This is the news from Sunday 18 October. Read the latest news
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Rank Math PRO malware, ChatGPT Slides and Shopify batch shipping
Today in 30 seconds
- Rank Math PRO 3.0.123 shipped with malware for about 11 hours
- ChatGPT Slides makes decks you can edit together and export
- Shopify lets you fulfil up to 250 orders in one batch
- Google tests ads in AI Mode for Personal Intelligence users
- Google Merchant Center adds a warranty attribute for products
- DeepSeek V4.1-Flash-1017 brings open weights and a 1M context
- Reflection AI releases Beam, an open model that uses fewer tokens
- PostgreSQL 19 slips to November after AI reviews find more bugs
- Apple updates its App Review Guidelines with two new rules
- HomePod gets Sound Glow and a Mac speaker mode for free
Good morning. If you run Rank Math PRO, read the first story before your coffee. A bad update shipped with malware for about 11 hours. The rest is lighter: ChatGPT now makes slide decks, two big open AI models landed, and Shopify gets batch shipping.
Rank Math PRO 3.0.123 shipped with malware for about 11 hours
Rank Math says some copies of its PRO plugin, version 3.0.123, contained malware. It hits copies downloaded or updated between 20:02 UTC on 15 October and 07:12 UTC on 16 October. Version 3.0.124 is the clean replacement.
Wordfence tracks it as CVE-2026-111862 and rates it 9.8. If the bad copy was active, the malware adds hidden backdoors and fake admin accounts. It also exposes database passwords and API keys. Rank Math says a download on its own is not a sign of trouble.
Why it matters If your site updated in that window and the plugin was active, treat the site as hacked. Restore a backup from before 20:02 UTC on 15 October. If you can’t, delete the whole rank-math-pro folder and follow Rank Math’s clean-up steps in order. Then change every password and key, and install 3.0.124.
Also look for admin users that start with wpsupport_ and a file called wp-includes/class-wp-cache-util.php. Neither should exist. Once you are clean, my guide to 2FA, MFA and passkeys helps you lock the admin down again.
ChatGPT Slides makes decks you can edit together and export
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Slides on 16 October. It builds a deck from a chat, your files or an outline, and can copy the style of an example deck. You can edit text, images, shapes and charts yourself, or ask ChatGPT to change them.
Teammates can edit at the same time and leave comments. You can present from ChatGPT or export to PowerPoint, PDF or Google Slides. For now it is for eligible Pro, Business and Enterprise users, on the web and in the desktop app.
Why it matters Client pitches and monthly reports just got quicker to build. Check every number and chart before you present, because the deck is only as right as what you gave it.
Shopify lets you fulfil up to 250 orders in one batch
Shopify added batch fulfilment on 16 October. You group up to 250 fulfilments by things like product type or destination. Each batch then moves through three steps: pick, print and pack.
You print one pick list for the whole batch and buy all the labels at once. In the pack step you scan each item, and a wrong item plays an error tone. You can rename or reorder the steps and give each one to a staff member. To start, select orders on the Orders page and click Create batch.
Why it matters If you pack orders by hand, this saves a lot of walking and printing. The scan check also catches mistakes before a parcel leaves. Shopify hasn’t said which plans get it, so check your Orders page.
Google tests ads in AI Mode for Personal Intelligence users
Google started testing ads in AI Mode on 16 October. The test only reaches people who connect their Google apps through Personal Intelligence. Until now, AI Mode had no ads at all.
The ads will match the question, the AI answer and the user’s interests. Google says ads won’t come directly from Gmail or Google Photos content. Advertisers can’t see the connected apps, and sensitive information is not used.
Why it matters Ads in AI answers push the links to your site further down. Watch your clicks from AI Mode over the next few months. My guide on how AI search finds your site covers the parts you can control.
Google Merchant Center adds a warranty attribute for products
Google Merchant Center now has a warranty attribute, Search Engine Land reported on 16 October. You give a length and a unit, like 3:year for a three-year warranty. It shows in Shopping ads and free listings.
