Photo credit: NASA | Zena Cardman As night falls over the Arabian Sea and India’s west coast, something remarkable happens. The fishing boats turn on their bright green lights to attract squid, shrimp, sardines, and mackerel, with the glowing dots lighting up the black waters. From the dock or the beach, it’s just a normal sight, a bunch of ships doing their thing long after the sun has set, but up in the International Space Station, 259 miles above the earth, those same lights transform into brilliant streaks and bursts of color that compete with city lights for attention and, in some cases, appear much brighter than entire cities.
Astronaut Zena Cardman was in control of the camera during routine Crew Earth Observations. This is an initiative that has taken hundreds of thousands of photos of what we’re doing on Earth and how the planet is changing. What you see is a sea of dark water, with these bright green streaks emerging where all the boats are concentrating their efforts. On land, city lights give a gentle yellowish glow. The contrast is startling between these clean small blobs of light on the ocean and the spreading mass of city lights.
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The reason boats use green lights in the first place is that artificial light attracts many aquatic species. They approach it because they believe there is food there, or because they are simply interested. That is precisely what the fisherman are depending on. So, at night, when visibility is limited and the fish are swimming near the surface, fishermen may see them and catch more. When a group of boats lights up the sea at the same moment, it resembles a collection of small villages floating on the water. Each boat is a sharp little point, but when combined, they form long, bright streaks that depict the boats traveling over the water.
The @Space_Station rarely makes big changes to its orientation, but we were lucky to experience such maneuvers (flipping around to fly butt-first, then flipping back again) before and after each @spacex CRS-33 reboost. This 60x speed timelapse was one of my favorites since it… pic.twitter.com/7IsZnb1G7G
City lights, on the other hand, present a very different story since they show us where the roads, buildings, homes, and industries are. It’s really evident from orbit. Cities sprawl along beaches and down into valleys, emitting a single, continuous glow. In contrast, fishing lights remain out at sea. They are usually lines or curves of light that follow the best fishing spots. The green tint of the boat lights is another feature that makes them stick out, as it is not a color commonly seen while looking down at streetlights and buildings.
Even though it’s a quiet time of the year when it comes to sales events, there is always a significant number of laptop deals available each week. So, I’m here to use my years of bargain-hunting experience and uncover the top offers that are worth buying right now, with prices starting at $199.
I’ve selected a range of options to suit different budgets and needs: whether you need a budget-friendly device for light use, a great value option for everyday use and work, or a performance powerhouse for more demanding creative or productivity tasks.
You can find my 8 top picks below, including laptops available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Dell — three retailers where I often find the best deals. Just a heads up: some are leftovers from the recent Presidents’ Day sales, so they may not be around much longer.
While there are many United States warships, those that are likely the best known are called “Enterprise.” The U.S. Navy has been commissioning ships with that name since the first Enterprise defended American supply routes from the British in May 1775. The trend continues with the new USS Enterprise (CVN-80), the third Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth ship to be thus named. The USS Enterprise was expected to launch in 2025, but it was delayed and is now expected to launch in 2030.
Because of the ship’s name and the fact that Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers are the largest warships ever constructed, there’s a great deal of public fascination surrounding it. The aircraft carrier is massive, and once it launches, The Enterprise will be able to carry a variety of aircraft, including fighter jets, helicopters, and various drones. In terms of combat aircraft capacity, the Enterprise should be able to accommodate between 70 and 90 aircraft, but this depends on a variety of factors, including the type of fighter jets it employs.
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The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) carries 75 aircraft, operated by the Carrier Air Wing Eight . It consists of three squadrons of F/A-18E Super Hornets. These are being replaced over time as more F-35C Lightning IIs (the U.S. Navy carrier variant) are brought onboard. Because the Enterprise is the same model and because it won’t be ready until 2030, it’s likely that its Carrier Air Wing will consist of the same number of squadrons, though with more F-35Cs than its predecessors.
