Instagram is a popular social media among brown school students, and many clubs and teams make an Instagram account to promote it to the students. This newspaper is no exception. January 12th, the tech team created the bear necessities Instagram account. 

On our Instagram, you can view our staff introductions, DM us your art, and see sneak peeks at upcoming articles. 

Making our Instagram account is a great way to get publicity, and possibly more readers and more engagement in our newspaper. We’re looking forward to having new eyes reading our articles, and hope to see our follower count grow.

In 2019, middle and high school teachers distributed new HP Chromebooks to the student body and began transferring work to an online format. Google Classroom and Docs became frequent facets of daily life- an experience only heightened by the sudden switch to NTI in March 2020. Students took their Chromebooks home on March 13, 2020, and many became reliant on them as a source of connection with their fellow classmates and teachers. 

This year, students are being asked to swap out their nearly 5-year-old HP Chromebooks for new Dell-branded ones. Some students are happy for the change- after all, the Dell Chromebooks are sleeker, faster, and probably cleaner than the HP laptops many of us have owned since we were 13. But, as with all things, some students have formed attachments to these pieces of technology that have survived so many tumultuous transitions.

“The decision from the district is that the HP Chromebooks are about five years old, and they’re becoming an obsolete model,” said Drew Paige, Brown’s Digital Innovation Coach, one of the primary staff members facilitating the switch. “When it gets to that point, they can no longer have updates done to them and they become a security risk, so we went ahead and exchanged them for the Dell data Chromebooks.”

Paige says that the advantages of the new Chromebooks are “brand new, so nobody’s ever used them before”- but the best thing about them is that they have built-in data, “which means they have built-in T-Mobile Internet, so if a student was gonna go to the park, or they were going to go on a road trip in the car, places that don’t have access to Wi-Fi, they can turn on their T-Mobile data and have immediate Internet access, free and unlimited.”

According to Drew, the transition was pretty easy, albeit a little chaotic. “I wouldn’t say that there was one grade in specific that’s been less eager to turn theirs in, but they definitely had some attachment issues, I would say, about wanting that. Since, you know, a lot of them have had [the Chromebooks] since 7th or 8th grade."

Roxy Osborne, a senior at Brown, is one of those students. “I just don’t wanna get rid of my stickers,” she said on her reluctance to give up her HP Chromebook.

That seems to be the common consensus among those less willing to make the exchange. The Wednesday the swap took place, dozens of students shuffled to the Ursa Innovation Lab and settled at one of the worktables with a sticker-remover, which is intended to make surface-to-surface sticker transfers easier. While some students were reasonably successful and were able to reuse them on their new Chromebooks, other students were left with gunk all over their old HP Chromebooks- but it didn’t matter much since the old ones were scrapped anyway.

“I don’t really have strong feelings about the new Chromebooks, but I do like that we can work on the road and my old one was broken anyway,” said junior Irina Macaranas. “I do think the battery life is a little bit shorter now, though.”

Generally, Brown's students feel pretty neutral about the change, but are noticing the small differences between the old Chromebooks and their new ones- like battery life, loading speed, and other updates made between the HP and Dell Chromebooks. The ‘attachment issues’ Drew mentioned seem to be a thing of the past as students adapt to their new devices and go about customizing them again- and, given the fact that it’s a new year, a fresh start isn’t such a bad thing.

All over the Internet, there have been products going around that are dupes of more expensive products. Dupes is a short word for ‘duplicates’, and means ‘exactly like something else’. The trend involves finding a copy of an original product. There are a lot of beauty, clothing, and everyday items that are being made by other companies that are cheaper but almost the same thing. These products aren’t exactly the same, but may have the same formula, finish, or style/look. Surprisingly, these products don't outsell the more expensive products, but make it so people who can’t afford or get their hands on the high end item are able to try it. 

Beauty products have been one of the most popular items that have dupes. From foundation to skin care, there are so many new products being made regularly. E.L.F, a popular drugstore makeup brand, has made many duplicate products. One of their most popular is a dupe of the Charlotte TilburyHollywood Flawless Filter foundation. The original product is priced at $46 for 1 fluid ounce, while the E.L.F Halo Glow Liquid Filter is $14 for 1.06 fluid ounces. The E.L.F. dupe is always sold out at stores because it’s gotten so popular. 

