Month: October 2025

Digital Transformation in Banking and Financial Markets

The banking industry is experiencing one of the most significant shifts in its history. In 2025, more than 3.6 billion people worldwide are using digital banking services. Together with this 77% of consumers now prefer to manage their accounts through mobile apps or computers.

This trend highlights how digital channels have become the default choice for banking, with liquidity aggregation opportunities, advanced risk management, and enhanced user experience playing a key role in ensuring efficiency and resilience behind the scenes.

Where banks once differentiated themselves through physical presence and reputation, they are now judged by the efficiency of their platforms, the quality of their digital services, and their ability to integrate into an increasingly interconnected financial ecosystem.

From Closed Systems to Open Infrastructure

For decades, many banks operated on legacy technology. Systems were closed, data was siloed, and client access was limited to what a single institution could offer. The rapid rise of fintechs and alternative service providers has upended that model, showing clients that seamless digital experiences and global reach are not just possible, but expected.

As a result, banks are under pressure to modernize their core infrastructure. This includes migrating to cloud-based solutions, adopting real-time analytics, and rethinking how they connect with counterparties and clients.

For example, several leading European banks have partnered with fintech providers to implement cloud-native payment hubs. By doing so, they can process cross-border payments in real time, aggregate liquidity from multiple sources, and provide clients with transparent pricing — something that would have been impossible under their former legacy systems.

 

Technology as the New Competitive Edge

What sets leading banks apart today is their ability to use technology strategically. Artificial intelligence, advanced risk management tools, and automated compliance systems are now part of everyday operations. Beyond efficiency, these innovations create new opportunities to improve client experience, streamline back-office processes, and strengthen resilience during periods of market stress.

Among the many solutions reshaping the industry is liquidity aggregation, which allows institutions to consolidate liquidity from multiple sources into a unified framework. While it may sound highly specialized, its impact is broad: by reducing fragmentation and enabling more transparent pricing, it contributes to a more stable and efficient market environment.

For example, JPMorgan Chase has invested heavily in digital trading infrastructure, combining liquidity aggregation with advanced analytics to offer clients deeper market access and more competitive pricing. Similarly, Deutsche Bank has deployed AI-driven risk management and consolidated liquidity flows across multiple venues, enabling it to deliver greater resilience during volatile market conditions.

Expanding Beyond Traditional Boundaries

Another key element of transformation is the expansion into multi-asset services. Clients increasingly expect banks to support a wide range of financial instruments through a single interface. Delivering on this expectation requires more than technology — it demands strategic partnerships, agile operating models, and the willingness to rethink traditional boundaries.

This convergence of banking and financial technology highlights a larger trend: the emergence of connected ecosystems. Banks are no longer isolated institutions; they are nodes in a global digital network. Success depends on how well they integrate, adapt, and innovate within that network.

A good example is UBS, which has expanded its platform to provide clients with access to equities, fixed income, and digital assets within a unified environment. By partnering with fintech providers and leveraging open APIs, UBS has been able to integrate multiple asset classes into one client-facing interface. Similarly, Standard Chartered has embraced a multi-asset approach through collaborations with technology firms, enabling institutional clients to manage foreign exchange, commodities, and securities from a single digital platform.

The Road Ahead

The journey of digital transformation is far from complete. Many institutions are still in the process of modernizing legacy systems, while others are experimenting with new service models to stay ahead of client needs.

What is clear is that technology will remain at the center of banking’s evolution. Whether through artificial intelligence, open banking frameworks, or specialized solutions such as liquidity aggregation, the institutions that embrace innovation will shape the next era of financial services. Those that hesitate risk being left behind in an increasingly connected and competitive economy.

How Online Gaming Is Evolving

Technology is transforming online casinos, making them a great deal more convenient and accessible for punters. Technology is truly changing the online gaming sector from smartphones to AI-based experiences.

Online casino gaming has witnessed some of the most sophisticated technology, becoming more handy and delightful for gamblers worldwide. Authentic sites lead such technologies, developing new functionalities that adhere to modern gaming requirements. Technological progression is really enhancing user experience and creating new standards in online gaming, helping gamblers savor safe, seamless, and fascinating gaming anywhere in the world.

Mobile Gaming Revolution

The rise of smartphones has transformed online gaming, enabling gamblers to play their best-loved casino games anywhere they want. Sites such as online casino Ireland have well-optimized their smartphone sites, with great experiences running on all screen sizes. Members can access the games, look through offers and handle their accounts through their phones or tablets, making gaming more convenient.

This development saw an explosion of gaming on phones and gamblers enjoyed the convenience of taking sessions from just anywhere, while commuting, from home, or during a break. Furthermore, mobile-optimized sites feature touch-screen access and mobile-exclusive offers, improving the user experience. Most sites also feature strategy guides, tutorials and demo access, allowing you to learn and acquaint yourself with games before committing, raising the ante for convenience.