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The aircraft of the USS Enterprise (CVN-80)
The number of fighter jets that a U.S. aircraft carrier can hold is dependent on several factors. Nimitz-class carriers, which are being replaced by Gerald R. Ford-class ships, carry around 56 fighter jets and other aircraft. The USS Enterprise will likely have the capacity to hold 90 aircraft, though not all of them will be fighter jets. In addition to the F-35C, the Enterprise could also be home to several F/A-18A/C and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, which are highly capable multirole fighters employed throughout the U.S. Navy’s 11 active aircraft carriers.
When the USS Gerald R. Ford was launched, it paved the way for the vessels that followed, but there were issues with several of its systems. The lessons learned from the Ford helped guide changes to the Enterprise’s design, accommodating the F-35C and its upgraded Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar. As a result, the two ships are different in some aspects, though they’re fundamentally similar. The F-35C differs from the A and B models, as it’s designed to utilize the Enterprise’s Catapult-Assisted Take-Off Barrier-Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) system.
The F-35C features larger wings with foldable wingtips. This makes it possible for the Enterprise to hold more F-35Cs than other models, as foldable wingtips allow for a smaller storage footprint. While the U.S. Navy isn’t in the habit of detailing the specifics of its Carrier Air Wing composition and capacities, given the size and attributes of the USS Enterprise and the F-35C, it will likely carry a minimum of 75 fighter jets. Some estimates indicate the number could be as high as 90, but this is unlikely, as room must be made for non-combat aircraft as well.
Behind the investor interest is a highly specialized component: electrostatic chucks, or ESCs, used in semiconductor etch tools to hold wafers flat, clean, and thermally stable while they are bombarded with plasma. Read Entire Article Source link
One of my favorite parts about my job is my ability to test new things and push the limits of my comfort zone with a new piece of tech. When I take on a review, I need to do my best to integrate that piece of tech into my workflow, and I never really know how that’s going to shake out.
I never pictured myself being a digital calendar guy. I mean sure, I live and die by my Google Calendar, but it never occurred to me to get a digital screen whose sole purpose it is to show me what’s coming up on a given day. I had the opportunity to test Skylight’s first calendar around this time last year (SlashGear has a Skylight Calendar (2025) review as well).
Since then, I’ve tested a number of alternatives to the Skylight calendar. At the end of it all, I kept coming back to the Skylight. From a feature-completeness standpoint, it has just the right amount of features — without trying to be something that it’s not.
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One of the pitfalls of a new platform is the temptation to try to do too much, and I tested a few calendars that did just that. But Skylight comfortably stays in its lane with some obvious low-hanging fruit, and some not-so-obvious fruit as well. I’ve been using a Skylight Calendar 2 review sample provided by Skylight for around two weeks, and this is my full review.
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Two steps forward and a step back
Adam Doud/SlashGear
Skylight actually has two calendars on the market right this minute — the Calendar 2 and the Calendar Max. The latter resides on my kitchen wall, and I’ll discuss that a bit as well, but the subject of this review is the former. The Calendar 2 replaces the previous version with a few upgrades, and a small step back from its predecessor. From a hardware standpoint, the screen on the Calendar 2 is faster, brighter, and more responsive than the previous generation.
If you’re using the calendar on a tabletop, the stand is mostly improved. The last calendar’s stand was solid metal, very heavy and to be honest, way overengineered. The new stand is lighter, but still sturdy, but it only works in landscape orientation…for some reason. This is actually the step back I referenced. I used the previous version of the calendar in portrait orientation on a shelf in between my desktop computer and another shelving unit. The calendar wouldn’t fit in landscape though, so it had to move it.
I’m not sure why Skylight made this call. I would imagine it was hard to simplify the stand and have it still work in both orientations. Whatever the case, I’m not thrilled, but that’s about the only thing I’m not happy about. By the way, you can wall mount the calendar in either orientation, so all is not lost.
One other improvement is the frame around the calendar is now magnetic and interchangeable, though the other frames won’t be coming for another month or so. Mine comes with black and it works just fine, but if you want more personality for your calendar, you’ll need to give it another 30 days or so.
