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Pure Advance Flex Electric Scooter Review

Marty
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Pure Advance Flex Electric Scooter Review

I’ve been using electric scooters in Dublin City since before they were legal. As much as I’d like to think that makes me sound cool, I realise it absolutely does not. I’m reminded of this most times I catch my reflection as a rotund 37 year old male. That said, what a scooter makes you feel matters too. And the Pure Advance Flex electric scooters, sent over to me by the folks at LOCO in Dublin, sure does put a smile on my face.

Here’s what I’ve learned from commenting on the Advance Flex for the past few months.

Design

There are plenty of talking points, in terms of design, when it comes to Pure’s Advance Flex. The obvious starting point is the fact that this is designed to be a compact folding electric scooter. There are plenty of reasons why you might want a folding scooter, one stealth commuters will like – I’ll cover that in a bit. But regardless of “why” you want a folding scooter, that design choice shouldn’t impact the ride experience.

One great use case for me was dropping my car for a service in Dundrum. I lobbed the scooter into the boot and saved myself about 15 minutes each way on public transport.

Booter scooter. Image: Marty Meany

Thankfully, the Advance Flex is an absolute joy to ride. Despite multiple hinges and pivot points for this scooter to fold, the overall unit is remarkably sturdy. In fact, I generally forget this is a folding scooter as I don’t really have to fold it that often. I have several times to test sturdiness, but once together – this is a genuinely well built unit.

It feels like every bit of the scooter flips and flaps to get as small as possible, giving “transformer” vibes when you unfold everything and flap down the footplates (more on them in a bit too).

The next “must discuss” design point, and arguably as important as the folding feature if not more so, is the forward facing stance you take on the Advance Flex. Typically, you ride electric scooters in a side stance. Your body takes on an unusual twisted shape that, to be honest, I never really thought was that tough. The Advance Flex has two foot paddles either side of the body. The result is you stand facing forward, similar to what you would have seen on Segway years ago.

It’s IP65 waterproof, but I’d take that with a pinch of salt. And at just over 16kg, you won’t be carrying the scooter far, but it’s definitely on the lighter side of similarly priced models (considerably so versus LOCO’s own Motion Pro). You can get foldable bike bags that you can pop this scooter into, which is where I return to stealth commuters.

This isn’t something I’m recommending or condoning, but the broad sweeping ban on electric scooters on public transport is more than a little irritating for commuters. I understand not all scooters are made to EU standards, but this absolutely is. So you should be allowed bring this anywhere people bring folding e-bikes. Because it’s folding in nature and can be popped in a bag, I doubt you’d be stopped on most modes of public transport for your “bike” bag – and just have a brass neck and a set of peddles if you do!

Again, I don’t condone that – but if you’re a chancer in the market for a scooter to take on public transport, this is kind of the only option.

Looks a million Euro standing still. Image: Marty Meany

There are a few little features I really like on the Advance Flex too. Every scooter, as standard, should have indicators. With a throttle on the right side always needing input – taking a hand off for hand signals is just a no go. Even with cruise set, I find myself unable, or at least uncomfortable, giving hand signals. The Advance Flex has indicators in two positions. Left and right of the foot paddles and the handlebars. This gives the added bonus of increased visiblity of your intent and I do feel more comfortable that motorists in busy Dublin traffic have seen where I’m heading.

The scooter also has an adjustable headlight. “So what” says you. Well I sometimes know keeping a light on the road is more important than straight on. Potholes are the biggest stationary danger for any scooter rider and an adjustable light means I can keep an eye on the literal road.

Finally, being self centred isn’t always bad. This scooter’s handlebar has a return to centre feature. Just a smidge of resistance that pulls the handlebar back to centre after turning. This is a subtle thing, but for that moment you need to scratch your nose or something, you have more comfort riding with one had. Still not enough for hand signals for me – but I like this addition.

With all of those design features, what will your experience riding the scooter be like so?

Ride experience

Pure has made some really bold choices with the Advance Flex, somewhat tearing up the electric scooters blueprint and going back to the drawing board. The result is something different and something fun.

Riding straight on is an odd feeling getting started and a few times my brain had to think fast to keep up with throttle controls (still not sure what I did but the scooter popped a wheelie!), but overall it’s very comfortable. Surprisingly so.

Fits right in in Dublin’s tech centre. Image: Marty Meany

My very first impression of the stance was, while quite easy to get used to, the handlebars feel oddly low. I spent a few minutes trying to increase the height only to be told by a rep – “that’s as high as they go”. I’m only 177cm tall – nearly wider than I am tall – but this was the big change that took some getting used to. I constantly feel like I’m leaning forward. It bordered on unnerving for a bit, but I’ve gotten used to it.

Surely taller riders will find this very weird. I recommend a test drive if you’ve ever felt tall.

The big selling point of the Advance Flex is the power. I’m a big boy, yet this scooter gets up to it’s max speed of 20 kmph very quickly and is well able to hold it going up medium-gradient hills too.

The power, stability, stance all come together to make this a guaranteed commute with a smile – something I’ve always said scooters can deliver better than any other mode of transport.

I was lucky enough to also get a quick spin on a UK version of the Advance Flex – which was a double edge sword. The Advance Flex that LOCO sells is fully road legal for Ireland. That means motor limits, weight limits and most importantantly – speed limits. If you get pulled by the Gardai for a dyno test, you will be grand. But I have to be totally honest, the 20 kmph speed limit feels pedestrian at times. The UK version I had a spin on was limited to 25 kmph and it makes a world of difference.

