Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer who started his career on PC World and has written for dozens of computer and technology magazines, as well as numerous national newspapers, business and in-flight magazines. He has also written two technothriller novels , a romcom novel, and an SF novella series.
He is old enough to have owned the original Macintosh. He currently owns an M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air 11, 12.9-inch iPad Pro (LTE 256GB), iPhone 13 Pro Max (256GB), Dell Ultrawide 49-inch monitor, an Apple Watch (Series 4 WiFi) and multiple HomePods – he suspects it might be cheaper to have a cocaine habit than his addiction to all things anodised aluminum.
He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.
He’s known for his op-ed and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review:
He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.
He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.
If @benlovejoy-ing him on twitter, please follow him first so that he can DM you if appropriate. If you have information you can pass on, you can also email him. If you would like to comment on one of his pieces, please do so in the comments – he does read them all.
I’m on record as saying that I think Vision Pro is mostly a stepping-stone toward an eventual Apple Glasses product, and that I think those are still years away yet.
I feel like current glasses tech is giving us these partial peeks into that future. Viture One XR glasses provide one potential take, and the Ray-Ban Meta glasses another – and perhaps suggesting the future may be closer than I thought …
Expand Expanding Close
While an expensive, bulky Vision Pro headset undoubtedly has its place for some, Apple’s longer-term goal is believed to be a product dubbed Apple Glasses: bringing AR capabilities into something with a similar form-factor and weight to conventional eyeglasses or sunglasses.
Squeezing that much tech into a much smaller device is, of course, a huge challenge – but researchers at Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab may have come up with at least part of the solution …
Expand Expanding Close
We learned late last year that a Microsoft iOS app store was in the works, and the company has now announced that this will launch in July.
Initially, it will be limited to Microsoft’s own games, but will later open up to other iPhone game developers, giving them an alternative outlet to Apple’s official App Store …
Expand Expanding Close
There’s been much debate on whether playing video games has a positive or negative impact on kids – and now teen gamers themselves have weighed-in.
A new large-scale survey of US teens found that around 40% of them played every day – with smartphones almost as popular a gaming device as consoles – and reported a mixed impact on their life …
Expand Expanding Close
Version 2.7 of the t:connect iOS app – which is used to control delivery of insulin by the t:slim X2 pump – has been urgently recalled by the FDA.
The FDA issued a Class I recall, which is reserved for products likely to cause “serious adverse health consequences or death” …
Expand Expanding Close
A new streaming video bundle has been announced, comprising Disney+, Hulu, Max. It will be available in two tiers, starting sometime this summer.
Given the that it will include ABC, CNN, DC, Discovery, Disney, Food Network, FX, HBO, HGTV, Hulu, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight, Warner Bros, and more, it raises the question of whether the big networks are simply reinventing cable TV …
Expand Expanding Close
Hollywood names have criticized Apple’s new iPad Pro ad, as it depicts the crushing of musical instruments, paints, camera lenses, books, movie characters, sculptures, and more.
Actor Hugh Grant was one of those speaking up against the ad, tweeting that what it showed was “the destruction of the human experience, courtesy of Silicon Valley” …
Expand Expanding Close
You might expect the introduction of the first OLED screens and uber-thin form factor to result in strong iPad Pro demand, but a new forecast from market intelligence company TrendForce suggests it may actually be lower than last year.
The company predicts that total shipments of the latest iPad Pro models “will only reach between 4.5 to 5 million units in 2024” – which would be down on 2023. It gives two reasons for this pessimistic picture …
Expand Expanding Close
Update: A court filing has confirmed that the company now has more than enough money to repay customers. In recognition of the lost gains, creditors owed $50k or less will receive around 118% of their deposit value at the time of the Chapter 11 filing.
In a surprise development, bankruptcy lawyers say that FTX customers – once considered to have lost almost everything – are now expected to get their money back in full from the remains of the cryptocurrency company …
Expand Expanding Close
Smart home company Brilliant has announced that it has run out of money, after failing to raise more capital in an attempted funding round.