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Using a digital calendar
Adam Doud/SlashGear
The idea of a digital calendar never really appealed to me, until I had one. My family uses Google Calendar for all of our family activities — work schedules, school schedules, meetings, and the like. You would think it’s easy enough to pull out your phone or open a new browser tab and see everything that way — and it is. But having a digital calendar on the wall that just shows you what’s coming up all the time is extremely convenient — much like an old-school paper calendar.
You can glance up at the wall and see whatever is coming up. If you want to add an event, you can tap on a plus symbol to add an event or reminder. This version of the calendar is much more responsive than last year’s which is a great upgrade. When you open the new event box, you get a virtual keyboard that betrays the fact that this is an Android build, but one that is highly customized.
When an event is coming up, you get a little tone with an “OK” button, which is handy except when you can’t reach the button to dismiss it. I’d like to see a timer on the OK button to auto-dismiss it, but overall, the calendar is just there when you need it.
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It’s so much more
Adam Doud/SlashGear
Beyond the calendar functionality, Skylight has built in some very smart features. Most of these are controlled with an app that I installed on my iPhone 17 Pro Max. In addition to the calendar (which syncs with Google, Outlook, Apple, Yahoo, and a few others) you can also set up reminders, repeating tasks or chores, and then there’s the one that’s most surprising and useful — meal planning, but it’s a little more than that.
At the risk of sounding like an infomercial “Don’t you just hate it when you get home form a hard day and you have to figure out what to eat? Well fortunately, Skylight can do all that for you!” If you have a black and white image of someone standing in their kitchen looking disheveled and shrugging in a very exaggerated way, you’re not alone. Ready for the super cringey part? Skylight does it with AI! But wait, don’t go anywhere. The AI is actually… kind of… good?
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Your personal Sidekick
Adam Doud/SlashGear
Skylight’s AI feature is called Sidekick and it’s a handy little tool you can use to perform certain tasks. The obvious one is using Sidekick to capture an event from a poster or something like that. It can find the date, time, and event title and create an event for you. That’s quickly becoming table stakes for AI, but what about creating table steaks?
Sidekick can create a comprehensive meal plan for you and your family. In my case, I typed something to the effect of “My family has one diabetic person, so we have a real focus on protein and reduced sugars. We typically have ground beef and chicken on hand, but we’re not opposed to salads and other vegetables.” From that prompt, Sidekick whipped up a dinner plan for my family for seven days, included the recipes for the meals and added the ingredients to our shopping list.
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The limitation here is that it added the ingredients to Skylights List feature, which is fine, except my family already has an app we’ve bought into to accommodate shopping lists and whatnot. I would love to see some kind of integration with AnyList, an iPhone app not enough people know about, but if you do that, you open a can of worms with customers asking, “Well you support XYZ, why not ABC?” I get it, and I respect Skylight for evading that nightmare scenario.
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It’s not perfect, but it’s close
Adam Doud/SlashGear
I did not go into the digital calendar experience expecting it to be life-changing, but it really has been. Paper calendars are fine, but once you go digital, it’s hard to go back. Having your life digitized and hanging on the wall at all times is just so useful. Plus, compared to other digital calendars I’ve used, I can promise you Skylight is absolutely killing it. There is some room for improvement, and some caveats to be aware of.
The first is a big note — things like meal planning and magic import are behind a paywall called the Plus Plan. It’s $79 for a year, which isn’t too bad, but when everything in life is a subscription, it grates a little.
A feature that the Plus Plan unlocks lets you use your calendar as a digital frame when it’s not in use. This tracks because Skylight got its start in the digital photo frame industry. However, I never used the digital frame feature because to me, it defeated the purpose of having a digital calendar. The only way to turn off the frame is to tap on the screen, but that kills the ability to glance at the calendar and see what’s coming up.
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Price, Availability, and Verdict
Adam Doud/SlashGear
The Skylight Calendar 2 is available from Skylight’s website for $299. It will be coming to other retailers in the future as well.
