There might be a general sense out there that modern cars are longer-lasting and less trouble-prone than older ones, and for many models, and by many standards, that may be true. This doesn’t, however, mean that new cars are without issues — and those issues can be big or small. With the increased use of software, sensors, and other tech-heavy features in modern vehicles, even minor glitches and hiccups can easily cause problems — with things like backup camera issues regularly leading to extensive vehicle recalls in the modern era.
The good news is that while annoying, a lot of those issues can be fixed quickly and easily, sometimes at home via over-the-air updates or with a trip to the dealer for a software refresh or a quick component replacement. Some modern vehicle problems, though, are much more troublesome.
Nobody wants to deal with engine problems, and at the moment several major auto brands are facing notable engine issues on some of their most popular models. Some of these problems have necessitated complete engine replacements and have caused not just major vehicle recalls but class action lawsuits as well. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the bigger ongoing engine issues that automakers are dealing with in 2026.
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1. Honda 1.5 turbo
Honda generally enjoys a strong reputation for reliability, but there are still some Honda engines buyers might want to steer clear of. One of those engines is the company’s 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The Honda 1.5-liter turbo has been around for a while now and powers some of Honda’s best-selling models, including the Civic, Accord, and CR-V.
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Unfortunately, this engine’s issues have also been known for a while — namely, oil dilution and head gasket failures. A blown head gasket is not a cheap or quick repair, and while Honda hasn’t issued a factory recall for these problems, ongoing 1.5-liter turbo issues have continued to plague the company, including class action lawsuits.
The good news for new car buyers, at least, is that in 2026, the 1.5 turbo has become an increasingly small and outdated part of Honda’s engine lineup, as the Civic, Accord, and CR-V are all available with Honda’s newer 2.0-liter hybrid four-cylinder. Opting for the hybrid versions of these cars will cost a little more up front, but it’s probably the wiser choice. Not only will the hybrid models avoid the potential issues of the 1.5 turbo, but they also deliver significantly improved fuel economy and performance compared to the non-hybrid engine.
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2. Nissan 1.5-liter VC turbo
Things overall have not been great for Nissan recently, as the Japanese automaker works to dig its way out of financial turmoil at the corporate level; down on the ground, things aren’t much better. The company’s innovative yet often troublesome variable compression engines have been a major culprit behind recalls and owner complaints, plagued by issues for a few years now.
In 2026, the Nissan 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbo VC motor has proven especially problematic, with the company recalling over 600,000 Rogue SUVs for potentially catastrophic engine problems. If fortunate, some of the affected engines will only need a throttle body replacement. More serious is the ongoing problem of VC engine bearing failures, which, if found during inspection, require a complete engine replacement. Along with the popular Rogue, these VC turbo engine issues have also affected models like the Nissan Altima, as well as some of Infiniti’s small SUVs.
With more car companies using turbochargers and other tricks to squeeze added power and fuel efficiency from small-displacement engines, it seems almost inevitable that problems like this will happen more — particularly when compared to the larger and simpler, if less efficient, naturally aspirated engines that used to be the norm.
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3. General Motors 6.2L V8
Given their increased heat and complexity, it’s not surprising that most engines experiencing major issues are the smaller, turbocharged variety. It turns out, though, that the simpler, naturally aspirated American V8 is not without its own problems. Specifically, we’re talking about problems with the General Motors 6.2-liter V8, which powers popular models like the best-selling Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, as well as the Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon, and Cadillac Escalade SUVs.
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Problems caused by defective internal components in the L87 6.2 V8 have thus far led to the recall of over 700,000 trucks and SUVs, not to mention ongoing class-action lawsuits from owners. GM says a possible solution is to change the recommended oil viscosity. However, questions remain about its effectiveness, and it hasn’t provided L87 owners with any real peace of mind. Even if the solution helps protect the engines, concerns have been raised about a possible decrease in fuel economy from the switch.
In early 2026, an NHTSA investigation was launched into the 6.2 engine failures and the band-aid fixes GM has recommended. There’s no doubt that both General Motors and potential truck and SUV buyers are hoping that the 6.2’s issues will be left in the past with the move to new, larger V8 engines on next-generation truck models.
