If there was one thing that was obvious this from Meta Connect this year, it’s that the social media giant is all-in on its burgeoning line of smart glasses.

Indeed, the glasses were pretty much everywhere at the annual event, where Meta shows off its newest hardware and AI products. Both Meta staff and the flocks of influencers who frequent the event seemed to arrive with the glasses glued to their faces. Most of the demos the company offered this week also involved the glasses.

I swiftly joined the bespectacled masses and found myself trying on pair after pair of Meta’s high-tech specs.

One of the more notable products I had an opportunity to demo were Meta’s new, still-unreleased, audio-only smart glasses. News of these glasses emerged not long after the company weathered accusations that it was selling “pervert glasses,” with critics alleging that its camera-equipped specs could be used for nefarious surveillance purposes.

The new glasses come equipped with six microphones, but no camera, and they have no native way to record your surroundings, which should go a long way toward easing privacy concerns. They are significantly lighter than any of the other smart glasses I’ve worn, and they were quite comfortable.

The Meta staffer I talked to emphasized the glasses’ entertainment and communication options: you can listen to music easily (they’re more comfortable than earbuds) and take phone calls without reaching for your phone.

The glasses will also integrate with Muse, Meta’s personal agentic system, which can carry out tasks on the user’s behalf. The new integration, which isn’t yet available to the public, lets wearers speak to Muse and give it commands verbally. Meta also plans to personalize the agent, letting users pick from an assortment of cute digital avatars that can represent the agent when it communicates with them.

I was given an opportunity to try this out, which was fun but also somewhat comical. You have to be very direct with the agent, and you can’t talk to anyone else at the same time or it will get confused. Problematically, I kept chatting intermittently with the Meta staffer who’d given me the glasses, and the agent kept thinking I was speaking to it, so it would talk over her.

Still, in the right context, it’s easy to see how this new integration could be incredibly useful. If you don’t mind being seen in public talking to your own sunglasses, you’ll be able to ask Muse to take care of various digital tasks for you, like sending emails or reciting to-do lists, and it will handle them while you’re out grocery shopping or having a beer. You can also ask the glasses anything, and like a mobile version of ChatGPT, they’ll spit out an answer. (I asked the glasses a question about World War II, and they gave me a succinct and historically accurate response.)

Finally, I also got to test-drive a second audio-only pair: Meta’s new glasses for the hearing impaired. Given that hearing loss affects many families (some 50 million Americans are said to have some level of hearing loss), this device, unlike a lot of other modern tech gadgets, serves a clear and practical purpose.

I spoke briefly with a member of Meta’s research team who said the glasses had been in development for some five years, and he pointed out a price difference that could make them appealing: whereas a lot of hearing aids can run as high as $1,600, the glasses will sell for $150.

The experience of wearing these glasses was interesting. Meta had me put earplugs in before trying them on to simulate the hearing loss that the glasses are meant to help users overcome. Once the glasses were on, they seemed to amplify the voice of the person I was talking to. Users can switch the amplification from focused, which zeroes in on the person in front of them, to omnidirectional, which picks up sound from all around them, depending on how they want to experience their surroundings.

Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear that he believes smart glasses are the future, and it’s evident that his company is doing its best to fulfill that mandate. But smart glasses remain a niche that has yet to truly find its footing. What was most obvious at Connect is that Meta has — in an attempt to succeed where others have failed — cast a very wide net, trying to make its glasses stylish, functional, and, most of all, useful.

Is this the future? Unsurprisingly, everyone at Connect seemed to think so. I suppose we’ll have to see if the rest of the world follows suit.

The company is still paying for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Tesla has begun volume production of the Semi at Gigafactory Nevada with first deliveries this week, nine years after showing the truck, and rates it at 500 miles of range and 1.2 megawatts of charging. It has already installed more than 100 megawatt-capable stalls at 21 European sites, although the truck is not due in Europe until 2027.

Tesla has started volume production of the Semi at Gigafactory Nevada, with the first deliveries this week, InsideEVs reported. The Class 8 truck was first shown in 2017, nine years ago. It charges at up to 1.2 megawatts, which Tesla says adds 60% of range in 30 minutes.

The range comes with conditions.

Tesla rates the Long Range at 500 miles and the Standard Range at 325, both at 1.7 kWh per mile, and publishes the conditions alongside them. They are measured at 82,000 pounds gross, 55 miles an hour, 20 degrees Celsius, on flat ground, with a tandem axle aero kit and a compliant dry van trailer. Drive power is up to 800 kW from three motors.

Europe waits until 2027.

Tesla is installing more than 100 megawatt-capable stalls across 21 European sites in Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and the Benelux countries. The truck itself is not due here until next year. Both truck and charger use the MCS 3.2 connector.

European law asks for less.

Charging points of at least 350 kW must sit every 60 km along the core European network for heavy goods vehicles, as the ICCT has documented. The megawatt layer above that is commercial rather than required. Tesla built it before it had a truck to sell here.

The battery figures are not Tesla’s.

