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.
Some of my feature requests are more ambitious than others, but my latest one is extremely unassuming. I would simply like Apple to appreciate that there are places other than California when it comes to Siri’s weather reports.
While I’m sure that the standard reports given by Apple’s voice assistant work just fine for Cupertino, they are lacking a vital ingredient for places like London …
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It used to be common in Japan for someone to spend their entire working life at a single company, but it’s almost unheard of in the US.
However, Chris Espinosa, Apple employee number eight, has done just that – and says he has no plans to go anywhere else …
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Apple disappointed some when it launched the iPhone 17 Pro without the option to buy it in a black finish. The flagship iPhone is only available in blue, orange, or silver.
A leaker with a decent track record says that anyone hoping this would change with the iPhone 18 Pro is going to be disappointed …
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Apple says that all payment processing in Russia has ceased, meaning that it’s no longer possible for residents of the country to make app purchases or renew subscriptions. This includes subscriptions to Apple services like iCloud+ and Apple TV.
The move followed a diktat from the Russian government, and saw the closure of a loophole that allowed customers to make payments to Apple indirectly …
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The United Airlines app has been updated with streamlined access to AirTag baggage tracking. The app now makes it easier for you to share the location of an AirTag with United’s customer service staff.
Additionally, with a partial government shutdown leaving TSA checkpoints understaffed, the app will now provide you with estimates of the wait time for security at your departure airport – alongside a number of other useful enhancements …
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This story is part of 9to5mac’s series celebrating Apple’s 50th anniversary.
On Apple’s 50th anniversary, it’s somewhat worrying that I’m old enough to have been an Apple guy almost from the very start. The above photo shows the OG me with the OG Macintosh in 1984. Oh, and a rotary-dial telephone just to complete the museum exhibit look.
I never used an Apple I, but I did use an Apple II fairly extensively – and I’ve been a Mac guy literally from day one. So of all the Apple products I’ve used over the years, which ones stand out for me … ?
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If there are two universal truths about mobile carriers it’s that unlimited plans never are, and companies will always try to find ways to kick you off legacy plans. If you’re on a legacy AT&T plan, look out for price hikes this month …
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Apple is today celebrating its 50th anniversary, and CEO Tim Cook has tweeted a fun video taking a trip back in time through 50 years of Apple products in a glitchy vintage TV style.
It follows a homepage animation on the company’s website entitled “50 Years of Thinking Different” and, in my view, would have made a better choice …
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Two new claims that the iPhone 18 Pro will be getting a smaller Dynamic Island are getting a lot of attention at present. However, all may not be as it appears …
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Tech trends aren’t always easy to spot at an early stage, but there’s a very clear exception right now: the age verification requirement a growing number of countries and US states are introducing.
Apple is impacted by at least some of this legislation as certain apps are rated as suitable only for adults, and the company has so far introduced age verification in three countries …
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There’s a saying that there are two types of people in the world: those who have experienced major data loss and those who will experience major data loss. World Backup Day is a good time to ensure that you’re protected against falling into the second category.
Fortunately, Apple devices make it very simple to keep them automatically backed up, but it is still worrying how many people fail to do so …
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A new supply chain report says that Apple has asked both Samsung and LG to supply samples of an OLED panel suitable for an iMac.
The report says that the company is progressing plans to launch an OLED iMac, but it seems we shouldn’t expect it anytime soon …
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I reluctantly accepted last year that the end of the line for the Mac Pro was an inevitability. It had already effectively been replaced by the Mac Studio, and a macOS 26 feature was another nail in its coffin.
Yesterday was a day that had been coming since the first Apple Silicon Mac. I do think it’s the right call, but confess to still being a little sad to see it happen …
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The charging brick that came with your Apple device – or the one recommended by Apple, in the case of iPhones – usually won’t get you the fastest charge. It can be worth spending a bit more money on a more powerful charger.
Conversely, every Apple device has its own maximum charging rate, and buying a charger which exceeds this is just a waste of money …
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Apple SVP Eddy Cue has previously suggested that we may not be using iPhones ten years from now, but marketing chief Greg Joswiak appears to disagree.
Joz said in a new interview that it’s hard to imagine that we won’t still be using an iPhone 50 years from now …
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Although I appreciate Apple’s desire to keep the stock Photos app as simple as possible to use, there are a number of surprising omissions.
One of them is that there’s no way to sort or filter videos by length or file size. That’s a pretty fundamental missing feature if you’re trying to free up iPhone storage by deleting some of your largest unwanted videos. Fortunately, there’s a Shortcut available to do the job …
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If there’s one aspect of Apple Intelligence I really detest, it’s the suggested replies to iMessages. Meta is now emulating this with a new update to its Writing Help feature in WhatsApp.
The idea is that instead of actually replying to our friends with, you know, genuine human communication, we can just have AI send something generic instead …
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A court ruling with potentially massive implications has found that social media apps are intentionally designed to be addictive, and are harmful to teenage mental health.
A now 20-year-old woman sued Meta and YouTube owner Google for damaging her mental health as a child, with a jury awarding her $6 million in damages – and this is likely to be only the start …
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Previous reports have suggested that Apple is planning to fit a 200-megapixel camera to an iPhone in either 2027 or 2028.
While squeezing ever more pixels into the same size sensor would be bad news for low-light photography, the latest report has a couple of pieces of good news …
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Apple age verification went live in the UK in iOS 26.4 after a previous accidental release in the developer beta. While it was straightforward for me, some on the Apple Support forums and Reddit are reporting major problems with the process.
Some of the issues appear to be based on misunderstandings around the acceptable documentation when the company is unable to verify your age automatically, while others seem to be system failures. Update: See below for additional acceptable documents …
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Apple yesterday released iOS 26.4, with the company highlighting 13 new features and enhancements. The software update added functionality to Apple Music, made accessibility improvements, and introduced a number of other worthwhile enhancements.
There was one change the company didn’t mention, and that was the introduction of age verification for UK users. This was accidentally launched in a previous beta but is now official …
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A VPN company has put together AI chatbot privacy ratings based on the data collection practices of the ten most popular AI chatbots in the App Store.
The iPhone chatbots are ranked worst to best, and there are no prizes for guessing which of the competing apps collects the most personal data …
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Apple execs reportedly once expected the iPhone to be replaced by smart glasses by 2029, with Eddy Cue later updating this prediction to 2035.
However, one high-profile former ardent supporter of this idea has now changed his mind completely, and now believes that we will still be using smartphones 20 years from now …
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I last year explained why the iPhone had become my favourite video camera for B-roll footage despite owning a relatively expensive Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K rig.
I outlined the three benefits of shooting with an iPhone in public places, and in my latest video project I discovered another one …
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