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4. Jeep 2.0L turbo hybrid (4xe)
jhxfilm/Shutterstock
Want to know how fast things can change in the auto industry? Back in 2021, the new Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe models, which use a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine combined with plug-in hybrid electric power, were portrayed as the future of the Jeep brand — and would be sold as part of a growing lineup of hybrid and fully electric Jeep SUVs.
Just five years later, Jeep has discontinued its 4xe models completely. This was partly done in response to a shifting market and regulatory environment, which has seen automakers draw back from electrification across the board, but that likely wasn’t the only reason for the 4xe’s demise. The 4xe powertrain has also been plagued by mechanical and electrical issues, which surely haven’t helped its case for sticking around. Among other things, 4xes had already been recalled for potential battery fire issues– and then there was another recall for possible casting sand that may have been left inside the 4xe’s 2.0 turbo engine, with over 100,000 vehicles affected.
If sand is inside the engine, it could lead not just to total engine failure but also to a fire risk — something that has become all too familiar for 4xe owners. One can only imagine the costs Jeep and Stellantis incurred during the 4xe experiment, so it’s not surprising that the company is ready to move on from this era — even as mechanical problems linger.
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5. Toyota 3.4L twin-turbo V6
Traditionally, when one bought a new Toyota pickup truck, a reputation for reliability was one of the big selling points. Even if the truck lagged behind competitors in other categories, the hope was that a bulletproof, trouble-free engine would pay dividends over the long run. So far, though, that hasn’t been the case with the company’s latest full-size pickups and SUVs.
The 3.4-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine that powers the Toyota Tundra pickup and Toyota Sequoia SUV has suffered significant problems since its debut for the 2022 model year — and they continue to put a dent in Toyota’s generally excellent reputation. As of 2026, ongoing, potentially catastrophic engine-bearing problems have prompted Toyota to recall over 250,000 trucks, and even with the company’s efforts to remedy the issue, Tundra owners remain unhappy with the situation.
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Even worse, though Toyota has updated the design, the new engines being built today still aren’t completely immune to the defect. While there’s no doubt about the on-paper performance and fuel economy improvements of the new twin-turbo engine over its predecessors, the issues the new Tundra has had will probably keep some owners sticking with their older V8 models for a while longer.
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How we listed these engines
Andrey Grigoriev/Getty Images
The engines on this list were chosen because of ongoing recalls, owner complaints, class-action lawsuits, and government investigations over the last 12 months. To narrow it down to these specific choices, we chose popular vehicles from major brands that have been subject to large and ongoing recalls over the last year — including ones with issues not yet fully resolved. While manufacturer recalls are very common on modern vehicles, these engine issues require more than a quick fix and, if left unaddressed, have been shown to cause complete engine failures, often in newer vehicles with low mileage.
In every CNET TV review, I compare three or more similar TVs side by side in a dedicated, light-controlled test lab. With each review, I employ a rigorous, unbiased evaluation process that has been honed by more than two decades of TV reviews. I test TVs with a combination of scientific measurements and real-world evaluations of TV, movies and gaming content.
To ensure I can evaluate the picture quality of every TV, I connect each one to an AVPro Connect 8×8 4K HDR splitter so each one receives the same signal. I test the TVs using various lighting conditions, playing different media, including 4K HDR movies and console games, across a variety of test categories, from color to video processing to gaming to HDR.
In order to measure each TV, I use specialized equipment to grade them according to light output and color. My hardware includes a Konica Minolta CS-2000 spectroradiometer and a Murideo Six-G 4K HDR signal generator. I use Portrait Displays CalMan Ultimate software to evaluate every TV I review according to its brightness, black levels and color.
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The Leo Bodnar Lag Tester samples three regions of the screen for latency, and these are averaged to give each TV’s lag score
I play a variety of games from an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, and note the effects of gaming modes and settings as well as the 4K/120Hz and VRR input capabilities. Helpfully, the Xbox includes a 4K/120Hz and HDR compatibility test: Settings>TV and display options>4K TV details. The page will detail the HDR modes it supports (including Dolby Atmos) and whether it will support VRR — if a TV gets ticks in all the boxes it means it has the best compatibility with high-end Xbox games.
