loupedeck also collaborated with Razer on its own creator product, the Stream Controller.

Buying Loupedeck gives Logitech the ability to deliver a "premium experience" for content creators including gamers, livestreamers and others, it said. At the same time, Logitech is promising more "seamless" usage for onboarding, presets and the coupling of Streamlabs apps and Loupedeck devices. For its part, Loupedeck said that joining Logitech will help it "exponentially" broaden its audience. 

In fact, Logitech acquired Streamlabs back in 2019 to get deeper into game streaming — one of a number of brand purchases it has made over the past few years. In 2016 it bought gaming peripheral company Saitek, in 2017 it purchased Astro, which makes headsets popular with gamers and streamers, and in 2018, Logitech aquired Blue Microphones.

How have those acquisitions worked out? Earlier this year Logitech retired the Blue branding, though it still manufactures most of the company's original products like the Yeti and Snowball mics. Loupedeck's products are nice but a bit expensive, so Logitech may be able to bring the price down while increasing manufacturing quality. In any case, "Loupedeck will continue supporting its customers and partners and will operate as usual for the foreseeable future," the press release states.

Meta's practice of tracking Instagram and Facebook users violates their privacy, Norway's data protection regulator said in a press release today. If the company doesn't take remedial action, it will be fined one million crowns ($100,000) per day from August 4th until November 3rd. "It is so clear that this is illegal that we need to intervene now and immediately," said Tobias Judin, head of Norway's privacy commission, Datatilsynet. 

The move follows a European court ruling banning Meta from harvesting user data like location, behavior and more for advertising. Datatilsynet has referred its actions to Europe's Data Protection Board, which could widen the fine across Europe. The aim is to put "additional pressure" on Meta, Judin said. (Norway is a member of the European single market, but not technically an EU member.)

Meta told Reuters that it's reviewing Datatilsynet's decision and that the decision wouldn't immediately impact its services. "We continue to constructively engage with the Irish DPC, our lead regulator in the EU, regarding our compliance with its decision," a spokesperson said. "The debate around legal bases has been ongoing for some time and businesses continue to face a lack of regulatory certainty in this area."

Meta is facing pressure across Europe over its data privacy actions. Earlier this month, Ireland's data regulator (DPC) ruled that Meta can't gather user data for behavioral advertising. And back in May, it was hit with a record-breaking €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) fine for transferring EU user data to its servers in the US. 

In addition, Meta's new Twitter rival Threads is not yet available in the European Union due to privacy concerns. When Threads debuted, Meta said that it was "not yet prepared the service for a European launch outside the UK, which is not fully governed by GDPR or EU privacy rules." Meta is even going so far as to block EU users from accessing the new social media site with a VPN.

Sony plans to boost R&D spending in gaming and focus that extra money on Fortnite-style live service games and mixed reality, Nikkei has reported. It will invest $2.13 billion for the segment in fiscal 2023, accounting for about 40 percent of R&D spending company wide — over double what it spent in 2020. The aim is to better compete in cloud gaming and VR, particularly if Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition goes through. 

Sony has traditionally relied on relied on story-led blockbuster titles like God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn, but live service games use a different model. Instead of developing one game and moving on to the next, companies build titles that can be updated over time, generating revenue with new content like seasonal maps, skins and weapons. Overwatch and League of Legends are examples of those. 

The company lags behind rivals in that area — it had just one live service game in 2021, but plans to have 12 in its portfolio by March 2026. To that end, it plans to spend 55 percent of PS5 game development on live service games by March 2024, and 60 percent by March 2026. It plans to use its Bungie acquisition to further that aim, according to the report. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft is trying to acquire Activision Blizzard, which would give it access to a powerful portfolio of live service games (World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Destiny 2, etc.). Microsoft also holds a considerable lead in live-streamed games with Xbox Cloud Gaming, while Sony has only started testing PS5 game streaming. 

At the same time, Sony wants to invest more in the so-called metaverse by boosting development in extended reality (VR, AR, mixed reality etc.). To do so, it aims to combine the resources of nine overseas game studios it owns in whole or in part, including Epic Games, whose Unreal Engine helps power augmented reality apps. That's in light of the upcoming release of Apple's Vision Pro headset, and Sony's recent launch of its own PSVR2 headset. 

The increased investment shows the importance of gaming to Sony's overall portfolio. Its game & network services segment now makes up a large part of the company's earnings, far and above segments like imaging, movies, TVs and more. It also shows Sony recognizing that it must adapt to the reality that game development is shifting away from the traditional model — meaning it will be a lot more dependent on owning game-development studios.

