When I studied neuroanatomy in the early 2000s it was already taught that the evolutionary history of the forebrain (from comparative anatomy) seems to have invaded the hindbrain and seems to control it like a puppet. It's nice to see this sort of confirmation but it doesn't strike me as an earth-shaking discovery except that it might give some insights for differential drug targeting.
This is one of the problems with modern academics, every paper has to be framed as some revolutionary idea or insight. We should celebrate “boring” research that serves nothing other than curiosity.
Academics themselves rarely frame their research in sensational terms. This happens in press releases and media coverage, which they have little control over. You can see this by comparing the title of the press release to the quotes by the actual researchers:
"We’ve shown for the first time that the front of the brain arises from a totally different progenitor cell than the back of the brain."
"I was surprised at our findings because the word ‘brain’ implies a contiguous organ that likely has a singular origin," Jokhai said. "But even 500 million years ago, there were these separate neural systems, which now almost operate as one, which is very cool."
I don't hear much overselling or hype in this, I hear an accurate description of the research and a bit of nerding out over it.
It's the same problem as when a journalist or nonfiction author writes a thoughtful, nuanced piece of work, and some editor slaps a catchy title and subtitle on.
I don't really see what the Pixel-only early API releases achieve except for allowing developers to work on Pixels ahead of time, but Pixels are such a small sliver of the universe that it basically just gives Google a leg up, I would assume. And if you're on Graphene why would you care about Google's beta edge apps?
Exclusive access to QPR1 and QPR3 releases gives Pixels an unfair advantage over other Android OEMs. They get an extra 2 major updates per year. Introducing new APIs for third party app developers as part of these updates means third party apps will now run best on the Pixel OS. Google apps already run best on the Pixel OS due to many exclusive features. It's Google's standard overall approach to propping up parts of their business with their monopolies in other markets. It's not legal.
Pixel 9a and earlier were officially sold as Android Open Source Project reference devices. Google made a commitment to providing 7 years of updates from launch for 8th/9th gen Pixels. Google then arbitrarily declared they were no longer AOSP reference devices with the release of Android 16 and stopped providing those updates. Many people bought Pixels due to this and it wasn't fulfilled. GrapheneOS has been able to continue support with a massive amount of work including reverse engineering, but other operating systems haven't been as successful and mostly haven't even moved to Android 17 yet or supported 10th gen Pixels.
There are currently around 400k to 600k active Pixels with GrapheneOS. There have been far more than that when including the past devices our users have purchased. Pixels are a small segment of the overall market and that's substantial. If you add in people on other operating systems such as LineageOS then there are even more people using Pixels with another OS. A significant portion of people who bought Pixels did so because they were AOSP reference devices.
Samsung provides 7 years of support with monthly updates for their flagship devices. Unlike the Pixel OS, Samsung ships a lot of the security preview patches early.
Motorola Signature (2026) has 7 years of support. The upcoming successor to it is the first non-Pixel meeting all of the update and hardware security feature requirements for GrapheneOS.
Pixel 11 currently doesn't meet our security requirements due to at least temporary lack of MTE support which may get added in Android 17 QPR2. The upcoming Motorola device is also going to be using a 6.18 kernel at launch rather than 6.12. We would have launched Pixel 11 series support already if they met our security requirements. It's likely they will down the road but it's not clear why they omitted firmware and software support for a major security feature at launch. It's the firmware part which impacts us.
“many people”? Almost no one cared when they bought Pixel is more like it.
Many people bought Pixel because they saw it in a store or online. A few people bought Pixel because it was supposed to represent the leading edge of Android and it still does. Almost no one bought Pixel for AOSP reasons or even know what AOSP is.
> Many people bought Pixel because they saw it in a store or online
That's usually reserved for iPhones and Samsungs. Pixels have a tiny marketshare compared to Apple and Samsung. The GP is right when they say a significant portion of buyers bought a Pixel believing Google's claim that it was the 'purest' Android experience since it was a reference AOSP device.
> Many people bought Pixels due to this and it wasn't fulfilled.
Did they though? Or is this just conjecture? Because, honestly, Pixels are not even available worldwide so a few AOSP enthusiasts dropping off and going to Graphene hardly seems concerning for the mighty G.
