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.
Reports of the death of Twitter have so far been somewhat exaggerated. Musk may have made dumb decision after dumb decision, but each time either did a rapid U-turn shortly afterwards, or the sheer momentum of Twitter as the default social media app has carried it through.
But this time, Musk has not only achieved Michael Scott levels of ineptitude, but Meta has brought forward the launch of its Twitter rival Threads in order to take advantage of the chaos …
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We’ve been waiting a long time for the first Apple Watch with a micro-LED screen, and it seems the wait won’t be over any time soon. The latest report says that we won’t see the new display tech until the launch of the 2026 Apple Watch Ultra.
Optimistic reports about this date back as far as 2019, when it was suggested that Apple might begin the switch from OLED to micro-LED as early as 2020 – which, of course, did not happen …
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Apple will have until March 5 next year to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which in theory means that it will have to permit either third-party app stores, or sideloading of apps, by that date.
The deadline has been revealed after Apple confirmed that it qualified as having “gatekeeper” status, meaning that it is one of the companies that will be subject to the upcoming law. However, don’t expect much to change on this date …
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From one extreme to the other! I recently got the chance to try a $6,500 enterprise mixed-reality headset, and I’ve also been experimenting with the $300 Meta Quest 2, to see whether there’s a place in my life for this type of tech as I wait for a more affordable Apple Vision Product.
I mentioned before that I’d previously bought what was then the Oculus Go, and the novelty had rather quickly worn off, but one commenter did make a fair point about that: that the Go was more about 360-degree viewing (of both video and VR worlds), and that a Quest would be a better taster for truly interactive virtual reality …
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Some Twitter users are reporting that TweetDeck is down for them. Some are seeing the web app stalled with “Loading” spinners; others are getting Retry buttons that do nothing; and yet others are seeing populated columns frozen in time …
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When your business model is selling eyeballs to advertisers, it’s hard to imagine anything dumber than blocking access to your own site and telling users to go outside instead, yet somehow Twitter rate limits are a real thing.
But analysis suggests that this may be even dumber than we thought, as it appears to be a Twitter bug that created the “emergency” that saw the rate limits introduced in the first place …
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Everyone I know who has tried Apple’s upcoming spatial computer has been impressed, but the big question remains: What is Vision Pro for? Who will buy it, and why?
Having had the opportunity to use a similar high-end mixed reality headset, and to consider some of the use cases of that device, I think I’m now a step closer to being able to at least partially answer that question …
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We’ve been keeping a close eye on the ticker tape (ok, the Stocks app) as it seems that any day now could see a milestone APPL $3T valuation.
But as the company gets ever closer to hitting that market cap, a new Bloomberg piece argues that the recent announcement of Vision Pro likely plays little role in this …
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Apple’s spatial computer may not go on sale until some point next year, but that’s not stopping third-party companies from announcing Vision Pro accessories.
Popular iPhone case maker CASETiFY has announced a range of accessories for the upcoming headset, under the Bounce Vision sub-brand. These include personalized color combinations, and even one-of-a-kind designs …
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Construction work on TSMC’s Arizona chip plant, which is set to make chips for some older Apple devices, has run over budget and behind schedule – leading to plans to send over hundreds of additional workers from Taiwan to try to address the problems.
The news follows concerns about safety at the plant, after multiple accidents, and a claim that an active shooter drill was used to disguise the need to evacuate the plant after a gas leak …
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There aren’t many cases of another company charging more than Apple for a similar product, but the Varjo XR-3 mixed-reality headset is a rare example.
Not having been one of the chosen few to be invited to try Vision Pro (was it something I said?), I took advantage of an invitation to try what Varjo believes is the most advanced mixed-reality device available. In particular, I wanted to see whether it could change my view of the tech as something that doesn’t yet justify the steep price-tag when it comes to my own needs …
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It would be hard to imagine iPhones being sold through a home shopping TV channel, but apparently Apple livestreaming in Chinese online shopping apps is a thing.
Livestreaming is a popular way for Chinese brands to promote themselves, but most of it is every bit as tacky as TV shopping channels, making it all the more surprising that Apple would join in …
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Currently, if you’re deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem, you likely have a huge range of data stored on iCloud – contacts, messages, calendars, photos, videos, mail, notes, documents, device backups, and more. Moving data from iCloud to a different cloud service (because of a price increase, say) is non-trivial, and that’s something a new law aims to change.
While Apple is committed to the principle of data portability, it doesn’t yet go out of its way to make the process easy for non-techy users …
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While Vision Pro is getting all the headlines at the moment, it’s likely that a future Apple Glasses device will be the one to turn wearable AR into a mass-market product. Apple was set to face competition from a product codenamed Google Iris, but a new report says that the search giant has now abandoned work on the device.
Project Iris was first reported some 18 months ago, and unlike the ill-fated Google Glass product, it did seem to be something people might actually be happy to wear …
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Major League Baseball scouts have traditionally relied on a combination of stats and experience to identify high school and college players with the potential to turn pro. But now the league is experimenting with new technology that could help make the process more reliable.
The system uses two iPhone cameras to capture movement, and artificial intelligence to analyze everything from a player’s future potential to their risk of injury …
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With Apple having announced a new Mac Studio with the exact same chipset, it seemed clear that the 2023 Mac Pro market would be pretty small – if not dead on arrival.
Talking to pro Mac users with demanding needs, it seems that the 16-inch MacBook Pro has also cannibalized much of its market…
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Apple has limited a Vision Pro safe area to 10 feet by 10 feet, when using fully immersive VR experiences. It follows earlier news of a speed limit when using the device.
The limit is likely designed to prevent the sort of virtual reality headset accidents frequently seen in YouTube videos, but some are saying that it might prove too limiting for some types of gameplay, as well as proving a significant limitation for some commercial and industrial uses …
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Back in 2021, the White House said that internet access was “the new electricity” – something that was fundamental to everyday life today – and promised broadband subsidies to states, to enable them to fund the necessary programs. The sums each state will receive has now been announced …
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A moment’s thought, please, for John B. Goodenough – the professor of engineering who won a Nobel Prize for development of the lithium-ion batteries that power most of our portable devices.
He was also notable for his earlier work on the technology that made possible random access memory (RAM). Goodenough died on Sunday, aged 100 …
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Facebook Messenger parental controls have long been available for Messenger Kids – the special version of the chat app designed for children below 13 years of age – but not for teens. This has now changed, with parental controls coming to the main Messenger app when used by teens aged 13 to 18.
Separately, TikTok is integrating two existing filtering features after continuing concerns about showing inappropriate content to children – though as always, in a very weak way …
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The announcement of the $3500 Vision Pro starting price didn’t go down well with those in the keynote audience, but a company which makes an even more expensive mixed-reality headset believes that Apple’s entry into the field is a good thing for its own prospects.
Varjo’s XR-3 VR/AR headset comes in at an even more eye-watering $6500, but the company claims that it welcomes the competition …
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A hiker who broke her leg was airlifted to safety by helicopter after using her iPhone 14’s Emergency SOS via Satellite feature.
The woman was able to call for help, despite not even knowing how the feature worked …
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There’s no sign of any letup in the Reddit controversy. After the company threatened protesting moderators, it’s now facing pushback from moderators with disabilities …
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The airline 5G mess – where some planes with older radio altimeters could be confused by strong 5G signals when making their final approach to US airports – still isn’t over.
Airlines were given until July 1 to update their fleets, but some won’t meet this weekend’s deadline for three reasons, and their flights will be subject to delay as a result …
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