These advancements adhere to the demands of contemporary gamblers who desire ease of access, portability and a great experience. Importantly, good sites allow gamblers to weave gaming into their daily lives through full access, reducing the confines of desktop-exclusive sites. Thus, gaming becomes more intensely personal and user-friendly.

Artificial Intelligence, Personalization and Customized Experiences for Every Player

AI is also contributing in large measures to the personalization of the online casino experience. Processed on the basis of your taste and behavior, AI algorithms can recommend you games, offers, as well as bonuses, that match the individual player. This level of personalization elevates the player interaction and satisfaction, as the player realizes that the site comprehends and is fulfilling their specific interests.

Technology-oriented platforms use artificial intelligence to offer you personalized suggestions, so you gain access to content that is most suitable for you. These systems also monitor development, recommend new titles and feature exclusive offers, making the whole experience far more dynamic and interactive. This is when user satisfaction is substantially enhanced and the chances of the player going back to the platform for their subsequent playing experience grow, developing a closer association of the player with the platform.

Speedier, Safer and Smarter Transfers

The integration of advanced payment technologies has improved payment settlements in online casinos, making it more rapid, more secure, and more user-friendly for deposits and withdrawal. Most sites also offer various payment methods, including payment with e-wallets, cryptocurrencies, and traditional banking. This allows more options for gamblers in terms of choice for management of accounts.

More measures of protection, such as two-factor verification, encryption technologies as well as fraud detection programs, make it such that your financial information is safe at all times. These technologies have also created trust among the user base, further encouraging more individuals to participate in online gaming activities with full confidence. Players can also delight in near-instant deposits and payouts, thus smoothing gaming sessions.

Cloud Technology and Accessing Casino Games

Cloud computing removed the prerequisite for top-of-the-line hardware so members could access a very wide variety of casino content directly from their web browsers. This technology is facilitated by instant playing, no downloading or installation and guarantees a seamless playing experience.

Additionally, cloud platforms can host a vast number of diverse games, ranging from old-school slots and table content to live dealer content. This increases your game library significantly. Technology also enables platforms to deploy and introduce new content easily, making the user experience new and exciting. This scalability and flexibility are particularly appealing to players who want a comprehensive gaming experience without the constraints of traditional software installations.

Immersive Play and Virtual Reality Innovations

Many sites offer live dealer offerings that already engage players with a highly interactive experience. Mainstream titles such as blackjack, roulette and baccarat are streamed live with professional dealers, enabling bets and chat interaction from the player. Live dealer offers the best online ease with the thrill and realism of being in a brick-and-mortar casino. More live dealer products continue to appear on platforms, including themed tables and multi-player features, to boost value in terms of entertainment further.

Virtual Reality (VR) brings a new dimension to online gaming by developing immersive surroundings that reproduce the experience of being in a real casino. Players interact with their environment and everyone else participates in real time, multiplying the social element of online gaming. Although VR technology is still developing, its promise of revolutionizing the online casino experience is tremendous. and some sites are already exploring how they can incorporate VR. This will allow gamblers to experience a much more immersive and interactive experience, with real simulations of the casino floors, interactive gaming tables and live social interaction.

Technological advancements are profoundly boosting online casinos’ ease of access and convenience. These technologies are really transforming the online gaming industry from smartphone gaming and AI-based personalization to payment systems of no frills, cloud sites, and virtual reality experiences.

As technology continues to transform, more groundbreaking features will follow that will further indulge the player’s gaming experience. Online casinos will become more interactive, more accessible and more pleasurable than ever.

New Square tech to transform Irish retail and hospitality

Square has announced the launch of Square Handheld, its most powerful, portable point-of-sale device ever. Combining a sleek, durable design with comprehensive, versatile software, Square Handheld enables sellers to manage everything from payments to back-of-house operations right from their pocket.

Power Meets Portability

Built for fast-moving and operationally complex businesses, Square Handheld is ergonomic and pocketable, at just 315 grams and 15.7mm thick. It’s IP54-rated and durable, standing up to water splashes and dust. With a large 6.2″ Corning® Gorilla® Glass touchscreen and a battery that powers a whole day, Square Handheld is packed with advanced features, including:

  • Full payments functionality to capture tap and chip and pin transactions, and seamless integration with Square’s ecosystem of software, making managing a business easier than ever

  • Barcode scanning for speedy checkouts, gift card scanning, and inventory management

  • A 16 MP camera for capturing photos of newly stocked merchandise and updating item libraries

It’s portable, reliable, and powerful. With Square Handheld, sellers and their staff gain the mobility, speed, and efficiency essential to keep operations steady and deliver high-quality customer experiences — whether they’re restaurateurs that need to take tableside orders and manage their floorplan from the palm of their hand, or retailers managing large inventories and letting shoppers check out anywhere on the store floor.

