Dublin City Council has launched the first of 30 new electric vehicles to be used by the Waste Management section.
The launch took place on the forecourt of the Mansion House.
The new vehicles are the first Fully Electric Cage Body Vehicles to be used by the Waste Management section and will be rolled out throughout the year.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Ray McAdam, said,“If Dublin is serious about climate action, it must start with how the city itself operates. These new electric waste vehicles are a clear signal that the capital is leading by example, cutting emissions while carrying out the essential work that keeps our streets clean. They will help us build an even cleaner Dublin that we can all celebrate together.”
Dublin is one of 112 cities selected under the EU Mission 100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, a pioneering initiative designed to accelerate systems change and deliver climate neutrality by 2030.
In line with national requirements, Dublin City Council’s Climate Action Plan contributes to:
A 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (compared to 2018 levels)
Climate neutrality before 2050, at the latest
Climate Neutral Dublin 2030 responds directly to these commitments with a comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CAP) and associated Investment Plan that sets a clear roadmap for transformative change across the city.
However, the Council emphasises that delivering on these targets requires more than policy, it demands whole-of-society behavioural change. Sustainable choices must become the easiest and most convenient options for residents, workers, and visitors alike.
To make inroads into our targets we are delighted to showcase our brand new Fully Electric Cage Body Vehicles from our Waste Management section. Not only does the Waste Management section keep Dublin physically clean, the vehicles they are using improve the environment by using electric vehicles as part of the operation! Over 50 Waste Management Drivers have already been trained to use these new zero emission vehicles.
Dublin City Council will continue to work with the Department of Transport Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland office to identify funding streams and capacity building measures to support the transition and facilitate the installation of Electric Vehicle chargers.
Dublin City Council will work closely with the ESB and other stakeholders to enable and facilitate an increase in the number of EV charge points across the city.
Garmin has released its 2025 Garmin Connect™ Data Report, highlighting overall fitness and health trends from customers around the world. From data trends like average stress and daily steps to an increase in recorded activities, insights from the Garmin Connect community highlight key fitness and well-being trends across a range of demographics, locales and abilities.
Activity takeaways
Garmin users recorded 8% more activities this year than in 2024, with the following activities seeing the largest year over year increase:
Racket sports: +67%
HIIT: +45%.
Pilates: +46%
Strength training: +29%
Indoor running: +16%
Diving: +16%
Hiking: +12%
Health and fitness takeaways
Women recorded lower average stress scores than men, and Garmin users in Indonesiahad the highest stress scores this year while those in the Netherlands had the lowest.
Garmin users got nearly 1% better sleep this year, with an average sleep score of 71.
Younger Garmin users typically had higher Body Battery™ energy levels, with 18–29-year-olds averaging 75. Users 40-49 years old averaged 70, while users over 70 years old averaged 64. Those in Portugal recorded the highest average Body Battery levels, while Japan had the lowest.
On average, users took more steps per day in 2025. Garmin users in Hong Kong took the most average steps with more than 10,000 per day.
Users 18-29 years old did the most outdoor running this year. 50-59-year-olds led the indoor cycling category, while those 70 years and older did the most golfing.
“I live a very active lifestyle, from long days surfing to runs and strength work in the gym. Being able to track my recovery, HRV, and overall performance in one place helps me make smarter decisions, stay consistent, and train with real purpose.”
–Brianna Cope, Garmin ambassador
Garmin Connect is an organised person’s dream. It makes tracking and comparing my performance over time incredibly simple thanks to its clean colour-coded categories and easy-to-read charts. I can instantly spot trends across a week, a month, six months, or even a full year. So, when it’s time to reassess my training, Garmin Connect shows me exactly where I need to dial in my sleep, recovery, and overall workload.”
–Lauren Kalil, Garmin ambassador
“Since coming back to training and racing after having my daughter, I’ve really had to readjust my expectations for training and recovery. Using resting heart rate and HRV trends in the Garmin Connect app has been a huge help to me as I’ve recalibrated what’s normal for me right now. The data helps me know if we are getting the training and recovery load right, or if we need to back down.”
–Skye Moench, Garmin-sponsored triathlete
This year, Garmin Connect+ users can check out their own highlight reel – the Garmin Connect Rundown. Available now in the Garmin Connect app, the personalised annual report includes health, performance and activity stats, including total steps, average sleep score, totals of each activity type and more.
