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.
UK mobile carrier O2 has created Daisy, an AI grandmother designed to waste the time of phone scammers by keeping them on the line as long as possible.
Anyone can report a scam call or message by texting their number to 7722, where it will be checked and then added to the list of targets …
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The legal battle over the free music streaming app Musi continues, with Apple defending its decision to remove it from the App Store ahead of a court case set to determine its fate …
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A Mac version of the popular console game Control Ultimate Edition will launch on February 12 next year, says developer Remedy.
We don’t yet know the specs required to run it, but we can be certain that it will be limited to M-Series Macs …
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Lawyers acting for Apple are today expected to ask a federal judge to dismiss the DOJ antitrust case against the company in its entirety.
The Department of Justice has for years been investigating whether Apple broke antitrust law by abusing its dominant position in the US smartphone market, before deciding that it did, and filing charges in March of this year …
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Leaked documents reveal that the Graykey iPhone hacking tool is able to “partially” access iPhone 16 models – but not if they are running any of the iOS 18 betas.
Graykey is a competitor to Cellebrite, and is intended for use by law enforcement agencies. We’ve seen similar leaked documents from Cellebrite before, but this is the first time we’ve discovered which devices Graykey can access …
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It was back in September when Meta first revealed an early prototype of its Orion AR glasses, and while they are a long way from becoming an actual product you can buy, the company does believe it can achieve this.
Indeed, Meta’s wearables chief thinks that Orion can in time become the AirPods of augmented reality devices …
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One of the biggest problems with social media is that our feeds are full of things the algorithms think we want to see, rather than what we actually want to see.
If your Instagram recommendations seem increasingly removed from your interests, Meta is now offering you the chance to start again from scratch …
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Apple has put together no fewer than nine different Top 10 lists, revealing the most popular podcasts of 2024.
The lists kick off with the top shows of the year, but go on to list the most popular in a number of different categories, from new shows to those with the highest subscriber counts …
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The latest iPhone 17 Air report suggests that the expected ultra-slim model could be as thin as 6mm, which would make it the slimmest iPhone ever made.
While that would be a challenging metric to hit, and we’ll believe it when there’s supporting evidence, we do seem to have growing clarity on the market Apple is targeting with the device …
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Apple has responded to an iPhone 16 ban in Indonesia by offering a ten-fold boost to its manufacturing investments in the country.
The Indonesian government responded aggressively when Cupertino company fell a little way short of its promised spend in the country, and Apple seems extremely keen to resolve the matter …
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Apple has been one of the most vocal supporters of the benefits of regularly standing up during the working day.
The company encourages standing once an hour via Apple Watch alerts, and it also made sit-stand desks a standard fitment in its Apple Park campus. CEO Tim Cook even cited the “sitting is the new cancer” phrase which has proven so controversial …
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Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has resurrected the idea of an Apple television, albeit couching this in the most uncertain of terms.
[The company] may even revisit the idea of making an Apple-branded TV set, something it’s evaluating.Â
Long-time readers may recall that rumors about this date back to at least 2011 …
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A new report today suggests that porch pirates – thieves who steal packages left on doorsteps shortly after delivery – have accessed tracking data from AT&T systems to follow iPhone deliveries.
There has been a marked uptick in iPhones being stolen from doorsteps after being ordered from AT&T and delivered by Fedex, apparently with the help of real-time delivery updates …
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Apple last week launched Final Cut Pro 11, and the company clearly consider the new features offered to be a big deal. The last time Apple did a full version number change was the launch of Final Cut Pro X (aka FCP 10) way back in 2011.
Final Cut Pro 11 includes eight new features, and the AI-driven automatic caption feature was one of the headline ones …
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Reuters found discriminatory job ads for iPhone workers in India, with recruitment leaflets stating that women applying for positions with Foxconn must be unmarried and aged 18 to 32.
The offending ads have been withdrawn following the launch of state and federal investigations into Foxconn’s hiring practices by the Indian government, but neither Foxconn nor Apple has yet offered any explanation for the original requirements …
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I know, it’s just a developer beta, and if anyone from Apple asks then my Visual Intelligence first impressions are purely offered in the context of its future potential. But I have to say that trying it leaves me excited for that future.
The actual Apple Intelligence part is currently relatively limited. In most cases, you get a choice between asking ChatGPT to describe to you what you are seeing and a Google search …
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I’m fairly firmly convinced that people who don’t keep their iPhone in a case are from an entirely different species to me. While I don’t make a habit of dropping mine, I don’t think there has been a year in which I haven’t dropped or knocked it against something at least once.
For me, then, an iPhone case falls into the category of a necessity rather than a luxury – but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a luxurious look and feel …
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M4 MacBook Pro reviews mostly endorsed my own view that, while the machine would make a great purchase for Intel MBP owners, there isn’t a compelling reason for any M-series user to upgrade.
However, it turns out that Apple quietly gave the latest MacBook Pro a new display tech, offering two benefits …
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Back in 2020, Apple admitted that some AirPods Pro units suffered from both crackling sounds, and faults in the Active Noise Cancellation feature. The company launched a recall program which allowed customers to return their AirPods and have them replaced.
Apple said that only models made before October 2020 were affected, but a new AirPods Pro lawsuit claims this isn’t true – and says the company’s own actions confirm this …
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Some six years after virtual private network company NordVPN started searching data breaches for the most-used passwords, things are every bit as bad as when the company started.
Each year, the company searches the dark web for passwords stolen by malware or exposed in security breaches to determine the most commonly-used passwords, and this year’s crop is as depressing as ever …
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Snapchat is rolling out a new feature which will work in a similar way to Apple’s Find My app, but will be limited to family members.
Parents will be able to request the location of the teens, and vice-versa, with some automated location reporting also available …
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TSMC’s Arizona plants will enable Apple chips for older devices to be made in the US for the first time, but things haven’t exactly been going to plan.
The latest development is that a group of the company’s US workers have filed a lawsuit accusing the Taiwanese company of ‘anti-American discrimination’ …
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Earlier this week Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that we’ll see an Apple smart home camera in 2026, with the company confident it will prove to be a popular accessory, selling in the tens of millions per year.
Given Apple’s habit of minimizing the number of products it makes, if the report is accurate the company must feel there’s good reason to enter a crowded product category, and I think an Apple camera will likely differentiate itself in two ways: privacy, and Apple Intelligence …
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Shazam was once so ubiquitous that it was a verb, but since Apple’s acquisition and rebranding of the feature as Music Recognition, you don’t even need to have the Shazam app installed any more.
Apple has continued to improve the feature, and as of the iOS 18.2 beta, it can now tell you where you were when you heard a song …
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