Ikea has released a free companion mod for Skyrim that turns its Kallax shelving unit into a fully voiced ally with unlimited carrying capacity. It’s called Kallax Storageborn, and it went live today through Bethesda’s in-game Creations menu.
The mod is free on PC and Xbox now, with a PlayStation release still to follow. Once installed, over-encumbered players are sent to a workshop to build their own Kallax, who can then be summoned anywhere with a new Dragon Shout, “Aye Key Yah.” He carries unlimited loot, scoops up items automatically as you explore, and tidies your house when you get home.
Actually, I get it.
The whole thing is voiced by Matt Berry, who brings the kind of booming theatrics you’d expect to a talking flat-pack shelf. Ikea worked with modding studio Kinggath Creations on the build, and it goes well beyond a simple reskin. There’s a two-dungeon questline, an Allen key sword and dagger, a meatball helmet, and a summonable meatball companion item, which is presumably where the brainstorm ended up.
Why a furniture retailer decided Skyrim’s inventory management needed solving isn’t obvious, but the execution is hard to fault. It’s also, not so subtly, a plug for the real Kallax unit, which Ikea is still happy to remind you comes in a range of sizes in store and online.
Kallax Storageborn is free through Bethesda’s Creations menu now for PC and Xbox, with no confirmed date yet for PlayStation.
Apple has finally turned up to the folding phone party, and it’s called the iPhone Duo. The name is an odd choice for Apple given iPhone Duo is very similar to Microsoft’s own Surface Duo name, a phone Microsoft killed off years ago. Apple had every name in the world to pick from and went with one that already existed. Strange move, but far from the strangest thing about today’s announcement.
Apple confirmed iPhone Duo at its Surprise and Shine event on 9 September, and the full details are in Apple’s own iPhone Duo announcement. We previewed what to expect a few days earlier in our iPhone 18 Pro launch preview. It’s Apple’s first folding phone, built in a book style passport design rather than the tall, side by side fold Samsung and HONOR have favoured for years. Closed, you get a 5.4 inch outer display. Open it up and you’re looking at a 7.6 inch inner screen, which Apple says makes it the thinnest iPhone ever when unfolded. It runs the same A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, comes in star white or night sky, and starts at €2,369 in Ireland for 256GB. Pre-orders open Friday 16 October, with the phone landing Friday 23 October.
Here’s my take after watching the whole thing land. That passport shape is the right call, and I think Apple might have just designed the best folding phone on the market. Unpopular opinion time.
Why the passport shape wins over the tall fold
I’ve spent close to a year in and out of folding phones, including HONOR’s Magic V5, and the tall, side by side fold makes sense for one thing and one thing only, which is productivity. Two apps stacked on top of each other, or side by side once you turn it landscape, genuinely works well for getting things done. What it doesn’t do well is video. Watching anything on that tall aspect ratio means huge black bars, and it never feels like the phone was built with content in mind.
iPhone Duo’s passport style folds out into something wider and more landscape friendly, which is exactly the shape you want for watching something back or gaming. Whether Apple wants to admit it or not, this is the format the rest of the folding phone market has been quietly drifting toward anyway, and I think it’s the right one for the average buyer. The tall fold is a productivity tool wearing a phone costume. This is closer to an actual phone that happens to fold. I totally never thought of the portrait mode – seems so obvious now when I see it.
That camera bump, and what you’re paying for
Watching the livestream, the camera bump on iPhone Duo is hard to ignore, and it reminded me a lot of the bump on HONOR’s own folding phone. Being the thinnest iPhone ever is a genuinely impressive engineering claim, but it doesn’t erase a lump on the back that’s going to catch on every table you set it down on. Apple even straight up admits they stuffed a load of tech into that bump.
It’s also worth being clear on what you’re getting for the money. iPhone Duo runs a 48MP dual camera system, a main lens and an ultra wide, with a 2x optical quality zoom built into the main sensor. There’s no third telephoto lens like you get on the iPhone 18 Pro. You’re paying flagship money, arguably more than flagship money, for a camera system that’s a rung below Apple’s actual flagship. This is a content consumption phone, more than content creation.
Does iPhone Duo have MagSafe?
Yes. iPhone Duo supports MagSafe wireless charging, and Apple’s own iPhone Duo FAQ confirms it reaches 50 percent in around 20 minutes on a wired charger, or 50 percent in about 30 minutes wirelessly with a MagSafe or Qi2 charger. I’ll admit I went into today confused on this one. Given how thin the phone is, I assumed MagSafe’s magnetic ring simply couldn’t fit, and Apple didn’t make a big deal of it on stage either. Turns out it’s in there, which is a relief for anyone with a shelf full of MagSafe accessories.
iPhone Duo is eSIM only everywhere, not just the US
Apple has sold eSIM only iPhones in the US since the iPhone 14, but iPhone Duo is the first Apple device to go eSIM only worldwide, with no physical SIM tray anywhere it launches. That’s the beginning of the end for the physical SIM card, at least as far as Apple’s concerned.