Garmin’s latest smartwatches – like the Venu® 4 and fēnix ® 8 Pro – are packed with popular health and fitness features and seamlessly sync to Garmin Connect, letting users track their activities, analyse their data, compete in challenges and more. Whether you’re chasing a new PR, training for an event or focusing more on overall wellness, Garmin has a smartwatch that’s ready for any goal. Click here to learn more about the latest lineup of Garmin smartwatches.
Engineered on the inside for life on the outside, Garmin products have revolutionised life for runners, cyclists, swimmers and athletes of all levels and abilities. Committed to developing technology that helps people stay active and elevate performance, Garmin believes every day is an opportunity to innovate and a chance to beat yesterday.
Garmin has announced Venu® 4, the latest smartwatch in the award-winning Venu lineup with innovative new health, fitness and accessibility features. To help users understand their body better and make healthier decisions, Venu 4 lets them track their health trends and log lifestyle changes to see how their choices affect their overall well-being. It also features a stylish metal design, built-in speaker and mic and a bright LED flashlight that provides greater awareness in dark environments. And with up to 12 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, users don’t have to charge their watch every night, making it easier to monitor health metrics 24/7 and receive a more holistic view of their sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), Body Battery™ energy monitoring, and more.
“We designed Venu 4 to be a personal on-wrist fitness and wellness coach. This premium smartwatch helps users learn even more about their body, provides data-driven insights into how their choices are affecting their health and holds them accountable so they can reach their goals with greater ease.”
—Susan Lyman, Garmin Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing
What’s new
Health
Health status: See whether health metrics like heart rate, HRV, respiration, skin temperature1 and Pulse Ox2 while sleeping are trending away from their usual range. These changes could indicate added stress to the body and could be related to physical activity, potential illness and more. This feature is currently available in beta3 on the watch and in Garmin Connect™.
Lifestyle logging:Log custom or preset behaviours – like caffeine and alcohol consumption – and view reports on how those lifestyle choices impact sleep, stress and HRV in the Garmin Connect app.
Advanced sleep metrics:Sleep alignment provides even more personalised sleep guidance by keeping track of how aligned the body is to its inner sleep cycle using circadian rhythm. Sleep consistency provides a look at the average bedtime over the past seven days.
Fitness
The new Garmin Fitness Coach provides personalised workouts for over 25 different fitness activities – from walking and indoor cycling to rowing, HIIT and more. These heart rate and duration-based workouts will adjust daily based on activity history, sleep and recovery. Users can set up a Garmin Fitness Coach plan to receive tailored workouts and track their progress in the Garmin Connect app. If users don’t set up a plan, they will still get daily suggested workouts for different fitness activities. For those doing several activities in one workout, the mixed session activity profile tracks multiple activities in one session rather than saving separate activities.
Accessibility
Spoken watch face: Hear time of day, health data and more spoken directly from the watch and receive alerts at the top of every hour.
Colour filter: Users with various forms of colour blindness can choose different colour display options – including grey scale, red/green, green/red or blue/yellow.
Stylish design, premium features
Featuring a sophisticated metal design, Venu 4 is available in two sizes, 41mm and 45mm, and comes in fun colourways – like lunar gold and light sand or silver and citron – with leather or silicone bands that can easily be swapped out. Both sizes feature a built-in LED flashlight for greater visibility in the dark, plus a speaker and microphone to make and take calls from the watch when it’s paired with a compatible iPhone® or Android™ smartphone and use the phone’s voice assistant to respond to text messages. Certain voice commands, like “start a running activity” and “set timer for 5 minutes” can also be activated right from the watch—no phone connected required.
To support every goal, Venu 4 includes Garmin’s suite of health, fitness and connected features, including HRV status, Body Battery, women’s health tracking (including skin temperature for past ovulation estimates and improved period predictions)4, the Garmin ECG App5, workout benefit and recovery time, training readiness, wrist-based running dynamics, smart notifications, onboard music storage, Garmin Pay™, safety and tracking features and more. To learn more, visit www.garmin.com.
Available to purchase starting September 22, 2025, Venu 4 has a suggested retail price starting at £469.99 / €549.99 (IRE).