AOSP reference was a tagline for a few nerds that still wanted the Nexus devices of yore, but it was clear from day one that Google wanted their Pixel phones to be their iPhones.
Android's official documented listed Pixels as the Android Open Source Project reference devices until the release of Android 16. It also promised 5-7 years of support from launch.
Pixels are sold in 33 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. A substantial portion of the Pixel userbase is using other operating systems. 400k to 600k active GrapheneOS users on Pixels is a significant amount based on how many Pixels are sold. It's only one of the alternate operating systems people are using. It's not only a few users as you're claiming.
Saying that holding a particular opinion makes you irrelevant is not gaslighting? It's not nice to respond to a frustrated developer by saying they don't exist. It feels comparable to saying someone's concerns are not real, which does amount to gaslighting to me.
No one says graphene os doesn’t exist, or the developers don’t exist, just that their opinions don’t matter because they are a miniscule fraction of the market. 2% of active devices drives no decisions at Google.
I'm pretty sure the commitment has always been is for security updates, not for the latest OS.
My first phone was a Motorola that shipped with Eclair. Froyo had already been released and Motorola had a release date for Froyo scheduled in their website. They changed their mind. I don't trust Motorola one iota. Google has never lied to me they way they Motorola has. Good luck.
No, there's a clear commitment to 5-7 years of major OS updates in addition to security updates. Both commitments have been broken for the Pixel 6 through Pixel 9a. Those were sold as Android Open Source Project (AOSP) reference devices but had the updates to it prematurely cut off with Android 16. Pixel 10 and later weren't sold as AOSP reference devices so there was no commitment to providing it, but that's not the case for the earlier devices.
Thats a long time for a critical security patch to land (like this one [0], although it looks like it has been fixed now, at least in their alpha channel, which is annoying (not their fault) because we really need this patch).
I can't tell what's going on with all the LibreOffice drama and whether it's a zombie on life support after the professional community management class kicked all the actual developers out (my take away).
USA has always been very aggressive about territory and hostile to Europe in the Americas. The Canada vs UK vs EU relationship seems more interesting to me.
Most of Starlink’s customers are simply rural people who want Internet access at decent speeds. There are wide swathes of the US where Starlink’s best competition is measured in kilobytes per second.
Pretty sure we achieved that level of coverage here in the US a decade or more earlier than that. A lot of those same rural customers still rely on the telephone system for Internet access. They might be able to get DSL now, but the speeds are going to be low; often just a few hundred kilobits per second.
Or... hear me out: put up a cell tower and don't waste energy throwing devices that literally burn up in the atmosphere in a few years. Yeah, that doesn't really help boats or people in the middle of the Amazon. Satellite internet is not long term infrastructure.
No, I mean globally most of their customers are rural. Starlink is limited primarily by customer density rather than by absolute numbers. They can provide service to just so many people per square mile before the speed drops below the customer’s tolerance. Most of the square miles in the world are rural, therefore most of the customers are as well.
Plus cities have Starlink’s best competition. Starlink is amazing but FTTH is even better. If you can get FTTH at all then you probably won’t even consider Starlink. Nor should you.
They at least have some sort of a take a selfie and some app guesses your age based on the photo option that I had not heard of.
> Accepted age verification methods
> Yoti offers several ways to confirm you're 18 or over. You can choose whichever works best for you:
> * Facial age estimation: Take a selfie and Yoti's technology estimates your age. No ID document needed.
> * ID verification: Take a photo of your ID (such as a passport, driving license, or national ID card) and upload it from your device. See Yoti's full list of supported documents for country-specific options.
> * Yoti’s Digital ID app: If you already have the Yoti app, share a verified "over 18" attribute from it.
Isn't that what a streaming stick is for? Who needs those complex TV remotes anyway. I've been running on Roku remotes for years and haven't missed anything. Even TiVo remotes are too complex.
I like the idea of a small light ereader but credit card sized is just... way too small. I really don't get it. Like people miss the old small phones because it did discouraged reading and phones became the size they are now because this size seems to balance portability and reading.
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