I’ve been overtaken by elderly cyclists and left for dust at 20 kmph. I’ve felt not having a little more speed to get an overtake done safely – adds danger. There is no reason why scooters, in general in Ireland, don’t follow the UK limit of 25 kmph. Any other product would be given the same specs as the UK to ensure ease of distribution.

Sorry – started ranting there.

Finally, I have to talk about battery. Now, the product specs will have you believe this scooter can do 52km on a single charge. That’s utter nonsense based on perfect lab conditions. I commute twice a week on this scooter covering about 13km in total. I find that if I have one extra 6km spin in the middle, I’d be goosed without charging.

Being totally transparent, this is an estimate, but I’d say the real world range of the Advance Flex is much closer to 16km – but your physical composition and preferred routes mean all mileage will vary.

Smart Features

There are a few smaller features of the Advance Flex worth noting. Slightly above footnotes, but I want to include them. The companion app gives you everything you’d want and expect. You can adjust the scooters cruise options (which lets you hold speed without throttle – very nice to be honest).

You can also lock the scooter with a pin. Living in Dublin I really like this. It means that if someone cuts your lock, the motor will lock up the wheels to make nicking the scooter near impossible.

The Goosed Verdict

The Advance Flex has made some bold choices. Really bold. Yet every one of them seems to have paid off, or perhaps most importantly, just not messed up the electric scooter experience. I utterly love riding the Advance Flex.

I don’t really think there’s much different between riding side stride or straight on if you’re looking for big USPs to big one scooter over another. But this is a fantastic piece of kit that, for once, didn’t make me feel like I’m just too big for a scooter. In every sense of the phrase.

The Pure Advance Flex is available today from LOCO, priced at approximately €849.

Aer Lingus Launches Starlink Wi-Fi, But Not Everyone Is Cheering

Marty
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Aer Lingus Launches Starlink Wi-Fi, But Not Everyone Is Cheering

Aer Lingus has become the latest airline to roll out Starlink-powered Wi-Fi, with the first equipped aircraft, an Airbus A330-302 registered EI-EIN, taking flight on 29th March 2026 on the Dublin to New York JFK route. It is free across all cabins, covers streaming, gaming and working on multiple devices, and promises download speeds north of 500 Mbps. Technically, it is impressive. Whether passengers feel entirely comfortable about who is supplying the satellites is a different question.

What Aer Lingus Is Offering

The rollout is part of a broader International Airlines Group (IAG) commitment made in November 2025 to bring Starlink to more than 500 aircraft across its fleet. For Aer Lingus specifically, the phased approach starts with long-haul A330s serving North America, with full transatlantic coverage expected by the end of 2026 and European routes following through into early 2027.

Starlink’s edge over traditional in-flight Wi-Fi comes down to its low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation, currently over 10,000 satellites orbiting at around 550 km. That proximity means lower latency and much faster speeds than older geostationary systems, which sit roughly 36,000 km above the planet. For anyone who has sat through a transatlantic flight trying to load a webpage on legacy airline Wi-Fi, this is a genuine step forward.

Aer Lingus CEO Lynne Embleton described the launch as “a big moment,” noting that speeds could match or exceed what passengers get at home. That is a reasonable claim for Starlink, at least under good conditions.

The Musk Problem

Here is where it gets complicated. Starlink is a SpaceX product, and SpaceX is Elon Musk’s company. For a growing number of people, anything connected to Musk has become difficult to separate from his increasingly polarising public conduct. That is not a fringe position; it is a sentiment expressed loudly and regularly, including in Ireland.

Seeing an Irish airline, one that trades on a degree of national warmth and brand loyalty, tie its passenger experience to Musk’s infrastructure is a disappointment for some customers. It is not a dealbreaker for most, and airlines rarely make these decisions on anything other than commercial grounds, but it is worth acknowledging.

The comparison with Ryanair is instructive. Michael O’Leary has publicly ruled out Starlink, citing estimated annual costs of around $250 million when you factor in fuel penalties from antenna drag increasing fuel burn by roughly 2 per cent. He is sceptical passengers on short-haul flights would pay for it. It is easy to cast that as Ryanair accidentally occupying moral high ground, but let’s be honest, it is a cost decision dressed up in practical language. If Starlink were cheap enough, the antenna would go on tomorrow.

Does It Actually Matter to Passengers?

Probably not to most of them, on balance. The majority of people boarding a seven-hour transatlantic flight want reliable Wi-Fi and are not going to interrogate the supply chain. The technology works, it is free, and it genuinely improves the experience. For the bulk of Aer Lingus passengers, that will be the beginning and end of the conversation.

Where it gets interesting is at the margins. Think back to the Boeing 737 Max situation. A significant number of people publicly declared they would never board one after the crashes and the subsequent scandal. Some stuck to that. Most quietly boarded when there was no easy alternative, or when the route and price made other options impractical. Human principles tend to bend under the pressure of convenience.

The Musk question feels similar. In a genuinely competitive booking scenario, where two airlines serve the same route at similar prices and one has Starlink while the other does not, some passengers will factor it in. If an airline offering a comparable product runs its Wi-Fi through a non-Musk provider, that could be a quiet differentiator for a meaningful minority. It is not going to reshape the industry, but airlines competing for premium customers should at least be aware it exists as a variable.