This means network choice is limited in Ireland with only Gomo, Lyca Mobile, Virgin Media and Sky Mobile supporting eSIM from the best of the monthly SIM-only deals, so most people switching to iPhone Duo won’t notice much difference beyond a QR code instead of a tray. The one group who might care are customers on 48, the budget network riding on Three’s infrastructure, which doesn’t currently support eSIM at all. If that’s you, it’s worth checking with your provider before you commit to a phone this expensive. But then agian if you can afford the iPhone 18 Duo…
No Face ID, and no third camera lens
Two more things worth flagging while we’re being honest about trade-offs. There’s no Face ID on iPhone Duo. Apple has built Touch ID into the side button instead, which handles unlocking whether the phone is open or closed. And as above, you’re getting two rear cameras rather than the triple lens setup on the iPhone 18 Pro. Neither is a dealbreaker on its own, but stacked together they’re a reminder that iPhone Duo isn’t simply an iPhone 18 Pro that folds.
Why Apple’s single platform beats Android’s fragmented folding market
Here’s the bit I think gets missed in most folding phone coverage. When Samsung, HONOR, Motorola and Xiaomi bring a folding phone to market, developers building for it are designing around a fractured Android landscape, with different screen ratios, different hinge behaviours and different software layers depending on the manufacturer. When Apple launches a folding iPhone, developers are building for one company’s hardware and one version of iOS, shipping to a single, enormous audience on day one.
That’s unavoidable, and it’s why I’d bet on iPhone Duo getting better designed apps and a more consistent experience than any Android foldable, purely because there’s one target to hit instead of a dozen. It’s not that Apple’s engineers are smarter. It’s that a single, tightly controlled platform is simply an easier one to build well for.
Right, that’s the rant done. Back to the phone itself.
I’ve watched folding phones for years on this site, back to our original take on whether anyone even wanted foldable phones, and I’ve gone from sceptic to genuinely impressed by what a good one can do. Apple turning up years after Samsung means it’s had the luxury of watching everyone else’s mistakes before making its own. On the strength of that passport design alone, I think it’s used that time well. Whether it was worth the wait at this price is a different question entirely, and one only your bank balance can answer.
iPhone Duo is available to pre-order from Friday 16 October, on sale from Friday 23 October, with US pricing starting at €2,369 for 256GB in Ireland.
Update, 8 September 2026: AIB has been in touch again since publication. A spokesperson said this issue affects a small number of phones where the device or something on it isn’t compatible with the app’s security check, rather than a bug in the app, and that most affected customers who contacted support or tried the troubleshooting steps above have since regained access or identified the cause. AIB also said its technical team has found no evidence that work-managed phones affect these checks.
Just a few weeks ago, AIB announced that a new app experience was coming for customers. With that very experience rolling out to customers, unfortunately it hasn’t neccesarily been the positive update AIB had hoped for. There’s an immeasurable but noticable trend in discussion online around AIB customers being presented with “jailbreak” warnings.
Customers still stuck can reach AIB support on 0818 724 724, 9am to 5pm, seven days a week.
As a banking app, security is important. Typically, as you would expect, the new AIB app runs a device integrity check on login. If it detects what it considers a security risk, it blocks access entirely and displays a warning suggesting the device may be compromised. The problem is that the devices being flagged are entirely ordinary handsets running current iOS, including an iPhone 14 Pro Max and an iPhone 16 Pro, neither of which had ever been jailbroken.
From the online chatter I’ve seen, there could be a wide range of causes for a phone to present something to the AIB app that it believes to be suspicious. For example, in theory, if you have a work profile installed on your phone, it may insist on a VPN which the AIB app won’t like at all.
But realistically, that’s a very common use case, as are many other legitimate scenarios which seemingly is leading to customers losing access to AIB’s banking app.
The practical impact is significant. Because the AIB app is also used to approve online banking logins from a browser, a customer locked out of the app loses that authentication route too. Without a card reader to fall back on, they’re effectively shut out of their digital banking entirely.
What AIB told Goosed
I reached out to AIB, and sure enough, was told that workplaces managing your phone could indeed cause issues. An AIB spokesperson provided the following guidance for customers seeing this error.
Check for updates.
Settings > General > Software Update
Check your VPN connection
Settlings > If you see VPN displayed near the top of the screen, tap it and disconnectthe VPN.
Check for device management profiles
Settings > General > VPN & Device Management
Check whether any device management profiles are installed.
If the device is managed by an employer or organisation, these settings may impact security checks.
Review recently installed apps
Consider whether any security, VPN, privacy, or system modification appswere installed recently.
If the issue began after installing a new app, remove the app ifappropriate and test again.
The spokeperson added that, “AIB regularly put in place updates necessary to maximise security for our customers. The message described refers to a security feature which is there for the protection of our customers and their accounts. If the customer sees a message indicating that their device can’t be set up (an example may mention the device being ‘rooted’) it means the AIB Mobile App has detected a potential security risk on the device. For security reasons the app cannot be used on devices that fail security checks and don’t align to Apple’s standard security restrictions”.