A filing with the California Air Resources Board gives 822 kWh of usable capacity for the Long Range and 548 kWh for the Standard, neither of which Tesla has published. The Semi uses Tesla’s own 4680 cells from Gigafactory Texas. Those cells have underperformed supplier cells in its passenger cars.

The biggest buyer is Swedish.

Einride ordered 500 Semis last month, the largest deployment announced anywhere, to run freight in California, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois and Georgia. A Swedish company is putting American trucks on American roads. Amazon holds warrants over about 12% of it.

Diesel is doing the selling.

Pump prices are averaging over $6.50 a gallon in the United States, a record driven by the wars in Ukraine and Iran. A coalition of shipping companies ordered 2,500 Semis this week, which would roughly double the American electric truck fleet. Tesla wants 50,000 a year once Nevada is at full capacity.

If you want something to inspire your own professional ambitions, consider taking a closer look at the careers of these 30 impressive women in STEM.

Whether you are a student, a graduate, an established professional or at the retirement stage of your life, many STEM professionals past and present enjoy keeping up to date with the latest news, advancements and research.

An ideal way to do just that is to ensure that you are following the careers of the people who are right at the centre of innovation and exploration in the STEM space. With that in mind, as part of SiliconRepublic.com’s STEM career coverage, we have compiled a list of some of the industries most influential women. 

Abeba Birhane

If you are looking for a role model to follow, who is active in the AI space, then look no further than Prof Abeba Birhane. Birhane is the founder and a principal investigator at the Artificial Intelligence Accountability Lab at Trinity College Dublin, as well as an assistant professor of AI in the School of Computer Science and Statistics. She was previously a senior fellow in trustworthy AI at Mozilla. Her primary area of expertise is in cognitive AI, particularly the ethics and the long-term, societal implications of the technology.

She also served on the United Nations Secretary-General AI Advisory Body and the AI Advisory Council in Ireland.

Birhane’s work has resulted in her inclusion on a number of high-profile lists recognising her among the leaders of the AI space and she has received several awards, including a mention on the Time 100 most influential persons in AI 2023 list, and the Distinguished Paper Award 2024 at the IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning.

Aisling Shannon

For more than 20 years, Aisling Shannon has worked at the European Space Agency (ESA), first as a structures engineer and more recently as a senior programme adviser.

Over the course of her career she has been responsible for Earth observation spacecraft development, covering design, test and launcher interface, as well as a range of non-technical elements that accompany developments in this field.

In her role as a senior programme adviser, she is involved in independent assessments and reviews of ESA activities. Eager to give back to others in the community, Shannon has previously served as a UNOOSA Space4Women mentor and a Talent Girl mentor, hoping to inspire and guide other women and girls. 

Aleksandra Kaszubowska

Aleksandra Kaszubowska is an E3 assistant professor in electrical and electronic engineering at Trinity College Dublin. She is also a senior research fellow for leading Irish research organisation the Connect Centre and she previously participated in a deep-tech pre-accelerator programme at the Tyndall National Institute. At the Connect Centre, she is working at the intersection of a number of different areas, including optical networks, hardware, controls and network layers.

Kaszubowska has more than 15 years of experience in the field of photonic communications gained through work in both industrial and academic research environments. Her specialties include end-to-end optical transmission system design and modelling, hybrid radio-over-fibre systems, optical packet switched networks, advanced modulation formats and coherent detection.

She received the 2025 Women in STEM Award for Engineering for her work in the engineering sector and has engaged with the media to share her ideas and knowledge with the wider STEM community.

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin is a well-known figure in the STEM industry and for good reason. She is an associate professor of mathematics education at the DCU School of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies and she has a wealth of experience working on policy in education, higher education, research and the environment. She is deeply concerned with broadening STEM education and promoting gender equality. 

She was previously the chair of the Independent Advisory Committee on Nature Restoration, she is the former chair of Ireland’s national Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss and she is an experienced and skilled broadcaster, public speaker, discussion moderator, workshop facilitator and science communicator. One such workshop currently being led by Ní Shúilleabháin is the Maths Sparks Problem Solving Workshops, which is a series of extra-curricular mathematics workshops for senior cycle post-primary school students. 

She has spoken at conferences and has been a part of the discussion at events held by organisations such as the Department of Foreign Affairs, European Movement Ireland, National Cyber Security Centre, and the Royal Irish Academy and Teaching Council.

Caitriona Jackman

In 2021, Prof Caitriona Jackman became the first woman senior professor of physics at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS) and since her appointment has been a trail blazer in planetary science. As the head of the DIAS Planetary Magnetospheres group, she has vast experience with data analysis, theoretical modelling and mission planning. 

She also has specialist skills and knowledge in the areas of the dynamics of planetary magnetospheres and solar wind influence, machine learning, data analytics, processing pipelines, outreach and public engagement. She has previously served on the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Solar System Advisory Panel, the Royal Astronomical Society Council, and the European Space Agency Solar System and Exploration Working Group.

Clare Hickie

Workday’s CTO for EMEA Clare Hickie has built a long and impactful career within the STEM space. One of the areas she is focused on is staying competitive in the age of artificial intelligence.