Engineered on the inside for life on the outside, Garmin products have revolutionised the health and wellness industry. Committed to developing smartwatches and health measurement tools that help people of all activity levels lead healthier lives, Garmin believes every day is an opportunity to innovate and a chance to beat yesterday.
Luna, a new-age health-tech company approaching the core problem of unlocking human potential, differently, today announces the global launch of Luna 2.0 af IFA2025 its next gen smart ring which comes equipped with the new LifeOS, a powerful intelligence layer that transforms biometrics into adaptive real-time guidance. Luna 2.0 is finally available worldwide at Luna for $300/£300 and $329/£329 with surge charging case. Pre-orders have come from more than 70 countries, and Amazon availability rolling out next month.
Introducing LifeOS: More than a health tracker, a living intelligence
LifeOS is designed to decode how the body, mind, and environment interact, going beyond raw data. It is the most data trained AI wearable intelligence integrating circadian rhythm science, biomarker signals, personal habits, and contextual data (like chat patterns and daily routines) to create a dynamic intelligence layer.
Circadian alignment: LifeOS learns an individual’s internal body clock to guide daily peak performance.
Contextual intelligence: It adapts to a user’s lifestyle, habits, and environment.
Open & extensible: Built as an open-source plug, LifeOS is designed to ingest additional data streams over time.
Trained at scale: LifeOS is powered by over 1 billion sleep events, making it the most extensively trained intelligence layer across rings.
21+ day battery life: Powered by a redesigned charging case, making Luna one of the longest-lasting smart rings available.
Smarter wellness, backed by AI:
AI-driven health scoring: Luna Ring 2.0 delivers real-time sleep, readiness, and activity scores. These scores are powered by an upgraded Luna AI engine that analyses physiological patterns to offer personalised recommendations on sleep quality, stress resilience, and recovery.
Luna AI 2.0 assistant: Building on user feedback, the new AI system is more contextual and conversational, offering proactive suggestions for sleep optimisation, movement patterns, and energy management, bridging the gap between raw data and real-life wellness decisions.
Comprehensive activity logging: The ring supports advanced workout tracking, including heart rate zones, effort levels, calories burned, and more across structured activities such as running, cycling, walking, and freestyle sessions.
Fertility tracking: Luna detects physiological shifts in an individual’s cycle like temperature and recovery to predict phases and personalise wellness insights.
Manage stress: Luna spots signs of stress through heart rate, recovery trends, and temperature shifts so patterns can be identified and action taken.
Body training: Luna tracks daily effort and recovery to guide smarter workouts, helping build fitness without burning out.
Enhanced sleep analytics: Luna 2.0 now provides deeper sleep analysis with expanded insights into latency, efficiency, circadian rhythm alignment, sleep cycles, movement disturbances, and respiratory performance during rest. This demonstrates how quality of sleep affects wellbeing.
Global Rollout and Momentum
Luna 2.0 has had pre-orders across 70+ countries. Retail and distributor prescence is being established across the world for faster delivery and service. Unveiled at CES, 2025 as a first time concept, bringing Luna 2.0 to the global tech stage for the first time at IFA Berlin is an exciting step for Luna as Europe is a key focus market.
“Luna 2.0 represents a step-change in what a smart ring can do,” said Amit Khatri, Founder of Luna. “With LifeOS, we’re moving beyond passive health tracking into an era where your ring actively helps you make better decisions for performance, recovery, and long-term health.”
It’s important to do what you can to improve your mind and body. It’s particularly useful for when you get older and both the mind and body start to work against you, rather than with you.
Finding productive ways in which to help your body and mind become a little younger in life is something that many people would love to achieve. There are plenty of things you can be doing in order to counteract nature in any way you can and hopefully keep your body feeling younger for longer.
Online gaming is something that has become a popular pastime for many in recent years, especially for the purpose of helping with memory or easing stress levels. If you’re looking to get into online gaming this year, here are eight benefits of online gaming for your mind and body.
1. Boosts your memory capacity
Memory is a funny thing. We remember such memories in the moment, thinking that they’ll never ever fade away, yet most of the time, they do just that.