Fair enough?
Well, no. Not really. Simply put, AIB cannot expect customers with legitmate phones which are being used for legitimate purposes though managed by workplaces, to simply be ok with losing access to their mobile banking app.
Ireland’s traditional banking apps and services are seemingly creeking from attempts to keep up with the likes of Revolut and Monzo amongst others who are bringing a modern digital experience to the Irish market. I remember just a few years ago when an expired cert brought down most of Bank of Ireland’s network, leaving you wondering just how digitally advanced these services are.
It’s highly worrying that customers of AIB out there, are on iPhone without access to their banking. And honestly, the troubleshooting that was shared when I asked about this doesn’t fill me with confidence that AIB appreciates this shouldn’t be something their customers experience. Adding to the list of gripes customers have, not least of which is the loss of “quick balance” which has itself a cult following in Ireland – but soon to leave as part of app upgrades.
What to try in the meantime
If you are seeing this error, it’s worth running through AIB’s suggested steps even if the odds of success. Go to Settings > General > Software Update and install anything pending. If there’s a VPN active, disconnect it via Settings or Settings > General > VPN and Device Management. Check the same screen for any device management profiles, particularly if your phone is managed through work. If you installed a new security or privacy app recently, remove it and try again.
If none of that works, AIB’s fallback position is browser banking paired with a card reader. Not ideal, but it’ll get you access if you’re stuck. If you don’t have one, you can pick one up at an AIB branch.
The TL;DR
AIB seemingly has a genuine bug on its hands, one that is locking real customers out of their banking with no clear route back in. The bank’s response, to its credit, came quickly when we asked, but a generic troubleshooting checklist that doesn’t acknowledge the underlying false positive issue isn’t a fix. It’s a way of describing the symptoms without owning the cause.
If you’re affected and the standard steps don’t clear it, browser banking with a card reader is your best option for now. We’ll update this piece when AIB confirms a timeline for a proper resolution.
I’ve spent this past week wandering the halls of IFA in Berlin, half looking at robot vacuums and half refreshing Apple rumour sites on my phone, because as of Wednesday the tech world’s attention swings squarely back to Cupertino.
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro price in Ireland gets confirmed this Wednesday, 9 September, when the company holds its Surprise and shine event at 10am Pacific, which lands at 6pm Irish time. You’ll be able to watch it on Apple’s events page, on YouTube or through the Apple TV app, and it’s also the first keynote for new chief executive John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on 1 September. On the bill are the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and, if the rumour mill has it right, Apple’s first ever folding phone.
The short version is that whichever of those you’re eyeing, you’ll pay more for it than you did last year, and if you were hoping for a straightforward, reasonably priced iPhone 18, that’s not happening until spring 2027. I’ll get into the numbers below, and why nearly every foldable phone launched this year suddenly looks like it could double as a travel document.
What’s actually launching this Wednesday, and what isn’t
Apple is breaking from its usual habit of launching the entire iPhone range in one go. This September brings the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the foldable model only. The standard iPhone 18, along with a new iPhone 18e and a second generation iPhone Air, isn’t expected until spring 2027. So if you were picturing a nice, mid range iPhone 18 sitting on shelves next week, that phone simply won’t exist yet. This year, if you want a new iPhone, you’re choosing from the premium end only.
How much more the iPhone 18 Pro will cost in Ireland
Expect somewhere between an extra €100 and an extra €300 on top of what the iPhone 17 Pro costs, depending on the storage tier and which analyst’s spreadsheet you trust most. Right now, the iPhone 17 Pro starts at €1,339 for the 256GB model, with the Pro Max starting from €1,489. Supply chain analysts have been fairly consistent that the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will see the steepest Pro pricing jump in years, largely down to the cost of the new 2 nanometre A20 Pro chip and a genuine spike in memory prices.
Some, like Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, have pointed to a more modest bump nearer the smaller end of that range, while others reckon the jump could land closer to €250 or €300 once storage upgrades are factored in. None of it is locked in until Apple actually says the numbers out loud on Wednesday, but the direction of travel is not in question.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone, and the price tag to match
If the rumours hold, Apple’s foldable will start above €2,000 in Ireland, and could climb a good deal higher on the biggest storage option. Did I already get hands on?
This is absolutely definitely not the imminent folding iPhone from Apple that’s about to launch very soon. Couldn’t possibly. It’s a case that looks like it might fit it but how could we possibly know if it would, because this isn’t the phone? It’s definitely not. It’s not even nearly like it, not at all like Apple’s new folding phone that’s launching this year. Not at all. #Uniq
It’s widely expected to be called the iPhone Ultra, though a few reports are still holding out for iPhone Fold, and it’s shaping up as a book style device with a cover screen around 5.5 inches and an inner display somewhere between 7.6 and 7.8 inches that opens out into something closer to a small tablet.
