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.
Parts of Twitter’s source code were posted to code-sharing site Github, and have seemingly been available there for several months before the company noticed …
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New data from market intelligence company Counterpoint Research indicates that the iPhone 13 was the best-selling smartphone in China last year.
The company also notched up a new first in the country, as three different iPhone models took the top three slots in the sales ranking …
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AAPL’s chief operating officer Jeff Williams has sold more than 187,000 shares, worth a fraction under $30M. It’s the first sale by a company exec in more than four months.
While eyebrows are being raised in some quarters, with Twitter commenters suggesting it points to bad news ahead, the timing suggests a mundane explanation …
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Chinese manufacturer BOE has reportedly been unable to fix the issues it had in making the iPhone 15 display, with Apple pulling orders from the company for now.
The problem concerns the Dynamic Island cutout for the front camera and Face ID tech, and is a setback to Apple’s plan to reduce its dependence on Samsung …
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New CAD drawings point to the iPhone 15 Pro volume control being a single rocker-style button, rather than two separate ones for up and down.
Additionally, the moving mute switch may be replaced by a button, as Apple makes a switch from mechanical controls to solid-state ones …
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A new Foxconn plant in India looks set to be about half the size of the massive iPhone assembly facility in Zhengzhou, China – colloquially known as iPhone City.
Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant employs around 200,000 people, and the new Indian facility is said to be creating around 100,000 jobs. It may also represent a key step in Apple building out an extended supply chain in India …
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Preliminary findings from the Apple Women’s Health Study show that menstrual cycle tracking on iPhone and Apple Watch has the potential to detect risk factors for serious health conditions.
The team behind the study said that this is an under-researched area, and the data from 50,000 study participants is advancing the science in this field …
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BlueMail cofounder Ben Volach says that Apple blocked a ChatGPT-powered feature included in an update to the iOS app.
He said that the company told him the inclusion of AI-generated content required the use of a 17+ age restriction, to guard against minors being exposed to inappropriate content…
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Apple has applied for a patent for an Apple Headset Continuity feature, so that a user could (for example) create a document on a Mac, and then use a really slick user interface to transfer it to a headset like the anticipated Reality Pro.
It also describes an equally slick way to handle audio Handoff using nothing more than glances and a gesture …
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Apple today announced a major expansion to its European Silicon Design Center, which will see the company creating a custom-designed state-of-the-art R&D center in Germany.
The iPhone maker previously announced plans for a €1B ($1.06B) European Center for Chip Design in Munich, and says that it will be doubling its investment in the latest expansion plans …
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An Apple Store in Charlotte, North Carolina, was yesterday closed with immediate effect. It follows three recent shootings at the Northlake Mall location, the most recent of them the previous day.
Neither staff nor customers were told about the closure until the day it happened …
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A one-hour daily TikTok screen time limit will be set by default for users below 18 years of age, says the company. The move coincides with the White House setting a 30-day deadline for federal employees to remove the app from government devices …
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The first Apple Headset launch is expected to happen later this year, following an initial unveiling at WWDC in June. While we wait, a leak has given a glimpse into the AR/VR plans of one of Apple’s rivals in this field, Facebook owner Meta.
These plans include multiple headset models, smart glasses with a “neural interface,” and a smartwatch that can be paired with glasses …
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As Apple continues its transition to its own silicon, we’re expecting an Apple modem chip to replace Qualcomm ones in future iPhones – and it appears that might be happening with the iPhone 16.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon indicated that Apple hasn’t discussed 2024 modem orders with the company, suggesting that this is likely the year the Cupertino company makes the switch …
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Apple is aware that many would like to see better Apple Watch battery life, says a senior exec, and is working on addressing the issue in various ways.
Apple’s VP of worldwide product marketing Bob Borchers made the comment in a new interview in which he also indirectly referenced the question of an Apple Silicon Mac Pro …
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Update: Coincidentally, Apple was granted a patent for this technology on the same day as the latest supply-chain report – see below.
The iPhone X introduced the notch, the iPhone 14 Pro the Dynamic Island – and the iPhone 16 Pro is expected to offer the next logical step: embedded Face ID components beneath the display itself.
However, the latest report says that we shouldn’t expect Apple to follow Samsung’s under-display camera approach before 2026…
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Many have been reporting a Twitter outage, with neither app nor website working, while others are able to access the service, but with delays.
Downdetector shows that the problem peaked around 5:30 a.m. EST, improving around 30 minutes later, but with many users still affected …
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A major AirPods supplier says that US client reps have been visiting the company on an almost daily basis to ask when it can move out of China. While Apple is not explicitly named, it is near-certain that it is one of the companies applying pressure.
The Chinese contract manufacturing giant said that it is investing in Vietnam, as well as considering expanding into India …
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Update: Apple comment added at end
Some four years after the Apple/Spotify battle began back in 2019, we may have the first indication of how the European Union will resolve the antitrust dispute.
Reading between the lines of a brief report today, it appears that the European Commission may be heading toward a compromise ruling, which would mirror that made in the Apple vs. Epic Games case in the US …
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Those of us who’ve been waiting impatiently for a USB-C iPhone, so we can finally use a single set of cables for all our Apple devices, will be getting our wish in this year’s iPhone 15 lineup. But a leaker with a decent track record warns that there may be a catch.
ShrimpApplePro, who got hardware details right for the iPhone 14, says that we’ll need to use a new lineup of MFi USB-C cables to get full functionality …
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Facebook has been working on ways to prevent the posting of so-called “revenge porn” – aka non-consensual sharing of explicit photos by former partners and others – and sextortion attempts, especially those against teenagers.
Its first tool, back in 2017, was so scary that few were willing to use it: You had to upload nudes to Facebook in order to have them tagged for blocking! But a new tool, geared initially to teenagers, will allow them to create digital fingerprints, right on their own device …
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Having laid-off staff during COVID lockdowns, airlines and airports are now struggling to replace and retain them, as the travel industry recovers. Free iPhones are among the incentives being used to try to persuade staff to remain in the industry …
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iPad OLED panels will cost Apple two to three times as much as competitor companies pay for OLED screens of a similar size, according to a new supply chain report.
While other companies pay $100 to $150 for an OLED panel of 10 inches or so, Apple is expected to pay $270 to $350 due to requiring a significantly higher spec …
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New York Police Department has warned that AirPods Max thieves are targeting people walking in the street, snatching the headphones right off their heads, and using mopeds to make their getaway …
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