Our reviews also account for such things as features, design, smart TV performance, connectivity including HDMI inputs and gaming compatibility.
Measuring input lag (in milliseconds) is an important component of my process for testing gaming TVs.
Input lag will often be lower in game mode than in any other mode on your TV. Here are a few more gaming-specific aspects I looked at for each TV.
How to turn on game mode. In most cases, viewing in game mode isn’t automatic, so you’ll have to turn it on manually, and sometimes the gaming monitor setting can be difficult to find. Many use a picture mode called “Game” while some, like Samsung and Vizio, let you apply game mode to any setting.
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Game mode makes a difference, but not at all frequencies. As you can see in the table above, many TVs cut lag substantially when you turn on game mode, but plenty don’t. In general, expensive TVs with elaborate video processing get more of a benefit when you engage game mode. Additionally, and as I noted above, the Boost mode on LG OLEDs only works on 60Hz and not 120Hz.
Most TV game modes are good enough for most gamers. No matter how twitchy you are, it’s going to be tough to tell the difference between 10 and 30 milliseconds of input lag. Many gamers won’t even be able to discern between having game mode on and off — it all depends on the game and your sensitivity to lag.
Turning game mode on can hurt image quality (a little). TV-makers’ menus often refer to reduced picture quality. Reduced picture quality is generally the result of turning off that video processing. In my experience, however, the differences in image quality are really subtle with console gaming, and worth the trade-off if you want to minimize lag for a great gaming experience.
4K HDR gaming lag is different from 1080p. The display resolution you play at has an impact, and since new consoles prominently feature 4K HDR output for games, I started testing for 4K HDR lag in 2018. In general, the numbers are similar to the lag with standard 1080p resolution, but as you can see from the chart above, there are exceptions.
Testing is an inexact science. I use Leo Bodnar lag testers. Here’s how they work, and how I use them. I use two of these Bodnar lag testers — one in 1080p and one in 4K HDR — which use onboard optical sensors to measure and report input lag. When plugged into an HDMI port, the Bodnars make the screen flash in three different places and you place the unit’s onboard optical sensor flush onto the screen at these points. They calculate the lag at each position and you average the three readings to get a score. You might see different lag test results from different review outlets, which may use Bodnar or another method.
The cool thing about cyberdecks is that you get to design them to suit your personal tastes. [NickZero] wanted an ultra-minimal build, and set about putting together just that.
The build is based around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, which has a lighter power draw than the full-fat models at the trade-off of some processing power. Since it’s a W model, it has the benefit of wireless connectivity baked in from the factory. The Pi is paired with a Gherkin 30% layout keyboard kit, which neatly matches the 7″ Waveshare touch display in width. Power is courtesy of a juicy 4000 mAh lithium-ion cell, which is taken care of by an Adafruit Powerboost 1000 charger module. Everything is then laced up together inside a nifty 3D printed case.
It’s a simple cyberdeck, and one that’s probably quite satisfying to use when you get used to the fact that there are no number or modifier keys on the ultra-cut-down keyboard. It’s also a great example of how a bunch of off-the-shelf gear can nonetheless be assembled into quite a cohesive whole. In much the opposite way, we’ve seen some maximalist cyberdeck builds lately, too.
VSCO is making a bigger push into professional photography with the launch of Studio Pro, a new editing app designed for photographers handling large volumes of images.
The app arrives alongside a new VSCO One subscription bundle. This subscription will cost $500 per year. As a result, it puts the app in direct competition with Adobe’s creative software ecosystem, which dominates the industry.
Available now on iOS, with a macOS version due later this year, Studio Pro is aimed at photographers who regularly work on projects such as weddings, sports events, portraits and school photography. Rather than focusing on casual edits, the app is built around streamlining larger workflows.
At launch, Studio Pro includes tools for batch editing, allowing users to apply adjustments across multiple images at once. It also offers a style-matching feature that can replicate the look of a reference image across an entire shoot. Furthermore, photographers can share finished work through VSCO Galleries. This gives clients a dedicated place to view and access images.