Adaptable Software for Every Type of Business

Square Handheld is powered by the new unified Square Point of Sale app, bringing years of commerce innovation and technology leadership into a single, powerful hub for running any size or type of business. The redesigned software provides sellers with seven different modes that lets them customise their experience with industry-specific features — such as Full Service mode, Quick Service mode and Retail mode — and the ability to easily add or switch between modes when their operations require different or expanded capabilities. Device-specific features like quick settings for easy adjustments and push alerts for timely notifications mean Square Handheld can fit into and improve any in-store workflow, especially for food and beverage sellers, and retailers, which drove 78% of Square’s gross payment volume (GPV) in 2024 in the EU. From bustling full service restaurants, to multi-location quick service restaurants and coffee shops and sprawling garden centres, Square Handheld gives sellers of all sizes a powerful solution to keep commerce moving.

Designed to Drive Commerce

Square Handheld builds on the company’s legacy of hardware design excellence that began over a decade ago with the iconic ‘little white reader’ and permeates throughout Square’s entire portfolio of devices – from two generations of Square Stand, to Square Register and Square Terminal. Representing the company’s unique ability to elegantly marry form and function, Square Handheld is one of the thinnest and lightest handheld point-of-sale devices on the market, offering a purposefully engineered solution that’s not only built for today’s business needs, but designed to evolve and grow with sellers as commerce transforms in years to come.

“Running a business, especially a restaurant or retail store, has never been more demanding: every second counts, every team member must find ways to be more productive, and every customer has increasingly higher expectations for when and how they’re serviced,” said Thomas Templeton, Block’s Head of Hardware. “Square Handheld fuses Square’s industry-leading design with powerful commerce software to deliver a dynamic device that empowers sellers to keep pace with the breakneck speed of modern business — whether they’re a full-service restaurant looking to provide seamless tableside service across multiple dining areas, or a boutique looking to give its clients a refined checkout experience anywhere in-store.”

Square Handheld starts at 199€ + VAT and to help sellers get the most out of it, Square has partnered with industry-leading accessories manufacturer Belkin to offer premium protective cases. The Belkin SheerForce cases, which come in grey and black, complement Square Handheld’s sleek design, and add further defense against accidental drops and scratches. Thoughtfully designed to improve device grip while maintaining Square Handheld’s pocketable profile, the Belkin SheerForce case starts at 39€ + VAT.

New Software Launches to Make Operations Even More Smooth

Square has made a number of new tools available to help sellers simplify ordering and the guest experience:

  • Combos – sellers can create pre-defined flexible bundles of items sold together at a fixed price

  • Modifier set ordering – sellers can reorder their modifier sets directly from their Dashboard, creating customisable menus and a smoother ordering flow

A number of software launches will be introduced in the coming weeks to create smarter table service and staff operations for sellers:

  • House accounts – allows sellers to enable buyers to aggregate purchases into an account and settle the bill later.

  • Seat management – allows servers to track and organise guest movements across the restaurant, streamlining service operations and improving bill management.

  • ResDiary integration – syncs the seller’s booking platform with Square for Restaurants POS. Table spend and order details automatically flow back into ResDiary, helping operators better manage service and track performance. Deposits taken via ResDiary are also applied to orders in Square when a guest is seated.

To learn more about Square Handheld and the Square ecosystem of business solutions, visit squareup.com/ie/hardware/handheld.

Meet Amazon Quick Suite: The agentic AI application reshaping how work gets done

Quick Suite helps you cut through the noise of fragmented information, siloed applications, and repetitive tasks to focus on what matters.

Key takeaways

  • Quick Suite is AWS’s agentic AI application that helps employees transform how they find insights, conduct deep research, automate tasks, visualize data, and take actions across apps.
  • Quick connects to your information across internal repositories like wikis and intranets, popular applications, AWS services like S3 and Redshift, and access integrations with MCP to connect to 1,000+ apps.
  • Ask any question and get insightful answers.
  • Battle-tested by tens of thousands of Amazon employees and dozens of customers, you can use Quick for tasks consumer AI shouldn’t handle.

Read more below

We’ve all experienced how AI can transform our personal lives, but this same experience hasn’t been unlocked at work—yet. Consumer AI solutions aren’t connected to all your business data. They don’t have access to the tools you need to get things done at work. And many organizations won’t even let you use consumer offerings, because they lack critical security and privacy features.

That’s why we invented Amazon Quick Suite. It’s the AI experience people love with the security and privacy enterprises trust. Quick is your AI teammate that collaborates with you to get work done. With Quick, you can ask questions and get detailed answers, conduct deep dive research, analyze and visualize data, and create automations for workflows to save time and let you focus on the big picture. And thanks to the enterprise-grade security and privacy standards, Quick can work across all your information, so you finally get the fully featured gen AI experience you want at work, while knowing your queries are never used to train a model.