Quite a lot of airlines, as it happens. British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and LEVEL are all part of the IAG rollout. Virgin Atlantic plans to begin installation in Q3 2026. United Airlines is actively fitting its fleet. Qatar Airways already has it operational on Boeing 777 and Airbus A350 aircraft. Lufthansa Group, covering Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines and others, is planning a full rollout by 2029. Air France, Southwest, Alaska, WestJet and SAS have all confirmed plans.

JetBlue is the notable exception among US carriers, having opted to explore Amazon’s Project Kuiper as an alternative LEO system. It is worth watching whether other airlines follow that path as Kuiper matures, particularly given the reputational baggage that now follows Starlink’s owner.

The Bottom Line

Aer Lingus launching Starlink is good news for passengers who want a usable connection on a long-haul flight, and the technology genuinely delivers on that. As an Irish brand, the choice of Musk’s infrastructure will not sit well with everyone, and that is a fair reaction rather than an overreaction. Most people will not let it affect their booking. A few will. Whether that number grows over time depends largely on Musk himself, and the direction of travel there has not been encouraging.

The irony is that Ryanair, almost certainly for reasons of pure economics, is the Irish carrier currently not handing cash to SpaceX. Nobody should mistake that for principle. But the outcome, for now, is the same.

Sora is Dead. Good. AI Bubble Shows Weakness

Marty
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0
Sora is Dead. Good. AI Bubble Shows Weakness

OpenAI pulled the plug on Sora this week, quietly shutting down the video generation app and its API. At the same time, the much-publicised licensing deal with Disney, which had been held up as proof that AI was going to reshape creative industries, is also being wound down. For a product that was front and centre in OpenAI’s public-facing ambitions just months ago, it’s a pretty swift exit. On the surface it looks like a straightforward business decision.

Video generation is eye-wateringly expensive to run, the consumer use case never really materialised, and OpenAI is heading towards an IPO with investors who want to see revenue, not just impressive demos. Fair enough. But I think there’s something more significant going on here, and it’s worth paying attention to.

The economics never made sense

Generating video with AI is not cheap. Reports at the time of Sora’s launch suggested it could cost OpenAI somewhere in the region of tens of millions of dollars per day to operate at scale. That is an extraordinary burn rate for a product where, honestly, most people I know tried it once and never went back. The Disney deal added a veneer of legitimacy, but a licensing arrangement with a single studio was never going to cover that kind of overhead.

The business model problem was always obvious. You can charge users per token for text generation and it feels roughly proportionate to what they’re getting. Charging the same way for video, where a 10-second clip costs a significant multiple of a written paragraph, is a much harder sell. And the B2B angle, selling video generation to businesses, puts you in a crowded market against competitors who have been at it just as long.

When the Disney deal goes at the same time as the product itself, that tells you something. It was not a quiet pivot. It was a retreat.

Money is starting to matter

Sora is not the only signal here. Perplexity recently removed the five euro API credit it offered to users, a small change but a telling one. The era of AI companies spending freely to build user bases, generate buzz, and worry about the numbers later is giving way to something more familiar: actual commercial pressure.

This was always going to happen. The early days of any technology wave involve a certain amount of consequence-free experimentation, where the promise of future dominance justifies present losses. But investors get impatient, and IPO timelines focus minds quickly. OpenAI shifting its attention to business productivity tools, apparently codename Spud internally, is the company acknowledging that it needs to build things people will consistently pay for rather than things that generate headlines.

AI slop fatigue is real

There is another thread running through this that I think gets overlooked. Sora struggled not just because of costs, but because the appetite for AI-generated video among ordinary users turned out to be fairly limited once the novelty wore off. People tried it, found it impressive in a technical sense, and then largely went back to watching content made by humans.

That is not a coincidence. There is a growing weariness with AI-generated content across the board. The volume of low-effort, algorithmically produced text, images, and video that has flooded the internet over the past couple of years has made people more discerning, not less. AI slop is a real phenomenon, and users are getting better at spotting it and switching off.

Sora was, in many ways, a product built for a version of the market that did not quite exist. The assumption was that people would want to generate their own video content at scale. In practice, most people just wanted to watch things that felt worth watching.

Is the bubble starting to show cracks?

I want to be careful here, because “AI bubble” has been called prematurely more than once, and the underlying technology is genuinely transformative in plenty of areas. But what Sora’s shutdown represents, to me, is the first clear evidence that AI companies are not operating outside the normal rules of business. Products can fail. Deals can fall apart. Investors can lose patience.

That is not a disaster. It is actually healthy. An industry that has to make its economics work, rather than simply impressing people with what is technically possible, will produce more durable and useful products in the long run. The question worth asking is how many other flagship AI products are quietly in the same position, sustained more by narrative than by genuine demand.

Sora being dead is not the end of AI video generation. But it is a sign that the free-spending, consequence-free phase of this wave is winding down, and the harder work of building things that actually earn their keep is beginning.