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VSCO says this is only the beginning. Future updates are expected to add RAW photo support, more advanced export controls, aspect ratio adjustments and additional editing tools aimed at professional users.
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The launch is closely tied to the company’s new VSCO One subscription, which bundles together its growing collection of photography tools and services. In addition to Studio Pro, subscribers will gain access to Capture, Galleries, Workspace, Sites, AI Lab and Canvas. They will also have access to VSCO’s Freelance Photographer mentorship programme.
The company is positioning VSCO One as an alternative to what it describes as the “fragmented” workflow many photographers currently deal with. In this fragmented workflow, editing, client communication, image delivery and portfolio management often require several different platforms.
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At $500 annually, the subscription won’t be for everyone. However, the pricing places it broadly in line with an annual Adobe Creative Cloud Pro subscription. This makes it clear who VSCO is targeting.
Most of the AI industry is betting that bigger models mean smarter machines. A new startup is betting the opposite.
Aether AI, based in San Diego, has raised a $20mn seed round to chase a different idea entirely. Its founder thinks the next leap will not come from scale. It will come from teaching machines cause and effect.
Correlation versus causation
Today’s big models learn by spotting patterns in huge piles of data. That works well in the lab. But it can wobble in the messy real world, where a statistical shortcut quietly fails.
Aether wants machines to grasp the mechanisms behind events instead. Its “causal world models” are meant to let a system reason about what would happen if it acted, before it acts. The company says this makes AI more reliable and far less data-hungry. The thesis sits squarely in the wider debate over whether AI’s progress is starting to stall.
The first target is physical AI and robotics. The logic is neat. Every move a robot makes is an intervention in the world, so errors show up at once as dropped objects or failed tasks.
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That makes robotics a brutal test for causal reasoning. Aether’s long-term goal is a single “causal brain” that could steer many kinds of robots. It is a crowded ambition, with everyone from Google DeepMind’s world models to Jeff Bezos’s $10bn physical-AI lab chasing the same prize.
A serious pedigree
The founder gives the bet credibility. Biwei Huang is an assistant professor at UC San Diego and a known name in causal discovery. She created the open-source tools Causal-Learn and Causal-Copilot, and has published widely at the field’s top venues.
Aether also invokes the founders of modern causality, naming Judea Pearl, Bernhard Schölkopf and others as supporters of its work. The round was led by MPCi, with Inno Angel Fund, SWC Global and Unity Ventures joining.
Why it matters
Causality is one of AI’s oldest unsolved problems, and turning it into a product is hard. So the caveats matter. Aether’s early results are its own, not peer-reviewed, and $20mn is small against the billions pouring into rival labs. Its backers are mostly Asia-based funds, not the usual Silicon Valley names.
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Still, the idea lands at a useful moment. Doubts about pure scaling are growing, and robots keep stumbling on tasks that look simple to humans. If causal models really do cut the data needed and improve reliability, they would matter well beyond robotics. That is a big “if”. But it is the kind of bet worth watching.
Facepalm: Microsoft has acknowledged a strange Recycle Bin bug affecting Windows 11 following this month’s Patch Tuesday update. Users have reported several other issues since the June 2026 update rolled out earlier this week, but this is the only bug Microsoft has officially confirmed.
According to Microsoft, users who have installed the KB5095051 update might encounter a strange Recycle Bin bug that replaces the names of deleted files with internal Recycle Bin filenames in specific situations. When permanently deleting a single file from the Recycle Bin, the confirmation dialog displays a cryptic internal filename, such as $Rxxxxx.ext, instead of the original filename, such as realfilename.txt.
However, the bug only affects the confirmation dialog, as the Recycle Bin window continues to display the original filename. Restoring the item also reportedly returns it to its original location with the correct filename. Despite the incorrect filename shown in the confirmation dialog, the file is still deleted as expected once the action is confirmed, meaning the bug does not cause any significant usability issues.
Microsoft says a workaround is available for affected devices, but only commercial users can deploy it for now. To obtain additional details on how to mitigate the issue, system administrators must contact Microsoft Support for Business. Everyone else will have to wait for a permanent fix, which Microsoft says will be delivered in a future Windows update.