With Quick, we are entering a new era of work. Interact with Quick through an intuitive, web-based experience or integrations across your browser, Office 365, and more. Working with an AI agent is now as simple as chatting with a teammate. Make a request, ask a question, or automate a task. Quick works with you to help you go from insight directly to action. To see these capabilities firsthand, watch my video overview of Amazon Quick Suite.

We’ve been testing Quick with employees across Amazon and key customers to ensure it’s up to the demands of today’s workplace, and the results speak for themselves. Amazon employees are turning tasks that used to take days into minutes, automating the development of critical reports, and building their own benches of personalized agents. Propulse Lab, a leading marketing automation company, used Quick to streamline their customer service workflows, reducing the average time spent handling tickets by 80%—with a planned expansion of this workflow, they predict they will save over 24,000 hours annually. Based on the results they’ve already seen with Quick, DXC Technology, a global provider of information technology services, is planning to deploy it across more than 120k users, while Vertiv, a provider of critical digital infrastructure, plans to scale their users by more than 25% in 2026.

So how does Quick Suite work?

Bring everything together with Quick Index and Spaces

Quick Index makes it simple for you to connect to the sources and applications that matter. With over 50 built-in connectors for applications like Adobe Analytics, SharePoint, Snowflake, Google Drive, OneDrive, Outlook, ServiceNow, Databricks, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon S3, Quick brings together all your data securely to ensure you have full context for every decision. Using integrations with OpenAPI or Model Context Protocol (MCP) customers can connect to custom resources and 1,000+ apps by taking advantage of popular MCP servers from Atlassian, Asana, Box, Canva, PagerDuty, Workato, Zapier, and many more. You can then add additional files, dashboards, and other information to dedicated Spaces for you and your team to collaborate.

Ask questions and build agents

Once you’ve connected your data to Quick, you can start interacting with the chat assistant. You can ask Quick to write and send communications for you, or if you want Quick to write in your style or for a particular task (like writing a case study), you can use natural language or point Quick at existing guides or documentation to create a custom agent able to communicate in your intended style.

Analyze and visualize data with Quick Sight

Quick Sight makes business intelligence accessible to everyone with a new agentic experience, helping you gain insights to make better decisions. Unlike traditional business intelligence tools that work only with databases and data warehouses, Quick Sight’s agentic experience analyzes all forms of data across all your systems and apps, including your documents.

For example, a marketer can now easily look at a dashboard of their campaign data with metrics and customer feedback and ask questions in natural language about how the campaign is performing. They get a crisp analysis of the data in seconds without hours of manual statistical analysis, compiling sentiment from feedback, and summarizing the findings into a narrative—no business intelligence or data science experience required.

Dive deep into complex questions with Quick Research

Quick Research is the most accurate and reliable research agent on the market, ready to answer your most in-depth questions. It’s like having your own personal Ph.D. to provide comprehensive answers and reports to questions that require extensive research. It uses sophisticated analysis capabilities and extended processing to dive into your company’s data, and the public internet, including real-time information from 200+ outlets like The Associated Press, The New York Times, Washington Post, and Forbes. Quick Research can turn weeks-long research projects into quick-turn results, all with fully cited sources you can trust.

We tested Quick Research on DeepResearch Bench, a comprehensive benchmark for evaluating research agents, using a collective jury, where it provided the most accurate and reliable research across a range of tasks. The Last Mile Delivery team at Amazon used Quick Research to assess the potential impact of new legislation on a particular country that had been previously enacted in other countries. In 30 minutes, Quick Research delivered an in-depth analysis of how this legislation impacted other countries and their associated partner organizations, while also providing details on references and research methodology. This sort of research previously took multiple team members two weeks to complete.

Streamline repetitive tasks with Quick Flows

We all have those routine tasks, like compiling weekly reports or preparing for a recurring meeting, that take up your time every week. Quick Flows helps you use simple prompts to create automated workflows that handle repetitive tasks, reducing errors and freeing you and your team from busy work. For example, a program manager at AWS created a Flow to report on new, in-progress, and closed Asana tickets from the past week, compare them against the previous week’s status and committed items, and generate an executive summary email for leadership, saving multiple hours of manual work each week.

Handle complex multi-system workflows with Quick Automate

When these processes get complex and require hundreds of steps to be securely executed across multiple enterprise systems, like insurance claims processing or onboarding a new employee, teams wish that these tasks could be streamlined, but they lack the sophisticated automation tools and expertise to do it. With natural language prompts or by simply using existing documentation for their standard operating procedure, Quick Automate coordinates even the most complex business workflows across multiple applications, systems, or departments.

