Canon might be about to lean into nostalgia with its next full-frame mirrorless camera.

According to a fresh leak, the EOS R8 II is in the works. It could arrive with a retro-inspired design to mark 50 years since the iconic AE-1.

The report, via CanonRumors, suggests the upcoming model will act as a direct successor to the EOS R8, which is now over three years old.

But instead of a routine refresh, Canon is said to be rethinking the design entirely. Specifically, Canon may draw inspiration from the Canon AE-1, one of its most successful cameras ever. Over five million AE-1 units have sold since its 1976 debut.

Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning startup, Tools for Humanity, announced last week that a new product called Concert Kit—designed to give verified humans a way to purchase concert tickets—would first roll out on Bruno Mars’ world tour of his latest studio album, The Romantic.

However, Bruno Mars Management and Live Nation, the producer for the Romantic Tour, told WIRED in a joint statement on Tuesday that the partnership “does not exist,” and that Tools for Humanity never even approached them about working together.

The confusion stemmed from a Tools for Humanity event April 17 in San Francisco, where chief product officer Tiago Sada said the company would be joining the Romantic Tour to not just provide access to tickets but also “VIP experiences for verified humans.”

The statement was reiterated in a blog post published by the company, which read: “Concert Kit launches today and will roll out during the Bruno Mars World Tour featuring DJ Pee .Wee (aka Anderson .Paak), where verified humans will have exclusive access to VIP suite experiences at select stops.”

A video of the event, and the company’s blog post, have since been edited and reshared by Tools for Humanity. They now say that Concert Kit will roll out on the 2027 European tour for Jared Leto’s band, Thirty Seconds to Mars.

“To be clear, we were never approached by TFH, nor were we in any discussions regarding a partnership or tour access,” said Bruno Mars’ Management and Live Nation in a joint statement to WIRED. “We first learned that our tour was being used to promote their project after their keynote made those initial claims.” (WIRED had referenced the Bruno Mars partnership in its original story about the event; the story has since been updated to include this new information.)

A spokesperson for Tools for Humanity confirmed to WIRED in a statement Wednesday that the startup “does not have any agreement with Bruno Mars to test or feature Concert Kit, and there is no association or affiliation with the artist or his tour.” Tools for Humanity declined to explain why they announced Mars as a partner for the project in the first place.

Tools for Humanity was cofounded in 2019 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and German entrepreneur Alex Blania, with the aim of using blockchain technology to verify people in online environments where scams are prevalent. In 2023, the company launched a physical, iris-scanning orb that works in conjunction with a mobile app.

While Live Nation and Bruno Mars Management say they “have no opinions for or against their products,” it’s possible that Live Nation is feeling prickly about Tools for Humanity for other reasons. The startup is proposing that Concert Kit will help thwart the bot problem that plagues sites like Ticketmaster—which is owned by Live Nation.

In September, Bloomberg reported that the US Federal Trade Commission was investigating Ticketmaster over whether it had done enough to keep bots off its platform. Anderson .Paak made a cameo at the Tools for Humanity event to vouch for this approach, saying to the crowd, “I fucking hate bots … they make everything really shitty. Especially for the fans.” (Anderson .Paak, for what it’s worth, will soon be touring with Bruno Mars under his moniker DJ Pee .Wee. The plot thickens.)

Tools for Humanity also took a jab at Ticketmaster in its press release for last week’s event, saying that “diehard Swifties will never forget the Eras Tour presale, where Ticketmaster faced 3.5 billion system requests in a single day, locking out millions of fans.”

The partnership with Mars was one of many announced at Tools for Humanity’s Lift Off event, which aimed to legitimize the startup’s identity-verifying technology by working with major brands. Executives from Tinder, Zoom, and Docusign said they’d be expanding their work with Tools for Humanity at the event. In the past, Tools for Humanity has struggled to get governments around the world on board with its technology as a safe, privacy-protecting way to identify real humans.

• Meta is recording employee clicks, keystrokes, and screen activity to train AI agents on real work behavior
• The program is part of a broader push to build AI systems that can perform everyday tasks with minimal human input
• The move comes just ahead of reports of layoffs at the company

Meta has begun collecting everything its employees do as they go about their normal work to train its AI models, as first reported by Reuters. The Model Capability Initiative records mouse movements and clicks, keyboard keystrokes, and even occasional screenshots from computers used by Meta employees in the U.S. The company wants to observe how people actually use software, then feed that behavior into AI models so they can learn to do the same things.

Meta essentially wants to make its systems more reliable for the small actions that define a workday. That means everything from navigating a menu and moving between windows to parsing different website formats. These aren’t easily solved with text data alone.

Last year, Ecco the Dolphin creator Ed Annunizata teased plans to remaster the first two games in the series and create an entirely new sequel. Ecco the Dolphin: Complete, announced by Annunziata’s studio A&R Atelier, appears to be the result of that work. The game doesn’t have a release date yet, but A&R Atelier says it combines the planned remasters and third title into “the complete, definitive Ecco the Dolphin experience, created by the people who made the originals.”