Touch ID rather than Face ID has been a consistent thread in the leaks, and there’s a real chance Apple drops the telephoto lens entirely to keep the hinge as thin as possible. US estimates for the starting price have ranged from around $2,000 right up past $2,500, with the top storage configuration tipped to clear $3,000. For an Irish comparison point, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, the closest thing on the market today, launched here at €2,259, and I went through the full lineup in our look at Samsung’s Fold8 launch. Apple has form for pricing above Samsung’s top foldable rather than matching it, so a similar or higher Irish starting price seems the safer bet, though again, nothing is official until Wednesday evening.
Why every new foldable suddenly looks like a passport?
Here’s the bit I find genuinely interesting rather than just expensive. Samsung reshaped its entire Fold line back in July, swapping the old tall, narrow shape for something shorter and wider that looks a lot like a passport when it’s closed. Xiaomi showed off its own version of the same idea at IFA here in Berlin just days before Apple’s event, and Huawei has already been selling something similar in China.
The logic is simple enough. A tall, narrow cover screen paired with a square inner display means video gets letterboxed no matter which screen you’re using, and a shorter, wider phone fixes that without needing a bigger hinge. If Apple’s foldable lands in the same shorter, wider shape as the leaks suggest, that puts the three biggest phone makers on the planet behind the exact same idea within a matter of months. I think passport-style foldable is going to become the term people reach for this generation, rather than the older book-style label, simply because it describes what you’re actually holding when the thing is shut.
What it means if you’re upgrading in Ireland this year
If you’re due an upgrade this September, you’re choosing between a pricier iPhone 18 Pro or Pro Max, or a first generation foldable that will likely cost more than any iPhone Apple has ever sold here. If you were specifically waiting on a standard iPhone 18, you’re waiting until spring 2027 regardless of what happens on Wednesday. Being totally transparent, none of the euro figures above are confirmed until Apple says them on stage, but given how consistent the leaks have been over the past few months, I wouldn’t bank on a pleasant surprise on the wallet front. I’ll have the confirmed Irish pricing and full breakdown up as soon as the keynote wraps.
As I’ve mentioned in other articles, the battle to be your robotic home cleaning and maintainence bot of choice is truly hotting up. Ecovacs has used IFA 2026 in Berlin to launch three new Deebot robot vacuums and a new Winbot window cleaner, with most of the range going on sale from 9 September.
The line-up runs Deebot X12S OmniCyclone at the top, then the Deebot T90S Pro Omni and Deebot T90 Max Pro Omni in the middle, and the Winbot W2S Pro Omni for glass. UK pricing starts at £1,199, £699 and £549 for the three Deebots, and £529 for the Winbot. Ecovacs hasn’t confirmed Irish pricing, so the German recommended prices of €1,299, €799 and €599 are the closest guide we have for now.
Deebot X12S OmniCyclone
The headline feature on the flagship is the bagless dock. Rather than emptying the robot into a disposable bag you have to keep buying, the X12S drops its dirt into a lift-out cyclone bin. That’s a running cost gone, and it’s the main reason to look at this over the X12S Pro Omni, a bagged version selling in Germany for €1,099 that the UK announcement doesn’t mention at all.
Elsewhere you get a 53 Air Watt motor rated at up to 27,000Pa, the new 27cm Ozmo Roller 3.0 mop that’s rinsed with fresh water as it works, and FocusJet, which sprays a stain before the roller reaches it. The dock heats its dirty water tank to cut down on the smell that builds up in these things, and Ecovacs’ Agent Yiko 3.0 voice assistant debuts here. The company also claims the low guide roller lifts more than 95% of dust mites out of carpet.
Deebot T90S Pro Omni and T90 Max Pro Omni
Both mid-rangers get the same 27cm Ozmo Roller 3.0 as the flagship, which is the more interesting bit of trickle-down here. The T90S Pro Omni adds a station that washes its own base plate after every cycle, arrives on 24 September, and starts at £699 in the UK and €799 in Germany.
The window robot gets four corner brushes and TruEdge 2.0 frame detection, and Ecovacs says its thorough clean mode is up to 46% more efficient than the older W2S family. A three-nozzle spray wets the glass before the pad makes contact, the 120ml tank is quoted at up to 75m² of glass per fill, and Win-Slam 4.0 handles navigation around handles and locks. Safety runs to a twelve-step system, which matters when you’re sticking a robot to a first-floor window. It’s £529 in the UK, €599 in Germany, or €499 for the version without the dock. And generally speaking, one of the robots I’m most excited to test out.
This is where it gets messy. The retailers Ecovacs lists are Amazon, Argos, Currys and Very, with Harvey Norman named for the Winbot. Argos hasn’t traded in the Republic since June 2023, so cross that one straight off. Currys, Very and Harvey Norman all sell here, but none have confirmed stock or Irish pricing yet, and the German euro figures are your best estimate until they do.