For instance, the Amazon Finance team uses Quick Automate to reconcile thousands of invoices every month. Quick Automate pulls information across multiple external transportation management systems, cross referencing this content with internal data from Amazon systems to help teams forecast cashflow, identify payment blockers, and conduct root cause analysis. The team built this automation without a dev team in days instead of weeks, and Quick made it easy to scale across multiple teams. Customers, such as Kitsa, have found the computer use agent in Quick Automate to be the most accurate solution for browser automation, helping them reliably automate their most complex and sensitive workflows across applications at scale.

Quick works wherever you are. With an intuitive web application, extensions in popular browsers like Chrome and Firefox, and extensions in Microsoft Outlook, Teams, and Word, Quick helps you find answers and act immediately in your flow of work.

Quick Suite is already transforming work for Amazon employees and customers

Quick serves people across every department and role—from sales reps to marketers, to CEOs and CIOs, to engineers and IT. Employees across Amazon, along with customers like Vertiv, DXC, 3M, Jabil, dLocal, Propulse Lab, and Kitsa, are already seeing amazing results with Quick:

Research in high gear

Jessica Gibson, vice president and associate general counsel at Amazon, sees an enormous benefit using Quick Research to help the Legal, Public Policy, and Compliance departments keep up with shifting global requirements that impact their business. From a single prompt, Quick Research helps her team synthesize complex requirements for specific geographic regions and provide recommendations at remarkable speed. “This same task used to require many hours of outside counsel, research, and writing,” said Gibson. By using Quick Research to compile these reports, her team can “stay agile while optimizing both time and resources.”

Automations that work

Kitsa, a customer that builds software to help expedite clinical trials, used Quick Automate to pore through hundreds of webpages and found that they were able to analyze sites for clinical trials in days that previously took months—with a 91% cost savings. “Compared to similar offerings like Manus and ChatGPT Operator, we achieved the highest accuracy and data coverage for our use case,” said Rohit Banga, the company’s co-founder and CTO.

Data-driven business decisions

Robbie Wright, a senior product marketer at AWS, uses Quick Flows to build a repeatable workflow to draft monthly business reviews based on business metrics from Quick Sight, campaign performance reporting from Adobe Analytics, and content from emails, and other internal documents. This saves time and helps his team make more informed decisions about ongoing campaigns faster.

“The workflow makes it simple to combine multiple sources into a concise update for our leaders,” Wright said. “I can now complete these projects 90% faster, and the quality of my reports has improved dramatically because I spend less time chasing numbers and more time providing my own insights.”

An AI-driven transformation

Jabil, a global leader in engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions, is embracing Quick so that employees can use natural language to research regulatory updates across key industries faster and to optimize account collections and request for quote (RFQ) submissions. The automations in account collections and RFQs alone are expected to save about $400,000 annually as a result!

“The multi-tier AI architecture powered by Quick consolidates chatbots and information sources, increasing our manufacturing speed and flexibility,” said May Yap, Jabil’s CIO. “As part of our AI-driven transformation, these unified capabilities are helping us drive efficiencies and operational excellence.”

Complex workflows made simple

Natalie Fischbeck works in business development on Amazon’s Workforce Staffing team, and in one week she built 39 customized AI agents using Quick to help her complete complex tasks in minutes.

“Quick has given me the opportunity to create an accessible hub of institutional knowledge that would otherwise be scattered,” she said. “We now have scalable, logic-based agents that track all our leads and solutions at a high level. Because they pull from all our most recent emails and documents, they can provide dynamic updates almost instantly.”

Beyond productivity: A whole new way of working

What strikes me about these examples isn’t just the time saved—it’s how Quick is fundamentally changing our relationship with work. It’s removing the busy work that used to consume valuable time and energy and gives us the time back to focus on what matters. It brings together all the data, metrics, and institutional knowledge you need to make decisions, and helps you act on these decisions to drive outcomes.

We’ve been blown away by all the creative ways people have used Quick so far, and we’re excited to see how others will use it in the future. There are so many possibilities to dig into with these tools, and our team is hard at work finding ways to make them even more useful for customers in the future.

Eirmersive Launches PRISM Immersive Technology Summit

Eirmersive, a leading voice in Ireland for the immersive technology sector, has announced that PRISM Immersive Technology Summit, will take place on Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT).

This groundbreaking all-island event will bring together up to 150 innovators, business leaders, and researchers to explore how the convergence of Extended Reality (XR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Digital Twins is delivering competitive advantage across Construction, Manufacturing, Health Tech, Energy, and other critical sectors.

Driven by Eirmersive’s commitment to collaboration and inclusivity, the PRISM Summit is designed to innovate while cultivating partnerships that deliver real-world impact. The programme will feature keynote presentations, live demonstrations, panel discussions, and strategic networking opportunities. 

Camille Donegan, CEO of Eirmersive, said:

“Immersive technologies offer transformative potential for industry, but adoption requires trusted guidance, community, and clarity around real-world use cases. That’s exactly what PRISM delivers. If you’re an innovator or researcher looking to explore how XR, AI, and digital twins can create real value, this summit is for you.”

