The future of home buying: How Liberty Blue is using technology to transform property sales
The future of home buying: How Liberty Blue is using technology to transform property sales
Waterford-based estate agency's virtual viewings are changing the game for buyers looking to make the biggest purchase of their lives
Tina-Marie O'Neill
15:00
'When I'm buying a pair of shoes, I want to try them on. Why should it be any different for a home?' asks Regina Mangan, head of Liberty Blue Estate Agents, who is employing Apple's immersive technology to showcase new-build homes from her show suite in Waterford City
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Agriland
11 hours ago
- Agriland
Carbery Teams Up with European Agency to Trial New Methane Reducing Tech
Carbery has teamed up with the European climate innovation agency, Climate KIC, to trial "next-generation methane-reducing technologies" on 10 additional dairy farms in west Co. Cork. The research project has secured financial backing of €700,000 and will see the 10 farms trial new technologies, such as a treatment for improving manure management and satellite technology to map biodiversity and expand the research which is already underway as part of the Farm Zero C initiative. The Carbery group, together with BiOrbic, are among the key partners in the Farm Zero C project which aims to "create a climate-neutral, economically-viable dairy farm". The working farm acts a "living lab" for not just researchers but also farmer and policy makers. It has already trialed a number of innovations including carbon sequestration, renewable energy, low-emission slurry spreading, feed additives, regenerative agriculture, and improved herd and nutrient management. According to Enda Buckley, director of sustainability for Carbery, Farm Zero C, demonstrates that cutting emissions and maintaining profitability "can go hand-in-hand". Buckley also believes that Carbery 's FutureProof sustainability bonus - where farmers are paid a premium to "implement certain sustainability initiatives" "on their farms - also provides firsthand proof of what works. He said the new trial will give the group the opportunity "to bring these practical solutions to more farmers, faster.' According to Carbery, the project with Climate KIC will prioritise 'ready now' innovations, to reduce methane emissions rapidly "while retaining profitability". These technologies will be selected by Carbery and participating farmers and will include the Galway-based, Glasport's Bio's Slurry Abate system which "reduces methane, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and other gaseous emissions". The first year of the new Carbery, Climate KIC project will focus on trialling technologies, "building collaboration with the first 10 farmers", collecting baseline data, and developing viable financial and narrative models. In year two, the project will be scaled, and a second farmer cohort added. According to John O'Donoghue, who is participating in the new trial, farmers have already seen "what works on one farm, as part of Farm Zero C". "This project is about taking what has been tested on one farm, and bringing it to more of them. "We will see then what works practically and what will actually make a difference to the average farmer," he added. Separately, Carbery's Farm Zero C and Climate KIC's Deep Demonstration programmes are also looking at funding models and financial supports to make methane-reduction technologies more affordable for farmers.
Irish Examiner
19 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Apple overcomes trade war and slow start in AI to deliver strong quarter
Apple shook off the issue of tariffs and a slow entry into artificial intelligence to accelerate its revenue growth during its spring-time quarter, but the tech giant still faces a bumpy road ahead that could lead to higher iPhone prices. The April-June results released on Thursday came against a backdrop of adversity that has been raising worries about the trajectory of a longtime tech kingpin that expects to absorb a setback of nearly two billion dollars (£1.5 billion) from the tariffs that President Donald Trump has already imposed and others in the pipeline. Despite the doubts, Apple remains a moneymaking machine. The company earned 23.4 billion dollars (£17.8 billion) during its fiscal third quarter, a 9% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 10% from a year ago to 94 billion dollars (£71 billion). The company's iPhone sales surged 13% from a year ago to 44.6 billion dollars (£33.8 billion). In another positive development, Apple's business in China showed signs of snapping out of a prolonged malaise with a 4% bump in revenue from the same time last year. Apple chief Tim Cook (PA) All those numbers were well above the analyst projections that steer investors, helping to boost Apple's recently slumping stock price by about 3% in extended trading. But the unexpectedly solid performance does not necessarily mean it is smooth sailing ahead for Apple. Mr Trump's trade war targeting foreign-made products such as the iPhone and Apple's stumbling start in the pivotal transition to AI is causing investors to question if the company will remain at the tech forefront as the industry moves into a new era. Before Thursday's report came out, Apple's stock price had plunged by 17% so far this year to wipe out more than 600 billion dollars (£455 billion) in shareholder wealth and knock the company off its perch as the world's most valuable company. Meanwhile, the shares of AI chipmaker Nvidia have surged 32% this year and the shares of AI pacesetter Microsoft have gained 27%, propelling the market value to four trillion dollars (£3 trillion). Even though Apple remains highly profitable, the tariffs that Mr Trump has already imposed on China and other countries cost the company 800 million dollars (£600 million) during the past quarter, and CEO Tim Cook told analysts during a conference call that the fees would exact an additional toll of 1.1 billion dollars (£830 million) during the July-September period. iPhone 16e (Apple/PA) The company also predicted its revenue for July-September period would increase at a slightly slower pace than the past quarter. Mr Cook indicated the financial damage from the tariffs could have been much higher, telling analysts most of the components in iPhones and other Apple products are still shielded by temporary exemptions that the Trump