Having spent a number of years working across a range of industries, such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and IT HR, Hickie thrives off of embracing change and the transformation of the STEM space. She was also recently included in Computer Weekly’s 2026 Most Influential Women in UK Tech longlist. 

Deirdre MacCarthy

Deirdre MacCarthy is the chief legal officer and head of people at fintech Wayflyer.

She previously advised the company during a €7.8m seed funding round and through her role at Wayflyer has worked with a number of dynamic companies in Ireland’s STEM space, such as Stripe. Last year, as part of the Wayflyer delegate, she travelled to the US to strengthen Irish-US business connections and celebrated the contributions of Irish Americans at the Ireland Funds Gala event.

Deirdre Murray 

Dr Deirdre Murray is a consultant paediatrician and senior lecturer in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at University College Cork. She is also the principal investigator of the Cork Baseline birth cohort, which is reportedly one of the largest and most detailed mother-child cohorts in Europe and the first and currently only longitudinal birth cohort in Ireland.

Her research is focused on early brain injury and the development of new ways to predict and assess neuro-cognitive outcomes in children.

She was previously awarded a prestigious Health Research Board Clinician Scientist Award for BiHiVE, which is an ongoing project focusing on the discovery and validation of biomarkers in neonatal brain injury. In 2025, she won the Role Model of the Year Award at the Women in STEM awards. 

Dervilla Mitchell

Engineer Dervilla Mitchell is a co-chair at the Royal Academy of Engineering, an industry advisory board member at Equatic.tech and previously worked at Arup. She has experience working on both small- and large-scale projects, such as work at Portcullis House in Westminster, Saga HQ, Kent, Heathrow Terminal 5, the Abu Dhabi Midfield Terminal project, the Athletes’ Village at the London 2012 Olympics and the Goodwood Paddock Redevelopment.

She is committed to strengthening the diversity of the engineering landscape and works to champion equality. She also urges young people to consider contributing their insights, knowledge and creativity to work that can impact the current climate crisis. Mitchell works with the National Engineering Policy Centre and the Professional Engineering Institutions to better understand and relay the challenges of decarbonisation.  

Dympna O’Sullivan

The vice-president of research and innovation at Technological University Dublin, Dr Dympna O’Sullivan’s primary research interest is in human-centred artificial intelligence, with a focus on designing AI-driven assistive technologies to support independent living, particularly for people with age-related cognitive impairments. She is an advocate for greater public and patient involvement in research that focuses on the lived experience of those who are frequently marginalised in the software development process.  

She regularly adds to the conversation on computing ethics and responsible AI, has contributed to the development of a European curricula for digital ethics and she frequently collaborates with national TV, radio and print media outlets to share her thoughts on AI. She also takes part in educational and public engagement activities such as talks, panel discussions and workshops designed to make AI more accessible to the general public.

Elaine Coughlan

Elaine Coughlan is a managing partner and co-founder of Atlantic Bridge, a deep-tech investment fund that has offices in Dublin, London, Munich, Paris and Palo Alto. She has more than 25 years of experience scaling and growing companies and was previously the founder and director of GloNav. 

She is also an investment committee member at British Business Bank and holds board and adviser positions at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Irish Life Health, Consello, Endeavour Ireland and Scale Ireland. Coughlan was named among Forbes 50, Inspiring Top 50 Women in Europe and Europe’s Top 100 Women in Technology.

Fidelma Dunne

Dr Fidelma Dunne is a professor of medicine at the University of Galway, a consultant endocrinologist at University Hospital Galway, an associate director at the Clinical Research Facility, Galway and the former president of the Irish Endocrine Society. Her main area of focus is pregnancy and diabetes and she has written more than 270 peer-reviewed publications.

She has been involved in a number of international studies and was the Irish lead for a pan-European cohort study examining pregnancy outcomes for women with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and a study examining insulin Degludec in women with Type 1 Diabetes in pregnancy. She was the PI of the recently funded Health Research Board All Ireland Collaborative Clinical Trial Network in Diabetes 2021-2026.

Ines Thiele 

Prof Ines Thiele is the principal investigator of the Molecular Systems Physiology group and Director of the Digital Metabolic Twin Centre at the University of Galway. She is also a principal investigator at APC Microbiome Ireland and a co-principal investigator on Theme 2, Diet and Microbes. 

Her research aims to improve the understanding of how diet influences human health and to do that she uses a computational modelling approach, termed constraint-based modelling, which is reportedly increasing in importance for systems biology.

In 2013, she received the ATTRACT fellowship from the Fonds National de la Recherche in Luxembourg; in 2015, she was elected as the EMBO Young Investigator; in 2017, she was awarded an ERC starting grant; and in 2018, she was an awardee of the NUI Galway Foundation Research Leadership Programme. 

Jacky Fox

Jacky Fox has led Accenture’s global secure digital core practice since April of this year, having held various other leadership positions at the organisation since joining as the Ireland lead and global CTO of security in 2019.