That price is a tad on the high side. I love the digital calendar, don’t get me wrong, but that’s a pretty high barrier for entry. Personally, I think it’s worth it, especially if you spring for the Plus Plan (which also gives you an extra $20 off the purchase price) and really buy into the Skylight ecosystem. Skylight offers free returns for up to four months, so you can really test drive it to make sure it’s for you.
All that being said, the convenience of putting your digital life on the wall at all times is pretty intoxicating. I suspect you’ll forget about the purchase price soon enough once you get it set up and realize how helpful it can be.
Hanging midair may be difficult, but running an aerial or pole business comes with even higher stakes
Whether you’re suspended five metres above the ground on silks or spinning around a pole, the physical risks of aerial silk and pole classes are obvious. What’s less visible is the financial balancing act required to keep a studio open in Singapore.
The country has seen waves of fitness trends, from spin and reformer pilates to HYROX, many of which have shuttered in recent years. In contrast, aerial and pole studios have been around since over a decade ago, still surviving amid a saturated fitness scene thanks to a tight community and the versatility of the sports.
Vulcan Post speaks to three studio owners to understand the economics behind their businesses and how the financial and operational stress keeps them on edge more than any stunt ever could.
The unglamorous side of running a studio
(Left): Adelene Chua-Adams, founder of Adedance; (Right): Students at an aerial class at Adedance./ Image Credit: Adedance
Setting up an aerial or pole studio isn’t as simple as renting any open space. Because both disciplines require significant ceiling height and structural integrity, not every commercial unit can accommodate the equipment safely.
For aerial silks, hoops, and pole rigs, ceilings must be high enough to allow tricks and inversions, while the floors and beams need to withstand dynamic loads—sometimes dozens of students swinging or spinning at once.
“Aside from the old badminton hall in Geylang, nowhere was very big and able to cater to aerial properly,” shared Adelene. This led her to start offering small-scale aerial classes at her Yio Chu Kang family home in 2017, before eventually taking the gamble of opening her own studio in Tai Seng.
The costs one needs to pay to start an aerial studio, according to Adelene Chua-Adams./ Image designed by Vulcan Post
But the hunt for her own space was far from smooth. Adelene shared that many of the units she liked were classified under Zone B1, a commercial zoning category that requires businesses to pay 12 to 24 months’ upfront government levies before they can operate legally.
“We tried many avenues of appeal, but ultimately couldn’t get around this extra cost from the URA and SLA. Lesson learned there.”
That’s just one operational cost. Adelene also shared that starting an aerial and/or pole studio requires three to four months’ rent as a deposit, and renovations can cost anywhere from S$50,000 to over S$100,000, not to mention the additional cost of purchasing and installing the truss, sound systems, air conditioning, lighting and signage.
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All in, opening an aerial or pole studio can easily require a six-figure upfront investment before the first class even begins.
(Left): Jasmine Han, founder of MAD Collection; (Right): A pole class at MAD Collection./ Image Credit: @cameranoire via Instagram/ MAD Collection
Jasmine Han, founder of MAD Collection (formerly known as SLAP Studio), pointed out that finding a space with strong ceilings and flooring is essential to protect the safety of the instructors and students. However, she emphasised the need to negotiate favourable quotes for renovations, as it can set the owners back before they can break even.
“You need to have a professional engineer to come and certify the safety and ensure the rigging is up to a certain standard,” she added. “Nothing we do is rocket science, but it’s a lot of little, little things.”
She also pointed out that most studios often run without the help of external investors and have to pay recurring expenses, such as managing their online payment systems, studio maintenance and staff salaries, even during holiday closures.
Beyond capital, owners must also be able to adapt to unforeseeable situations, from finding last-minute teacher replacements to handling customer complaints and even fixing broken toilets. For them, the physical fear of falling is easier to manage than the constant uncertainty of running a small business in Singapore.
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As a business owner, every single day, you are stepping on Legos and eating glass all at the same time. But this is what you need to have the ability to change directions quickly, to be able to get up when somebody punches you in the face.