administration granted most electronics in mid-April. Apple softened the blow of Mr Trump's tariffs on products made outside the US during the past quarter by shifting its production of iPhones from China to India. But the administration intends to impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, a move that could intensify the pressure on Apple to raise the prices on the next generation of iPhones expected to be released in September. Mr Cook was not asked about the possibility of an iPhone increase during his Thursday remarks to analysts. Consumer fears about the tariffs driving up iPhone prices spurred an unusual buying spree of iPhones and Mac computers in the US during early April, according to Mr Cook. Apple estimated that spike accounted for roughly one percentage point of its 10% revenue increase in the past quarter, which translates into about 82 million dollars (£62 million) in sales. Mr Cook also credited an uptick in consumers upgrading to the latest model for helping Apple sell its three billionth iPhone since the device's 2007 debut. Mr Trump has been pressuring Apple to make all its iPhones in the US, a move that analysts believe would take years to pull off and ultimately double or triple the average price of the device. But Mr Cook told analysts Thursday that the company is pushing to increase its computer chip production in the US as one way of avoiding tariffs. 'We ultimately will do more in the United States,' he said. Meanwhile, Apple is still trying to fulfil the AI promises it made last year when it unveiled an array of new iPhone features built on the revolutionary technology, raising expectations that the shift would spur millions of people to upgrade their old devices. But Apple still has not delivered on an AI upgrade that was supposed to smarten up its often-bumbling virtual assistant Siri, one of the main reasons underlying the lacklustre growth of iPhone sales. 'While these numbers certainly buy Apple time, the fact is that investors — and consumers — remain laser-focused on AI innovation. And Apple still has a long way to go in this game,' said analyst Thomas Monteiro.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Dawn Meats in pole position to acquire New Zealand meat co-operative
Waterford-based Dawn Meats has emerged as the front-runner to take a controlling stake in New Zealand 's Alliance Group, a farmer-owned co-operative that describes itself as the world's biggest exporter of sheep meat. This is the Irish company's second tilt at a major acquisition in that country's meat industry in a decade. Alliance refused to confirm details of the offer, which still faces a shareholder vote and possible political hurdles, although The Irish Times understands the bid involves a payment of NZ$270 million (€140 million) for a 70 per cent stake in the co-operative. A meeting of co-op members is planned for August 12th to update them on the process, sources said. READ MORE It is understood that Dawn Meats has pulled ahead of several rival NZ meat exporters and the Saudi Public Investment Fund-owned SALIC after Alliance called for non-binding indicative offers in February. Headquartered in Invercargill in South Island and owned by its 4,216 farmer suppliers, Alliance began looking at recapitalisation options last year after racking up pretax losses of more than $200 million in 2023 and 2024 and breaching its banking covenants. A potential injection of between $100 million and $140 million, largely from compulsory deductions from livestock payments to farmers, was ditched in December after being poorly received by shareholders. By then, Alliance had hired an investment bank and begun its search for external capital. Like most NZ meat exporters, Alliance has been hit by declining livestock numbers, brought on by several years of poor farmer returns and a subsequent rush by farmers to plant their properties out in pine trees to earn carbon credits tradable through the country's emissions trading scheme. [ James Bond is mad about the Boyne: campaign against abbatoir effluent plan benefits from Pierce Brosnan's support Opens in new window ] With fewer animals, exporters engaged in a bidding war for livestock to keep their processing plants full and running efficiently. Profit margins came under pressure as returns in export markets failed to keep pace. Losses at the country's largest meat exporter, Dunedin-based Silver Fern Farms, totalled $66 million in 2023 and 2024. However, with interest-bearing debt of just $3.45 million at the end of December, compared with $220 million at Alliance at its September balance sheet date, the former 100 per cent farmer-owned co-operative is on a sounder financial footing, having previously accepted Chinese investment. One key figure in that deal in 2016 told The Irish Times that Dawn Meats was an underbidder to Shanghai Maling's $267 million investment in 50 per cent of Silver Fern Farms. If successful this time, Dawn Meats will be buying into NZ's third-largest meat exporter, with revenues last year of $1.77 billion, down from $2.03 billion in 2023. It has a network of eight processing plants, including three beef plants. However, large-scale shareholder David Pinkney said a sharp turnaround since the start of the year in key lamb markets in the UK and the EU had lifted confidence among shareholders that the co-op could trade its way out of its difficulties without external capital. Higher livestock prices meant farmers were now reconsidering the co-op's earlier call for capital. [ Most farmers could earn more money by planting trees - why don't they? Opens in new window ] Even if it wins over Alliance's shareholders, divisions within the government could still thwart Dawn Meats' second attempt at gaining a foothold in the $9.8 billion New Zealand meat export industry. While the economically liberal National and ACT parties could be expected to wave through a shareholder-backed offer for Alliance, support from their nationalist governing partner NZ First looks less certain. NZ First MP and rural affairs minister Mark Patterson, who is also an Alliance shareholder, told The Irish Times his party would 'more than raise an eyebrow' to a controlling stake in the country's last remaining 100 per cent farmer-owned red meat exporter being sold overseas. 'There is a political hurdle that needs to be cleared,' he said. When contacted, Dawn Meats said it has a policy of not commenting on market speculation.