A lot of video games that you’ll play online require a level of strategy and concentration. Whether that’s playing a pool game or keeping your wits about you as you navigate a first-person shooter game.
If you’re somewhat experienced with online games already, you’ll know that some games are quite the challenge when it comes to remembering specific details or navigating certain levels as you make your way through the game.
There’s a lot of rich stimulation that comes with video games and a lot of mult-tasking that can help with pro-longing your memory. If anything it’s a good way of training it!
2. Improves vision
While online games aren’t going to give you 20/20 vision, it can certainly be helpful in improving your vision, helping to distinguish various patterns and different shades of colors that you might not have noticed before in real life.
The improvement in your contrast sensitivity is what can benefit from playing online games too, so it’s something worth highlighting when it comes to getting more out of your games.
Spatial visualization is something that can be improved through video games and online games in general. There have even been studies that have found gamers that play video games find their mental rotation and spatial visualization improves with both 2D and 3D games.
This improvement in your spatial awareness, in particular, can be handy for adapting to real life too. Whether that’s navigating a tight parking spot or playing Tetris when packing your car. There are also those who have the ability to take on certain roles or careers with good spatial awareness.
3. Helps with decision-making
We all have those moments where we need to decide in the moment or even struggle to decide on something that we know has been coming for a while. Being able to improve your decision making is not only for the benefit of yourself but for the benefit of others too.
Improving your decision-making may also put you in a position where you are able to take on more responsibility in the workplace, leading to further promotion or stepping up in your department, for example.
Video games are often fast-paced, so this need to react quickly is very common. As a result, you’ll find that your reaction times improve and your ability to make a decision vastly improves every extra moment you spend when playing online games.
You’ll find yourself achieving so much more from online gaming when it comes to your general day-to-day life. It’s a skill that you can benefit from in more ways than one.
4. Resolving problems
Many games that you play online provide you with the ability to solve problems and provide the solutions you need to win the game. So is life, you want to be effective when it comes resolving issues whether that be in your personal life or professional.
Whether it’s strategic or role-playing, these online games often come with a wealth of problems that need resolving. Players are able to solve problems within these virtual environments and, as such, can then adapt what they’ve learnt to the real world.
You’ll find that pretty much all genres of games online will have some degree of problem-solving as part of the gameplay. The problems when it comes to online games could be through trial and error or from analysis of previous gameplay actions. Not only does it help to improve problem-solving, but it helps with resilience and perseverance when things get hard.
5. Improving your mood
Life can throw its challenges at the best of times, which is why you want to find as many outlets as possible to counteract those curveballs thrown.
With online games, you can benefit from the enjoyment they bring, helping you forget about the struggles you might be facing in life currently. Many of the video games and online games you’ll come across will influence your mood in some way, shape, or form. Some may help to ease
those feelings of anger, while others might send you into a frustrated rage.
For the most part, though, online games do provide that light relief you need when it comes to forgetting about the general day-to-day worries in life.
Many players simply pay for games because it’s a distraction, and it can fuel a lot of happiness and enjoyment without hurting or impacting anyone else. It gives the brain a break, which is often needed.
6. Boosts social skills
Not everyone is blessed with the ability to talk without feeling the slightest bit self-conscious or awkward.
In social situations, there can be challenges for those who don’t necessarily have a natural gift of interacting with others. Players often take on fictional personas when it comes to playing online, meaning they can play pretend behind a screen.
This often helps those who have poor social skills or may be isolated in their day-to-day life. So, if you’re someone who experiences social anxiety, then this is definitely something that can be of benefit to you.
7. Benefits of physical fitness
One of the lesser-known benefits of online gaming is that some of the games you play may be beneficial to your physical fitness. Games like Wii Fit or Dance Dance Revolution require you to actually get up and move about in order to progress through the game.
While there aren’t many games that require physical exercise, we may find that there is more coming in the future. For example, the use of AR and VR could lead to more games having a physical aspect that gets the blood pumping as you’re playing!
At least with the excuse of online gaming, you can say it’s benefiting your health, and therefore, a trip to the gym is simply not necessary when playing online.
8. Encourages curiosity and learning
Finally, as humans, it’s important to explore and discover new things in life. With online gaming, you have the benefit of sparking your curiosity and your need for learning.