She is also the vice-chair of the board for Cyber Ireland and previously held other senior positions at Dell, Deloitte and University College Dublin. In 2018, Fox was recognised as Security Champion of the Year and she has taken part in a number of key industry events and panels, including at the Global Cybersecurity Forum in Riyadh and at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting on cybersecurity. 

Katia Karpova

The head of EMEA for fintech Fiserv, Katia Karpova has previous experience as an executive director for JP Morgan and was also a programme manager for the Institute for Public Private Partnerships. In her role at the organisation, Karpova oversees Fiserv’s activities in at least 13 countries, across issuing, payments software, merchant acquiring and processing services for financial institutions. She holds a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University, a bachelor’s degree in finance from University of Maryland and is fluent in Ukrainian, Russian and English.

She is also regularly asked to comment on topics and advancements in the ever-changing finance landscape. In June, she was a guest speaker at the Money 20/20 event and was also featured on SiliconRepublic’s own The Leaders’ Room podcast series. 

Lavinia Morris

Lavinia Morris is the general manager for EMEA data centre operations at Microsoft. She has extensive experience across a multitude of industries, such as banking, aviation, insurance and professional services. Her particular area of expertise is in digital transformation, innovation, strategic execution and operational management.

Morris’ previous roles include COO of KBC Bank Ireland, director of the Irish Banking Culture board, director of Synch Payments DAC and the chief information officer at SMBC Aviation Capital. 

Currently, her priorities include scaling innovation in critical infrastructure, delivering resilient, secure cloud operations, enabling AI and digital sovereignty and championing diversity, equity and STEAM, to improve the wider ecosystem. 

Maria O’Dwyer

Maria O’Dwyer is the infrastructure delivery director for Uisce Éireann, where she is largely responsible for the delivery of its water and wastewater capital investment programme. She is a qualified chartered engineer, has a degree in electronic engineering and a master’s in engineering science, as well as various diplomas in supply chain management, business, coaching and company direction. Her current work is broad, covering all activities from design, planning and procurement through to construction delivery. She is also a non-executive director for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.

Her recent projects include the high-profile €114m Athlone main drainage scheme and the Water Supply Project Eastern and Midlands Region. Much of O’Dwyer’s work focuses on bolstering infrastructure, making water supplies more resilient and managing waste water more effectively.

Muriel O’Byrne

Making waves in the regulatory affairs space, Muriel O’Byrne is the senior vice-president for international regulatory affairs and the European business office at pharmaceutical company Regeneron. She was previously the senior director for global regulatory affairs at Elan Pharmaceuticals, the director for EU regulatory affairs at AstraZeneca and senior regulatory executive at GSK.

She has been featured in EUCOPE, which is the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs, and also contributed to a World Clinical Trials Day 2026 feature in EMJ Gold, where she explored regulatory challenges in biologics, genetics and precision medicine. 

Niamh Shaw

Engineer, scientist, explorer and science communicator Dr Niamh Shaw is a well-known figure in the STEM space. She is renowned for her reports covering major space missions, where she translates the mindset of astronauts into insight for leaders navigating uncertainty, complexity and long-term strategy. 

She was previously an analogue astronaut at the Mars Desert Research Station, has trained in extreme environments from Antarctica and the Arctic Circle to zero-gravity flight, worked in the Kalahari and Atacama deserts, and has reported from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the European Space Agency. 

She is also a highly requested keynote speaker and has shared her knowledge on space, leadership, curiosity and exploration at a range of high-profile corporate events, conferences and festivals all over the world. She is the CEO and founder of Dream Big Space and Science Communications and is an advisory board member for the AstroAid Foundation. 

Rathnait Long

Dr Rathnait Long is a distinguished fellow of technology at semiconductor company Macom. Her main area of focus and research is in the development of semiconductor materials and devices. She is also a technical reviewer for the National Science Foundation and for more than seven years was an adjunct professor at Stanford University. 

An innovator in the semiconductor industry, Long has significant experience in the patent application process, including for acoustic resonator manufacturing methods and printed circuit board design patents, which were filed on behalf of Macom. She also regularly contributes to the wider space via articles and journals and recently took part in SiliconRepublic.com’s The Leaders’ Room podcast series, where she discussed her career.

Ruth Freeman

Dr Ruth Freeman is the director of research for society at Research Ireland, where she oversees individually led research programmes, centres for research training, challenge-based research programmes, and the education and public engagement brief. Prior to her current role at Research Ireland, she filled a number of roles at Science Foundation Ireland and during her time at Trinity College Dublin she earned a scholarship, the Eli Lilly Chemistry Prize and the Roberts Prize for Biology.

Freeman is vocal about the importance of inclusion, climate justice and the power of education, technology and innovation to transform lives. She is of the opinion that all voices need to be heard in the conversation around STEM and she has lent hers to the topic several times. 

Sarah Bourke

Dr Sarah Bourke is the CEO and co-founder of Skytek, a software company that innovates for a number of demanding industries, including the space sector. She has been recognised among her peers and industry professionals for her leadership and success in the commercialisation of space technology, as shown when she won third place of the European Prize for Women Innovators in 2016.

