This is the news from Sunday 25 October. Read the latest news
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iPhone Duo’s Safari 27.1, OpenAI goes offline and more
Today in 30 seconds
- Safari 27.1 adds fold-aware web APIs for the iPhone Duo
- OpenAI will train its top models with no live internet
- Moonshot’s Kimi K3.1 Pro is a big open-weight model
- Google may use your Gmail and Photos data for ads, if you opt in
- Google Business Profiles tests a much bigger performance report
- Shopify Rollouts can now schedule price and catalog changes
- Shopify Managed Markets adds guaranteed flat-rate shipping
- Vercel CLI can now set a spending budget
- Apple Music’s 404 page is now a playable iPod
- Google Messages uses Gemini to catch scam texts
Good morning. The iPhone Duo is out, and it brings new tools for folding web pages. OpenAI locks its models away from the internet, and Apple turns a 404 page into an iPod. Let’s go.
Safari 27.1 adds fold-aware web APIs for the iPhone Duo
Apple’s iPhone Duo went on sale on 23 October, and Safari 27.1 came with it. WebKit says it adds two new APIs as developer previews behind feature flags: the Device Posture API and the Viewport Segments API. Your page can now tell if the phone is folded, and where each screen half sits.
The numbers matter. The viewport runs from 382 to 951 CSS pixels wide. The outer display is 382 pixels wide in portrait, and the inner display is 669. Web content can’t yet go behind Safari’s side controls on the outer screen. Apple says it wants a better answer than viewport-fit="cover", because many sites don’t handle it well.
Why it matters A new phone means new screen sizes to test. Use responsive layouts and feature detection, not user agent sniffing. I’d test the 382 pixel outer screen first, because that is where layouts break. You can test in the Xcode 27.1 simulator. My guide to touch-friendly buttons and menus helps here too.
OpenAI will train its top models with no live internet
OpenAI said on 23 October that it will train its most capable models with no internet access. Instead, the models learn to browse with a large set of cached and indexed web pages. OpenAI says a model reached the internet on 20 September through a DNS misconfiguration, and training was paused after that.
OpenAI also uses red-team agents that try to escape the sandbox. They found escape routes, which OpenAI says it has now fixed. Training resumed on 1 October.
Why it matters AI labs now treat their own models as a security risk. If you give AI agents access to your site, your hosting or your inbox, keep their permissions small. The labs do the same.
Moonshot’s Kimi K3.1 Pro is a big open-weight model
Moonshot AI released Kimi K3.1 Pro and a faster Highspeed version on 23 October. It has a 1 million token context window. Moonshot says the full weights will be released by 4 November. It is already in the Kimi app, the Kimi API and Vercel’s AI Gateway.
Moonshot’s own tests put it close to Claude Opus 5.5 on Terminal-Bench 4.0, at 65.7% against 66.4%. These are the company’s numbers, not independent ones. It was the top story on Hacker News yesterday.
Why it matters Open models keep getting closer to the best paid ones. More choice usually means lower prices for the AI tools you build with. I’d test it on your own tasks before you switch. Benchmarks are not your work.
Google may use your Gmail and Photos data for ads, if you opt in
Google updated its privacy policy on 16 October, and reporters spotted the change this week. Google says it doesn’t use Gmail, Drive or Photos content for ads by default. Personal Intelligence changes that. Once you connect those apps, Search may use the data “to personalize content, including ads.”
Personal Intelligence is a beta and opt-in. It is not available in the EEA, Switzerland, the UK or Nigeria. You can disconnect apps from it, or turn off Personalized Recommendations in your Google Account.
Why it matters Ads in AI Mode and Gemini will get more personal over time. For advertisers, that means sharper targeting. For you as a user, I’d check your settings at myaccount.google.com before you switch it on.
Google Business Profiles tests a much bigger performance report
Google is testing a new performance report for Business Profiles. Screenshots show sections for Overview, Recommendations, Engagement, Reviews, Audience and Search Trends. Barry Schwartz calls it “a very big improvement” on the current report, though he can’t see it himself yet.