At its most basic level, online games are helping your brain work and grow. From completing puzzles to beating the final level boss, you’re doing a lot for your mind in general.
The more you find yourself motivated to navigate through a game, the more your brain will be working hard. It also means you’re learning, even if you don’t feel like you’re learning a lot. Continued learning is essential for your brain when it comes to keeping you healthy.
So, with these benefits in hand, consider embracing a new pastime of playing online games this year.
The art of communication continues to evolve with personal appearance becoming ever more crucial on video calls, as participants compete to be seen and heard clearly.
That’s the view of Holli Hulett, Co-founder of global conferencing manufacturer Boom Collaboration, who says body language and eye contact can help build an instant bond in an increasingly virtual world.
She says the Covid pandemic triggered a huge ‘Zoom boom’ with more than a 40% rise in the popularity of minimal invasive procedures such as Botox and lip fillers, in some areas of the world – as millions more people began embracing video calls for work and socialising.
“People are definitely becoming more self-conscious and aware of how they appear.
Other than looking in a mirror, many hadn’t really paid too much attention to themselves and certainly not on camera before,” she highlighted.
“We’ve read widespread media reports how interest in neck and face work has leapt dramatically in recent years, which reflects what we’re seeing too. In areas of the UK and Europe there’s been a reported 30% rise in bookings year-on-year, compared to the US which has seen a 41% increase in treatments, with 5.5m procedures conducted in one year alone. The industry is estimated to be worth $4.4 billion with no sign of slowing down.”
This increase has also brought more attention to other appearance-related concerns that surface under bright webcam lights—such as excessive facial sweating, which can impact on-screen confidence. Individuals now exploring cosmetic enhancements are often simultaneously considering treatment options including Botox that target facial sweating as part of their self-care routine for video calls. This overlap has positioned non-invasive cosmetic and dermatological procedures as part of the modern “Zoom-ready” toolkit.
Human interaction
Maintaining face-to face eye contact is crucial for a rewarding and life-like call experience, Hulett says. “Body language is part of the overall call chemistry, with great hardware vs not so great hardware a vital component of overall success. Building a bond and rapport happens in many different ways. Being relaxed, happy and friendly goes a long way.
“So much human interaction happens through body language and facial expressions. A smile can light up a room and make someone happy without any words. Emotion is powerful. A meeting is an encounter between people, where we constantly read each other. First impressions count.
“It’s also important to be flexible as well as natural and adaptable to different scenarios whether that’s teaching, pitching or selling. Being able to adapt is very important on a video call. Some miss that when trying to create inclusivity and equality. This is particularly hard with a large group when everyone is split up into little square boxes on a screen.”
Boom Collaboration’s own independent research based on discussions with channel partners and backed by various industry studies, shows:
Around half of people worry about how they look on video
Nearly 60% feel more self-aware.
Almost everyone multitasks during meetings
Around 40% experience hardware or software issues such as picture and audio performance
Hulett began the business with co-founder Fredrik Hörnkvist in 2020, with Boom now embarking on a global expansion drive including the UK and Europe.
She advises: “To overcome some of the challenges we always suggest putting the camera at eye level on the same wall as the main display so that it’s natural and easy to engage directly with people.
“We feel something like a 360 degree camera is actually counter intuitive to the way we communicate. Also because more people are using video calls now they want to look their best as they can physically see themselves in a different way on screen.
“For me, if I’m conducting a big webinar for example, when I’m prepping my content I’m also prepping my appearance. I do pay special attention and take more time.”
Global economies
She added: “Quality equipment does make a significant difference. Quality really matters. It’s one of the many reasons we decided to produce a 4K PTZ camera early on. We believe this is where a lot of the platforms such as Teams will go next. In the future video calls will be conducted in 4K not HD. Raising the bar and raising the game in terms of quality will lead to a greater customer experience.”
Hulett notes how global economies still face many challenges with the most recent report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showing world growth slowing to 2.9% in 2023, down from 3.4% last year.
“Through these interesting, challenging and evolving times, from lockdowns to hybrid working, conferencing has been at the fulcrum of dramatic changes in daily and working life; how people interact and communicate, almost from anywhere. Choosing the right equipment is crucial. That could be plug-and-play or more powerful full room integrated systems.
