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 several books, and creates occasional videos.
He is old enough to have owned the original Macintosh. He currently owns an M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro, an M1 13-inch MacBook Air, an iPad mini, an iPhone 16 Pro Max, and multiple HomePods. He suspects it might be cheaper to have a cocaine habit than his addiction to all things anodised aluminum.
He’s known for his op-ed and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review:
He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.
He gets a lot of emails and can’t possibly reply to them all. If you would like to comment on one of his pieces, please do so in the comments – he does read them all.
You’d expect Windows Central to be pretty adamant in favoring Windows laptops over any MacBook. Yet not only the website itself, but also its readers, see the MacBook Neo as a move that should see Microsoft panicking.
The site says that the timing couldn’t be better for Apple given that more Windows users than ever before are looking to switch platform, and thinks it will hurt sales of machines like the $600 ASUS Vivobook 14 shown above …
Expand Expanding Close
I earlier estimated that Apple would sell gazillions of MacBook Neo machines. TrendForce is now out with a slightly more formal estimate of four to five million units this year.
The market intelligence company also notes that Apple is headed in the opposite direction to most of its competitors …
Expand Expanding Close
I’ve just argued that the MacBook Neo offers phenomenal value for money and is the machine I expect to recommend to a great many people.
However, it of course won’t be suitable for everyone. I think a quick glance at the specs would rapidly rule it out for videographers, but there is one compromise that means it’s not a good choice for photographers either …
Expand Expanding Close
If there was one product that cemented the myth of the “Apple tax” – the supposedly excessive price premium paid for the logo – it was the MacBook Air. People would point to Apple’s cheapest laptop costing $1,000 and loudly proclaim that you could buy a Windows machine or Chromebook from around $300.
The comparison was of course spurious. The cheap laptops being used to make the argument were ugly plastic things with exceedingly poor specs compared to the MacBook Air. Still, it was undeniable that a four-figure starting price did prove a barrier to a lot of people – but all that has changed with the MacBook Neo …
Expand Expanding Close
The Apple Store app and website has just gone down with the ‘Be right back’ message Apple uses ahead of major new product announcements.
We’re of course expecting the imminent announcement of the new entry-level MacBook, which may be branded as the MacBook Neo …
Expand Expanding Close
TikTok is setting itself apart from most other online platforms that offer messaging by stating that it won’t be introducing end-to-end encryption to ensure the privacy of direct messages.
This means that the company will be able to read messages sent between users, which is likely to cause concerns even after its US operations were separated from its Chinese owner …
Update: Added comment from TikTok below
Expand Expanding Close
We noted that the brand new M5 Pro and M5 Max versions of the MacBook Pro have a significantly different chip architecture to their predecessors.
While the M4 Pro and M4 Max models had a mix of efficiency and performance cores to balance battery life against power, the new models ditch the efficiency cores …
Expand Expanding Close
Prior to yesterday’s launch of the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, Apple Silicon chips had two types of core: efficiency and performance.
The M5 chips now have three types of core, with a complication caused by the renaming of one of them. Here’s what’s going on …
Expand Expanding Close
Head on over to the just updated Apple website and the company will tell you that the MacBook Pro starts at $1,699. That is indeed the case for the original M5 version with 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD.
However, pricing immediately jumps to well over $2,000 once you select one of the new chips, and the machine now maxes out at $7,349 …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple has just announced the new, more powerful MacBook Pro models powered by the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips.
In previous editions of Apple Silicon, the Pro variant was essentially just two chips, while the Max was four. But for the M5 generation, Apple has combined two dies into a single chip …
Expand Expanding Close
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that multiple studies have associated doomscrolling – compulsively consuming bad news and depressing content – with negative impacts on mental health.
Resisting the urge to do this can be especially challenging at times of international crisis like this, but it’s also never more important than right now …
Expand Expanding Close
A new report says that video feeds from Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses are sent for review by human data annotators in Kenya, and that the footage includes sensitive content that is supposed to be excluded.
