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.
Apple offers color-coded MagSafe cables, to match its MacBook finishes, and also tested out color MagSafe chargers, likely to match iPhone colors.
However, while the company got as far as making at least one prototype, it appears that it decided against offering them for sale …
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Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman got to try out a prototype of the upcoming Meta Quest 3 mixed-reality headset, and likely the closest competition with Apple’s Reality Pro.
So far, most renders of Reality Pro have shown a rather bulky device, almost as thick as the Quest 2, but the fact that the Meta Quest 3 is notably slimmer could suggest that Apple’s headset may be sleeker than expected …
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ChatGPT for iPhone launched in the US last week, with OpenAI promising that it would come to more countries “in the coming weeks.”
The next phase in the rollout has now happened earlier than expected, with 11 more countries added on Wednesday, and a further 35 today …
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Academics have been told to delete Twitter data used for research purposes, unless they sign up for API access costing $42,000 per month …
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Apple Pride celebrations, ahead of Pride Month in June, are continuing. The company kicked things off with a new Apple Watch band and watch face, and has today announced new workouts with music playlists of LGBTQIA+ “artists and allies.”
In the ally category is an Artist Spotlight on Madonna, who Apple describes as a longtime social activist …
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Yesterday we got to enjoy a new Apple privacy video, created to highlight the way that the Health app protects our medical data. Today the Chinese version of the Apple website features another fun privacy video (linked below), and you don’t need to speak Mandarin to enjoy it …
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A Find My Apple Pencil feature could be on the way, described in a new Apple patent application published today.
Interestingly, the method Apple describes doesn’t use an ultra wideband chip, but rather an acoustic signal …
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WhatsApp usernames look likely to be offered in a future version of the secure chat app. This would potentially make it easier to add contacts, and offer greater privacy …
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Security researchers have documented the first known case of NSO’s Pegasus spyware being used in a military conflict. The hacks relate to the long-running military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, over a region claimed by both countries.
The victims – who included a United Nations official, journalists, human rights advocates, and a former government minister – received alerts from Apple that their iPhones had been hacked …
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Apple services chief Eddy Cue has told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that the company only makes things consumers care about.
Cue recycled a couple of Steve Jobs phrases while speaking at the first CNBC CEO Council Summit in Santa Barbara, California …
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The first quarter of the year saw Samsung challenging Apple in the European smartphone market, retaking the No. 1 slot from the iPhone maker.
A new market intelligence report says that Samsung is now trying to adopt Apple’s strategy of focusing on premium sales and the ecosystem. However, it says competing with the iPhone won’t be easy …
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The outcome of the long-running Irish tax battle between Apple and the European Commission will be decided by Europe’s highest court, after the EC lodged a final appeal against the ruling that the iPhone maker is not liable for underpaid tax in Ireland.
All parties have now presented their arguments, and we await a ruling on whether or not Apple will have to hand over €13B ($14B) in underpaid taxes …
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The latest Samsung advanced display tech has been announced, all of which will be made available to consumer electronics clients like Apple. The Korean company’s significant lead in screen technology means that it is still Apple’s primary display supplier.
The new features include a rollable screen (above), and an embedded fingerprint reader which would allow you to unlock your device by touching literally anywhere on the screen …
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Given the way that Apple Silicon closes the gap between consumer and professional Macs, the answer to the question “Which Mac should I buy?” is perhaps less straightforward than ever before. But however you decided to tackle it, don’t ask ChatGPT for advice …
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Apple has toyed with a number of different names for the Reality Pro OS – the operating system run by its upcoming AR/VR headset. The most likely bet appears to be xrOS, but there are other possibilities.
Indeed, Apple has now trademarked at least five different names …
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An Apple security fix in iOS 15.6.1 back in August of last year was said to close two major security vulnerabilities, one of which could have allowed a rogue app to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges (aka do Very Bad Things). But it’s now been revealed that the more serious vulnerability wasn’t closed after all.
Apple did succeed in blocking a specific way of exploiting the vulnerability, but didn’t address the root issue until last week’s iOS 16.5 update, some nine months later …
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There’s been a lot of speculation lately about Apple’s Reality Pro launch plans, and also about the pricing of the device.
The consensus view so far has been that Apple will announce the Reality Pro AR/VR headset at WWDC on June 5, and that pricing will be around $3,000. But some are questioning both …
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iPhone maker Wistron – which was the first company to produce iPhones in India – has exited the business, saying that Apple’s tough negotiations on price meant the company was unable to make a profit.
The news comes at a time when the Cupertino company is moving more and more of its iPhone production from China to India …
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A Facebook privacy breach has seen parent company Meta fined $1.3B – the largest amount ever imposed for breaking Europe’s tough GDPR privacy laws, according to WSJ sources. The news is expected to be officially announced later today.
The fine also raises questions about the privacy of US Facebook users, as it was levied for exposing European citizens to the much looser rules that apply to American users …
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Twitter advertising is now safer – or, at least, no longer “high risk” – according to the world’s biggest ad agency, GroupM. In other social media news, a group of TikTok creators has filed a lawsuit, calling Montana’s ban on the app “unconstitutional” …
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Distinguishing genuine product leaks from hoaxes and misunderstandings can be a tricky business at times, with the track record of the leaker a key clue. But even with a solid record, reports of a Reality Pro front display to show the facial expressions and eye movements of the wearer seems a little… out there.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman seems convinced this is real, repeating it in his latest report based on multiple inside sources, but Apple commenter John Gruber believes it is a misunderstanding of a joke …
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While Personal Voice was one of the most exciting of the upcoming accessibility features Apple announced this week, you may have thought it wasn’t relevant to most people. But a new report today suggests that we should all take advantage of it when iOS 17 launches.
That’s because loss of speech ability can occur very suddenly through medical conditions like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). By the time people realize they need a synthesized voice that sounds like them, it may be too late …
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Apple chipmaker TSMC is one of seven semiconductor companies to announce plans to invest in Japanese operations, ahead of a G7 summit in the country.
One of the key issues to be discussed at the summit is economic resilience and security in the light of growing threats to global trade, which includes fears about the future of Taiwan …
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A new report on the upcoming Apple Reality Pro AR/VR headset says that the device is significantly compromised, compared to the company’s original vision for the device.
It also says that some top Apple execs are skeptical about the potential of the product and are distancing themselves from it. The report – based on multiple sources close to the project – said that Apple will be selling it almost at cost, in contrast to the high margins it expects from other products …
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