Perplexity Pro Quietly Removes Free API Credits

Marty
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Perplexity Pro Quietly Removes Free API Credits

If you are a Perplexity Pro subscriber who relies on API access for personal projects or client workflows, you may have already noticed something has gone wrong. API calls returning 401 errors. Credit balances sitting at zero. Integrations that worked last week, broken this week.Perplexity has quietly removed the $5 monthly API credit that was previously bundled with its Pro subscription plan, and it did so without any official announcement or proactive communication to customers.

What Was the Perk, and Why Did It Matter?

Perplexity Pro has historically been pitched as more than just a better chat experience. At $20 per month, subscribers got enhanced search, more citations, extended research features, and a $5 monthly credit toward Perplexity’s API. That credit gave access to Sonar, Perplexity’s own search-grounded index, which is genuinely useful for building lightweight tools and automations.

For a certain type of user, myself included, that API credit was the reason to choose Perplexity Pro over alternatives. I used it last year for prototyping and vibe coding, knocking together small apps without worrying too much about token costs. The credit covered low-volume personal use comfortably, and it meant you could experiment freely. You never quite know what you are going to end up building, and having a small buffer of API access baked into a subscription you are already paying for is a genuinely nice thing to have.

The credit has now been removed as of 12 February, according to a response from Perplexity’s support team. The support agent confirmed the change was permanent, describing it as “a time-limited benefit” that has been discontinued.

The Problem Is Not the Price Change

Removing a perk is a business decision, and it is entirely understandable. Perplexity is a growth-stage company trying to convert usage into revenue, and offering subsidised API access indefinitely is expensive. Tokens cost money. Compute costs money. Adjusting the value proposition of a subscription plan is legitimate.

What is not acceptable is doing it silently.

Users who had built Raycast extensions, terminal workflows, Alexa skills, and client-facing automations on top of that API credit discovered the change when things stopped working. Some will have had to explain broken integrations to clients with no prior warning. There was no email. No in-app notice. No changelog entry. Just a silent removal and, for many, a wall of error messages.

That is a failure of basic customer communication, and it is the thing that has actually driven users to cancel rather than adapt.

Who Got Burned

The impact lands hardest on a specific profile of user: technically capable people who built small, real things on top of a reasonable assumption that their subscription included what it said it included. These are exactly the users a company like Perplexity wants to keep. They are builders. They integrate tools into their lives and workflows, they talk about what they use, and they recommend products to others.

There is a real question worth asking here: how many small home-made apps and personal services have quietly fallen over because the API credit disappeared without warning? Probably quite a few. Most of them will never surface anywhere. Their owners will just quietly move to something else.

The Competitive Context

The timing is awkward for Perplexity. The broader market for AI subscriptions at the $20 to $30 per month price point has become significantly more competitive. Google’s Gemini Advanced plan offers Pro model access, 2TB of Google Drive storage, Google Home Premium, and API credits alongside the core AI features. ChatGPT Plus is broadly established. Claude Pro is a credible alternative for many use cases.

Without the API credit, Perplexity Pro becomes a harder sell for anyone who was using it as part of a wider toolkit. The chat and search experience remains strong, but the value-to-cost comparison against Gemini in particular is now genuinely difficult to justify for power users.

Is Buying API Credits Separately That Bad?

In fairness, no, not really. Perplexity’s API pricing is not outrageous, and for light use, $5 in credits goes reasonably far. If you are regularly building on top of the Sonar index, paying for API access separately through their pricing plans is straightforward enough.

The issue is not the cost. It is the principle. Subscribers made decisions based on a stated set of benefits, built things on top of those benefits, and then had the rug pulled without so much as a notification email. That erodes trust in a way that pricing adjustments, communicated clearly and in advance, simply do not.

What Should You Do Now?

If you are a Perplexity Pro subscriber who used the API credit actively, you have a few options worth considering:

Stay and pay separately. If you like the Sonar search index and the Pro chat experience, the subscription still has value. You will just need to fund API usage through a separate account top-up.

Evaluate alternatives. Gemini Advanced is the most commonly cited alternative at a similar price point. If API access and broader utility matter to you, it is worth a direct comparison. OpenAI also offers API access independently of ChatGPT Plus.

Downgrade or cancel. If the API credit was a significant part of why you subscribed, it is entirely reasonable to reassess whether the remaining features justify $20 per month for your specific use case.

Whatever you decide, the lesson here is worth keeping in mind when evaluating any AI subscription: the feature set is rarely locked in, and the faster-moving the company, the more likely it is that what you signed up for will look different in six months’ time.

AI is moving at a pace where the humans actually using these products can feel like an afterthought. This situation is a small but clear example of that. Perplexity may well recover from it, but it did not have to be this way. A brief email to affected subscribers costs nothing. The goodwill it preserves is worth considerably more than $5 a month.

Leap Card App Sends Android 5 Warning to Everyone

Marty
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Leap Card App Sends Android 5 Warning to Everyone

If you opened your phone this morning to a notification telling you the Leap Top-Up app would stop working on Android 5, you probably did a double-take. You’re not alone. The message landed on Android devices across Ireland regardless of which version of the OS people are actually running, causing predictable confusion among users who had no idea what any of it meant.

What the Notification Actually Says

The alert reads: “Leap Top-up app will no longer work on Android 5 and older versions from 19 March. Please upgrade to a more recent Android version and reinstall the App.”

That’s a perfectly reasonable message to send to someone still running Android 5. The problem is it appears to have gone out to everyone, including people running Android 15 and 16.

Should You Be Worried?