Whistleblowers says that the video seen by third-party contractors used by Meta includes everything from people having sex to bank cards …
Expand Expanding Close
As expected, Apple has today announced the new iPhone 17e with some worthwhile upgrades over its predecessor.
The new model gets full support for MagSafe wireless charging and storage has been doubled to 256GB for the same price. There is, however, one very surprising thing about the upgrade …
Expand Expanding Close
You may recall that way back in 2017, the WPA2 encryption standard used by most Wi-Fi routers at the time was cracked and had to be replaced with a new version, WPA3. Now a new attack method dubbed AirSnitch means that Wi-Fi encryption on most networks can be bypassed in order to access all of the traffic passing through the router.
Almost all routers are vulnerable, so there are three steps you should take in order to protect yourself, with the greatest risk occurring through use of public Wi-Fi hotspots …
Expand Expanding Close
My personal view is that macOS 26 is a decent upgrade on balance, despite a few embarrassing mistakes. I also think that a minority of very vocal commenters have given a misleading impression about the level of opposition to the Liquid Glass update.
However, if you’ve decided not to upgrade, you’ll be pleased to know that you can stop your Mac nagging you to do so …
Expand Expanding Close
We’re gearing up for the official announcement of the low-cost MacBook this week, and Apple reportedly believes it will offer “incredible value.”
The company thinks it will bring two types of new user into the Mac world. That’s important not just for sales of the MacBook itself, but what it means for the Mac lineup as a whole – even for those of us who have no plans to buy the machine …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple clearly needs some way of distinguishing the upcoming low-cost MacBook from the more expensive MacBook Air. We’d wondered whether color might be sufficient to limit cannibalization, but it’s been suggested that the new machine may have a number of compromises.
9to5Mac readers aren’t really the target market for an entry-level machine, but some might consider it as a second Mac, while others might recommend it to family and friends. However, would any of the rumoured compromises be a deal-breaker … ?
Expand Expanding Close
Samsung loves to launch new features before Apple, and it has partly done so with the new AI capabilities in the Galaxy S26. The latest version of Galaxy AI seeks to perform many of the same functions as Apple Intelligence.
As our sister site 9to5Google notes, however, the experience seems set to prove very underwhelming …
Expand Expanding Close
Instagram has said that it will begin notifying parents if their teenage child “repeatedly” searches for content related to self-harm or suicide.
The announcement follows Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying in court in response to claims that Instagram content had led to self-harm by children …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple almost always gets the better part of any negotiation with its suppliers, but a sketchy report claims that this wasn’t the case when it came to buying RAM from Samsung.
The report says Samsung had asked for a 100% increase in price, expecting to negotiate down to 60%, but Apple’s desperation was such that it agreed to the first demand …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple Pay has reportedly grown to become the second largest payment processing service in the world after Visa, handling 9.5 trillion transactions for more than 800 million customers.
Those numbers now look set for a significant boost as Apple prepares for its biggest ever expansion of its mobile wallet service …
Expand Expanding Close
The latest beta of iOS 26.4 has an extra step for iPhone owners based in the UK. Once installed, the Settings app will prompt you to confirm that you are 18+.
If Apple isn’t sure how old you are, you may need to scan a credit card or photo ID to confirm that you’re an adult. In my case, it was completely automatic and took less than 30 seconds …
Expand Expanding Close
We know from Steve Jobs that Apple’s experiments with touchscreen Macs date back to at least 2008. At the time he said it was a “terrible” idea.
A lot has changed since then, and reports that we are finally going to see a touchscreen Mac have grown in credibility to the point where it now seems more likely than not. I’ve so far been a little concerned about the idea, but the latest report gives me confidence …
Expand Expanding Close
A password manager used to be one of the most important third-party apps anyone could have. It was the thing that made it practical to have strong, unique passwords for every app, website and online service we used.
Once Apple Passwords launched, however, the writing was on the wall for paid apps and subscriptions. The price hike just announced by 1Password looks set to persuade many more people to make the switch – and it’s very easy to do …
Expand Expanding Close