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Despite Microsoft’s recent emphasis on improving the Windows user experience, the operating system’s updates continue to be plagued by bugs and reliability issues. According to posts on Microsoft’s official forums, the June 2026 update has introduced a variety of annoying bugs, including problems accessing OneDrive and Dropbox. IT administrators are also reporting sluggish File Explorer performance across hundreds of PCs in their organizations.
Some HP users are reporting random BSODs after installing the update, while Lenovo users say their PCs freeze even under moderate workloads. Additionally, one IT administrator claims the update is triggering BitLocker Recovery on devices configured with local accounts and says a Microsoft support chatbot told them the only solution is to wipe the computer and reinstall Windows.
Crystal ball: The company accused of making Pokémon copycats “with guns” says it is not interested in using generative AI in its games. It argues that gamers are largely opposed to this kind of content, while noting that generative AI is likely to remain a controversial topic in the industry for a range of reasons.
The debate around AI-generated assets in games is heating up, and Pocketpair has already taken a clear stance. The Japanese studio, best known for Palworld, says it is not using generative AI in its games, arguing that potential customers are rejecting “fake” assets and other AI-generated content.
In a recent interview, Pocketpair’s Head of Publishing & Communications John Buckley said that “gamers don’t want it.” And “if the gamers don’t want it, I guess that’s it, right? Not much of a conversation to be had.”
The Palworld developer has previously faced accusations of both plagiarism and the use of generative AI in creating some of the game’s assets and creature designs. Nintendo is pursuing legal action against the studio, though the dispute has not unfolded entirely in the company’s favor so far.
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During the interview, Buckley also said that some developers are already using generative AI in their games. However, he believes the trend is not yet widespread, and added that Pocketpair has no interest in extensively adopting the technology in any case.
Some companies are exploring chatbots and large language models to save time and reduce reliance on human creators, but growing public pushback suggests the generative AI “bubble” could eventually burst. Pocketpair already has all the in-house artists it needs, Buckley said, arguing there is no “pointless” reason to replace staff with AI systems doing the same work.
The controversy around generative AI in gaming continues to intensify. Established studios such as Crystal Dynamics have found themselves explaining the use of AI-generated assets as placeholders in the latest Tomb Raider remake. Meanwhile, Sega faced significant backlash after introducing the new Crazy Taxi game as an AI-assisted production.
Steam now requires developers to disclose whether and how they have used AI in their games. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, however, has argued that Valve’s disclosure requirement is unnecessary, claiming that nearly all future games will incorporate generative AI in some form.
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Pocketpair’s John Buckley is less convinced by Sweeney’s stance. He suggests the industry could eventually split, with some studios leaning into a heavily marketed “human-made” identity as a response to growing concerns over “AI slop” in digital storefronts. He also believes AI adoption could become a regional divide.
Developers in parts of Asia, including China and South Korea, may adopt AI more rapidly than competitors, while Western studios – and players – remain more resistant. Stellar Blade developer Shift Up has also said that generative AI could help South Korean studios compete with much larger companies in China and the US.
Alogic is bringing more touch and stylus input options to Mac with a new desktop monitor and portable displays, expanding a lineup that adds a feature Apple doesn’t offer on its own hardware yet.
The company unveiled the Aspekt Touch 27 and Folio portable displays at InfoComm 2026, expanding its lineup of touch-enabled hardware for Mac users. Both products let users interact directly with apps, documents, presentations, and creative projects through touch and stylus input.
Alogic is one of the few monitor makers offering touchscreen hardware for Macs. The company uses its own software to enable touch gestures, navigation, annotation, and drawing on macOS.
The Aspekt Touch 27 adds touchscreen input to a desktop monitor
The Aspekt Touch 27 is a smaller version of Alogic’s existing 32-inch model. The new display combines a 27-inch 4K IPS touchscreen with a 60Hz refresh rate, 600 nits of brightness, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, and support for 97% of the DCI-P3 color space, 93% Adobe RGB, and 100% sRGB.
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Alogic pairs the display with its Active Stylus, which offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. The monitor supports 10-point multitouch input and MPP 2.0 styluses, while a magnetic holder wirelessly charges the stylus between uses.