Almost certainly not. If you own a phone bought in the last several years, you are nowhere near Android 5. That version of the OS launched back in 2014. Devices still running it aren’t just old, they’re ancient by smartphone standards, and they haven’t received security patches in years. If you’re somehow still using one as a daily driver, moving on from it is genuinely good advice regardless of the Leap app situation.

For the overwhelming majority of users who received this notification, nothing is changing. Your app will continue to work as normal.

App Acting Up? Uninstall and Reinstall

The notification itself seems to have caused some odd behaviour for a handful of users. The straightforward fix is to uninstall the Leap Top-Up app and reinstall it fresh from the Play Store. Several users confirmed this cleared things up immediately, while others found that simply swiping the notification away did the trick.

How Did This Happen?

It looks like the notification went out without the version-targeting filter that should have limited it to Android 5 devices only. Instead of a targeted heads-up to a small group of legacy users, it became a mass alert to the entire Android user base. The code required to check a device’s Android version before sending a notification like this is genuinely straightforward stuff, which makes it a fairly embarrassing slip.

The Bigger Picture

The Leap app has a long and storied reputation for being a bit rough around the edges. Saved card functionality has been broken for many users for years, topping up sometimes requires re-entering a phone number that should already be on file, and now this. None of it is catastrophic, but it adds up to an experience that feels under-resourced for an app handling public transport payments across the country.

In the meantime, if you got the notification and your phone is from any time in the last decade: ignore it, do a reinstall if you’re seeing any weirdness, and carry on.

Is Louis Theroux’s Manosphere Doc Worth Watching?

Marty
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Is Louis Theroux’s Manosphere Doc Worth Watching?

I finished watching Manosphere on the couch with my other half dozing in my arms. I had cooked us dinner, and once the doc was over she went up to bed while I hung up the wash I had put on earlier. To be fair, today just happened to be a day I did the laundry. Another day, she would have taken on her share. That is the household we live in. Well, that and Rocky the robovac, who also does their share (gender neutral, obviously).

But after watching Manosphere, I felt great hanging up that wash. Secure in my own masculinity. Not parading items of monetary value in the hope of looking wealthy to others while recording the whole thing on a phone held together by a cracked screen and denial.

What You Are Actually Getting Into

Theroux himself describes his subjects as “almost exclusively male influencers who provide content about fitness, business, and self-improvement,” though his focus lands squarely on the more extreme fringes, the ones whose views tip into misogyny, homophobia and worse. He is not wrong when he points out that anyone with kids, especially boys, will already feel this world bleeding into everyday life. Schools, workplaces, comment sections. It is everywhere.

If you are already deep into this topic, parts of the documentary will feel familiar. But the access Theroux gets, and more importantly what these men do with that access, is what makes it worth your time regardless.

The Confidence to Let Them Talk

Several of the featured men walked in predicting a hit piece. They said so, on camera, before the interviews even got going. And then, through the simple act of talking, they dismantled themselves.

Theroux has always been good at this. He does not go in with a sledgehammer. He stays curious, slightly amused, persistently gentle. He lets silence sit just long enough to become a problem for the person filling it. Men who have built entire brands around projecting certainty and dominance have absolutely no idea what to do with someone who is neither intimidated nor particularly impressed. The fragility that surfaces is genuinely remarkable.

As Theroux puts it himself, he is not trying to trick anyone. He is trying to understand them, get his questions answered, and push back on what does not make sense. The subjects, used to audiences that cheer rather than question, cannot quite locate the threat until it is already on screen.

The Moment That Stays With You

There is a sequence where one of the featured men dismisses the existence of depression, then mentions, almost in the same breath, that he lost his own brother to suicide. No dramatic score. No editorial cutaway. Just a man saying something utterly devastating about himself without appearing to hear it at all.

That one moment alone is worth the runtime.

The scenes involving partners are not far behind. Women introduced largely as domestic companions, clearly uncomfortable in front of the camera, trying to hold the party line while their faces say something else entirely. You will hear the imaginary screaming from living rooms across the country.

They Are Not Entirely Wrong, Which Is the Problem

This is where it gets more complicated, and where the documentary is at its most honest. Some of what these men are pointing at is real. Loneliness among young men. Boys falling behind. A shortage of male role models. Theroux acknowledges as much: there are a lot of lost young men out there, and a whole industry has grown up around telling them it is not their fault and here is who to blame. When you are 15 or 16 and someone muscular and seemingly wealthy is giving you simple answers to complicated feelings, that is a powerful thing.

But the solutions being sold are either useless, actively harmful, or just a monetisation loop dressed up as self-improvement. And it raises questions the documentary nudges you towards without fully answering. Who is supervising what kids are watching? Why are gambling companies, some with increasingly polished and legitimate-seeming associations with major sport, underwriting content that amounts to performance aggression for teenagers? That particular thread deserves its own conversation.

The Wealth Is Mostly Theatre

Running quietly under the whole thing is the question of whether any of this is actually working for the people selling it. Rented houses. Rented status. A business model that involves selling the idea of success to people who have not achieved it yet, funded by those same people, reinvested into props that keep the image credible. It is not a new trick. It is just operating at scale on platforms that reward spectacle over substance.

Should You Watch It?

Yes. Not because it will tell you things you have never heard, but because it captures something important about how these ecosystems actually function, and because Louis Theroux, secure in himself and in the awkward, is simply the best person working in this format right now.