Jasmine Han, founder of MAD Collection
Diversifying revenue streams in a competitive market
The costs of setting up and running aerial and pole studios make steady, predictable revenue essential: businesses cannot rely on hype alone.
All three studios offer class packages for students, ranging from trial classes to weeks to months-long term-based systems with varying price points. Here is a breakdown of their offerings and prices:
Category
MAD Collection
Adedance Aerial
Milan Pole Dance Studio Singapore
Drop-In Class
~S$42
~S$38–$48
S$48
Term Course (eight weeks)
~S$278
S$259–S$388 (varies)
N/A (no rigid term)
Trial Package
S$15 per one hour trial
S$35 / S$85 (three-class)
S$50/ S$85 (three-class)
Class Pack (10+ classes)
–
S$410–S$453+
S$440
Practice Session
S$12.50
S$15–S$20
S$15
Monthly Membership
–
–
S$265+
With classes priced roughly between S$38 and S$48, studios operate within narrow margins—high enough to cover overhead costs, but low enough to remain competitive, especially in a market that has grown more saturated over the years.
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According to Tracy Mak, the co-owner of Milan Pole Dance Studio Singapore (MPDS), there are over 30 aerial and pole studios in Singapore, among the highest per capita globally.
(Left): Tracy Mak, co-owner of Milan Pole Dance Studio Singapore (MPDS); (Right): MPDS offers classes from pole to aerial hoop and silks/ Image Credits: Milan Pole Dance Studio Singapore
“With increasing competition within aerial and pole, as well as the lifestyle dollar of travel and other fitness options, people are spoilt for choice, less committal and increasingly price sensitive,” she pointed out.
As such, studios have to expand their class offerings to create additional revenue streams. For example, Adedance offers acrobatic, contortion and handstand classes, and MAD collection and MPDS offer heels and dance classes apart from pole.
(Left): Walkover classes at Adedance; (Middle): Kids aerial silk class at MPDS; (Right): Pole heels class at MAD Collection./ Image Credit: Adedance/ MPDS/ MAD Collection
These studios also offer corporate packages, where they perform for events such as dinners, dances and brand launches. Adelene noted that 75% of Adedance’s income comes from classes and 25% of it comes from performances, which provide higher-ticket revenue but are less predictable than weekly classes.
“We’ve performed for massive events ranging from F1, the SEA Games Opening Ceremony, Mercedes car launches overseas and more,” she said.
Collaboration is key to survival and growth
Over the years, aerial and pole have grown steadily in popularity, a trend the three business owners largely attribute to the strength of their community. In the early days, studios relied almost entirely on word of mouth to attract students.
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Pole, in particular, has also seen a shift in perception, according to Tracy.
She recounted that when she tried pole 18 years ago, she was admittedly sceptical as the sport was seen as taboo due to its association with strip clubs in the West. Today, more people view it as a “serious” form of fitness that is suitable for all ages.
“There are still lingering stereotypes, but overall, people are far more open,” added Tracy. “There’s much more recognition and respect, especially as people see how physically demanding and impressive it is when we perform tricks in the air.”
Beyond running her studios, both located within Outram Park, the 46-year-old aims to elevate the entire industry to be recognised nationwide. In 2025, she gathered key players in the aerial and pole scene, including MAD Collection and Adedance, to organise the first Singapore Aerial Pole Fiesta as part of the Singapore Urban Sports and Fitness Festival 2025.
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Through the event, aerial and pole studios were able to present themselves through performance showcases and interact with the local mainstream crowd by offering try-outs. The two-day event drew over 3,000 participants, and the positive reception has pushed Tracy to form the Singapore Aerial and Pole Federation.
As aerial and pole are still considered niche sports in Singapore, forming a federation can help them gain greater recognition from government bodies and corporates to advance these sports locally. This means having access to grants, donors and performance opportunities.
However, since the federation has yet to officially launch, studio owners still often rely on their own resources to keep their businesses running. With rising rents and intensifying competition, collaboration may be a more sustainable strategy than aggressive discounting, a trap many fitness businesses in Singapore have fallen into.
