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.
It’s not just the Twitter brand name that is no more – direct messages are also being replaced by X Chat. The new private messaging feature finally brings end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to the platform – though with one question-mark …
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Way back in 2009, Apple added a very handy feature to iMacs, allowing them to be used as a monitor for another Mac – typically a MacBook. Known as Target Display Mode, the company unfortunately dropped the feature from the model launched in late 2014 and it has never returned.
If you want to do the same with later iMacs, there is an app for that, as we outlined last year. But Quinn Nelson at Snazzy Labs opted instead for the ultimate conversion …
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There’s been a whole flurry of rumors about a 2nd-gen iPhone Air lately. It’s getting a second camera; it’s been delayed to allow time to add this; it’s been indefinitely delayed due to the original model proving unpopular; it probably won’t be getting a second camera but will be getting an updated chip.
Whenever there are this many conflicting reports, the smart money is on nobody outside Apple really knowing what’s going on. But if the second camera report is true, that leaves another question to be answered …
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There’s long been speculation about when Apple CEO Tim Cook might retire and who is likely to replace him. That intensified earlier this month when he turned 65.
Cook himself has made only two on-the-record statements, but a new report over the weekend suggests that the company is now ramping up preparations to replace him “as soon as next year” …
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The iPhone’s Portrait mode uses computational photography to simulate the shallow depth of field of a digital SLR or mirrorless camera with a larger sensor. It’s evolved from a very crude tool into something which is now pretty convincing, but it’s still no substitute for the real thing.
There are some circumstances in which you can get genuine shallow-ish depth of field with an iPhone shot, but these are very limited as we’ll discuss. The Sandmarc 2x telephoto lens is a much more practical way to get true optical blurring when shooting portraits …
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Some 2 billion email addresses and 1.3 billion passwords have been compromised in a series of data breaches highlighted by a cybersecurity company.
Microsoft regional director Troy Hunt, who runs the site Have I Been Pwned, says the stolen data is more extensive than anything the site has ever processed …
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Apple was today denied permission to appeal the result of a billion-dollar lawsuit filed by UK app developers accusing the company of abusive commission levels.
The company last month lost the case and a hearing today is deciding how the damages are calculated. If the ruling stands, it is expected to end up costing Apple anywhere between £1B and £2B ($1.3B to $2.6B) – but Apple is expected to counter this with four arguments …
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The leaker who first revealed the name of the iPhone 16e is now saying that demand for the device has been very low. However, they say that despite this setback, Apple is for now still planning to proceed with plans for the iPhone 17e.
They also say that production of the iPhone Air has now ceased completely, following an earlier report that output levels had been slashed …
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Update 9:34am PT: There is no direct deal between Apple and Tencent for the 15% commission rate on WeChat mini games and apps. Instead, Tencent is taking advantage of Apple’s new App Store Mini Apps Partner Program, which launched for all developers today. Tencent, like all developers, will first have to apply to the program.
Members of the program earn 85% of qualifying In‑App Purchase sales within qualifying mini apps.
The original story via Bloomberg is below.
Apple’s App Store commission might be under threat in multiple countries around the world, but the company has just gained a huge new source of commission thanks to a WeChat deal struck in China.
The situation arises because the way most Chinese iPhone users buy apps is very different to anywhere else in the world …
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Apple’s opposition to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation took a turn back in September when the company started arguing that the law should be repealed. It also suggested that more new features would be delayed for EU customers, and perhaps even new hardware.
The company is now claiming a new study proves that the DMA fails to live up to one of its core promises: reducing app prices …
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Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was infamous for his harsh critiques of the work of his team. Hardware or software, if Steve wasn’t 100% happy, you would certainly know about it.
Chris Espinosa, who wrote the first Macintosh calculator app and still works at Apple as its longest-serving employee, found a creative way around Steve’s never-ending critiques in what must be one of the best ever examples of managing upwards …
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Apple has updated its website to say that Apple Intelligence on a Mac requires a model with an M2 chip or later. That’s a change to the original compatibility requirement of an M1 chip or later.
However, while the change may be worrying for anyone with an M1 Mac, it seems near-certain that this is an error rather than a change of requirements …
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While Apple’s decision to include a bold orange colour in the iPhone 17 Pro lineup seems to have proven surprisingly popular, there was one design element that attracted more criticism: the two-tone look of the back casing.
A leaker with a decent track record suggests that the company is going to fix that problem in next year’s lineup …
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You wouldn’t imagine that buying an iPod could remain a memorable part of a trip in which I fulfilled a childhood dream, and yet that is the case.
November 2001 saw me fly from London to New York on Concorde, and it was during my five-day stay that the original iPod first went on sale …
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It’s been a couple of years since Snapchat made the shift to 3D avatars. The company said at the time that it gave users more ways than ever to represent themselves. Two years later, the complaints kept coming, so following a petition 2D avatars are now being reintroduced …
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Some owners of first-generation AirPods Max headphones have reported experiencing “the three amber lights of death.” This is when the headphones fail to connect and a standard reset doesn’t resolve the problem.
While the headphones might appear to be bricked, as this indicates a hardware failure, there are a couple of potential solutions which may at least keep them going for a while …
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Apple’s Car Key might seem like a no-brainer. Ditch your bulky and expensive-to-replace car fob and instead simply use your iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock your car.
But while you might expect iPhone owners to be eager to use it, and car makers keen to meet this demand, a new report suggests that there are three barriers to wider adoption …
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Apple has removed two of the most popular gay dating apps in China from its App Store there to comply with a government order.
The company gave the usual statement it makes in such circumstances, but did provide little more detail in this particular case …
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Apple’s Liquid Glass design language has been controversial, to say the least. But it wasn’t just the glass-themed elements that came under fire. One of the macOS 26 Tahoe icons in particular came under fire, with Apple changing the Macintosh HD icon in response.
But some suggest the problems go deeper than this, with the macOS 26 icons as a whole described as “terrible” and “objectively bad” …
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It seems a near certainty that Face ID will be embedded into the display of the iPhone 18 Pro, and a new report says that the front-facing camera will likewise be hidden beneath the screen in a 2027 iPhone.
That would suggest that a 20th anniversary iPhone could be the first with an all-screen display, free from any form of cutout …
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Back in 2021, Apple introduced a new iPhone camera capability in the form of a new macro lens option with the ultrawide camera. It was exclusive to the Pro models until last year when it was extended across the iPhone 16 and 17 range.
As a built-in feature, it’s pretty impressive, but it doesn’t come close to the razor-thin depth of field you get with a dedicated macro lens. But a $150 snap-on iPhone lens gives you something remarkably close to this …
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As part of an investigation into whether Apple complies with the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU has said that it suspects the company of failing to protect its customers from scams. The Cupertino company is also accused of not providing enough safety measures for children who use its devices.
The iPhone maker has responded with an exceptionally strongly-worded letter, accusing the EU of hypocrisy and cynically attempting to distract attention from the failings of its own laws …
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There’s good news today for HomeKit fans on a budget: IKEA has announced the launch of 21 new smart home products, all of them Matter-compatible.
The new lineup comprises 11 different smart bulbs, five types of sensor, three remote controls, and a new smart plug …
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We yesterday took a look at the new Motorola Edge 70, the company’s take on the iPhone Air, and today brings another Android contender, the Huawei Mate 70 Air.
Although 1mm thicker than the iPhone Air and 30% heavier, it does pack four cameras and twice as much battery into an extremely sleek-looking device …
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