Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup - 7/21- 7/27

Samsung gifts latest Galaxy Z Flip6 phones to nearly 17K Paris Olympic athletes

Microsoft releases automated recovery tool for CrowdStrike update crash

Samsung switches to Google Messages as default on US Galaxy phones

Netflix ad sales chief departs after 18 months, company bullish on ad growth

Samsung Galaxy Ring opens up! Works with most Android phones

Oura Ring 4 leaked: New certification hints at successor to popular smart ring

Spotify HiFi: A long-awaited saga nears its end?

CrowdStrike restores most systems after massive outage

Canada Soccer engulfed in drone spying scandal, coach suspended

Netflix's 'BioShock' film scales back amid budget cuts

The Sonos app overhaul: A costly miscalculation

Canada Soccer engulfed in drone spying scandal, coach suspended

Embed from Getty Images

The Canadian women’s soccer team is facing a major scandal after instances of drone spying on rival New Zealand. The latest incident, involving a drone hovering over a New Zealand practice session on Monday, led to the suspension of head coach Bev Priestman.

Investigations revealed that the drone operator was a "non-accredited" member of the Canadian team's staff. Moreover, it was discovered that a similar incident occurred during a New Zealand practice on July 19. As a result, two additional staff members—Joseph Lombardi, an “unaccredited analyst with Canada Soccer,” and Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach—were sent home.

Click to read more ...

DJI unveils the Mavic Mini, its lightest and smallest drone yet

DJI keeps its newest drone palm-sized. It's small and lightweight enough that in the US, it doesn't even need an FAA registration (make sure to check local laws and regulations!). The Mavic Mini weighs in at just 249 grams. But its feature set isn't lacking. It's designed to be accessible for beginners to hobbyists who want a compact drone to take aerial photography and videography with. 

The Mavic Mini can take 12-megapixel photos and up to 2.7K Quad HD videos at 30 frames per second. There is no 4K support here, unfortunately. The drone has a maximum range of 4km and gives you a substantial flight time of 30 minutes. It has GPS receivers and downward visual sensors so you can expect precise hovering and stable flying. What it doesn't have is obstacle avoidance features, so if you aren't careful, you might crash it. We suggest getting used to flying it in open spaces.

Click to read more ...

CES 2019: DJI launches Smart Controller with built-in display for your drone

Don’t want to use your phone and tablet to see what’s happening with your drone? DJI just released a new Smart Controller with an ultra-bright display and all the controls you’ve come expect from a DJI controller. With the 5.5-inch display built into the controller, that’s one less thing to have to setup when you want to fly your drone. At the moment, it’s compatible with the new Mavic 2 Zoom and Mavic 2 Pro. The Mavic 2 Enterprise series will be supported in future updates.

The Smart Controller comes with an ultra-bright display that has an output of 1000cd/m2, which is twice the brightness of standard smartphones. The display also shows flight video in Full HD resolution, making it easier and clearer to see what you’re shooting. The controller comes pre-loaded with an Android dashboard with support for DJI GO 4 and DJI Pilot applications. The DJI GO 4 app gets SkyTalk feature, which lets the pilot livestream the drone’s camera feed to social media. It promises a battery life of 2.5 hours and can operate in temperatures as cold as -4° Fahrenheit and as hot as 104° Fahrenheit. Charging time is set around two hours as well. It’s going to set you back a pretty penny though. The Smart Controller retails for US$649 and will be available in early 2019. DJI plans to release a bundle with the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom, but we don’t know how much that’ll retail.

Source: Drone Life + Digital Trends