Jasmine also cautioned that engaging in price wars would only decrease the credibility others have built for decades, and that teachers also play a huge part in maintaining it.
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“If you want to open a course, class or session, make sure your teachers are qualified enough to deliver and understand it,” she emphasised.
Despite its growth, there are some who believe aerial and pole are fads that will die off with time. Amid a wave of fitness studio closures in recent years, Tracy shared that it often keeps her on her toes as an owner.
That said, she firmly believes that these two sports have long-term potential in the country, with their combination of sport and art encouraging greater involvement. Adelene also echoes this sentiment, adding that participation has been higher than ever.
“I was actually surprised to hear this comment because we feel it’s anything but dying! Just pop into our studio at 7:30PM or on a weekend, and we are jam-packed!”
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Mastering tricks in the air may take strength and balance, but running a studio in Singapore demands something else entirely: capital, resilience, and the ability to adapt quickly. For these founders, staying afloat financially is often harder than hanging from the ceiling.
For now, demand remains strong, and these founders are betting that discipline, not hype, will keep them in the air.
Learn about the businesses featured below:
Read more stories we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.
Featured Image Credit: Adedance/ MAD Collection/ Milan Pole Dance Studio Singapore
Midea has used KBIS 2026 to show it’s no longer just a budget-friendly appliance maker.
At this year’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Orlando, the brand unveiled one of its broadest line-ups yet — spanning kitchen, laundry and even climate tech. However, it’s the kitchen gear that stands out for 2026.
Leading the charge is an expanded French Door refrigerator range, now available in 30-, 33- and 36-inch sizes in both standard and counter-depth formats. Some models feature OneTouch AutoFill with MaxSpace, designed to optimise storage while cutting down on the usual fridge juggling act. It’s a practical upgrade, but the real headline grabber sits elsewhere in the kitchen.
Midea’s new premium dishwasher introduces STRAWash and SENSOR TruDry, a system built specifically to clean reusable bottles, tall tumblers and even straws using dedicated internal jets. There’s also a one-hour wash-and-dry cycle aimed at households that don’t want to wait overnight for clean dishes. It’s a small tweak on paper, but one that feels tailored to how people actually use kitchens in 2026.
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The cooking line-up is expanding too, with new four- and five-burner gas and electric freestanding ranges, plus a forthcoming slide-in platform. Meanwhile, the company’s new over-the-range microwave features Soft Close Technology — eliminating the familiar microwave door slam in favour of a smoother, quieter close.
Beyond major appliances, Midea is also fleshing out its small appliance portfolio, covering everything from air fryers to espresso machines. The goal seems clear: reduce countertop clutter while keeping everything connected within one ecosystem.
While this showcase focuses heavily on kitchens, Midea is also pushing deeper into laundry and HVAC. Redesigned washers and dryers now include PowerMix Spray, Flexi AutoDose, and large TFT displays. In addition, its DIY-friendly EasySplit mini-split system builds on the success of the original Midea U.
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Taken together, Midea’s 2026 portfolio signals a shift from individual appliances to full-home solutions. And if the dishwasher that cleans your reusable straw doesn’t sum up modern kitchen design, it’s hard to know what does.
Seattle startup Adronite raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Gatemore Capital Management, as it looks to expand its AI-powered platform designed to give large organizations visibility into sprawling and complex codebases.
The funding comes amid intense competition in the AI developer tools market. Unlike many AI coding tools that operate at the level of individual files or snippets, Adronite ingests complete codebases, including both modern and legacy systems.
The idea is to help organizations understand how their software works as a system, with applications in security analysis, modernization, and active remediation at scale.
Adronite can also build apps from natural language prompts and offers an AI chat feature that provides details on system-wide insights.
The system supports more than 20 programming languages and has been proven on a codebase with 2.5 million lines of code.
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The 15-person company expects initial commercial deployments to begin in the first quarter of 2026.
There are various companies that offer code review tools, including CAST and Sonar.