Aidan Browne, Head of Innovation & Business Development at Dundalk Institute of Technology, added:

“Dundalk Institute of Technology is delighted to partner with Eirmersive to host PRISM, connecting industry leaders, researchers, and forward-thinking innovators. Through this collaboration, we are excited to showcase cutting-edge solutions to our students and the wider business community, demonstrating how immersive technology can address real industry challenges, unlock skilled talent, and drive greater efficiency.”

Attendees will experience a full day of programming built around ROI-driven case studies and high-impact demonstrations. The programme includes keynote presentations from thought leaders and pioneers at the forefront of immersive technology, alongside interactive demonstration booths offering hands-on access to cutting-edge tools and solutions from Eirmersive members. Delegates will participate in sector-specific deep dives addressing challenges and opportunities in key industries, whilst engaging in strategic networking with SME leaders, enterprise innovators, technology developers, researchers, educators, policy leaders, and innovation support agencies.

Confirmed speakers include Brian Cooney, CEO of KUKA Robotics Ireland, who will present on “How digital twin, XR and AI shorten lead-time, ensure safety and reduce the cost of automation for manufacturing,” and Timmy Ghiurău Innovation Leader at Volvo Cars. 

The summit has already received robust support across Ireland and Northern Ireland, with partners  including Dundalk Institute of Technology, Queen’s University Belfast, Digital Catapult, InterTradeIreland, Louth County Council and its Local Enterprise Office, Oriel Hub, Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet, and Creative Ireland.

Registration: Available on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/prism-clarity-in-the-age-of-convergence-tickets-1533671686299

Ookla: Onboard Train Connectivity Across Europe

Ookla has analyzed country-level train Wi-Fi performance across Europe and Asia, using Speedtest Intelligence

Europe and Asia’s rail networks, long heralded as a backbone of economic competitiveness, are now judged not only on punctuality and comfort but on the quality of the digital experience onboard. High-quality train Wi-Fi has shifted from nice-to-have to essential rail infrastructure. Commuters expect a home broadband-like experience for streaming, work calls and gaming while crossing the Swiss Alps or skirting Mount Fuji.

Where countries treat train connectivity as rail infrastructure and pair onboard Wi-Fi with rail-specific infrastructure (trackside, LEO satellite or both), everyday outcomes improve measurably for passengers. This study is the first of its kind to use crowdsourced Ookla Speedtest® data to benchmark country-level train Wi-Fi performance across Europe and Asia.

Key Takeaways:

  • The gap separating Europe’s best and worst is startling. In Q2 2025, Sweden set the pace for train Wi-Fi in Europe with a 64.58 Mbps median download, followed by Switzerland (29.79 Mbps) and Ireland (26.33 Mbps). Laggards like Spain (1.45 Mbps), the UK (1.09 Mbps) and the Netherlands (0.41 Mbps) featured the poorest outcomes, with download speeds as much as 158 times slower than top-performing Sweden.
  • Legacy Wi-Fi tech drags many rail networks. Across the European markets studied, nearly two in five connections still run on Wi-Fi 4 (a standard dating to 2009), and ~22% use the lower-capacity, more congestion- and interference-prone 2.4 GHz band. The UK still sees over half of all rail connections on Wi-Fi 4, with 38% on 2.4 GHz. In Poland, rail connections remain almost entirely on Wi-Fi 4 and the 2.4 GHz band.
  • Band and Wi-Fi gen matter, but backhaul is the real bottleneck. Within-country comparisons show substantial uplifts for 5 GHz vs 2.4 GHz (e.g., +328% in Germany) and Wi-Fi 5 vs Wi-Fi 4 (e.g., +241% in Germany). Yet countries that feature a more modern Wi-Fi mix and thus drive greater use of the 5 GHz band, like Spain and Italy, can still underperform on speeds. This demonstrates that backhaul (i.e., the connection between the train’s roof antennas and the public mobile networks), not just cabin Wi-Fi, is the dominant driver of performance.
  • Asian rail networks feature modern Wi-Fi mix and lower latency but are not always faster. Taiwan posted the lowest latency and the only material Wi-Fi 6 share (~20%), while Japan and South Korea showed virtually no legacy Wi-Fi 4 or 2.4 GHz usage. Across Asia, typical median download speeds (6-8 Mbps) cluster below Europe’s leaders but above its laggards, reflecting different policy approaches (i.e., greater emphasis on cellular than Wi-Fi).
  • Policy fingerprints are unmistakable and outweigh topographic and demographic factors. When governments and operators treat mobile networks as core rail infrastructure, and invest in dedicated trackside systems, higher-order MIMO with multi-operator bonded train-mounted antennas, and RF-permeable rolling-stock window retrofits, outcomes improve dramatically.

