The Ringer: All Posts by Carl Brooks Jr.2016-09-10T12:08:21-04:00https://www.theringer.com/authors/carl-brooks-jr/rss2016-09-10T12:08:21-04:002016-09-10T12:08:21-04:00Kill “Dongle”
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<p>Let’s all agree to just stop using that word</p> <p>As we know by now, this week <a href="https://theringer.com/apple-iphone-7-headphone-jack-de591fdcfdcd#.hf4zhgztf">Apple R.I.P.’d the headphone jack</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=apple%20iphone%207%20headphone%20jack">a cruel move</a>. The havoc this decision is wreaking is manifold: Apple, in true troll fashion, is now making us buy <a href="https://twitter.com/CarlBrooksJr/status/773604880896307201">a passive-aggressive cord</a> in order to use our old headphones (in protest I’m on my fifth Apple Music free trial). It raises an important question: How are we supposed to listen to music and charge our phones at the same time? This is essential for those of us who excel at handling the aux cord at parties, in Ubers, and during morning commutes. Our only option is to operate a “dongle” like the one <a href="https://theringer.com/apple-iphone-7-cost-3a4dada6bdaa#.jo35yl15d">Belkin whipped up and is charging $40 a pop for</a>.</p>
<p>Which brings us to perhaps the most significant of the problems caused by the end of the headphone jack: We’re all stuck saying “dongle.”</p>
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<p>According to Google Trends (which, I know, <a href="https://theringer.com/was-that-google-trends-brexit-story-legit-2df9547a285c">isn’t the authority in web search terms</a> but can still be used as a general popularity tool), there was a definite spike in “dongle” and “dongle”-related searches this week as a result of the iPhone event.</p>
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<p>Go ahead and <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=dongle&rlz=1C5ACMN_enUS521US527&oq=dongle&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i60j69i61j0l2j69i61.574j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">Google this heinous word</a>, and the results will immediately show you who’s responsible for the sudden surge. Apple might be to blame for this week’s obsession with “dongle,” but it certainly didn’t create the term. According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use was in 1981 and is “<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dongle">perhaps [an] alteration of dangle</a>.” That’s the dictionary way of saying <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/forums/riff-raff/topics/47720-whos-mans-is-this">“whose mans is this?”</a></p>
<p>Merriam-Webster (which is officially <a href="https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/773490551333134336">Twitter’s most lit dictionary</a>) also defines a dongle as: “a small device that plugs into a computer and serves as an adapter or as a security measure to enable the use of certain software.” There are a variety of other words we could use instead of dongle — adapter, connector, and extension cord all would have worked fine. If Apple can come up with “Lightning cable” to mean charger, why couldn’t it have helped us out here and invented some imaginary proprietary name?</p>
<p>What’s most upsetting about the sudden siege of “dongle” is that while Apple is responsible for our using it way too much and all of a sudden, the company itself <a href="http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter">doesn’t even prefer the word</a>. Apple has taken to using the unwieldy “Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the word “dongle” has taken root and made a permanent imprint on internet culture. It’s spawned awkward frat bro humor like this:</p>
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<p>And there are way more tweets like this than there needs to be:</p>
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<p>Will the tyranny of “dongle” ever end? Maybe: After some research and meditation, I’m requesting that Michael Rapaport rename the “dongle,” considering his grade A performance <a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/ep-96-michael-rapaport">nicknaming Kristaps Porzingis</a>.</p>
<p>It’s still early. No one even owns the iPhone 7 and the free dong — er, adapter — yet. We can do this together.</p>
https://www.theringer.com/2016/9/10/16045970/the-worst-thing-about-the-end-of-the-iphone-headphone-jack-is-dongle-b5a0081be115Carl Brooks Jr.2016-08-13T10:46:54-04:002016-08-13T10:46:54-04:00How the Accessibility Emoji Got Its Start
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<p>From the streets to your iOS keyboard</p> <p>Apple recently unveiled a slew of <a href="http://www.apple.com/newsroom/2016/08/apple-adds-more-gender-diverse-emoji-in-ios-10.html">new emoji</a> that will be included in iOS 10, (some <a href="https://theringer.com/welcome-to-the-era-of-the-woke-emoji-d692763ff165#.ddo4sqkjq">more woke than others</a>). <a href="https://twitter.com/brianglenney">Brian Glenney</a>,<a href="https://twitter.com/brianglenney"> a philosophy professor at </a>Norwich University and <a href="https://twitter.com/brianglenney">a graffiti artist, created </a><a href="https://twitter.com/Emojipedia/status/760245213327724544">one of these new icons</a> with Olin College design professor Sara Hendren. In 2011, they introduced a new design for the symbol for accessibility, and started to promote the icon with a <a href="http://accessibleicon.org/#buy">sticker</a> campaign. The goal was to spark a conversation about how people with disabilities are perceived and how the images used to represent them affect that perception. Glenney and a handful of volunteers, mostly undergraduate students, planted stickers on laptops, stop signs, and sidewalks all around Greater Boston. The idea was to introduce a new symbol for what’s commonly referred to as the “handicap” icon. The new design is more active, putting more emphasis on the person than the wheelchair.</p>
