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.
We learned last week that Apple continued to build market share in a declining smartphone market in the US, and a new market intelligence report suggests the iPhone maker has repeated this trick in Southeast Asia.
Apple was the only major brand to grow shipments during the first quarter of the year, across five countries …
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A report on Friday suggested that initial Apple Reality Pro availability is likely to be very limited, as the Cupertino company is “anticipating some production issues” with its upcoming AR/VR headset.
A new Ming-Chi Kuo report provides a likely partial explanation for this: Apple is reportedly dependent on just one supplier for most of the key components …
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The Indian government has today announced that Foxconn has broken ground on $500M worth of new iPhone plants in Telangana, in the south of the country, as Apple continues its efforts to move more production out of China.
At least one of the plants is also expected to manufacture AirPods, after Apple offered Foxconn a new contract for these back in March …
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As widely rumored, the new Twitter CEO has been named as former NBCUniversal advertising exec Linda Yaccarino. Platform owner Elon Musk was making good on a promise he made last year, to abide by the results of a poll telling him to resign as the company’s head …
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A patent application for Apple wearable tags has been revealed, after the company originally took steps to disguise its identity.
Apple describes how tags could be worn on the body, or attached to clothing, to perform a wide range of health and sports functions …
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The number of Apple service outages lately seems to have risen to the point where they’ve become almost routine.
This isn’t great for any tech giant, but when the ecosystem is such a huge part of the appeal of Apple products, it becomes a far bigger deal …
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Back in 2019, Apple introduced a new feature to iPhones, as part of iOS 13: Optimized Battery Charging. This is intended to protect iPhone batteries from unnecessary charge levels, in order to prolong their life.
The same feature subsequently came to AirPods, Apple Watch, and the Mac. But one Apple product doesn’t yet have it, and that’s the Apple Pencil …
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The Apple Gangnam store in Samsung’s home city opened just over a month ago, and a new report says that the Korean company has ambitious plans to fight back.
It is said to be planning to open Samsung Gangnam, a store spanning six floors, as part of an effort “to counter Apple’s expansion strategy in the country” …
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Yesterday saw @analyst941 delete his Twitter account, claiming that he had been forced to do so after Apple carried out a “multi-step sting” operation. Whether this is true, or just a face-saving story for getting things wrong, it is broadly consistent with what we know about how Apple catches leakers.
Apple has so many methods of identifying leakers – some of them incredibly subtle – that we and others have to be extremely careful in order to protect our sources …
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The Disney+ app and the Hulu app are due to merge later this year, says Disney CEO Bob Iger, but you’ll still be able to buy standalone subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.
The announcement is leading to speculation about a possible buyout plan …
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Another day, another Apple antitrust probe. Just yesterday we learned that the European Union was ramping up its investigation into Apple Pay, and today Italy’s competition watchdog has announced an investigation into the company’s App Store privacy policies.
This latest investigation may be new, but its topic is not: Italy is the third country to question the legality of Apple setting tougher privacy requirements for third-party apps than it does for its own apps …
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Twitter encrypted DMs have officially launched – but only between paid users, and the security feature doesn’t yet live up to Musk’s promise to use end-to-end (E2E) encryption for full privacy.
The company acknowledges this in a support document, and even Musk himself says you shouldn’t trust it …
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Update: After being out of stock for seven months due to the company being unable to keep up with demand, Nomad says the bands are now available once more.
The Nomad Titanium Band got a refresh, with a much neater magnet-assisted snap closure mechanism, a more streamlined design, and a coating designed to improve durability …
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Uber’s ambition to transform itself from a ride-hailing service to a “travel super app” has seen the company branch out into Uber flight bookings, for both domestic and international flights …
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One of the Twitter hackers who hijacked the official Apple account, as well as those belonging to around 130 high-profile figures, has now pleaded guilty.
British citizen Joseph O’Connor has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of computer intrusion, extortion, stalking, wire fraud, and money laundering – and faces up to 20 years in prison …
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Children’s use of social media may have both positive and negative impacts, but parents and other caregivers should ensure they remain watchful, says a new health advisory.
The American Psychological Association (APA) has made 10 recommendations to reduce the risks of harm, several of them being to better educate children about the issues they may encounter …
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Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak (aka Woz) has said that the march of AI cannot be stopped – even though he has called for a pause in development – and that we must prepare ourselves for people abusing it to create harder-to-spot scams …
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CEO Brian Chesky has said in a new interview that a number of the changes Airbnb has made – including Airbnb Rooms and a complete reorganization of the company’s structure – were inspired by Apple.
He added that the launch of Airbnb Rooms represents the company returning to its roots: letting people rent out a room in their home, rather than an entire apartment …
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US iPhone market share increased in the first quarter of the year, despite the fact that the smartphone market as a whole suffered a major decline, according to new market intelligence data.
It indicates that US smartphone shipments fell sharply in the first quarter of the year, with two main factors cited …
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Elon Musk has announced a purge of inactive accounts, saying that unused Twitter handles will be made available for reuse. As is generally the case, the details are as yet unknown (including to Musk, probably) …
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Global tablet shipments are now below pre-pandemic levels, says a new market intelligence report, as part of a “severe” cutback in consumer spending.
Apple wasn’t immune to this, with Q1 shipments falling 17% year-on-year, but the data shows the iPad still remains unchallenged as the market leader, in both the short and long term …
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There were initially conflicting reports on whether the periscope lens would be coming to both iPhone 15 Pro models, or just the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The consensus view has for some time been pointing to the top-end model only, and a reliable leaker now says they have obtained “independent confirmation” of this.
This means that if you’re looking for a big step-up in optical zoom on the telephoto lens, you’ll need to brace your wallet for an iPhone 15 Pro Max purchase …
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Next year’s iPhone 16 Pro models will have the largest iPhone screens ever, according to Ross Young, a display analyst with a solid track record. These models have also been reported to drop the notch in favor of under-screen Face ID.
While Young didn’t initially specify the precise sizes, when one Twitter user rounded up Ross’s figures to one significant digit, he replied that this was “close” …
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An iPhone 14 Pro versus Samsung S23 Ultra camera battle concludes that there’s no clear winner, with the choice depending on the type of photos you want to take.
But given that it was a close-run thing mostly because of Samsung’s 10x telephoto lens versus Apple’s 3x one, it certainly suggests that the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max will be a clear winner …
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