She frequently works alongside professionals from high-profile institutions such as the European Space Agency and NASA, as she further develops Skytek. Prior to founding Skytek, she worked at a number of leading universities and governmental agencies. 

Sharon Cunningham 

The CEO and co-founder of Shorla Oncology, Sharon Cunningham is leading the charge when it comes to meeting unmet needs in the global pharmaceutical space. Her role involves the development and commercialisation of critical oncology products to assist with patient care. She is a board member at US-based life science nonprofit MassBio, Blood Cancer United, the Healthcare Business Network and Cork University Business School. 

She is also a previous EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year finalist in 2025, an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Winner for the Overall and Emerging Ireland category in 2024, was named Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur in 2019 and has been recognised as one of the 100 most influential CEOs in Ireland by the Business and Finance Media Group, among other awards and honours. She is also a recipient of the University College Cork Alumni Achievement Award, one of the highest honours the university can bestow upon a graduate.

Sue Duke

Sue Duke is the managing director for EMEA and LatAm and the vice-president for global public policy at professional networking platform LinkedIn. Working across the platforms public policy and economic graph teams, she leads and manages the roll-out of LinkedIn’s Economic Graph in partnership with governments and labour market organisations worldwide. 

She was previously a special adviser for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, head of public policy at Google and a board member at the Open Data Governance board. She regularly offers her insights on the wider landscape, exploring topics such as the rise of the founder, how AI is creating a new wave of young entrepreneurs and the jobs and skills being created by AI innovation.  

Susan Treacy

Healthtech Ireland CEO and consultant Susan Treacy has more than 25 years of healthcare experience nationally and internationally. She is a member of the Research and Innovation Board Committee of Tallaght University Hospital and is also the owner and consultant of Treacy Healthcare Consulting. 

She actively collaborates with organisations, institutions and governments as a means of creating a more efficient medtech and healthcare ecosystem. For example she lobbied for a government life science strategy that is now in progress, collaborated on initiatives between the HSE and industry in areas of sustainability, digital health, procurement and innovation and was an invited member to HIQA HTA and HSE AI advisory and working groups.

Treacy regularly authors life science-based articles for numerous publications and she has spoken at length about leadership, transformation, AI, sustainability, partnerships and innovation at various, notable conferences. Treacy was also previously a board adviser for WITS, Women in Technology and Science. 

Her achievements include the 2025 CEO of the Year in the Irish Times Association and Institute Awards, the 2025 winner of the Women in STEM Award for health technology, and Health Technology CEO of the Year 2023 from CEO Monthly. 

Tara Shine

Dr Tara Shine is one of the Irish women leading the charge in sustainability and policy creation.

She is the CEO and co-founder of sustainability skills platform Change by Degrees, has experience as a climate adviser for governments and the Mary Robinson Foundation and is also a freelance author for The Currency, where she discusses the climate and sustainability issues impacting businesses. She has also previously presented a number of documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and RTÉ.

Terry O’Laoghaire

Terry O’Laoghaire is the managing director and COO for technology infrastructure at financial services platform State Street. Having worked in the sector for more than 20 years, she has vast experience managing large portfolios across IT and financial services, infrastructure engineering, cloud computing, application development, hedge fund accounting and reconciliations. 

She is involved with 3Sixty Leaders Club, a programme designed to support women in leadership as they develop their careers. O’Laoghaire is also a member of T-200, a group that aims to inspire, educate, celebrate and advance women’s leadership in technology at all levels.  

Vanessa Hartley

Vanessa Hartley is the head of Google’s Irish operations, having taken over the role in 2024 and having been a fixture of the company, in various roles, since 2014. She was previously the vice-president of Google EMEA’s large customer sales division and later managing director of the division’s hub in Dublin. 

She has shared her insights and experience with a wide array of people through various events and speaking engagements such as the MacGill Summer School, DCU’s Guest Speaker Series and the Global Economic Summit, among others. 

Veronica Campbell

Prof Veronica Campbell is the first and current president of South East Technological University (SETU). She holds multiple degrees in areas such as pharmacology, which she earned from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in neuropharmacology, which she received from the University of London. 

Campbell has extensive undergraduate and postgraduate teaching experience and a distinguished research record in cell biology, pharmacology and tissue engineering and she previously held several senior leadership roles in Trinity College Dublin, including dean of graduate studies, bursar and director of strategic innovation.

She previously served on the board of the Atlantic Institute, based in Oxford University, was the inaugural chair of the Global Brain Health Institute of Trinity College and UCSF and is a former president of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. More recently she welcomed delegates to the 2026 Irish Humanities Alliance Annual Conference.

She also welcomed EU Organic Ambassadors to SETU as part of their visit to the south-east, organised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine during Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Yvonne Kavanagh

Dr Yvonne Kavanagh is the director of engineering, research and innovation at SETU. She is also an assistant registrar at SETU Carlow.

She aims to improve the representation of women in the space, including via her co-authored paper ‘How successful are women in physics in Ireland?’ and she has published more than 38 articles and earned 264 citations. 

