iOS 27 arrives September 14, and my Gemini API calls stay exactly as they are — what changes is the menu
iOS 27 ships on September 14. Even with the new Siri built on Gemini, the Gemini API calls inside your own app do not change. Here is how I separate the three layers at the call site, and the four things I finish before release day.
Matching name variants in a print catalog: normalize first, then ask Gemini for candidates
When the same artist appears under three spellings, asking Gemini whether two names are the same person quietly merges different generations. Here is the two-layer alternative — deterministic normalization first, model-generated candidates second — with working code and a cost estimate.
Writing my first Gemini cost estimate in two columns, one for now and one for January
Introductory pricing for Gemini Flash ends on December 31, 2026, and standard pricing starts on January 1, 2027. Staying on an older generation does not avoid it. Here is the small, working estimator I use to see both prices at once.
The day Lyria 3.5 landed, I changed how my audio folders are laid out
When Lyria 3.5 brought full-length generation, my generated takes were sitting in the same folder as the tracks I had chosen by hand. Here is the forty-line ledger gate that draws the line by hash, not by filename.
Icon-Only Buttons Can Stay Silent for Screen Readers, Even When Every Translation Is in Place
A fully translated app can still read as silence. Here is how I collect icon elements and labels from iOS and Android, settle everything mechanical locally, and send only the wording to Gemini — with the actual output from each stage.
Two Kinds of Video Questions: Why I Send "Find It" and "Prove It Isn't There" Down Separate Paths
Agentic video understanding lets the model decide which parts of a video to watch. That works beautifully for finding things, and it quietly breaks when you need to prove something never appears. Here is how I split my questions, and the coverage check I now run first.
Taking stock of Gemini standard API keys before September, across CI, servers, and my own machine
Standard API keys, including restricted ones, stop being accepted during September. Because this changes where keys come from rather than what they say, here is the three-layer inventory I ran across code, deploy settings, and my local machine, plus a dual-path client to switch behind.
An agreement-rate gate approves the model swap, then your category shares move
Swapping the model behind an image classification batch can pass a golden-set agreement gate while category shares quietly shift. I measured the sample sizes each check really needs and rebuilt the gate as a paired comparison.
Your New Gemini API Key Never Took Effect, and Load Order Wasn't the Reason
When several sources supply the same environment variable, swapping your key can leave the old value in place. Here is what four load orders actually produced, and a ledger that records which source won.
gemini-robotics-er-1.6-preview Shut Down Today — Your Next Deadline Is September 30, When gemini-omni-flash-preview Goes Away
From today's gemini-robotics-er-1.6-preview shutdown to the September 30 retirement of gemini-omni-flash-preview and the December 31 pricing change, here is every upcoming Gemini deadline in one table, with what to do about each.
Define What Counts as a Duplicate Before Adding Embedding Search to Your Image Pipeline
My dedup check flagged two prints with identical composition but different colors as one image. Here is how I split duplicate detection into three layers, measured where perceptual hashing ends, and decided what embedding search is actually for.
Why Shipped Clients Deserve a Refusal, Not a Silent Model Substitution
A model can retire, but the apps already on people's phones cannot. This is how I built a sunset ledger keyed on output contracts, and how I now back-date my own deadline from the version residue curve.