“To survive an unstable economic climate, business leaders are looking to technology solutions that cut costs, amplify productivity, and accelerate ROI. Automation tools are widely considered ‘recession-proof’ because they reduce operating costs, increase efficiencies, and build the strong digital foundation organisations need to weather any storm.”
Smart appearance
The quality of audio and video plus user friendly technology all have to combine to create the ultimate life-like video call experience, according to Hulett who stated: “It doesn’t happen by chance.”
She concluded: “A video call has become part of daily working life for many people. It’s probably one of the biggest lasting legacies of the pandemic. There’s no going back. Jumping on a video call is now part of working culture. However it doesn’t matter how good the technology is. If it’s not being used on a regular basis in the right way then the whole investment and experience is undermined. It has to be reliable, easy to operate and effective.
“Being smart and professional is hugely important. Equally people need to be seen and heard clearly too.”
2023 is a significant year as it signals the last time that Electronic Arts and football’s international governing body will be doing business together. The decision was made after the developers failed to meet FIFA’s asking price to carry on collaborating in the future.
Show me the money
It was a seismic announcement in the tech industry given that these two companies first began a working relationship in 1993.
In truth, it has been a hugely successful partnership and a blueprint on how to succeed in business.
Having broken so many records, and enjoyed rave reviews, whilst being one of the most dependable collaborators that fans could rely on to produce high-quality products, it appears to be a surprise that the two parties failed to reach an agreement.
However, on closer inspection, it makes complete sense for the innovative developers to decide to go alone after the unmeetable financial demands they encountered in terms of renewing their existing deal.
The badly needed context here is that football’s rule-makers have made a string of questionable business choices over the last ten years which has led to profound change at the top of their organization in a bid to reverse the course they were going down.
However, it seems as if a new broom doesn’t necessarily always sweep clean given that football’s global think tank has continued to put profit above anything else, as proposed to focusing on the long term by investing in people they have stood side by side with for three decades.
Their decision in 2021 to part ways with their trusted partner after pricing the company out of the market is a prime example of this. Especially as the current president, Gianni Infantino had been head of the organization since 2016, five years before this agreement was ended.
The more things change, the more they stay the same
In essence, Infantino’s appointment was meant to serve as a powerful breath of fresh air that would blow through the dated corridors of the institution’s headquarters in Switzerland but instead, meaningful progress hasn’t been as forthcoming as people might have hoped it would.
The crucial point to make here is that it should be said that there has been a pioneering attitude adopted to matters on the field of play, with one of the most significant changes under Infantino being a World Cup that is set to feature 48 nations instead of the previous 32.
It is, all things considered, a staggering decision that will mean an eye-watering 104 matches at the event in 2026. With such drastic changes, naturally comes uncertainty about what to expect and indeed who could win, even if Betway has, as of the 16th of March, priced Brazil as the outright favourites at odds of 6/1. The truth is that no one knows what Infantino’s new format in North America will realistically look like or how well the tournament will be received.
In essence, this isn’t necessarily the type of change that people have been asking for with the organization continuing to act in a way that perhaps could be best described as serving their own interests instead of the greater good.
FIFA approves World Cup format for 2026:
▪️ 104 games ▪️ 48 teams ▪️ 12 groups of 4, 3 games played ▪️ 8 maximum games (up from 7) ▪️ Top 2 teams in each group plus 8 best 3rd-placed sides advance pic.twitter.com/2uHLLOC7Eo
Essentially, the broader point is that their decision to terminate their long-standing collaboration with Electronic Arts is a change of direction, yes, but it is one that a vast amount of people would have been against. In this sense, the company is making changes but ones that could be detrimental to its reputation.
Additionally, it does speak volumes that there was seemingly little room for negotiation when the request was to find some middle ground in order to preserve one of the most iconic partnerships in the world of technology.
But it is the terminology that the institution used in the parting statement that reveals how little awareness there seemingly is of how they are perceived globally after they said: “it is clear that this needs to be a space that is occupied by more than one party controlling all rights.”
In other words, to imply that a group of developers are the ones guilty of trying to seek absolute power is ironic, and given that they have now, albeit reluctantly, had to walk away, a light will be shone on how Infantino’s company treats its established partners which will hopefully inspire genuine change going forward.