<p>The sticker campaign worked, drawing enough positive attention that the design evolved from a sticker into the <a href="https://twitter.com/AccessIconPro">Accessible Icon Project</a>. In 2013, the group signed its trademark rights over to <a href="https://twitter.com/TriangleInc">Triangle</a>, a nonprofit that seeks to empower the disabled community in New England, essentially handing over authority to the very people the icon would potentially speak for. That same year, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/25/4365554/new-york-city-planning-to-use-a-more-progressive-handicapped-symbol">New York City</a> adopted the symbol to replace the long-standing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Symbol_of_Access">International Symbol of Access</a>, as Hendren and Glenney had hoped would happen. The team behind the project started to get more momentum and attention from major <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/07/29/the-handicap-symbol-gets-an-update-at-least-in-new-york-state/">media</a> <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/07/07/189523504/new-handicapped-sign-rolls-into-new-york-city">outlets</a>. The coverage caught the eye of Paola Antonelli, the Museum of Modern Art’s senior curator of the department of architecture and design. “Paola Antonelli saw our story in <a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672754/how-a-guerrilla-art-project-gave-birth-to-nycs-new-wheelchair-symbol"><em>Fast Co.Design</em></a> and felt that the design was significant enough to warrant inclusion into the museum’s private collection,” Glenney said. “So we sent several signs from our sticker campaign, a stencil, and sent along a digital copy of the icon,” and it was <a href="http://www.moma.org/collection/works/174871?locale=en">eventually featured in an exhibition</a>. Recently, it’s been adopted <a href="https://www.change.org/p/the-connecticut-state-legislature-and-gov-dannel-p-malloy-change-the-handicapped-parking-sign/u/16476530">by the state of Connecticut</a> and the Los Angeles Department on Disability.</p>
<p>In June at WWDC, Apple announced it would be using the icon. However, Apple was only speaking about <a href="https://twitter.com/LanceUlanoff/status/742407096696590337">using the design as an app icon for a native Apple Watch app</a>; <a href="https://twitter.com/brianglenney/status/742421262950006789">Glenney misinterpreted this</a>, believing that the company was going to incorporate the symbol into its emoji keyboard available on every iOS product. Happily, his mistake became true on August 1, and Apple officially introduced his design to its emoji set. “I like to think they assigned it to [the rest of] iOS 10 to make my tweet right,” Glenney says, laughing.</p>
<p>Glenney and his team didn’t use traditional means to get their icon into the emoji set. “A lot of people told us to go through the [International Organization for Standardization],” he says. The ISO is responsible for legitimizing and <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/home/about.htm">establishing different “real world” standards</a> internationally, and it has <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_tc_browse.htm?commid=52662">a number of committees</a> dedicated to symbols, including committees that decide on “safety identification, signs, shapes, symbols and colours” and “public information symbols,” which, presumably, the icon would have had to go through if it wanted to be officially standardized. Glenney did say that there was an additional hurdle. “[The ISO] doesn’t really like our design.” Despite eschewing this path and choosing a grassroots sticker campaign, the icon found legitimacy. “[Apple using the icon] shows you the symbol is a success … the public decides what represents them.”</p>
<p>And now, the fact that it’s made its way to the iOS keyboard is an arguably bigger victory. Emoji communication is on an unstoppable rise, and this keyboard is becoming a constant stop for users; this is the icon’s biggest audience yet. It will be seen and used by innumerable people, a realization of Glenney and Hendren’s vision. It’s by no means the end of their journey — just an affirmation that the conversation will continue.</p>
<p>As the icon stakes its claim on city signs and in our emoji keyboards, the designers hope the symbol will also start to change the way we talk and think about disability. “The best part of the project is you never know who is going to do the next thing with it,” Glenney says. To Glenney and the folks over at the Accessible Icon Project, seeing the icon in public and in emoji conversations “gives it new life.” He points to the work of <a href="https://twitter.com/mikeemort">Mike Mort</a>, an activist and artist who has made <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeeMort/status/758434472480088064">a number of superhero</a> portraits based off of the icon.</p>