Complete includes “all versions of Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time,” according to the developer, alongside “a brand-new contemporary Ecco game.” Besides graphical improvements, A&E Atelier says the game will introduce “built-in speedrunning support, achievements and leaderboards,” and things like the ability to create custom courses from existing levels. And while A&R Atelier’s announcement doesn’t include footage of the new game or the platforms it’ll release on, the official Ecco the Dolphin website has a countdown clock that could point to when more information will be released.

Annunziata sued Sega to try and win the rights to the Ecco the Dolphin IP in 2013, the same year he failed to get The Big Blue, a spiritual sequel to Ecco the Dolphin, fully funded on Kickstarter. Sega and Annunziata ultimately settled their lawsuit in 2016, which may have laid the groundwork for Ecco the Dolphin: Complete to happen.

Health tech company Ultrahuman, makers of the Ultrahuman Ring Air and Ring Pro, launched a partnership with group workout brand Les Mills on Wednesday. Together, the companies created the Les Mills PowerPlug in the Ultrahuman app, which recommends workouts based on data collected by its smart rings, like sleep, recovery and cycle phase. 

Traditionally, when your smartwatch or ring tells you that your body is fatigued and that you should take it easy during your workout, it doesn’t provide the workout. With this new integration, the Les Mills PowerPlug offers expert-led, on-demand workout videos that take your current health status into account and help prevent overtraining.

“With Les Mills, we’re closing the loop — your ring doesn’t just tell you how recovered you are, it tells you what to do about it. The right workout, at the right intensity, every day. That’s what training smarter actually looks like,” Mohit Kumar, CEO of Ultrahuman, said in a press release.

How the PowerPlug works

Upon downloading the Les Mills PowerPlug, Ultrahuman Ring users will be asked to choose their ideal training days, session length and a fitness goal from the following: cardio, strength, flexibility or general fitness. Going forward, the app’s home screen will then recommend two to three daily workouts based on your health data, along with a quick workout shortcut. 

You’ll also have access to Les Mills’s entire workout catalog, which you can sort by goal, program or duration. Yoga, strength, HIIT and stretching are just a few examples of the type of exercises you can perform.

To select your workout recommendation, Ultrahuman uses its Dynamic Recovery score, a percentage from zero to 100 that symbolizes how prepared your body is to take on the day. It takes into account your sleep, temperature, stress rhythm, resting heart rate and heart rate variability and can change throughout the day with movement, naps and non-sleep deep rest like breathwork.

The Les Mills PowerPlug will also adapt its selections based on a user’s menstrual cycle. If they’re in a phase with more energy, such as the follicular or ovulatory phases, they’ll be advised to try a more intense workout. Low-energy luteal and menstrual phases will correlate with workouts that prioritize recovery, like yoga. During menstruation, high-impact workouts that are tough on the pelvic floor will be avoided. 

Once you complete your workout, you can then view your workout stats (duration, heart rate zones and calories), movement score, muscle group radar chart, daily goal progress and a post-workout recovery prediction that estimates your readiness for the next day.

The Les Mills PowerPlug price

Global Ultrahuman Ring Air and Ring Pro users can now purchase the Les Mills PowerPlug for $12 per month or $100 per year. 

Due to a patent lawsuit with Oura, makers of the Oura Ring, the Ultrahuman Ring Air was previously banned in the US. However, in March, Ultrahuman launched its Ring Pro, which the US Customs and Border Protection approved for sale in the US. It is currently available for preorder and will start shipping on May 15. With a charging case, it costs $479.

Italian loudspeakers tend to follow their own playbook, and the Opera Callas Diva Special Edition distributed in the U.S. by Fidelity Imports, leans into that identity without apology. Priced at $13,999, this is a reflex, floor-standing design with a rear-firing radiation system (dipole), built around the kind of materials and construction choices that set Italian brands apart: hand-crafted wood cabinetry, leather-clad baffles, and tank-like assembly that feels more atelier than assembly line.

Whether the leather actually changes the sound is still a matter of debate, but as with most things Italian, it’s as much about feel and intent as measurable outcome.

There’s also a clear voicing philosophy here. Like most offerings from Sonus faber and Opera, the goal isn’t clinical neutrality; it’s a more romantic, expressive presentation that leans into tone and texture. That doesn’t mean these speakers lack drama; if anything, they just deliver it with better timing and less shouting over Sunday gravy at Nonna’s house. Think Sophia Loren, not a reality TV meltdown—controlled, confident, and fully aware of the effect… the kind of presence that makes a room go quiet when she crosses her legs, looks your way, and lets you wonder if you’re worth the match.

Fidelity Imports is pushing Opera hard in the U.S. right now, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Paired with electronics from Unison Research, the system synergy is obvious—cohesive, deliberate, and unmistakably Italian. Bellissima, but not in a way that begs for attention. It just assumes you’re paying attention already.

Italian Engineering in a Tailored Suit, Not a Tracksuit

The Opera Callas Diva Special Edition is a reflex loaded, floor standing loudspeaker that combines a traditional forward firing driver array with a rear firing dipole tweeter system. It’s a hybrid approach that aims to balance direct sound with controlled rear radiation, adding spatial cues without turning the room into an echo chamber.