It is optional for most products. Some markets require it, such as Quebec under Bill 29, where the length must be in years.
Why it matters A good warranty is a selling point. Add it to your product feed so shoppers see it before they click. On Shopify or WooCommerce, your feed app may need a custom field for it.
DeepSeek V4.1-Flash-1017 brings open weights and a 1M context
DeepSeek released V4.1-Flash-1017 on Hugging Face on 17 October under the MIT licence. Hugging Face lists 763 billion parameters, and the recommended context is 1 million tokens. DeepSeek calls it a minor update with better reasoning, coding and agent skills.
Its own table shows Terminal-Bench 4.0 rising from 31.2 to 42.3. The same table shows Claude Opus 5 ahead on most tests. You can run it with vLLM or SGLang, and smaller quantised versions exist for Ollama and LM Studio.
Why it matters This is not a laptop model. But open models keep closing the gap. If you pay per token for coding agents, compare open models every few months.
Reflection AI releases Beam, an open model that uses fewer tokens
Reflection AI released the weights for Beam on 16 October under the Apache 2.0 licence. It has 501 billion parameters, but only 23 billion work on each token. Baseten serves it through OpenRouter, and Reflection’s own hosted service is free during a public beta.
Reflection says Beam matches GLM-5.2 on reasoning tests with 3 to 4 times less compute. That figure is its own estimate. On Terminal-Bench 2.1 it scores about 80.1%, behind DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
Why it matters Fewer tokens means smaller bills and faster replies. Apache 2.0 also means you can use it in client work without licence worries.
PostgreSQL 19 slips to November after AI reviews find more bugs
PostgreSQL 19 is now due around 19 November, about two months late, The Register reported on 16 October. Developers pulled 8 to 10 big features and moved them to PostgreSQL 20.
Peter Eisentraut from EDB says AI-assisted code review finds edge-case bugs sooner. In his words, “the effective quality bar has been raised”. He still expects “a great release”.
Why it matters If you planned a database upgrade for October, move it to December. I like this news. AI review made a big open source project slower to ship, but safer to run.
Apple updates its App Review Guidelines with two new rules
Apple published new App Review Guidelines on 16 October. New rule 2.3.14 covers creative assets. New rule 2.5.19 covers hidden, dormant or undocumented features, which used to sit under rule 2.3.1.
Rule 3.1.1(a) now says links for outside purchases may go to a permitted destination. Apple also added more links to its documentation, and translations will follow within a month.
Why it matters If you build or own an iPhone app, read the changes before your next update. A feature that switches on after review is now clearly against the rules.
HomePod gets Sound Glow and a Mac speaker mode for free
Apple’s HomePod (2nd generation) is getting new features in a free software update, 9to5Mac reported on 16 October. Sound Glow lights the top of the speaker in colours from the album art. It needs an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence.
You can also set a HomePod as the default speaker for Macs with Wi-Fi 6E or later. Four HomePods can work as surround sound with the new Apple TV 4K. 9to5Mac expects the update with iOS 27.2 later this month, but Apple hasn’t confirmed the date.
Why it matters A free upgrade to something you already own is the best kind. Keep automatic updates on in the Home app and the features will turn up by themselves.
Quick hits
- Google Ads API will now ship new versions twice a month instead of once. Search Engine Roundtable
- Bing is testing a “Read more” link at the end of some result snippets. Search Engine Roundtable
- ChatGPT Ads adds measurement partners like Northbeam and Kochava, and tests bigger image ads. Search Engine Land
- GitHub made open source licence checks for dependencies generally available on Enterprise Cloud. GitHub Changelog
- Google Meet calls now use post-quantum encryption on laptops, with mobile coming soon. Google Workspace Updates
- iOS 27.2 beta 4 lets you switch off each type of Messages suggestion, like Add to Calendar. 9to5Mac
- Google Dataset Search returned no results for several hours on 16 October before it was fixed. Search Engine Roundtable
- HP Googlebook 14 costs about US$1,200, and 9to5Google says the OS holds good hardware back. 9to5Google
You're all caught up
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