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If you frequently get stuck footing the whole bill when you dine out with friends, you might have a new tool that can help: Apple Wallet in iOS 27 can split the bill from a camera image of a receipt.

The feature uses Apple Intelligence to make items on the receipt selectable so you can quickly determine what’s yours (and not yours) and what’s owed. It’s one of several new Wallet features that Apple previewed at its annual software event, WWDC, back in June, that are now rolling out. Those new features include being able to create custom Wallet items from scanned physical cards or from scratch, and view recurring payments if you have an Apple Card.

For iOS 27, Apple also announced new features for developers geared to Apple Wallet, including the ability to make posters for multiticket events and adding order tracking for retail apps using Apple Intelligence.

How to use the new check-splitting feature

Before you can take advantage of some of these new Wallet features, you’ll need to make sure your device is using iOS 27.

Receipt splitting in Wallet starts with using the new Siri mode in the Camera app. If you’re pointing your lens at a receipt, a prompt for Split Bill With Apple Cash will come up. You can go through your contacts to search for people you want to split the check with, but they’ll need to be able to pay with Apple Cash.

Apple Wallet will show a list of the items ordered, and you can select from that list, then choose how you want the bill split and how much to tip. Apple Wallet can’t force your friends to pay; it’s not a collection agency.

How to use the new custom Wallet items feature

To add a Wallet item from a business card, or just create a digital Wallet card without one, tap the plus icon at the top to add something new.

You’ll have the option to scan a debit, credit, transit or other type of ID card, or you can choose Create a Pass to work off a business card.

CNET Senior Writer and iOS features expert Zachary McAuliffe said this feature has already worked well for him.

“I digitized my gym membership card, and it’s worked great,” McAuliffe said. “I was worried the scanner wouldn’t pick up my iPhone’s screen, but the scanner seemingly picks up my screen better than my old card. I also appreciate how this saves me space on my already crowded keyring.”

Editing the details of a custom Wallet card allows you to either import the contents of a scanned card and edit them, or just enter your own details. Apple Wallet offers a few different templates for custom Wallet items, and you can adjust the color or background. Item details can be edited later if the information changes or you make a mistake. Newer Apple Watch models should be able to pin these custom digital passes using the Smart Stack feature.

To view recurring payments on your Apple Card, just tap on the Card in Wallet and use the three dots on the top right to select it from the menu.

More iOS 27 Wallet features are likely to roll out as Apple continues releasing updates to its new operating system.

Omar Gallaga has covered technology, digital culture and other topics for outlets including CNET, NPR, WIRED, Texas Monthly, MSNBC, Consumer Reports, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic and the Austin American-Statesman, where he was a longtime tech reporter, editor and podcaster. He lives in the Texas Hill Country.

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VITURE Pro 2 ships as a $298.99 (was $380) pair of XR/AR display glasses that treat a private cinema as the whole job. Sony micro-OLED panels sit behind birdbath optics and throw a 1920 by 1080 image to each eye at up to 120Hz, with a 50-degree field of view that the company sells as a 146-inch screen viewed from about four meters. Peak perceived brightness climbs to 1,600 nits from the 1,000 nits on the first Pro, with nine brightness steps and contrast rated at 100,000:1 or higher. Color covers 108 percent of sRGB, and VITURE tunes that color at the panel itself rather than through an extra management chip.

UltraClarity 3.0 is the model with the “3.0” in VITURE’s fifth anniversary lineup, and it’s an optical rewrite that truly distinguishes the pair. The developers went to great lengths to fine-tune the field curvature so that the sharpness remains consistent from the lens’s center to its periphery. They’ve also worked on making the image stable even when your eyes move off-center, and when it comes to distortion, they claim that the lines stay straight whether you wear the glasses at their lowest setting or crank them up to -5.00 diopters. Plus, they’ve ensured that the horizontal resolution matches the vertical resolution, rather than becoming fuzzy at the borders. You can even have independent focus knobs for each eye that go up to -5.00 diopters, allowing many near-sighted persons to avoid prescription inserts. The interpupillary distance is described as 56.5 to 71.5mm, which is rather close to the average, so no additional hardware is required for most adult faces.

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• 【A 146-INCH XR SCREEN FOR GAMING, TRAVEL & WORK】 Turn compatible USB-C video-output devices into a private 146-inch 120Hz 1080p XR display for…
• 【THE THINNEST—YET STILL WITH BUILT-IN ADJUSTMENT】 Twin dials, two eyes: built-in 0 to -5.00D myopia adjustment focuses each eye independently…

At 63 grams, this pair is much more wearable than you might assume, weighing roughly 2.2 ounces and being 20% lighter than the original Pro. The frame is also 16% slimmer, and there are three temple settings and three nose pads, giving you seven distinct fit possibilities. The temple cushioning has been updated so that it does not scrape into your nose after around an hour of usage. The pair includes a clip-on lens shade to reduce ambient light and increase contrast, as this version does not include the electrochromic dimming film included in the original Pro. The SGS A+ eye care accreditation ensures low blue light, flicker-free functioning, and low visual fatigue, and they claim you may wear these for three to four hours before your eyes begin to tire. Even before you clip on the shade, the real world is pretty muted with only 5% optical transmittance.