Up front, the speaker uses a single 8-inch long throw woofer paired with a 7-inch midrange driver featuring a re cooked polypropylene cone and phase plug. High frequencies are handled by a 1-inch Scan Speak 9700 tweeter, notably run without ferrofluid and incorporating a double decompression chamber, choices that typically favor openness and low mechanical damping over sheer robustness.

Around back, Opera adds two 1-inch tweeters in what it describes as a “natural dipole” configuration. This rear array expands the soundstage by introducing ambient high frequency energy, effectively making the system a 3-way plus rear dipole design rather than a conventional forward only speaker.

The crossover network is relatively straightforward, using 12 dB per octave slopes across all drivers, woofer, midrange, front tweeter, and rear tweeters, with crossover points centered approximately at 200 Hz and 2,000 Hz. This suggests a focus on phase coherence and smoother driver integration rather than aggressive filtering.

Frequency response is rated at 30 Hz to 25 kHz, covering full range playback without immediate reliance on a subwoofer. Sensitivity is specified at 90 dB (2.83V at 1 meter), making the speaker reasonably amplifier friendly, though the 4 ohm nominal impedance with a minimum above 3.2 ohms means it will benefit from stable current delivery.

Power handling is listed at 240 watts without clipping, and placement guidelines recommend at least 10 cm, about 4 inches, from the rear wall, which is modest considering the inclusion of rear firing drivers.

Physically, the Callas Diva Special Edition is substantial: 116 x 37 x 53.5 cm (H x W x D), approximately 45.7 x 14.6 x 21.1 inches, and each speaker weighs 65 kg, about 143 pounds, including its metal base. This is not a lightweight cabinet, so think carefully about which relative still has the energy to help you move it after sausage and peppers. And don’t forget the cannoli. Marone!

Italian Soul, British Precision, No Passport Required

Fidelity Imports had a lot of rooms at AXPONA. Enough that you start making choices. I only had time for a few. This one, and the Ruark Audio room were the ones that actually made me stop, close my eyes and listen, and silently wish that I didn’t have 30 more rooms to cover on the next two floors.

Part of it was the system; Opera speakers, Unison Research electronics, and the new Michell Gyro Turntable spinning records like it knew that a certain American competitor was MIA and that this was its moment to make everyone take notice.

But it was also the reaction. People didn’t just walk in and walk out. They slowed down. Took a step closer. Leaned in to look at the front baffle, then drifted over to the turntable like it might tell them something if they got close enough. Weird that. Especially because it happened more than a few times.

Nobody rushed. Nobody talked too loud. That’s usually a sign. People stood along the back of the room and listened.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed. And in a show full of rooms fighting for attention, this one didn’t have to. Steve Jain needs to make this set-up a permanent hi-fi show experience.

The room was driven by the Unison Research Unico PRE V2 and Unico DM V2 power amplifier. Together, they retail for $18,498 USD. That’s not inexpensive, but in the context of AXPONA, it sits well below many of the larger systems on display.

The Unico DM V2 is a high power, dual mono hybrid design using Unison Research’s A.S.H.A. Class A-AB output stage. The emphasis is on current delivery and stability into more demanding loudspeaker loads rather than chasing extreme specifications.

The Unico PRE V2 is a fully balanced preamplifier with a tube based input stage. It includes a well equipped MM/MC phono stage with selectable gain and loading, making it a viable option for vinyl playback without requiring an external phono stage.

There is no built in streaming platform or Bluetooth support. That appears to be a deliberate choice, leaving digital source selection to external components.

The PRE V2 does include an internal DAC based on the Sabre ES9018K2M converter. It uses a balanced output stage designed to integrate with the tube input section, with the goal of maintaining consistent tonal balance between digital and analog inputs.

Digital connectivity includes USB-B, two S/PDIF, and two optical inputs. USB supports PCM up to 384 kHz and native DSD up to 256, along with DoP up to 128. S/PDIF and optical inputs support resolutions up to 192 kHz.

The Unico DM V2 is rated at 220 watts into 8 ohms and 340 watts into 4 ohms in stereo operation, with stability down to 2 ohms. In bridged mono configuration, it delivers 650 watts into both 8 ohm and 4 ohm loads.

My biggest takeaway from this room? Synergy matters. A lot.

Having spent time with and reviewed some of Unison Research’s tube amplifiers, the new pairing has a lot more palle, but it doesn’t trade away the qualities that made those designs stand out. The tonal balance, clarity, and sense of flow are still intact. It just brings more control and authority when the music asks for it.

Unison deserves your attention. So do these Opera loudspeakers. They’re expressive without being aggressive. They don’t grab your Members Only jacket and threaten you with brute force. They take a different approach and pull you in, keep you there, and let the music do the work.

There’s something to that. Not everything needs to hit you over the head to make its point.

More info at: operaloudspeakers.com | unisonresearch.com | michellaudio.com

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