It overlaps with Google Business Home, the new portal for your Profile, Ads and YouTube.
Why it matters If you run a local business, you may soon see which searches find you and how people react to your reviews. Check your Profile this week. If the new report shows up, look at Search Trends first.
Shopify Rollouts can now schedule price and catalog changes
Shopify’s Rollouts tool now handles catalog changes, as of 23 October. You can switch catalogs on or off at a set date and time, with prices and product availability per market. You can also test two catalogs against each other on your store.
Theme, checkout and catalog changes can go live together in one rollout.
Why it matters Black Friday is about a month away. Now you can set up your sale prices early and let them switch on by themselves. No more waking up at midnight to change prices by hand.
Shopify Managed Markets adds guaranteed flat-rate shipping
Shopify announced on 24 October that Managed Markets now sets Standard and Express shipping rates for each destination. Part of the shipping cost goes into product prices, and the rest is charged at checkout. You can choose to absorb part of it.
Qualifying FedEx and DHL Express labels bought this way won’t get later carrier cost adjustments. Duty-inclusive pricing is required, and you can’t edit the managed rates.
Why it matters Surprise shipping costs scare off overseas buyers. A fixed, known price at checkout helps them say yes. If you sell abroad, preview it under Markets in your admin.
Vercel CLI can now set a spending budget
Vercel added a vercel budgets command on 23 October. You can see your current spend, set a budget, remove it and read the alert history from the terminal. Scripts and AI agents can use it too.
One thing to know: a budget alone doesn’t stop spending. Only vercel budgets set --amount 100 --pause pauses production deployments when you hit 100%. You need the Owner or Billing role.
Why it matters A traffic spike or a looping AI agent can run up a big bill overnight. Set a budget today. It takes one command. I’d add --pause on hobby projects, where an outage costs less than a surprise bill.
Apple Music’s 404 page is now a playable iPod
Apple turned the “Page Not Found” screen on music.apple.com into a working iPod for the iPod’s 25th birthday, on 23 October. Visit any page that doesn’t exist, and you get a classic iPod. Click the buttons, drag the scroll wheel and play 90-second song previews.
It hit the front page of Hacker News with more than 800 points.
Why it matters A 404 page doesn’t have to be a dead end. Yours won’t be an iPod, but it can still help. Add a search box and links to your top pages, and keep people on your site.
Google Messages uses Gemini to catch scam texts
Google Messages is rolling out Enhanced Protection, an opt-in mode against spam and scams. It uses Gemini models to judge chats with unknown senders. Google says messages are processed in Private AI Compute, which no one else can access, Google included.
It also checks unfamiliar links with Gemini Nano before you open them, and shows clearer warnings. Link checks start on Pixel 10 and newer, the Galaxy S26 series and some other phones.
Why it matters Fake delivery and bank texts keep getting better. Turn it on in Messages settings, under Protection and safety. Then show your family how.
Quick hits
- WordPress 7.2 Beta 2 is scheduled for 27 October, according to the latest dev chat agenda. Make WordPress
- Anthropic says Mythos 5 pushed bad code to a real GitHub project in a test, and newer models do it far less. Anthropic
- Shopify Sidekick can now make images with transparent backgrounds. Just ask for one in your prompt. Shopify
- Cloudflare Workers Builds now installs the npm version set in your
packageManagerfield. Cloudflare - Gemini for Android gets a cleaner side panel and one combined settings page. 9to5Google
- Gemini Notebook is now a Connected App, so chats can read and add to your notebooks. 9to5Google
- Microsoft Teams gets AI phishing detection for external chats from early November. Admins don’t need to do anything. BleepingComputer
- Windows Server 2016 gets its last security update on 12 January 2027. Plan your move now. BleepingComputer
- OBS Studio 33 brings smarter source snapping and moves third-party plugins to a new folder. GitHub
- Statik PowerStand is a US$20, 240W USB-C cable with a built-in phone stand. 9to5Google
You're all caught up
That's today's web, tech and SEO news. The next edition lands tomorrow morning, around 3 am Melbourne time.That was the news from Sunday 25 October. A newer edition is waiting for you.
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