It is not comfortable viewing. It will make you angry. It will also make you laugh. And if you have a young man in your life spending time in these corners of the internet, it might give you a starting point for a conversation that is probably overdue.

If you already know this world well, it is a sharp summary. If you do not, it is an education. And if neither of those applies to you, there is a reasonable chance you might recognise yourself on screen.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Launches: What’s New?

Marty
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Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Launches: What’s New?

Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy S26 series, with all three models, the S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra, available to pre-order from 25 February and on sale from 11 March. Prices start at €1,019 for the base S26, €1,289 for the S26+, and €1,499 for the Ultra.

The Hardware Rundown

The S26 and S26+ run Samsung’s own Exynos 2600 chip, while the Ultra gets a customised Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Samsung claims the Ultra’s processor delivers a 19% CPU improvement, a 39% NPU bump, and a 24% GPU gain over the S25 Ultra. The Ultra also gets a redesigned vapour chamber for better heat management, which should matter during sustained workloads like gaming or extended video capture.

Battery sizes are 4,300 mAh (S26), 4,900 mAh (S26+), and 5,000 mAh (Ultra). Charging speeds vary across the range; the Ultra supports 60W wired charging and can reach 75% in around 30 minutes, the S26+ goes up to 45W, and the base S26 is limited to 25W. Adapters are sold separately across the board.

All three models ship with Android 16 and One UI 8.5, and Samsung is committing to seven years of security updates.

Camera Changes

The Ultra’s main camera gets wider apertures across the board; the 200MP wide sensor now lets in 47% more light compared to the S25 Ultra, and the 50MP 5x telephoto gains 37% more light. There’s also a 10MP 3x telephoto and a 12MP ultra-wide. The S26 and S26+ keep a more modest triple-camera setup anchored by a 50MP main sensor.

On the video side, the Ultra is the first Galaxy device to support APV, a professional-grade codec aimed at high-quality production workflows where repeated editing would otherwise degrade quality. The Super Steady mode also picks up a new horizontal lock option, useful for keeping framing consistent during fast movement.

The Privacy Display Feature

This is the one worth paying attention to. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the first mobile phone to include a built-in hardware privacy display, meaning it’s integrated directly into the screen rather than relying on a stick-on film. When activated, it limits what people beside or behind you can see, while keeping the display clear and bright from your own viewing angle. It works in both portrait and landscape.

It’s a genuinely useful feature for anyone using their phone on public transport, in a café, or anywhere else with people in close proximity. Checking your banking app, reading messages, or entering a PIN without a stranger getting an eyeful is the kind of practical privacy protection that actually makes sense in daily life. You can set it to trigger automatically for specific apps or when entering passwords, and adjust the level of obscuring depending on the situation.

Unlike after market privacy screen protectors, which typically reduce brightness and introduce a noticeable colour shift, the integrated version is designed to preserve normal display quality when privacy mode is off. It’s worth noting that the feature requires manual activation in settings rather than being on by default.

AI Features

Samsung is pushing Galaxy AI heavily across the range, including proactive suggestions (Now Nudge), a personalised daily summary (Now Brief), upgraded Circle to Search with multi-object recognition, and an enhanced Bixby alongside Gemini and Perplexity integration. The Photo Assist suite now lets you describe edits in plain language, including scene changes and outfit swaps in photos. These features generally require a Samsung account and a network connection to function.

Galaxy Buds4 Series

Launching alongside the S26 range, the Galaxy Buds4 series comes in two models: the Buds4 Pro and the standard Buds4. Samsung says the design was arrived at by analysing hundreds of millions of ear data points and running over 10,000 fit simulations, which is a very elaborate way of saying they’ve tried to make them comfortable for more people. The Buds4 Pro includes improved active noise cancellation and an enhanced adaptive equaliser. Both models pair with the S26 to allow hands-free AI agent access and, on the Pro, head gesture controls for managing calls.

Colours available are White and Black with a matte finish, plus an online-exclusive Pink Gold for the Buds4 Pro.

Pricing and Current Offers

The pre-order double storage deal (512GB for the price of 256GB, worth €190) has now closed, but a number of offers remain. Trade-in on samsung.com/ie is still available, with up to €600 off depending on your current device. Buying the Buds4 or Buds4 Pro alongside an S26 gets you 15% off the earbuds. Samsung and selected Irish retailers are also offering a 100-day return window on the Buds4 range if you decide they’re not for you, which is a reasonably confident move for a new product line.

Zippay Launches in Ireland; But Can It Claw Back Ground?

Marty
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Zippay Launches in Ireland; But Can It Claw Back Ground?

AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB have launched Zippay, a new person-to-person payment service that lets customers send, request and split money using just a phone number. No IBANs. No BICs. No hunting through your contacts for a 22-character account string you almost certainly saved wrong the first time.

It is, on the surface, a reasonable idea. The three pillar banks are rolling it out to roughly five million customers on a phased basis, integrated directly into their existing mobile banking apps rather than requiring a separate download. Transfers are instant, free to use, and capped at €1,000 per day for sending and €500 per transaction for requests. Enrolment is automatic unless you opt out.

The technology behind it is provided by Italian payments firm Nexi, and the underlying rail is SEPA Instant, the EU-wide fast payments infrastructure that has existed for years. Zippay is not a new payment network so much as a friendlier front door to one that was already there.