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VITURE Pro Mobile Dock Co-op Stream & Play, 2D/3D Content

• 【MADE WITH THE SWITCH IN MIND】 – A 152” 1200p ultra sharp virtual display beats a 6.2” 720p/30fps screen any day. Take your Switch handheld…
• 【DOUBLE THE FUN – SHARE THE SCREEN WITH FRIENDS!】 – Double The Fun with the ONLY XR system supporting screen sharing! Play local co-op games like…
• 【3D SUPPORTED: A NEW DIMENSION OF ENTERTAINMENT】 – The VITURE Pro Mobile Dock now supports 3D content — enjoy your favorite three-dimensional…

The connection remains as easy and plug-in as it gets. A Temple USB-C connection delivers DisplayPort video and power from any host that supports USB-C, which includes almost every Steam Deck, Android phone, USB-C iPhone from the 15 series onward, and most recent laptops. Still, the Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 4, and Xbox want a dock since they can’t push video down a conventional USB-C cable. To compensate, VITURE has released the Mobile Dock Mini, an anniversary accessory priced at $99 (or $79 if purchased with another device), which packs a 10,000 mAh battery into a body that is 34% smaller and 30% lighter than the previous one, as well as a new Hug Mode for the Switch 2. (There is no camera, CPU, or six-axis tracking built in, just head motion that tracks the image as you move your head.

The temples house open-ear speakers that can handle 9 distinct volume increments for spatial audio, making them ideal for movies and mobile gaming in a quiet area, but they’re a little leaky, so a plane or workplace may pick up some of the soundtrack. Reviewers tested them for films and handheld games and discovered that the smaller 50-degree field is still legible even with small text and minimaps, and the added brightness outperforms earlier 1000 nits glasses when a cabin light is turned on.

Although Meta had already unveiled its AI agent back in the summer, the recent Connect 2026 event revealed more of its capabilities.

Coined Muse, Meta’s AI agent promises to “take the busywork off your plate” and can do anything from creating shopping lists based on emails, drafts replies and can even order deliveries on your behalf.

But how does Muse really work and how can you access the tool? What security measures are in place to ensure Muse is safe to use?

We explain everything we know about Muse below. For more from Meta’s Connect event, visit our Ray Ban Meta Glasses 3 first impressions while I’ve given my two cents on Meta’s audio-only glasses too. 

Muse is Meta’s new AI-powered agent that’s designed to communicate with you in a more natural way than other chatbots. Found within its own dedicated app, WhatsApp, Mac desktop and web browsers, Muse can answer questions, book reservations, complete tasks, generate images or documents and even make purchases on your behalf. 

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Overtime, Muse will get to know you and help you to get things done both on a day-to-day and a long-term basis. That means you can ask Muse to both set quick timers or guide you through a workout plan. 

You can also connect Muse with compatible third-party apps too via Connectors, which enables you to unlock different abilities for the agent. For example, at Meta’s 2026 Connect event, it announced new brands will be able to connect to Muse, including Walmart, Sephora and PayPal, while travel sites like Expedia are coming soon.

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Meta explains that, because it’s agentic AI, Muse is able to figure out which skills it should use when provided with a task. That means it’ll know when it needs to browse the web or search for information from other sources, like your calendar or messages. 

Otherwise, you can also have long, in-depth conversations with Muse, and can customise its voice to speak slower or faster according to your preference. Muse can even have its own email address that it can use to get things done. It really is designed to be like having your own personal assistant.

Muse is available for free, but there is a usage limit that refreshes weekly. At the time of writing, Meta hasn’t disclosed what that limit actually is.

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If you exceed the limit then you can opt to upgrade to a paid subscription which unlocks more Muse tokens each week. There are currently two subscriptions to choose from, with the cheapest being the Power plan that costs $20 a month and unlocks 500m Muse tokens each week.

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Next there’s the Max plan for $100 a month and provides you with 3B Muse tokens each week.

At the time of writing, Muse is not currently available in the UK.

Meta also unveiled the Muse Charm at its Connect event, which looks reminiscent of an old-school Tamagotchi.

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While details are currently sparse, as Meta says it will share more later this year, it’s essentially a pocket-sized device that has Muse built-in. Whether it’ll act like a virtual pet you have to look after, though, remains to be seen.

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Recently [The Parallel Port] was asked to take a look at repairing the PoE++ feature on a Ubiquiti switch that otherwise worked fine. This is a pretty nice 24-port rackmounted switch with 2.5 Gbit-capable RJ-45 ports and two 10 Gbit SFP+ ports, so by itself it’s pretty useful, but having the 400 Watt PoE feature just go AWOL still stings, especially if you bought it new for $800.

With power applied the switch starts up as normal, including its 1.3″ touch screen that provides direct port information as well as a fancy screensaver cum QR code for the AR feature.

After logging into the switch’s BusyBox console it showed that all ports reported bad for the PwrGood status, and there were PoE power status request errors in the log, but this could be just the consequence of something else. Using a PoE splitter it was confirmed that the PoE functionality was indeed dead.