Read More

Irish Guide To Selling CS2 Skins Safely

Selling CS2 skins should feel as secure as buying a round at your local. If you’re in Ireland and ready to turn cosmetic items into euros, start with a clear plan to sell cs2 skins for real money and a realistic understanding of risk. Below, you’ll find a practical path that balances speed, safety, and value—so you cash out without nasty surprises along the way.

Steam Market Vs Third-Party Marketplaces

The Steam Community Market is convenient but closed—funds stay locked to your Steam Wallet. That’s fine for buying games, not so great for groceries. Third-party marketplaces, by contrast, let you withdraw earnings, often at better rates on in-demand items. The trade-off? You must vet the platform’s security, support responsiveness, and visible track record before you list.

Third-party platforms typically offer clearer price discovery across many buyers, which helps avoid underpricing rare finishes. Look for escrow-style flows, two-factor authentication, and transparent seller dashboards. You want item verification steps, visible trading histories, and a dispute process that doesn’t feel like a black box. If a site is vague about fees or timelines, treat that as your first red flag.

Spotlight: A Marketplace Built for Sellers — Skin.Land

Suppose you prefer a gamer-first flow with plain-English policies, Skin.Land is a solid place to start. The platform focuses on clarity around listing, settlement, and withdrawals, with an interface that’s easy to learn and quick to navigate. Sellers appreciate straightforward pricing, robust account security options, and a clean order history that makes reconciliation painless. If you’re exploring where to sell CS2 skins safely without overcomplicating the process, adding Skin.Land on your shortlist is a smart move.

Cash Out CS2 Skins To Bank Or Card

Once your item sells, your next decision is payout. In Ireland, many traders prefer SEPA bank transfers for familiarity and auditability. Card withdrawals can feel faster for day-to-day spending. Either way, the platform should outline verification requirements up front: identity checks, proof of ownership, and anti-fraud safeguards. Those guardrails protect you from chargebacks, impersonation, and other hassles.

Timing matters. Some services batch withdrawals daily; others run them multiple times per day. Review cut-off windows to avoid weekend drift. For larger sums, expect an extra compliance pass—nothing unusual there. Keep your profile data consistent with your banking details; tiny mismatches can trigger needless delays. And always enable mobile and email confirmations for every step of the cash-out flow.

Payout Methods And Fees

Fees change the real price you’re getting, so read the fine print like a hawk. Platforms may charge a listing commission, a sale fee, and a separate withdrawal fee. Your bank may also charge an inbound fee, depending on the method used. Factor all of that into your target price; don’t fixate on the sticker number alone. A slightly higher list price with lower withdrawal costs can yield more benefits.

Consider volatility, too. CS2 skin prices move with meta shifts, tournament hype, and limited-time drops. If a hot skin is trending, a marketplace with deeper liquidity might close faster at fair value. Conversely, for niche or low-volume items, patience beats panic. Set alerts, watch recent sales, and avoid selling immediately after a major patch when prices often wobble.

Quick Safety Checklist Before You Sell

  • Double-check item float, stickers, and wear; premium details impact price. 
  • Use Steam Guard, confirm trades on your mobile device, and never share your confirmation codes. 
  • Verify marketplace domain and TLS certificate; avoid links sent via DMs. 
  • Read the fee schedule and minimum withdrawal amounts end-to-end. 
  • Test a small sale first to validate the payout pipeline and timing. 
  • Keep screenshots of listings, confirmations, and any support chats. 

How To Price For The Irish Market Without Guesswork

Start with recent sales, not asking prices. The latter can be wishful thinking. Filter by wear, float, and pattern so you’re comparing apples with apples. If you’re not in a rush, list slightly above the last confirmed sale and enable offers. For quick exits, undercut the average—but only after tallying payout methods and fees to track your real take-home.

When activity spikes—around Majors or skin-related events—your listing strategy should adjust. Shorten listing duration, keep notifications on, and respond to credible offers fast. If you get several bids within minutes, you likely underpriced; cancel and relist if your marketplace allows it. Conversely, if it’s quiet for days, consider nudging your price or bundling lower-value items.

Account Security: Think Like A Keeper

Treat your Steam account like a vault: unique passwords, a password manager, and two-factor on everything. Check authorized devices weekly. Revoke old API keys and avoid browser extensions you don’t recognize. Phishing is rampant: no legitimate support rep will ask for your login or one-time codes. When in doubt, go straight to the platform URL you trust—don’t click embedded buttons in emails.

Trade confirmations deserve special care. Always review item names, wear levels, and pattern IDs in the confirmation window. Scammers rely on speed; you beat them with a thirty-second sanity check. If a listing or trade looks off by even a hair, cancel it. A lost minute is cheaper than a lost knife.