Late to the Party, and Everyone Knows It

The awkward truth is that countries across Europe have had services like this for years. Sweden has had Swish since 2012. Denmark’s MobilePay has been widely adopted across the Nordics. The UK has had Faster Payments with phone-number-based transfers baked into most banking apps for a long time.

Ireland’s pillar banks attempted something similar before, scrapping plans for a Revolut-style standalone app in 2023 after regulatory delays and internal difficulties. Zippay sidesteps that problem by living inside apps that already have approval, which is pragmatic, but it also means the product is more incremental than transformative.

Banking and Payments Federation Ireland chief executive Brian Hayes has described it as a “significant development” and pushed back on the idea that the banks are behind schedule. The argument is that by watching other markets first, the Irish rollout can avoid earlier mistakes. That is a defensible position, though it is the kind of thing you tend to say when you are late rather than when you are not.

The Revolut Problem

Here is where the timing gets complicated. Zippay’s entire value proposition rests on network effects. It is useful when the person you want to pay is also on it. Right now, that means customers of AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB. Revolut users, N26 customers and anyone banking with a credit union or An Post are not part of the system at launch, though other institutions can apply to join via Nexi.

That is a significant gap. Revolut has somewhere in the region of three million users in Ireland, a country of five million people. A substantial number of Irish adults already use Revolut for exactly the kind of instant, phone-number-based transfers that Zippay is now offering. For those users, Zippay solves a problem they already solved themselves, years ago, with an app they are not being asked to leave behind.

Revolut has not indicated it plans to integrate with Zippay in the near term, which is not surprising. Joining a platform built by your direct competitors, on infrastructure you do not control, is not an obvious move. Until that changes, Zippay’s network is smaller than the headline five million figure suggests in practice.

More Competition, Not Less

The timing is also notable because Monzo recently entered the Irish market, adding another well-regarded digital banking option for consumers who are open to switching or supplementing their main account. Between Revolut, N26, Monzo and now Zippay, Irish consumers genuinely have more choice than ever. The days of the pillar banks being the only show in town are long gone.

That context matters when evaluating what Zippay is really for. This looks less like an innovation play and more like a defensive one, a way for the incumbents to close a feature gap that fintechs have been exploiting for years. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is worth being clear-eyed about it.

What It Actually Does Well

Setting aside the competitive framing, Zippay does address a genuine friction point. Asking someone to send you money via a traditional bank transfer in Ireland has historically meant exchanging IBANs, which is a minor but real annoyance. Replacing that with a phone number lookup is meaningfully more convenient, even if it is not revolutionary.

The security case is also reasonable. Because Zippay runs inside apps that are already subject to banking regulation and existing fraud protections, there is an argument that it offers more consumer recourse than some third-party payment tools. The opt-out enrolment model will raise eyebrows among privacy-conscious users, but the practical risk is low given you can remove yourself without much friction.

Credit unions, An Post and other institutions are able to apply to join the platform, and the infrastructure is designed to be open to future merchant or business payments. If uptake is strong and integrations follow, Zippay could eventually become something more genuinely useful than it is at launch.

Worth Having, Hard to Get Excited About

Zippay is not a bad product. For customers of the three pillar banks who do not use Revolut or any other fintech for person-to-person transfers, it will make splitting a dinner bill or paying back a friend noticeably easier. That is real, if modest, progress.

For everyone else, particularly the large and growing share of Irish adults who already have this functionality elsewhere, it is more of a shrug than a revelation. The banks have built something useful. They just took long enough that much of their potential user base already moved on without them.

Virgin Media Launch €15 SIM Only For Life

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Virgin Media Launch €15 SIM Only For Life

Virgin Media Ireland has quietly made a move that’s worth paying attention to. The network has launched a new SIM-only plan at €15 per month, and the headline feature isn’t just the price, it’s the promise that the price won’t change. Ever. That “For Life” guarantee means no sneaky mid-contract increases, no renewal renegotiations, and no bill shock twelve months down the line.

For a lot of people, that kind of certainty is genuinely valuable. The Irish mobile market has a frustrating habit of luring customers in with promotional rates that quietly expire, so Virgin Media locking in a price permanently is a meaningful differentiator.

What You Get

The plan includes unlimited data, calls, and texts for use within the Republic of Ireland, plus 37GB of EU roaming data. That roaming allowance is solid for the price point, covering most holiday and business travel across Europe without any additional charges. You also get access to Virgin Mobile’s existing add-on catalogue, so there’s some flexibility to tailor the plan if needed.

Good Value, But Not the Best on the Market

€15 per month for unlimited everything is a genuinely good deal, but it isn’t the cheapest or most feature-rich SIM-only option available in Ireland right now. Other providers are competing hard in this space, and depending on your usage patterns and network preferences, you might find a better fit elsewhere.

The “For Life” pricing angle is what makes this plan interesting rather than the raw spec sheet. If you value predictability over chasing the lowest monthly bill, Virgin Media’s offer deserves serious consideration. If you’re happy to switch every 12 months to follow the best deals, you could potentially do better.

Is It Worth It?

If you’re already a Virgin Media broadband customer, or if you simply want a no-fuss plan with a guaranteed long-term price, this is a solid choice. The combination of unlimited usage and locked-in pricing removes a lot of the usual friction around mobile contracts.