Skin care can vary in price, but many good quality products are very expensive. Drunk Elephant, a high end skin care brand, has gone viral for its products, with their Bronzing Drops being sold out consistently. However, L’Oreal has a similar product called Lumi Glowtion. This product comes in multiple shades and only costs 12 dollars- half the price of the Drunk Elephant original. For a moisturizer dupe, another popular product from Drunk Elephant, Bubble (a drugstore skincare brand) has products almost identical. Actually, this brand has multiple dupes of products by Drunk Elephant. 

Clothing and shoes are other big items that people make dupes of. UGG, a shoe brand, makes really popular slipper-style shoes. These slippers are quite expensive and can be over $100 depending on the shoe. 

Chabely Perez-Tolon, a student at Brown High School, has a pair of UGG dupes. “I own the UGG slipper dupe and I got mine from walmart. They are worth it, because it was only 17 bucks instead of 100 and more”, Says Perez-Tolon. 

One of the biggest dupes going around right now are Stanley cups. These cups are around $50, depending on the size and where you get them. These cups are popular for their size and handle which makes for easy carrying. Many brands have made versions of these cups for half the price. 

Remy LeBoeuf, a student at Brown High School, has a Stanley dupe. LeBoeuf said, “I like my Stanley dupe because it's the same quality of a Stanley and it promotes me to drink more water during the day. They are way cheaper, depending on where you get them and they still have many different cup styles.” 

On the Internet there are way more duplicate products. Everyday, people find new similar products and people go and try those dupes. Companies use these high end products to see an opportunity to make a new product. With a lot of social media platforms, these dupes spread fast and go viral. These products usually sell out fairly quickly and make the company a lot of money. 

Lizzie Rademaker, a student at Brown High School, likes how companies make these cheaper products. “I think companies should continue to make these product dupes because, some people can't afford the high end products especially right now with trending products they can try the products for a cheaper price,” Rademaker said. 

Over the years, there have been many duplicated products that have been put out on the market. In the last year or so, dupes have become much more popular. Brands usually come out with new products and things that are popular right now, but cheaper brands are taking ideas from high end brands. This isn't stealing because they aren’t the exact same but they are copies of those products. To brands, it's all about the business and what consumers want. Brands want to make what's popular, and at this time the products that are popular are more expensive.  

R&B artist SZA’s 2017 album Ctrl made waves in the music industry. Her thematic use of clips from a phone call with her grandmother tied the album together, and when coupled with her unique instrumentals, raw lyricism (especially on ‘Supermodel’ and ‘Drew Barrymore’), and soulful vocals, the album earned SZA five Grammy nominations at the 60th annual Grammy Awards, including ‘Best New Artist’. 

When she announced the release of her sophomore album SOS in November 2022 after numerous delays, the Internet just about exploded- and the excitement only intensified with the album’s release on December 9, 2022. Influenced by Joni Mitchell and Ms. Lauryn Hill, SOS combined everything fans loved about Ctrl with new techniques in production and vocals that added interest to the album itself. One of the most defining aspects of the album is its use of samples and references throughout. Using these references, SZA creates something of a pop-culture anthology in music form.

From the jump, SOS creates a web of callbacks to iconic moments in western pop culture; the album’s cover references photos of Princess Diana taken in August 1997, sitting forlornly on the diving board of Mohamed Al Fayed’s yacht just a week before her death. “I just loved how isolated [Princess Diana] felt, and that was what I wanted to convey the most,” said SZA on Hot 97 in December.

The lyrics of the first song, the album’s title track, reference veteran football players Tom Brady and Kevin Durant, as well as Della Reese, a jazz and gospel singer of the 1950s.  At the end of the song, SZA uses portions of the melody and lyrics, or interpolates, Beyonce’s song ‘Listen’ from the 2006 movie musical Dreamgirls- meaning that in the first track alone, SZA references 4 pop culture icons, a major musical movement, and a cult classic film. 

This pattern continues throughout the album. Two songs (‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Gone Girl’) are named for popular movies; ‘Seek & Destroy’ appears to reference Metallica’s 1983 song of the same name; lyrics in ‘Blind’ make note of boxer (and Louisville native) Mohammed Ali (“Put the hood on, now they callin’ me Cassius”) and 2001 drama Save the Last Dance (“I ain’t no Julia Stiles, this ain’t no last dance, way past it”); later, lyrics in ‘Used’, ‘Snooze’, and ‘Conceited’ tie to Star Wars, Scarface, and Despicable Me, respectively.