The monitor also functions as a docking station with HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, USB-C, Gigabit Ethernet, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Three USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, dual 5W speakers, and up to 150W of total charging output are built into the display, including up to 90W of USB-C power delivery for a connected laptop.
The Aspekt Touch 27 is available in Silver and Space Black, and buyers can choose from a Raise Stand, a Fold Stand, or an Omni Fold Stand. The Fold Stand lowers the display into a drafting position for stylus use, while the Omni Fold Stand includes an integrated mount for an M4 Mac mini.
Folio targets portable Mac and iPad workflows
Alogic also introduced the Folio and Folio Duo portable touchscreen displays for users who need a secondary screen away from a desk. The standard Folio features a 16-inch QHD IPS touchscreen, while the Folio Duo combines two 16-inch panels into a folding design that can be used side by side or stacked vertically.
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A fabric cover doubles as a stand and allows the displays to fold flat for travel.
The Folio Duo
Both models deliver 400 nits of brightness, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, and 100% sRGB color coverage. The displays support 10-point multitouch interaction, stylus input, and full gesture controls on both Mac and Windows.
The portable displays operate over a single USB-C connection and support up to 45W of passthrough charging. A magnetic attachment point wirelessly charges the Active Stylus. The Folio weighs about 1 kilogram, while the dual-screen Folio Duo weighs about 1.2 kilograms.
Alogic says the Folio lineup is the first portable display series to bring full gesture controls and 10-point multitouch support to both Mac and Windows. The company says users can draw, annotate, and edit content directly on screen without moving projects between a computer and tablet.
Alogic has spent years targeting users who want touch and stylus input on macOS. The Aspekt Touch 27 and Folio lineup expand those options with both desktop and portable designs.
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The Aspekt Touch 27 starts at $1,799 and will be available beginning in July. The Folio is priced at $899, while the Folio Duo costs $1,299. Both portable displays are expected to launch around September.
The neighbourhood’s heritage charm hasn’t saved it from a growing vacancy problem
Walk down East Coast Road on a weekday afternoon, and you might notice something that doesn’t quite fit the postcard image of Katong: shuttered shopfronts, darkened interiors, and “For Rent” signs that have clearly been hanging there a while.
Katong is the area where Joo Chiat Road meets East Coast Road, and it’s known for its hipster vibes—heritage shophouses, popular cafés, and a neighbourhood energy that earned it a spot on Time Out‘s list of the world’s coolest streets in 2025.
But that reputation is increasingly at odds with what people are actually seeing on the ground.
The unexpected side of Katong finally spilt into public view when a Reddit post on r/singapore gained traction. User u/HB_SG asked a simple question: has anyone else noticed the growing number of vacant shop units around Katong?
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“An endless parade of opening and closing”
Image Credit: u/HB_SG via Reddit
What the discussion made clear is that the vacancies aren’t new.
The mall, located at the junction of East Coast Road and Joo Chiat Road, closed for renovations in 2020 and only reopened in 2022. Yet years later, some retail spaces remain unoccupied, while others have seen a steady churn of tenants come and go with little fanfare.
One commenter described it as an “endless parade of opening and closing.” Among the apparent casualties are Zero Healthcare, which relocated its East Coast Road showroom to Parkway Parade, and fried chicken brand Frosti Fck, whose last social media activity was a Nov 2025 post and whose Google listing now shows as closed.
Vulcan Post has reached out to both businesses for further comment, but has not received a response at the time of publication.
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The Reddit thread kept circling back to one word: rent. One Redditor summed up the prevailing sentiment bluntly: “Rents, rents, rents, rents—no vacancy tax. If rents were halved, everything will be occupied.”
Others pointed to specific examples. One commenter claimed that several shophouses along Koon Seng Road have remained vacant for years despite strong demand in the area, arguing that landlords are holding out for rents that many businesses simply cannot afford.
The issue also appears to extend beyond Katong. In other parts of the East Coast region, including Siglap, rising rents have become a growing concern for business owners. In 2025, it even pushed out several long-running businesses, including Flor Patisserie.