That said, before committing, it’s worth checking what else is out there. Our SIM-only deals guide breaks down the current best options across all Irish networks, so you can see exactly how Virgin Media’s new plan stacks up before you sign up.

The €15 per month plan is available now at virginmedia.ie.

Dublin’s EV Charging Gap: Good Intentions, Half-Finished Thinking

Marty
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Dublin’s EV Charging Gap: Good Intentions, Half-Finished Thinking

Dublin’s Lord Mayor Ray McAdam made headlines this week calling on the Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy to reform Ireland’s private wires legislation. The goal? Allowing inner city residents without driveways to charge their electric vehicles safely from their own homes using on-street solutions. It is, on its face, a reasonable and welcome call. The problem is that it is also only half the conversation.

The Problem Is Real

Anyone who has spent time in the older neighbourhoods of Dublin, whether it’s Stoneybatter, the Liberties, or Phibsborough, will know the situation immediately. Houses open directly onto the street. No front garden, no driveway, no garage. If you park at night, you park on the road outside. And if you want to charge an EV from home, you currently cannot, at least not legally or safely.

The Lord Mayor’s press release specifically references cross-pavement cable solutions already being trialled in cities like Plymouth, where discreet channels are built into the pavement to allow residents to run a charging cable from their front door to their car without creating a trip hazard. It is a logical stepping stone, and the legislative barrier he identifies around private wires rules is a genuine one that needs addressing.

So far, so sensible.

Meanwhile, Somewhere in Cologne, a Tank Manufacturer Solved This More Elegantly

Here is where things get interesting. While Dublin debates legislation and Plymouth lays cable channels into pavements, Rheinmetall, a German company better known for making armaments and engine blocks, quietly ran a year-long pilot of something rather clever in Cologne. It is called the Curb Charger, and it does exactly what the name suggests: it integrates EV charging electronics directly into a standard kerbstone.

The unit, weighing around 80 kilograms and constructed from stainless steel and aluminium, delivers up to 22 kilowatts of power through a 400V three-phase connection. It sits flush with the pavement. There are no bollards, no poles, no ugly street furniture. Drivers bring their own Type 2 cable, plug in at the kerb, and charge. A smartphone app, QR code, or RFID card activates the charger.

The engineering is genuinely impressive. IP68-rated encapsulated electronics, sealed charging sockets with integrated water drains, a water level sensor that cuts power if flooding threatens safe operation, and both a cooling system for summer heat and a built-in heater to keep it functional in sub-zero temperatures. The modular design means a faulty unit can be swapped out in minutes via what Rheinmetall calls CurbSwap, minimising downtime.

The results from Cologne were not just encouraging, they were remarkable. Four units completed over 2,800 successful charging cycles across a year, with technical availability exceeding 99%. Users rated the system 4.38 out of 5, with older participants giving particularly positive feedback. The main criticism? The charger was so discreet that some users found it hard to spot, which is arguably a problem most urban infrastructure would love to have.

Serial production has now started, with unit costs in the four-digit euro range, and Rheinmetall has confirmed orders from several German metropolitan areas.

The point is not that Dublin needs to immediately adopt the Rheinmetall system specifically. The point is that solutions like this already exist and are proven at scale. The legislative framework the Lord Mayor is rightly pushing for would enable exactly this kind of infrastructure to be piloted here.

The Gap Nobody in That Press Release Mentioned

Here is where the Lord Mayor’s otherwise sensible call falls short. Read the statement carefully and you will notice something missing.

It speaks, correctly, about terraced homes in Ballybough and Phibsborough whose residents park on the street. But what about the person renting a flat above a shop on Capel Street? Or the apartment dweller in a purpose-built block in Grangegorman who does not own a parking space, let alone one with a charging point?

There is no mention of apartment dwellers in the press release. None. Not even an acknowledgement that this is a separate but equally urgent problem. Dublin is a city of renters and flat dwellers, and for many of them the path to EV ownership is blocked not by the absence of driveway charging, but by the absence of any charging point at all within their building.

Landlords in Ireland currently face no obligation and, more to the point, no meaningful incentive to install EV charging in their car parks or communal parking areas. Until that changes, a significant portion of Dublin’s population simply cannot become EV owners in any practical sense, regardless of what happens to private wires legislation.

This is not an impossible problem. Several European countries have introduced right-to-charge legislation that gives tenants the right to request a charger installation from their landlord, with costs typically passed through in a manageable way. Others have introduced tax relief or grant schemes to incentivise landlords to install charging infrastructure proactively, before demand forces the issue. Ireland could look to either model, or both.

Enthusiasm Is Not Enough

None of this is to say the Lord Mayor is wrong to push for what he is pushing for. The private wires legislation is a real barrier, and fixing it would help real people in real Dublin streets. It deserves to be addressed.

But a press release that speaks passionately about “ensuring the transition to electric vehicles works for everyone” whilst making no mention of the city’s flat-dwelling, renting population is not quite delivering on that promise. Street-level kerb charging matters. Legislative reform matters. Landlord incentives and tenant rights matter too. These things are not in competition; they all need to happen, and it would be encouraging to see them all named in the same breath.

Rheinmetall managed to turn a kerbstone into a smart charger that survived a Cologne winter at 99% uptime. Dublin can probably manage to write a few more paragraphs of housing policy.

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