Adronite co-founder and CEO Edward Rothschild is a former software engineer at Facebook and director of engineering at Nayya. He helped launch Adronite in 2023.
As part of the funding round, Liad Meidar, managing partner of Gatemore, was named chair of Adronite’s board. Gatemore has offices in New York and London.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Post: In 2024, the Ethiopian government banned the import of fossil fuel-powered vehicles and slashed tariffs on their electric equivalents. It was a policy driven less by the country’s climate ambitions and more by fiscal pressures. For years, subsidizing gasoline for consumers has been a major drag on Ethiopia’s budget, costing the state billions of dollars over the past decade. The country defaulted on its sovereign bonds in 2023 after rising interest rates drove up the costs of servicing its debts, and it received a $3.4 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund the following year.
In the two years since the ban on internal combustion engine vehicles, EV adoption has grown from less than 1% to nearly 6% of all of the vehicles on the road in the country — according to the government’s own figures — some way above the global average of 4%. “The Ethiopia story is fascinating,” said Colin McKerracher, head of clean transport at BloombergNEF. “What you’re seeing in places that don’t make a lot of vehicles of any type, they’re saying: ‘Well, look, if I’m going to import the cars anyway, then I’d rather import less oil. We may as well import the one that cleans up local air quality and is cheaper to buy.’”
For decades, Ethiopia’s high import tariffs on vehicles put new car ownership out of the reach of most of the country’s population. Per capita gross domestic product is only about $1,000, and even by the standards of low-income countries, it has among the lowest car ownership rates. At 13 vehicles per 1,000 people, it’s a fraction of the African average of 73. With few cars manufactured in the country, the vast majority are imported, and most are bought used. The government’s import policy has upended the market. In parallel, tariffs for EVs were dropped to 15% for completed cars, 5% for parts and semi-assembled vehicles, and zero for “fully knocked down” — vehicles shipped in parts and assembled locally. That has made new EVs cost-competitive with old gasoline cars.
A world that runs on increasingly powerful AI coding tools is one where software creation is cheap — or so the thinking goes — leaving little room for traditional software companies. As one analyst report put it, “vibe coding will allow startups to replicate the features of complex SaaS platforms.”
Cue the hand-wringing and declarations that software companies are doomed.
Open-source software projects that use agents to paper over long-standing resource constraints should logically be among the first to benefit from the era of cheap code. But that equation just doesn’t quite stick. In practice, the impact of AI coding tools on open source software has been far more mixed.
AI coding tools have caused as many problems as they have solved, according to industry experts. The easy-to-use and accessible nature of AI coding tools has enabled a flood of bad code that threatens to overwhelm projects. Building new features is easier than ever, but maintaining them is just as hard and threatens to further fragment software ecosystems.
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The result is a more complicated story than simple software abundance. Perhaps, the predicted, imminent death of the software engineer in this new AI era is premature.
Quality vs quantity
Across the board, projects with open codebases are noticing a decline in the average quality of submissions, likely a result of AI tools lowering barriers to entry.
“For people who are junior to the VLC codebase, the quality of the merge requests we see is abysmal,” Jean-Baptiste Kempf, the CEO of the VideoLan Organization that oversees VLC, said in a recent interview.
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Boston, MA | June 23, 2026
Kempf is still optimistic about AI coding tools overall but says they’re best “for experienced developers.”
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There have been similar problems at Blender, a 3D modeling tool that has been maintained as open source since 2002. Blender Foundation CEO Franceso Siddi said LLM-assisted contributions typically “wasted reviewers’ time and affected their motivation.” Blender is still developing an official policy for AI coding tools, but Siddi said they are “neither mandated nor recommended for contributors or core developers.”
The flood of merge requests has gotten so bad that open-source developers are building new tools to manage it.
Earlier this month, developer Mitchell Hashimoto launched a system that would limit GitHub contributions to “vouched” users, effectively closing the open-door policy for open-source software. As Hashimoto put it in the announcement, “AI eliminated the natural barrier to entry that let OSS projects trust by default.”