Ecovacs also previewed two products for next year, a Goat T-Series robot lawnmower with a TruEdge trimmer for cutting close to edges and dual-LiDAR navigation it calls HoloScope 360, alongside the Ultramarine L1 Pro pool cleaning robot. No pricing or launch dates on either yet.
The Irish market has become considerably more interesting over the past few years. From not being able to get so much as a Roomba to now having somewhat of a “Robot Wars” type battle in the local electronic retailer. I might be making that sound a little more fun than it actually is.
However, Roborock took to IFA 2026 in Berlin to widen the Saros 20 range with the Saros 20 Neo, give the stair-climbing Saros Rover its European debut, and move into the water with a pool cleaner called the RockAqua P1 (what ever little use for that we have in Ireland).
What is the Saros 20 Neo?
The headline features are mobility ones. The AdaptiLift Chassis 3.0 lets it climb double thresholds up to 8.8cm, which in an older Irish house is the difference between a robot that cleans the whole ground floor and one that gives up at the kitchen door. The body sits at 7.95cm, low enough to get under most sofas and bed frames where the dust quietly gathers. Navigation runs on a RetractSense LiDAR system with Reactive AI recognising more than 300 obstacle types, in the dark as well as in daylight.
On the cleaning side, Roborock rates suction at 36,000 Pa and quotes coverage of nearly 350 square metres on a charge. Both of those are the company’s own numbers rather than independently tested ones, so treat them as ceilings until somebody has run it in a real house. There is a dual anti-tangle system for pet hair, warm water mopping with up to 14N of downward pressure, and a dock that washes the mop with 100°C water.
How it compares to the Saros 20 already on sale here
Roborock already has its flagship is already available in Ireland. When the Roborock Saros 20 launched in Ireland it arrived at an introductory €1,289 through Harvey Norman before settling at €1,489. On paper the Neo matches it on nearly every headline figure, the same 8.8cm threshold climbing, the same 7.95cm profile, the same 36,000 Pa suction and the same 300 plus obstacle types. Mopping downforce is marginally higher on the Neo, 14N against 13N. Roborock’s framing is that the Neo brings flagship behaviour to a lower price point.
The Saros Rover takes on stairs
The Saros Rover is as impressive as the robotics arm Roborock introduced, but almost certainly more useful. It uses a wheel-leg design with independently adjustable legs that raise and lower the body, handle slopes, and let it make small jumps. Using motion sensors and 3D spatial data, it climbs and cleans individual stair steps rather than needing a second robot upstairs. Stairs are the last unsolved problem in this category, and this is a different approach to the one Anker showed at IFA last year with a carrier that ferried a vacuum between floors.
RockAqua P1 brings Roborock into the pool
The RockAqua P1 is Roborock’s first robotic pool cleaner, built to cover pool floors, walls, the waterline and shallow platforms as low as 15cm. It pairs 6,800 GPH suction with a 4L debris basket and dual filtration at 180 and 70 microns, and Roborock quotes up to 3.5 hours of runtime from a 3.5 hour charge. Monocular camera obstacle avoidance handles the navigation, and Auto Waterline Parking brings it back up to the surface so you are not fishing around with a pole to retrieve it. How many Irish homes is this relevant to? Not many, in fairness, though it tells you plenty about where Roborock thinks the category is heading. No pricing or availability has been announced.
Everything else on the Roborock stand
Roborock is also showing the F25 Ultra Steam Gen2, which uses high temperature steam and hot water on dried-on stains, and the F25 Pro Turbo Combo, a 5-in-1 wet and dry vacuum that converts into a cordless handheld. For outside, the RockNeo Q2 LiDAR robotic mower covers up to 800 square metres, navigates without boundary cables or antennas using LiDAR based environmental perception, and cuts to within 3cm of lawn edges.
Right now, we know the Saros 20 Neo reaches Ireland in October with pricing to be confirmed, and everything else announced this week, the Saros 20 Flow Complete, the Saros Rover and the RockAqua P1, has no Irish price, retailer or date attached to it. Roborock says it will confirm launch plans for the UK and Ireland in due course just in case you have a swimming pool.
The iKairos is a modular AI wearable that landed $29 million in funding that has made some very clever design choices which gives it the edge when it comes to privacy.
There’s no price yet, nor is there a firm release date either. Lingverse says preorders will open sometime later this year through its own site, with each unit shipping within 90 days of order, and that core features will sit behind a free tier while more advanced ones need a subscription the company hasn’t detailed. Nothing has been said about Irish or EU pricing specifically, so this is one to watch rather than one to add to a wishlist just yet.
A pendant that doubles as a desktop robot
iKairos is built around what Lingverse calls a Neural Core, a small, and admittidly rather cute, circular module that pulls out of one body and slots into another. At launch that means two options, a small desktop robot that sits on a desk and observes how someone works, or a necklace pendant version that goes wherever the wearer does. Swapping between the two is meant to give the AI two different vantage points on the same life, one looking at the user, one looking out from them.