The frustration about retail rents has even reached Parliament. In Apr 2026, Member of Parliament Elysa Chen raised the issue in the House, asking how the government reconciles official data which suggests rent has actually fallen as a share of business costs, with what retailers on the ground are experiencing.
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DPM and MTI Minister Gan Kim Yong acknowledged the gap in his written reply: while aggregate rental costs for F&B dropped from 26% to 17% of total business costs between 2019 and 2024, he noted that “at the local level, rental costs can vary for retailers due to attributes such as proximity to key transport nodes or estates with high population density.”
In other words, national averages may look fine, but they reveal little about what an individual business owner is paying for a shophouse in a highly sought-after neighbourhood.
ERA’s 1H 2025 shophouse market report also noted that more F&B operators were shutting down, and that a weaker rental outlook might push some landlords, particularly those with less holding power, or private equity investors looking to exit, to start accepting lower rents.
But for many, that moment hasn’t come yet.
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Beyond just rent
The roads on Joo Chiat Road are notoriously small. /Image Credit: Vulcan Post via Google Maps
The vacant units around Katong are not the result of a single problem. Beyond rental costs, Redditors highlighted a range of factors that may be contributing to the area’s retail struggles.
Firstly, parking is a nightmare on Katong’s roads. The streets around the area are notoriously narrow—barely two car-widths in places—and roadside parking creates its own bottleneck. On weekends, cars are often caught waiting for a spot to free up, which puts people off before they’ve even stepped out of the vehicle.
Then there’s the heat. Katong’s charm is mostly outdoors, but the dense rows of shophouses create a concrete warming effect that traps heat and humidity. Browsing around on foot in the middle of the day is genuinely unpleasant for most of the year.
The layout of buildings themselves doesn’t help either. Narrow footprints, tight staircases, and without the climate-controlled comfort of a mall, browsing on foot in Singapore’s heat is already a hard sell. Moreover, bus services through the smaller back streets are also sparse, limiting how easily people can get there without a personal vehicle.
Lastly, the gradual gentrification has narrowed the appeal of Katong. Several commenters pointed out that the shop mix has drifted toward expensive, Instagram-friendly concepts—the kind of places influencers visit once for the photo, not twice for the overpriced food. When the locals themselves don’t want to patronise the local shops, the foot traffic problem starts to make a lot more sense.
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On top of all that, these aren’t units you can just slap a fresh coat of paint on and hand to a tenant. Shophouses fall under conservation rules, meaning any renovation requires engaging a qualified person, submitting drawings to URA, getting conservation approval, and then separate BCA permits for structural work.
Shophouses along East Coast Road./ Image Credit: Singapore Realtors Inc.
This is where the broader market context matters.
ERA’s data shows that landed shophouse transactions fell to just 34 in H1 2025, totalling S$234.7 million—the lowest half-year figure since 1998, and a steep fall from the peak of 245 transactions worth S$1.8 billion in 2021. District 15, which covers Katong and Joo Chiat, saw only four transactions in that period.
Many of the landlords sitting on empty units aren’t being stubborn for no reason—they’re caught in a bind.
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For owners who bought at high prices, the rent they collect helps determine the property’s investment returns. Accepting a significantly lower rent may reduce their yield and potentially affect how the property is valued when they refinance or sell.
That creates a difficult trade-off: some landlords may prefer to wait for a tenant willing to pay closer to their asking price rather than lock in a lower rent that changes the financial assumptions behind the investment.
The problem is that prolonged vacancies carry their own costs. Empty storefronts can weaken a street’s vibrancy, reduce foot traffic, and eventually make it harder for landlords to attract the quality tenants needed to revive the area.
The empty units are hard to ignore
What the Reddit thread captured, more than any single data point, is a lived sense of mismatch: a neighbourhood with genuine heritage value and cultural cachet that isn’t consistently translating into a viable environment for the businesses trying to operate there.
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Whether the fix requires lower rents, a vacancy tax to nudge landlords off the sideline, better infrastructure, or pedestrianising the area altogether, locals are clearly paying attention, and the patience for empty units is wearing thin.
For now, the “For Rent” signs stay up.
Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.