Beyond lyricism and titles, SZA uses samples and interpolations from Bjork, Mazzy Star, Aaliyah, and the Gabriel Hardeman Delegation to flesh out her many layers of cultural influences, which are reflected in the album’s four featured artists as well- from Travis Scott to Phoebe Bridgers.

“If you peel back all the layers of SZA, you’ll find a lyricist at the core,” says Zoe Guy, a writer for entertainment news source Vulture. “SZA employs an arsenal of pop-culture references to her already well-seasoned lyrics about growing up.”

“SZA has mastered the art of the inner monologue, transforming deeply personal observations into gilded songs that feel intimate, relatable, and untouchable,” says Julianne Escobedo Shepherd in her review of SOS for music news outlet Pitchfork. SOS garnered a score of 8.7 on Pitchfork’s 10-point scale for rating new albums.

From the lovelorn alternative ballads ‘Nobody Gets Me’ and ‘Ghost in the Machine’, to the classic hip-hop inspired ‘Forgiveless’, to the pop-punk plea ‘F2F’, there’s something on SOS for everyone. The album is worth a first listen- and a second, and a third, to unpack the many coats of allegories and allusions baked cleanly into the album as a whole- and is well on its way to becoming a modern classic, like Ctrl before it. 

If you have been on the internet recently, you have probably seen ads for new and upcoming phones. Apple, Google, and Samsung all came out with new phones. Apple, being the most popular, came out with the 4 new models and updated one of their previous phones; Samsung came out with a few new styles, and Google released a new Pixel phone. 

Apple is the most popular phone brand right now by far. In an interview conducted with Brown School students, most said they have heard about the new iPhone 14s. Apple came out with the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. Both of these phones come in 2 different sizes, 6.1” and 6.7”. The front screen is different from the 13, with a Dynamic Island added. “It bubbles up music, sports scores, FaceTime, and so much more all without taking you away from what you’re doing.”, said the Apple website’s overview about the new phones. Also, the display has greatly improved. The screen brightness is 2x brighter than the sun, and automatically enters battery-saving mode when the phone is facing down. 

Today, everyone is trying to find the best camera on phones. “We think the iPhone 14 Pro is the best all-round camera phone. It’s reliable in all conditions, captures the best video out of any other phone on this list, and boasts three distinct cameras for versatility, with each capturing different focal lengths,”says Trusted Reviews. Although professional review sites say it is the best, in a student-conducted survey a few people didn’t agree. “For me, the photos look off and kind of blurry. But I did like the 0.5 feature because my old phone didn't have that, said an anonymous Brown School student. 

The  next most popular phone is the Google Pixel 7 Pro. This phone is popular, but many people haven't heard much about it, considering the data from the survey. The outside of the phone has a clean and sleek look with scratch-and-fingerprint-resistant cover glass, edge-less cornering, and a back with a matte aluminum frame.

The battery life can last up to 72 hours. It has a regular battery life of over 24 hours but with Extreme Battery Saver, it can last up to 72 hours. This phone also has fast charging, which can charge the phone up to 50% within 30 minutes. It is also compatible with wireless charging. Lastly, you can share your battery. This can share battery power from one device to another that is compatible. 

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is Samsung's newest phone. This phone has a few new features not seen on previous Samsung phones. The outside of this phone is slim and sleek. It also has mirrored lens rings and the frame is very neat and polished. This phone comes in a variety of colors, ranging from black, white, and more neutral tones. This is the first Galaxy S with a built in S pen. 

The screen itself has improved by increasing the brightness capacity and the color quality. It also increased in size, which makes for a better watching experience. There is a fast charger and wireless charging included with this phone. With this phone, like the Google Pixel, you can share battery power to certain devices. 

The camera system is Samsung’s most advanced yet. There are 4 rear cameras for zooming and wide angle arrangements. You can capture dark pictures without losing all detail with the Auto Framerate’s intelligent light detection. The camera also corrects shakes for clarity in every picture. 

Also included in this phone is a Pro Editing Studio, which helps you keep video centered at one specific spot by tapping with the new auto framing feature. Also there is a new tool: the object eraser. This removes unwanted images from the picture(s) taken. With the pen included, you can also draw or use it to add fineline details to your pictures.

All of these phones have new features that can be fitting to everyone. Having a specific brand, style, or look can make or break what phone you want to purchase. These phones have similar features, but with their own unique twists. It is really important to find a phone that you like and will use it to its best capability. There are so many phones out right now, so it may take a while to find the best one for your likings.