7 The dongle problem Bex Peterson Editor-in-Chief | eee with the width and breadth afforded to me by the English language, put into words my sheer loathing for Apple’s dongle obsession. I’ve always been a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to technology. I stubbornly held on to my flip phone for as long as I could (remember when you could drop your phone, watch it break into three pieces, and carefully put it back into working order again?), which as it turns out was not very long (probably because I kept dropping it). When everyone else moved on to touchscreens, I stubbornly kept to phones with buttons until the only option left to me were Blackberries—and yes, I owned a Blackberry fora while. I refused to upgrade my phone to a data plan until 2016. I can say with begrudging acceptance now that every step I took into the technological Room 1020 - 700 Royal Ave. Douglas College New Westminster, BC, V3L 5B2 604-525-3542 Bex Peterson Editor-in-Chief M editor@theotherpress.ca James Moore Layout Manager M layout@theotherpress.ca Katie Czenczek News Editor M news@theotherpress.ca Jessica Berget Opinions Editor M opinions@theotherpress.ca Greg Waldock Web Editor M webeditor@theotherpress.ca Cover and feature illustration by Cara Seccafien present was if not completely beneficial, at least not directly harmful. In seeing the patterns here | recognize that I could be wrong about the dongles. There’s a chance I could learn to appreciate the dongles one day. But throwing that due diligence and self-awareness out the window, I don’t think I’m wrong about the dongles. When | first heard that new Apple phones no longer had earphone jacks T actually thought it was a joke. When I realized it was not a joke, I became (admittedly) irrationally angry for someone who never plans to own an iPhone. There's streamlining, and then there’s removing basic functionality to make people buy your shitty, outrageously expensive, easy-to-lose “AirPods” (even the name sounds like a parody of Apple products). But hey, I don’t own an iPhone. This problem doesn’t affect me... or so I thought. Over the summer I was immensely @ theotherpress.ca © editor@theotherpress.ca ¥ © /theotherpress f/douglasotherpress Caroline Ho Assistant Editor M assistant@theotherpress.ca Lauren Kelly Graphics Manager © graphics@theotherpress.ca Sonam Kaloti Arts Editor © arts@theotherpress.ca Brittney MacDonald Life & Style Editor M lifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca Isabelle Orr Entertainment Editor © humour@theotherpress.ca fortunate to inherit an almost-new MacBook Pro from my parents who were upgrading their computer set-up at the time, and don’ get me wrong—I'm still over the moon. I’m typing this up on it right now, and I rely on it for everything from schoolwork to Other Press work to composing to Friday night D&D sessions over Discord. It has, thank God, an earphone jack. What it does not have is literally every other port necessary for a functioning computer. Instead, if I want to do something silly like plug in a USB (or my phone, or a keyboard, ora hard drive), I have to track down my two-inch long dongle to do so, adding an extra step toa process that was streamlined to perfection back when computers stopped taking up entire buildings. Why am I using my precious time and space in this Lettitor to complain about dongles? Especially since I’m complaining Angela Ho Business Manager Jacey Gibb Distribution Manager Meghan Lin Production Assistant Cara Seccafien IHustrator Tania Arora Staff Reporter Naomi Ambrose, Roshni Riar Staff Writers Billy Bui Staff Photographer Jerrison Oracion, Janis McMath Cheryl Minns Senior Columnist CJ Sommerfeld Columnist Karen Segal Contributor about an incredibly useful and terrifyingly expensive tool passed along to me by caring, generous, loving people, like an asshole. Well, in the grand scheme of things, the dongle problem doesn’t matter. Apple’s forced obsolescence policy and dedication to piling landfills full of expensive trash does, but that’s a whole other rant. The dongle problem is the equivalent of “old man yells at cloud” for me. It fills me with a fiery burning rage that I’m happy to spill all over anyone standing too close to me, especially anyone defending AirPods. But it doesn’t matter. Sometimes, I think, it’s fine and fun to take a break and rant about things that do not matter. Bex Peterson Bex Peterson The Other Press has been Douglas College’s student newspaper since 1976. Since 1978 we have been an autonomous publication, independent of the student union. We are a registered society under the Society Act of British Columbia, governed by an eight-person board of directors appointed by our staff. Our head office is located in the New Westminster campus. The Other Press is published weekly during the fall and winter semesters, and monthly during the summer. We receive our funding from a student levy collected through tutition fees every semester at registration, and from local and national advertising revenue. The Other Press is a member of the Canadian University Press (CUP), a syndicate of student newspapers that includes papers from all across Canada. The Other Press reserves the right to choose what we will publish, and we will not publish material that is hateful, obscene, or condones or promotes illegal activities. Submissions may be edited for clarity and brevity if necessary. All images used are copyright to their respective owners.