Sony has produced numerous full-frame cameras of late, but just a single APS-C model over the last four years — the vlogging-oriented ZV-E10. Now, the company has finally rectified that with the launch of the 26-megapixel (MP) A6700, it's new flagship APS-C mirrorless camera. It's particularly strong for vlogging thanks to features like 4K 120p video, active mode stabilization and AI auto-framing — but it's not cheap, either.

The A6700 looks like other Sony A6000-series models at first glance, but there are some considerable improvements. The grip is now bigger for improved handling and stability, and it introduces an assignable front dial that makes manual shooting easier. It has a vari-angle LCD (rather than a popup LCD as before), along with a low-res (2.36 million dot) but fast (120fps) electronic viewfinder. It's fairly compact, being 35 percent smaller and 21 percent lighter than Canon's $1,500 R7. 

Engadget

Sony has also introduced a still/movie/S&Q dial with dedicated settings for each, along with a new and far more intuitive main menu and menu structure. It comes with mic and headphone ports (plus a digital audio interface via the hotshoe), USB-C 3.2 Gen1, a micro HDMI port (not full-size, unfortunately), and a single SD UHS-II card slot on the side, rather than on the bottom in the battery compartment as before. It's dust and moisture resistant if you're shooting in inclement weather and supports 4K30p webcam capture. 

The A6700 doesn't improve on the A6600's shooting speeds, grabbing bursts at the same 11 fps (in both mechanical and electronic shutter modes) with autofocus and auto-exposure tracking. However, it can capture far more photos at a time, with the new larger buffer letting you capture 59 compressed RAW and over 1,000 JPEGs before it stops. 

Engadget

The autofocus is improved as well, thanks to a faster backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor and processor that's eight times quicker than past models. Sony promises "reliable real-time tracking" for humans, animals and birds, insects and vehicles (cars, trains and planes). Human eye AF performance is up by 60 percent from previous models, while animal/bird eye AF speeds increased by 40 percent. 

It should also take better photos in low light, again thanks to the BSI sensor and improved processor. Finally on the photo side, it now offers selectable RAW options including lossless and compressed, along with JPEG, HEIF and HLG still images.

Engadget

While Sony already has a vlogging-oriented camera in the ZV-E10, the A6700 is even stronger in this regard. You can shoot 4K video at up to 120fps with 10-bit 4:2:2 quality (FHD at 240p) all with AF/AE, besting all APS-C rivals except Fujifilm's $2,000 X-H2S. Better still, it's super-sampled from 6K "resulting in high-resolution 4K with minimal moiré and jaggies," Sony says. 

You can record in Sony's XAVC format at up to 600 Mbps with I-frame codecs that are easier to edit. It supports S-Cinetone and Sony S-Log3 mode to boost dynamic resolution up to 14+ stops (matching its Cinema line cameras), along with user-assignable LUTs so you can get a better idea of what you're shooting.

Engadget

For those who do a lot of tracking shots or walk-and-talk vlogging, the A6700 has "active mode stabilization" that uses both software and optical tricks to reduce camera shake. Video autofocus mode supports the same range of subjects (people, animals, vehicles) as photo AF, with Sony promising real-time recognition in all cases. Another nice feature borrowed from the ZV-E1 full-frame camera is AI-based auto framing that lets the subject move around while staying centered in the frame — with varying levels of cropping and tracking speeds. And like other recent Sony models, it supports digital focus breathing compensation with select lenses. 

We had the camera for a short time, and found that it handled much better than any previous Sony A6000-series cameras. At the same time, it's compact and light enough to take on trips. It's certainly not an impulse buy, though. The A6700 starts at $1,399 (body only), or $1,499 with a 16-50mm kit lens and $1,699 with the 18-135mm lens. Pre-orders are now open, and it's set to start shipping in early August. 

For anyone who's been holding out for Prime Day to buy Apple's 10.2-inch, 9th-gen iPad — hey, good decision! The 64GB WiFi model is now on sale at a record low price of $250, for a savings of $79, or 24 percent. If you need more memory or a cellular connection, the 256GB version is also on sale for $389 (19 percent off) and the cellular model is discounted by 17 percent to $389 (64GB) and 15 per cent to $520 (256GB). 

The 9th-generation iPad may be nearing two years old at this point, but it's still our pick for the best budget Apple tablet. With an A13 Bionic chip, it's reasonably speedy for games and casual tasks and it still carries a headphone jack or a physical home button if you prefer those things. All of that makes it a great entertainment machine, whether you're reading, listening to music or watching movies. 