What LifeOS is built to do
LifeOS is the software tying those two perspectives together into what Lingverse describes as an ongoing understanding of a user’s routines, preferences and relationships. In the company’s own examples, it notices when someone keeps mentioning a hobby they never follow through on and nudges them toward booking a beginner lesson, or recalls the exact colour and texture of something admired in a gallery days earlier so nobody has to dig through a phone gallery for it.
AI journaling is the first feature built on top of that ongoing context, rather than a bolted-on note taking app. None of this has been independently tested, and Lingverse is the only one who’s used it so far, so take the examples as a description of intent rather than a proven result. I’ve seen first-hand, mutliple times, the advantage of having AI running to catch something you miss yourself and it’s perhaps the moment where privacy and convenience trade offs reach balance.
Privacy built into the hardware
The release leans on privacy, and to be fair, there’s something concrete behind it this time. iKairos has a physical camera shutter, a separate privacy indicator light and a manual mute button, and my hands-on accounts from the show floor describe the camera as sitting under a slider that has to be physically pushed up before the lens is exposed. The team themselves admit they were slow to give up the valuable visual data, but felt privacy would be more important. A decision made some time ago that is likely going to pay off big time if you ask me.
The cute iKairos showing off its usually hidden camera
Voice detection and capture are handled locally on the device, cloud processing only happens with the user’s own authorisation, and Lingverse says the data isn’t used to train its underlying model, with users able to set retention periods and delete records whenever they like.
The camera is the part worth watching
This is where iKairos gets more interesting than most IFA reveals. Meta’s smart glasses have spent the last year turning a camera worn on your face into something closer to a punchline than a feature, largely because the indicator light meant to signal recording turned out to be trivial to defeat and impossible for anyone nearby to rely on. It’s part of why the more interesting always-on AI wearables lately have skipped the camera altogether, Viaim’s RecDot notetaking earbuds and Soundcore’s Liberty 5 Pro Max both show that constantly listening AI earns its keep once it’s honest about what it’s picking up, and Plaud’s newly announced One earbuds are chasing the same idea. iKairos is different because it keeps the camera, but a slider that has to be physically shoved up rather than a light nobody trusts anymore looks like the correct lesson learned from Meta’s mess. Fair play to Lingverse for at least designing around the problem instead of ignoring it. Whether it holds up once real units are in real pockets is a different question, and one Goosed can only answer once we’ve had a unit in hand for a period of time.
For now, iKairos is a waitlist and a promise. Anyone curious can sign up on Lingverse’s own site to hear when preorders open.
XbotGo is using IFA Berlin 2026, running at Messe Berlin until 8 September, to push its European expansion, with the Falcon camera on the stand at Hall 20, Booth H20-115 alongside Pro Soccer, the AI analysis feature it switched on inside its app on 1 September.
The Falcon is XbotGo’s standalone camera rather than a phone accessory, first shown at CES back in January and now the company’s flagship hardware. It went on general sale in the US in March at $699 for the standard bundle or $849 with the NT4 tripod included. Pro Soccer is the new bit, a paid credit system that turns match footage from the Falcon or the older Chameleon into tactical reports and highlight clips, starting at $15 a match. Neither has a confirmed price for Ireland.
What the Falcon does on the sideline
It is a dual lens setup, one 106 degree wide lens doing the tracking and a second lens, built around a 1/1.8 inch Sony sensor, doing the 4K recording itself, so the two work together rather than cropping a single wide shot. XbotGo says it covers more than ten sports including soccer, basketball, ice hockey, handball and tennis, with 360 degree rotation and 160 degree tilt to keep pace with play. Zone mapping lets you lock the tracking to the pitch so it does not wander off to the sideline, and it is rated IPX5 for light rain. Live streaming to YouTube and Facebook is included at no extra cost, along with a live scoreboard overlay and 20GB of free cloud storage, with room for up to 1TB more if you plug in your own storage. Battery life is quoted at up to four and a half hours, and the whole thing weighs in at 544 grams.
Pro Soccer
XbotGo had already flagged an AI Analysis feature on its own site before this launch, describing it as a heatmap and player movement toolset with pricing still being worked out. That gap is now filled by Pro Soccer’s credit system. A single credit covers a full tactical breakdown for one team in a match, currently $15 at launch pricing against a regular rate of $23.99, or $50 for a four credit bundle against $95.96 regularly. A dual credit option covers both sides of a match, useful for a proper derby. XbotGo’s founder David Tan describes the goal as “closing the capability gap with enterprise coaching platforms,” which is the kind of line every company reaches for, so it is worth judging once real reports start turning up rather than taking it on faith from a launch announcement.