<p>But Glenney thinks the emoji and the icon in general is just one piece of the puzzle. “[The project] gained ground when the disenfranchised had control,” he says. “I want this to be a new path and blueprint for advocacy.”</p>
https://www.theringer.com/2016/8/13/16044574/accessibility-emoji-apple-ios-10-9816974b6ebfCarl Brooks Jr.2016-07-08T14:51:34-04:002016-07-08T14:51:34-04:00The ‘Pokémon Go’ Injuries Are Already Piling Up
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<p>What a way to (Pokémon) go, though, right?</p> <p><em>Pokémon </em>was an extremely formative part of many a childhood across the globe. You don’t know struggle and frustration unless you’ve been in the backseat of a moving car and tried to button-mash your way through the Elite Four with nothing but your ambition and the faint glow of streetlights coming through the window. If you’re anything like me, though, squinting at your Game Boy wasn’t enough; I know I wasn’t the only kid who turned the playground, backyard, or anywhere else I was allowed to roam into a live-action <a href="http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Kanto">Kanto</a>.</p>
<p>Now it’s back, with the launch and instant virality of the new app/game/life habit <em>Pokémon Go</em>, and it almost feels like the franchise needs to release a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug3bS8HnkZw&feature=youtu.be&t=20">public service announcement</a>.</p>
<p>Our friends over at Niantic have given us <em>Pokémon Go</em>, and we are dutifully inching closer to living in a world where we no longer have to play pretend, where we can catch pocket monsters as we’ve always desired. I’m elated that GPS navigation and our childhood dreams have come together in this beautiful union. <em>Pokémon Go</em> turns your regular jaunt to the corner store into an opportunity to catch a <a href="http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokedex/cubone">Cubone</a>, and while I couldn’t be happier for the ability to transform my normal life into an animated thriller, there’s a dangerous side to this brave new world of AR <em>Pokémon</em>.</p>
<p>Aside from the fact that <a href="https://twitter.com/KLSsampson/status/751195140388229125">people in Indiana</a> might have to stick to playing with their <a href="http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/04/ted-cruz-basketball-ring-hoosiers-indiana-gop-primary">basketball rings</a>, folks are, rather predictably, going a little too hard to <a href="https://twitter.com/alexia_pahl/status/751195187825618946">capture our digital friends</a>. There are adult humans who are taking padding their Pokédex <a href="https://twitter.com/NickRoseOnBoard/status/751433737330577408">very seriously</a>. Nah, but actually this is wild: As if texting and driving didn’t put people’s lives in enough danger, now I have to worry about you tryna <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=driving%20pokemon%20go&src=typd">#catchemall</a> on a major freeway?</p>
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<p>In the game’s terms of service, Niantic explicitly states that you should “be aware of your surroundings and play safely. You agree that your use of the App and play of the game is at your own risk, and it is your responsibility to maintain such health, liability, hazard, personal injury, medical, life, and other insurance policies as you deem reasonably necessary for any injuries that you may incur while using the Services.” Do any other apps in the game category of the App Store soft-suggest an insurance policy? (No, seriously, please tell us if they do!)</p>
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<p>The addiction is real and is endangering players (and bystanders) outside the car: <a href="http://www.wfaa.com/news/new-pokemon-go-app-causes-people-to-wander-outside/266738047">people are wandering aimlessly</a> around my apartment complex, too. Not to get too dark, but a very serious injury at the hands of <em>Pokémon Go</em> feels inevitable. (The relatively minor ones <a href="https://twitter.com/kyrietompkins/status/751230000167354368">are</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TwerkCobain/status/751276363772882944">already</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BHm47Dzghez/">piling</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/cupcakelindsay/status/751292173518274560">up</a>.)</p>
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<p>[Update: And if you aren’t already scared about bodily injury, you should be wary of emotional scars: A player in Wyoming was playing <em>Pokémon Go</em> only to <a href="http://www.ktvq.com/story/32403198/wyoming-teen-playing-new-pokemon-game-on-phone-discovers-body">come across a body Friday morning</a>.]</p>
<p>I completely understand we have this new chance to catch the OG 151 Pokémon in a unique way, but, fam, please: Do not Poké and drive. I repeat <a href="https://twitter.com/PokemonGoNews/status/750934347310460928">do not Poké and drive</a>.</p>
https://www.theringer.com/2016/7/8/16046342/pokemon-go-injuries-already-piling-up-250ec4c150bdCarl Brooks Jr.