The same effect has emerged in bug bounty programs, which give outside researchers an open door to report security vulnerabilities. The open-source data transfer program cURL recently halted its bug bounty program after being overwhelmed by what creator Daniel Stenberg described as “AI slop.”
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“In the old days, someone actually invested a lot of time [in] the security report,” Stenberg said at a recent conference. “There was a built-in friction, but now there’s no effort at all in doing this. The floodgates are open.”
It’s particularly frustrating because many of open-source projects are also seeing the benefits of AI coding tools. Kempf says it’s made building new modules for VLC far easier, provided there’s an experienced developer at the helm.
“You can give the model the whole codebase of VLC and say, ‘I’m porting this to a new operating system,’” Kempf said. “It is useful for senior people to write new code, but it’s difficult to manage for people who don’t know what they’re doing.”
Competing priorities
The bigger problem for open-source projects is a difference in priorities. Companies like Meta value new code and products, while open-source software work focuses more on stability.
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“The problem is different from large companies to open-source projects,” Kempf commented. “They get promoted for writing code, not maintaining it.”
AI coding tools are also arriving at a moment when software, in general, is particularly fragmented.
Open Source Index founder Konstantin Vinogradov, who recently launched an endowment to maintain open-source infrastructure, said AI tools are running into a long-standing trend in open-source engineering.
“On the one hand, we have exponentially growing code base with exponentially growing number of interdependences, And on the other hand, we have number of active maintainers, which is maybe slowly growing, but definitely not keeping up,” Vinogradov said. “With AI, both parts of this equation accelerated.”
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It’s a new way of thinking about AI’s impact on software engineering — one with alarming implications for the industry at large.
If you see engineering as the process of producing working software, AI coding makes it easier than ever. But if engineering is really the process of managing software complexity, AI coding tools could make it harder. At the very least, it will take a lot of active planning and work to keep the sprawling complexity in check.
For Vinogradov, the result is a familiar situation for open-source projects: a lot of work to do, and not enough good engineers to do it.
“AI does not increase the number of active, skilled maintainers,” he remarked. “It empowers the good ones, but all the fundamental problems just remain.”
Apple is reportedly developing a trio of AI-powered wearables, including smart glasses, camera-equipped AirPods and a new AI pin device.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the products are designed to give Siri more “contextual awareness” by letting it see and interpret the world around you.
The headline device appears to be a pair of Apple-designed smart glasses aimed squarely at competitors like Meta’s Ray-Ban collaboration. Rather than partnering with an established eyewear brand, Apple is said to be developing its frames in-house.
The company is focusing on premium build quality and multiple size and colour options. Reports suggest the glasses will feature an advanced dual-camera system. One high-resolution camera captures photos and video, while a second sensor feeds environmental data to Siri.
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If accurate, the goal is to create what sources describe as an “all-day AI companion,” offering hands-free contextual queries similar to what Meta currently provides. This would come with Apple’s tighter hardware-software integration.
Alongside the glasses, Apple is reportedly exploring AirPods fitted with lower-resolution cameras. These wouldn’t be designed for photography, but instead to gather visual context for Siri while maintaining the familiar earbuds form factor. Microphones would also allow for voice interaction. As a result, the AirPods would become another extension of the iPhone’s AI system.
The third device in development is said to be an AI-powered wearable pin. The concept echoes products like the Humane AI Pin. However, Apple’s version would reportedly rely on the iPhone as its processing hub rather than operating as a standalone replacement. A built-in speaker is being considered, though that detail is not confirmed.
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The broader strategy appears clear: rather than replacing the iPhone, Apple wants to surround it with AI-enabled accessories, reducing the need to constantly take it out of your pocket. It’s a different approach to some early AI hardware experiments that attempted to fully supplant smartphones. Those efforts haven’t always landed well.
There’s no official confirmation from Apple, and none of these products are unlikely to arrive before 2027. Still, if the reports hold up, Apple could be preparing its most ambitious wearable push since the Apple Watch. This time, the focus is centred squarely on AI.