The no subscription claim comes with an asterisk
XbotGo leans hard on “no subscription required” in its own marketing, and to be fair the core tracking and recording genuinely is a one time purchase with lifetime access, which is a real point of difference against a system like Veo. Read the small print though and that promise is specifically scoped to what XbotGo calls the AI Sports Algorithm, the tracking and recording intelligence rather than the whole product line. Pro Soccer sits outside that promise entirely, as a pay per match credit system layered on top of hardware you have already bought. It is not dishonest, credits are clearly not a subscription, but it is a step away from the pure one time purchase pitch that got XbotGo noticed in the first place.
European rollout
XbotGo’s build out across Europe runs through a partnership with JoyBuy, JD dot com’s retail arm, covering the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Ireland is not named in that list. The company points to more than a thousand partner clubs already using its cameras, with customer quotes pulled from UK football clubs, a Belgian basketball club and a French handball club, again with no Irish mention. That does not mean XbotGo is unavailable here. Falcon already ships internationally from the official store and through Amazon, and the UK and Germany are confirmed to see local currency pricing, but nothing has been confirmed specifically for Irish buyers on either the camera or Pro Soccer credits.
Where this leaves the cameras we have tested
We have been here before with XbotGo. Our review of the XbotGo AI Sports Gimbal and our follow up review of the XbotGo Chameleon both landed on the same conclusion, a genuinely decent budget alternative to something like Veo rather than a full replacement for one, with tracking that holds up fine for training sessions and underage games but starts to slip once a match gets fast or the pitch gets wide. The Chameleon review name checked the Falcon as a camera already in the pipeline, so it is good to finally see where XbotGo has taken the idea. Whether a dedicated dual lens unit tracks any more reliably than a gimbal bolted to a phone is a fair question, and one we would want to see answered with a camera in hand rather than a press release, before taking XbotGo’s own line about closing the gap with professional systems at face value.
XbotGo is on the show floor at IFA Berlin through 8 September for anyone at the show who wants to see the Falcon and Pro Soccer in person, and full specs and current pricing sit on XbotGo’s own site.
Prusa Research has given its entire desktop printer lineup a refresh in one go, retiring the CORE One, CORE One L and XL in favour of the CORE One+ (Gen 2), CORE One L+ and XL+.The Czech manufacturer confirmed the changes in mid-August, putting an integrated nozzle wiper, updated belts and a handful of smaller mechanical tweaks across all three machines, with a route for existing owners to get the same changes rather than having to buy new. Founder Josef Prusa introduced the update in a video alongside two colleagues, and was keen to frame it as evolution rather than replacement saying “nothing you own becomes obsolete today” at launch.
Thats a company value for Prusa. None of the three new machines cost more than the printers they succeeded, and Prusa pushed the update through to every order still in the queue rather than treating it as a paid upgrade. On Prusa’s own EU shop, where prices for Irish deliveries already include VAT, an assembled CORE One+ (Gen 2) runs to €1,349, the CORE One L+ is €1,849, and a single tool XL+ starts from €2,299, with dual and five tool versions priced above that. Anyone with an outgoing XL can pick up the upgrade kit separately for €249
What’s changed with the new lineup?
The changes are largely mechanical. The Core One+ Gen 2 skips the pre-warming pause that used to run before PLA and PETG prints on beds at 85 degrees or under, shaving up to ten minutes off the time before the first layer starts according to Prusa. The XL+ picks up a Tool Offset Sensor that Prusa reckons speeds up toolhead alignment roughly twentyfold compared with the old removable pin. It also gets 360 degree part cooling and a better sealed enclosure, good for around 50 degrees on its own waste heat or 60 with the optional chamber heater, which matters if you’re printing something too large to finish on the old machine in one go.
The new GT1.5 belts, paired with the resonance avoidance feature already sitting in PrusaSlicer, are aimed at cutting down the faint vertical ripples that show up on tall prints. Prusa gives props where due as a fair bit of this came directly from what the community had already been experimenting with, showing just how community focused this company is.
Which 3D printer suits you?
If you’re weighing up a first serious printer, or replacing something you’ve outgrown, the range still splits by ambition rather than gimmick, but the good news is that I’ve been researching this very question for myself after meeting Prusa at IFA in Berlin.
Image: Prusa
The CORE One+ is Prusa’s all-round enclosed workhorse, pitched at both beginners and professionals alike. Move up to the CORE One L+ and you’re in maker and small-business territory, built for people who want the same reliability with roughly double the build volume. And if you need genuine multi-material or multi-toolhead work, or you’re printing production parts rather than the odd bracket, the XL+ is what Prusa positions as its answer for print quality at that scale.
If you are buying one in Ireland, the good news is that there are no additional import costs because it’s all in the EU. It is worth noting given how much of the desktop 3D printing market otherwise ships direct from China. Every order placed through Prusa’s own shop leaves a warehouse in the Czech Republic, which is inside the EU, and Irish deliveries are quoted with VAT already folded into the price at the Irish rate, rather than added when the parcel lands. No customs surprises, no duty, no courier holding your printer hostage over a fee nobody mentioned at checkout. Score.