Featured Image Credit:u/HB_SG via Reddit/ Visit Singapore
The UK’s top data and AI regulator has resigned. It is the first time it has ever happened.
John Edwards stepped down as information commissioner on Friday, with immediate effect. His exit followed a months-long workplace investigation. He said his position had become “untenable”.
What he admitted
Edwards was careful in his statement, posted on LinkedIn. He said there had been “occasions where I exercised poor judgement and made attempts at humour that were inappropriate and caused offence”. He also said he disagreed with how the investigation had been run.
Crucially, the details remain hidden. Neither the regulator nor the government has said what the conduct actually was. The probe began in February over unspecified “HR matters”, and concluded this month with a finding that there was “a case to answer”.
The job matters more than the man. The Information Commissioner’s Office oversees data protection, freedom of information and AI in Britain. It can fine companies up to £17.5mn, or 4 per cent of global turnover. It also sets the rules on how companies handle Britons’ personal data, and recently hit Reddit with a £14mn penalty over children’s data.
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His departure is also a historic first. The office has existed since 1984, and no commissioner had ever resigned before, one data-protection lawyer noted. So Britain’s data and AI watchdog is now without a permanent chief, while a deputy keeps things running.
A regulator already under fire
The timing is awkward. Campaigners have been attacking the ICO as toothless, accusing it of brushing aside thousands of public complaints. One group called Edwards’s exit a chance to appoint “a regulator with teeth”.
The post is also about to change shape. Under new UK law, the role is being folded into a wider Information Commission, and Edwards was expected to leave later this year anyway. His abrupt resignation simply brings that reset forward, in far less flattering circumstances.
Why it matters
Edwards used his farewell to look ahead, not back. “As the AI tsunami breaks over us, we must redouble … our collective efforts to ensure safety, accountability, and trust online,” he wrote. He added that “no single organisation or country can address these challenges alone”.
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For the tech industry, the real question is who governs AI and data in Britain next. The answer is suddenly unclear, just as governments everywhere fight over how to rule AI, and even as the EU’s own AI rulebook keeps slipping. A strong successor could sharpen enforcement. A weak one could prove the critics right. Either way, Britain has lost its data chief at an inconvenient moment.
Once the purview of crime labs and TV shows, DNA tests have instead become common gifts for birthdays, holidays and special occasions like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Quick tests like 23andMe and AncestryDNA have made the process of learning more about your family history easier, cheaper and faster than ever.
But in her new book, The Psychology of Genealogy, psychologist Susan Moore warns that you should consider all the risks before undergoing a test.
“Should you give DNA kits as gifts? It can be fun; it can be risky,” Moore said.
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Why you should exercise caution
Beyond the safety concerns of a company having your DNA on file with the potential of data breaches and privacy concerns, emotional fallout can be an unexpected — yet not uncommon — result of these DNA tests. While genetic testing promises answers and connection, those findings can upend long-held beliefs about your identity and family.
With over 30 million users and a multibillion-dollar industry, surprising matches and results are common. Misattributed paternity, donor-conception discoveries, late-found adoptions and unknown family members have all emerged from growing databases. For people unprepared for these outcomes, the psychological effects can be severe, according to Moore.
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Moore calls it “identity disruption” when new genetic information can undermine a person’s sense of self and belonging. She says some integrate the news and move on, while others face betrayal, mistrust and grief.
Why do people test anyway?
There are many practical, real risks when it comes to DNA testing. So why do millions of people still purchase them and send in their swabs?
Moore points to a few basic drives, such as curiosity, a need for rootedness and the intellectual thrill of uncovering family lore as to why people still undergo genetic tests. Genealogy can bring joy when people find long-lost relatives or overcome research barriers. Yet, curiosity often meets hard, unexpected truths.
“DNA gives you some new and interesting clues to your family tree structure, but the hard work of making sense of those clues must still be done,” Moore said.
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If you’re still interested in pursuing genetic testing anyway, Moore offers some simple advice: Test only if you want to explore ancestry and are ready to learn how to interpret results and contact matches ethically. Do not gift a kit without asking first, and make sure recipients are emotionally prepared and aware of privacy risks.
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