While its smart home controllers and light switches continue to work for now, there’s no guarantee that will remain the case for long given the lack of either HomeKit or Matter compatibility …
Expand Expanding Close
Meta is testing a new option which allows users to cross-post from Instagram to Threads. The move is likely intended to boost engagement on the company’s newest social network …
Expand Expanding Close
Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, is suing the US government, arguing that the threatened ban is unconstitutional. The company had previously said it would do so, though it had been unclear whether it would follow through.
The company is fighting a law which forces it to either sell the app to an American company, or be banned from operating in the US …
Expand Expanding Close
Yesterday’s Let Loose event announced new iPads, Apple Pencil, Magic Keyboard – plus a few surprises, some pleasant, some not.
There were no major surprises to the actual iPad announcements, as they were very much in line with what we’d been expecting …
Expand Expanding Close
Alongside the new iPads, a new Apple Pencil Pro has been announced, priced at $129 – the same price as the Pencil 2.
The latest version of the device is a significant upgrade. However, it is only compatible with the latest iPads – both Air and Pro …
Expand Expanding Close
Alongside the new iPads, we’re expecting Apple to launch a new design of iPad keyboard case today, potentially branded as the Magic Keyboard Pro.
This could give the iPad Pro and keyboard combo a more MacBook-like appearance – but could also lead a growing number of would-be iPad Pro buyers to conclude that they’d be better off with a MacBook Air …
Expand Expanding Close
Musi is a free music app for iPhone which has been downloaded tens of millions of times – but a new piece says that the legality of the app is in question.
Musi launched back in 2016, and proved a hit with teens in particular, as it provides free streaming music without the audio ad interruptions you get on the free tier of Spotify …
Expand Expanding Close
More than three years after Spotify lossless audio was first promised by the company, it still hasn’t launched. There have been multiple reports since, and the latest of these claims that the service is now very close to launching.
We’ve also heard three different brand names suggested. The company originally announced it as Spotify HiFi, then we heard Music Pro, and today’s report says it will be called Spotify Lossless …
Expand Expanding Close
A French website has obtained what appear to be molds of the iPhone 16 line-up, showing what appears to be a small but still notable change to the MagSafe charging ring.
The molds also reflect the changes we’re expecting to see to the camera layout in the base and Plus model iPhone 16 …
Expand Expanding Close
Next week’s Let Loose event will see the unveiling of new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, alongside a new Apple Pencil and an updated Magic Keyboard which will give the iPad Pro a more MacBook-like look and feel.
But there is one key iPad which won’t get an update next week, and that’s the entry-level model. Apple is said to be working hard on an updated version of this …
Expand Expanding Close
There were no surprises in Apple’s earnings report yesterday, with the company reporting close to the $5B year-on-year fall in revenue it had warned us to expect.
Analysts got their usual chance to question CEO Tim Cook and chief financial officer Luca Maestri directly after the announcement. The pair always remain tight-lipped about specific plans, but there are a few things worth noting …
Expand Expanding Close
Yesterday saw the announcement of the Apple Q2 2024 earnings report, which were pretty much exactly as expected – revenue coming in at $90.75B against Wall Street expectations of $90.1B.
As usual, Six Colors has brought the numbers to life with a great set of colorful visualizations, alongside a video talking through them …
Expand Expanding Close
While Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust law forced Apple to allow developers to sell apps outside the company’s own App Store, there were a number of potential problems with the company’s terms and conditions – not least of which is that an unexpected viral hit could have bankrupted an indie developer.
Apple had already made a number of changes to its terms to reduce the risk, and has now added two more protections which should prevent that nightmare scenario …
Expand Expanding Close
A new report says that Apple CEO Tim Cook will “hint” at upcoming AI features during next week’s Let Loose event.
New iPads are the main focus of the event, but there are possible reasons for suggesting that Apple might also use it to outline new artificial intelligence features ahead of a detailed briefing at WWDC …
Expand Expanding Close
The Apple Watch AFib feature – which detects abnormal heartbeat patterns indicative of atrial fibrillation – has received a new tick of approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Doctors have already credited the health feature with saving lives.
While the FDA had previously granted clearance for AFib detection, that was a limited endorsement …
Expand Expanding Close