The European angle
Prusa is based in Prague, and describes its printers as designed and manufactured in the EU, though in fairness it has also opened a factory in Delaware to serve the US market directly. For an Irish buyer that doesn’t change much, the machine landing at your door is still coming out of an EU line, and personally I have shifted a lot of my purchase decisions to try be more EU-focused.
Prusa’s own figure puts around 95 percent of desktop 3D printers sold worldwide as Chinese made, with itself in the remaining 5 percent, though that’s the company’s framing of the market rather than an independently audited number. Does that origin story actually matter to your printing? Well, that’s a personal call, but the practical part checks out regardless. When buying Prusa from Ireland you are buying from inside the EU, with EU consumer protections and none of the customs messing.
Hopefully, in the not to distant future, you’ll be seeing Prusa reviews and the general learning journey of owning a 3D printer here on Goosed.ie. So be sure to give us a follow or add us as a preferred outlet in Google at the top of the page.
Dahua Technology is using this year’s IFA Berlin to show off a big slice of its security and smart home portfolio in one go, rather than pushing a single new product.
Dahua is the world’s second largest video surveillance manufacturer behind only Hikvision, and the IFA stand covers five areas at once, wireless cameras, intrusion alarms, video intercoms, monitors and fire safety. It’s aimed squarely at installers, retailers and integrators rather than someone shopping for a single camera, so there’s no pricing and no confirmed Irish availability for anything below. Dahua’s own release doesn’t say when, or if, any of this reaches Irish shelves under its own name.
Wireless cameras built around less cabling
The headline wireless range is called WITHS, built around what Dahua calls a “simple, smart, secure” idea. In practice that means cameras connecting over Wi-Fi or 4G, controlled through Dahua’s DMSS app for smaller jobs, with full NVR-based management for bigger installs. The NVR was particularly impressive to see on sight given it has local storage and also lovel LLM abilities to search for particular things in your storage.
The NVR was able to find me under “people in blue shirt”.
The detection list is long, with the system tagging people, pets and vehicles, auto tracking, gesture and facial recognition with two-way talk. Solar-powered and high-capacity battery versions are aimed at spots with no easy access to mains power, off-grid sheds and gates being the obvious example.
Alarms and intercoms that talk to each other
Dahua’s AirShield system links alarm hubs to cameras and intercoms rather than running them as separate boxes. It uses a proprietary radio link called Airfly to connect alarm hubs with wireless sensors, plus a second link, RF-HD, for pushing images and audio quickly from compatible devices. Existing wired alarm kit can be added through expansion modules rather than ripped out, and the whole lot runs through Dahua’s DoLynk Cloud, connecting homeowners, installers and monitoring centres via the DMSS and DoLynk Care apps. Remote firmware updates for hubs and sensors are part of the same pitch.
The video intercom line, WizTalk, gets a similar upgrade. Some door stations use a single 5 megapixel camera, others pair a 5MP unit with a second 2MP lens for a wider, panoramic view, both with colour night vision. Detection covers people, loitering, vehicles, parcels and pets, and select models will also flag a crying baby. Indoor panels double up as basic security stations, letting a resident view camera feeds, control pan and zoom on compatible cameras, and trigger the alarm. The higher end Smart Control Panels run Android 14, so other apps can sit alongside the intercom software on the same screen rather than needing a separate tablet.
The AI features doing the actual work
A few smaller announcements matter more than they sound. AcuPick 2.0 is Dahua’s attempt to make searching through recorded footage feel like a web search rather than scrubbing back and forth through hours of tape, the sort of feature that turns “find the bit where the delivery driver walked up the drive” into a proper search instead of a wasted afternoon.
Full colour recording paired with TiOC lets a camera keep colour footage at night while actively reacting to what it sees, triggering light and sound rather than just quietly recording someone at the door. SMD 4.0 is Dahua’s latest attempt to stop cameras crying wolf, using deep learning to tell the difference between a genuine intruder and a fox, a bin lid or a shadow, cutting down on false alarms rather than just detecting more motion.
WizMind and WizSense are the two AI camera families sitting either side of that, aimed at enterprise installs and smaller retail setups respectively, both chasing the same goal of fewer false positives without needing an enterprise budget to get there.
Monitors and fire safety, almost as an afterthought
Beyond security, Dahua is also showing Wisualarm, its fire detection and connected alarm range, including AI-assisted early fire detection, plus a spread of monitors covering commercial displays, gaming screens and residential sets. It’s a reminder that Dahua’s ambitions have moved well past cameras, even if security is still clearly doing most of the talking on the stand.
There’s no price list, no Irish retail partner and no launch date attached to any of this, it’s a trade show appearance rather than a shopping announcement, the kind installers use to plan next year’s range rather than something landing in Harvey Norman this month. Anyone chasing the full spec sheets on WITHS, AirShield or WizTalk can find them on Dahua’s own security products site (https://www.dahuasecurity.com/), and everything else from the show is being tracked on our full IFA Berlin 2026 hub.