After disassembly and some testing with a multimeter and thermal camera, a short and related hot spot on the PCB that the PoE power board connects to was identified, with the short persisting after removing this PCB from the switch. Since the switch had suffered a bit of an electrical event the TVS diode was checked, but it turned out to be fine.

Next to it, marked as fuses, were protective thyristor surge protection devices (Trisil), functioning as a crowbar device. These aren’t supposed to be shorted to ground until a surge event occurs, but these were indeed both shorted when measured directly. Clearly they had taken the brunt of the electrical event and sacrificed themselves in the process.

One replacement later of these devices the switch now happily reports a good PoE status and even was able to power a DC fan via the PoE splitter. Even if it wasn’t a particularly hard fix, this is definitely one of those cases where knowing how the protective circuit works can save a lot of time in diagnosing and fixing a fault.

The takeaway: Tesla has begun volume production of the Semi, its battery-electric heavy truck, at a new facility next to Gigafactory Nevada. The launch marks a more serious commercial phase for the Semi after years of delays. The company says the first Semis produced at the new factory are now being delivered to customers.

The Sparks, Nevada, plant can eventually produce 50,000 trucks a year, or about 1,000 a week, according to Tesla. Before this milestone, the company delivered a small number of trucks to PepsiCo in 2022, but those vehicles were built on a pilot line.

Tesla used an event at the factory to highlight changes made to the truck’s battery, powertrain, and charging system. It also named customers that include PepsiCo, US Foods, DHL, WattEV, ABF Freight, Einride, IMC Logistics, and OK Produce.

The Semi will be sold in two versions. Tesla lists the Standard Range model at 325 miles of range when hauling a full 82,000-pound gross combination weight trailer. The Long Range model is rated for 500 miles under the same conditions. Tesla executives said the Long Range truck could reach about 600 miles with a lighter load of roughly 60,000 pounds.

– Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) September 25, 2026

Tesla has not released current prices or total reservation figures. When the company introduced the Semi in 2017, it set the starting price at $150,000 for a 300-mile version and $180,000 for a 500-mile version. Electrek reported earlier this year that Tesla was quoting some customers about $290,000 for the 500-mile truck.

The production Semi uses Tesla’s 4680 battery cells rather than the 2170 cells used in earlier test vehicles. Tesla says the truck’s battery pack has 822 kWh of capacity. The company says it has reduced the truck’s energy consumption to about 1,700 watt-hours per mile when fully loaded, down from an original target of 2,000 Wh/mile.

Those efficiency gains are important because they allow Tesla to use a lighter battery pack while maintaining its range target. The company also said it cut nearly 1,000 pounds from the truck during development.

Tesla also reworked the drive system. The earlier design used a carbon-fiber-sleeved rotor. The production version uses a steel-caged rotor and a bar-wound stator that Tesla also uses in the Cybertruck. Tesla says the redesigned drive axle is about 80 kilograms lighter.

The company also simplified the truck’s lubrication system. The hub no longer uses oil, while the motor and gearbox share a single oil supply. Tesla says that oil should last more than 250,000 miles.

The Semi now has redundant electric power steering instead of hydraulic steering. Tesla says the new system gives drivers better response and control. It also allows a tighter wheel cut, which the company says brings the Semi’s turning radius close to that of a Model Y. That could matter in crowded industrial yards, city streets, and loading docks.

– Teslasti Basti (@BastianBraun121) September 11, 2026

Tesla has also carried over elements of the Cybercab’s thermal-management system. The Semi uses an indirect system with pumps, compressors, and heat exchangers that manage temperatures across the cab, battery, and drive unit. Tesla says the design reduces the amount of refrigerant plumbing needed throughout the vehicle and can move heat where it is needed.

Charging remains one of the larger questions around the truck. A Semi’s 822-kWh pack requires far more power to charge than a passenger EV. Tesla is building Megacharger stations that can provide as much as 1.2 megawatts per stall. At the event, Tesla showed a truck charging from 3% to 60% in about 30 minutes.

The company says it plans to have more than 30 Semi charging locations, with over 200 megawatt-capable charging posts, by the end of the year. It also expects fleet operators to install overnight charging equipment at their own facilities.

Tesla is pitching the Semi as a fleet product with remote diagnostics, mobile service, over-the-air updates, and driver profiles that can follow drivers from one truck to another. It says its current Semi fleet has recorded more than 98% uptime.

– Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) September 15, 2026

Some fleet operators have already placed large orders. Einride announced a 500-truck deal in August. IMC Logistics said this week that it plans to buy 50 Semis for California drayage work. A shipper coalition also selected Tesla to provide 2,500 trucks for zero-emission freight operations in California.

Tesla argues that electric trucks can cost less to operate than diesel models because they require less maintenance and are less exposed to swings in fuel prices. “You know, volatility in the oil market and the diesel market goes up and down,” Tesla Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy told The Verge. “But typically, we’ve seen in the history of the last 20 years, electricity is pretty flat. And wouldn’t it be great to have a flat cost in your shipping rates?”