Why Marketplace Choice Matters For Irish Sellers

Irish users benefit from platforms that understand EU payments. SEPA support, clear timelines, and compliance with GDPR all reduce friction. Equally important: active support during Irish business hours and an FAQ that actually answers payout questions. A marketplace like Skin.Land focuses on clarity around listing, settlement, and withdrawal—useful if you want a reliable, gamer-centric flow without constant ticket ping-pong.

Regional Notes For Ireland

Keep an eye on local bank processing times, especially near holidays and long weekends. Some institutions post transfers the next business day, which can stretch a Friday request into Monday funds. For regular sellers, build a routine: list midweek, plan withdrawals before noon, and set alerts for confirmation emails so you can react quickly if anything needs your attention.

Bringing It All Together: A Safe, Straightforward Play

Selling skins shouldn’t feel like defusing a bomb. Choose a vetted marketplace, confirm security basics, and price using verified sales, not hype. Understand how you’ll cash out CS2 skins to bank or card, what the total costs look like, and how speed compares to value. Small checks—domain, confirmations, fee math—protect significant outcomes when real money’s on the line.

Ready to convert pixels into practical euros? Start with a low-risk test sale, validate your payout path, and scale from there. With a solid process and a platform built for players, you’ll move from trial run to trusted routine—turning your CS2 loadout into real-world flexibility without compromising safety or control.

Vittori Unveils Hybrid Hypercar Designed By Pininfarina

Vittori, a visionary new hypercar company with roots in both America and Italy, has debuted its inaugural vehicle, Turbio, this October in Miami. This limited-run hybrid hypercar, based on an original visual concept by Vittori and designed in partnership with the legendary Italian design house Pininfarina, will feature a perfect package of impeccable production, quality, craftsmanship, aesthetics, and of course, speed. Headquartered in the U.S. but manufactured in Italy, Vittori’s debut represents a fusion of timeless artistry and cutting-edge technology, redefining what is possible for our future while also respecting the beloved aesthetics and qualities of classic car design.

Founder and CEO, Carlos Cruz, began Vittori after a career scaling multi-million-dollar businesses across finance, tech, and AI industries. Cruz notes, “Our dream was to create a beautiful, high-speed vehicle that evoked emotion and a sense of connection. We didn’t want to make another supercar—we wanted to build something that feels like flight, like sculpture, like power at your fingertips. We sought to build a reality where performance, beauty, control, and freedom could exist in one car—without compromise.”

The model debuting in Miami is a running concept, just the beginning of Vittori’s journey towards the production version. The key to the vehicle’s debut is a design deeply rooted in both legacy and innovation. The Vittori team aimed to prioritize craftsmanship, old-world artistry, and a timeless Italian presence. To achieve this vision, they collaborated with Italian icon Pininfarina, the global design house behind some of the most enduring silhouettes in automotive history, including models for Ferrari and Maserati, to drive Vittori’s concept development, dream manufacturing, and the production of exclusive limited series. Pininfarina’s expert understanding of not only materiality, but their unparalleled experience with designing silhouettes and interiors built for velocity, top-tier ergonomics, and superior functionality, made them the perfect partner for this debut vehicle.

“Partnering with Vittori on a new vision for the hypercar market embodies one of the essential traits of Pininfarina,” states Giuseppe Bonollo, SVP Mobility, Pininfarina. “For decades, Pininfarina has leveraged its heritage in coachbuilding and its ability to transform pure design exercises into industrial realities through comprehensive, turn-key solutions. These skills remain paramount at Pininfarina in serving global customers, and we are therefore pleased to support Vittori in its mission.”

Debuting this October in Miami, the first Vittori vehicle will be a limited-run hybrid hypercar, with only 50 cars available for purchase. The car will debut as a proprietary powertrain developed by Italtecnica, showcasing advanced aerodynamics and additive manufacturing technology. The exterior design is driven by aerodynamic performance. The clean, pure, and seamless body surfaces naturally integrate with the air intakes and exhausts required for cooling flow management. The active rear wing allows the driver to reduce drag or increase downforce depending on the route and driving style. Inside, Vittori also stands apart by putting the driver back in control. Instead of filling the cabin with touchscreens, physical controls and switches have been meticulously restored, placing every element with intent to bring back the pure thrill of mechanical engagement.

More details will be available in the coming months, following the car’s debut in October. For more information, visit go.vittori.com

Other motoring news

Twelve South PowerCord Review

The Twelve South PowerCord combines a 30W wall adapter and USB-C cable into a single, streamlined compact design which means a simple solution to your charging needs, For example i have countless plugs and cables hwoever these are all two part accessories while this is one plug and one cable all in one, thumbs up for that.

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Features

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Bringing style and substance to everyday charging, the Twelve South PowerCord is available now in either Slate or Dune, from £39 from Twelve South UK and Amazon UK

See our Twelve South Reviews 

Video Review