It also offers a much better front camera for video calls, excellent battery life and more. The main downsides are a stale design compared to other iPads (it still has a Lightning port, Home button, thick bezels and a non-laminated display). The other issue is the display quality, which is good for most things but a bit lacking compared to newer models. 

As mentioned, other versions of the 10.2-inch iPad are also on sale, though with lesser discounts. If it's another iPad you're after, be sure to check our list of the best Prime Day iPad and tablet deals — and if you're uncertain about which one to get, see our guide to the best iPads for 2023. 

Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for the best Amazon Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In the Know. Hear from Autoblog’s car experts on must-shop auto-related Prime Day deals and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Anker is known for its premium charging products, but you do pay for the extra quality. Now for Prime Day, you can grab a number of Anker chargers and other accessories at Amazon with discounts of up to 50 percent. Among the list of deals (including featured deals) are the 10,000 mAh Anker Magnetic Battery (MagGo) for iPhones (55 or 31 percent off), the Nano 3 USB-C GaN 30W 511 charger ($25 or 35 percent off) and a two-pack of USB-C 100W charging cables for MacBook Pros, now down to $13 or 19 percent off the regular price. 

The Anker 633 Magnetic Battery (MagGo) has a small kickstand attachment, and since it sticks to your iPhone while charging, it also doubles as a phone stand. This one's a bit smaller than the 737 Power Bank and has a 10,000mAh battery capacity with a 20W USB-C power delivery port for fast charging times. Unlike past sales, the other colors (blue and white) are also on sale at the same $55 price, giving your more options to match up with your style. 

Meanwhile, Anker's 30W 511 (Nano 3) is a good pick because it’s compact, foldable and has ActiveShield 2.0, an improvement on Anker’s temperature-monitoring technology. In brief, it means that the charger will keep an eye on its temperature to prevent overheating or damaging your device while it’s powering up. It has more than enough wattage to charge your Apple Watch quickly and efficiently, and enough to fast-charge your iPhone whenever you need to switch off and use it for that.

If you need powerful charging cables, the Anker 333 USB-C to USB-C six-foot, 100W cables for MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, Samsung Galaxy S23 and other models are on sale in a two-pack for just $13, a savings of 19 percent over the regular price. There are many other deals on power banks, magnetic chargers, USB-C chargers and more — to see them, check out Anker's Prime Day landing page or its featured deals page. 

Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for the best Amazon Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In the Know. Hear from Autoblog’s car experts on must-shop auto-related Prime Day deals and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

The first Rolls-Royce EV, the Spectre, is going on sale soon at a cool $425,000 — and at that price, purchasing slots will be limited, to say the least. But any buyers planning to flip one for a quick profit may want to think twice. CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said that any customers attempting to resell their Spectre models for profit will be banned for life from ever buying another Rolls-Royce from official dealers, according to a report from Car Dealer.

"I can tell you we are really sanitizing the need to prove who you are, what you want to do with the car – you need to qualify for a car and then you might get a slot for an order," he said. And anyone who violates the policy and sells the Spectre for a profit is "going immediately on a blacklist and this is it – you will never ever have the chance to acquire again."

The British, BMW-owned company isn't the first to impose bans on flipping its vehicles. Last year, GM said it would ban buyers from flipping Hummer EVs, Corvette Z06's and other vehicles within 12 months under the threat of limiting the transferability of certain warranties. On top of that stick, it offered a carrot in the form of $5,000 in reward points for customers who kept their eighth-generation Corvette Z06's for at least a year.

With a potential lifetime ban, Rolls-Royce's rules are even more strict, but some secondhand dealers aren't happy. A London dealer told Car Dealer that he had already agreed to pay a £50,000 ($65,000) premium for two Spectre EVs, and will have them for sale "within two weeks of it being launched" this fall. "I do not think it is fair for carmakers to tell customers who have spent close to half a million pounds on a car what they can do with it," he said. 

The Rolls-Royce Spectre has generally received positive reviews, as you'd hope at such a price. A 102kWh battery pack gives it a 329 mile WLTP range, and it should be relatively quick for a 2.9 tonne (3.19 ton) vehicle thanks to the 576 HP/664 pound-feet powertrain. "Only a Rolls-Royce, maybe a Bentley, really lets you close the door on the world, like a house deep in parkland," said Autocar — though you might be able to buy that parkland house for less.