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.
A data scientist formerly working for Meta says that Facebook apps can deliberately drain the batteries of both iPhones and Android smartphones, in order to examine the effect of low battery power on app performance …
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The iPhone 14 Crash Detection feature has been credited with helping bring about a rapid police response to a pickup truck crash in the early hours of the morning, which left one or more occupants unconscious.
The crash happened on the island state of Tasmania, off the Australian coast, outside a town with a population of just 170 people. Given the small population, and 1:45 a.m. timing, Crash Detection may have played a significant role in ensuring prompt help …
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One of the steps Apple is expected to take in reducing its dependence on China is to have some AirPods made in India – in addition to those already made in Vietnam.
The company has already asked two of its AirPods suppliers to move some of that work to India, and it’s today reported that Apple has commissioned an Indian company to produce the plastic enclosures for the in-ear devices …
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The Apple Back to School promo has traditionally offered students a pair of free AirPods, in addition to the usual education discount. That changed in the US last year, with Apple instead offering gift cards worth up to $150 – but the company appears to have switched back to AirPods this year.
The 2023 Back to School promo has launched in a number of countries in the southern hemisphere, and Apple is offering a pair of AirPods, plus the usual additional discount on AppleCare+ …
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After years of rumors, noted Apple analyst says that he is “positive” a folding iPad launch is happening sometime next year.
This is significantly earlier than a previous – and vaguer – prediction of a folding “notebook” of some kind in 2026 …
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The new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are so powerful that most reviewers said that they are actually overkill for most Mac owners, even most of those doing video work.
A new benchmark ranking shows how the machine stacks up against every other current Apple Silicon chip, from the A14 Bionic to the M1 Ultra (which still smokes the M2 Pro) …
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Activation Lock is condemning even 2020 Macs to a future as spare parts and landfill, by making it impossible for them to be restored to use.
To be fair to Apple, the technology is only part of the problem – the other half is corporate policy in many companies that issue MacBooks to their employees – but it is an issue that only the Cupertino company can solve …
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Pegasus spyware – a zero-click way of remotely hacking an iPhone, and gaining access to all the personal data stored on it – has been defended by the company’s CEO. NSO chief exec said that the company had made “mistakes” in selling it to repressive governments, but claimed that it now sells Pegasus only to countries to whom the US sells weapons.
A security researcher said that the comparison was bogus, stating that a more reasonable comparison would be selling long-range nuclear missiles …
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The Mac Pro has effectively been defined as two things. First, the most powerful Mac in Apple’s line-up. Second, the most expandable machine, but it’s looking increasingly like neither will apply to the 2023 Mac Pro.
And if you take away both of the unique selling points of the Mac Pro, isn’t it dead on arrival … ?
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An analyst report points to likely iPhone 15 Wi-Fi 6E support this year – giving at least some of this year’s iPhones access to a whole new frequency band.
If accurate, that would mean increased capacity, reduced interference, and better video streaming performance …
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2022 iPhone shipments fell 14.9% year-on-year during the holiday quarter, and shipments for the calendar year were also down by 4%, according to the latest IDC data.
However, while that doesn’t look like great news, Apple actually fared better than any other brand in both the quarter, and across the year as a whole …
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The number of data breaches in 2022 was slightly down on the previous year, but the number of people whose personal data was exposed by the security failures was significantly higher …
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Apple has begun hiring for a new Apple Store in Malaysia, which would potentially be the first time the company has added a new country to its retail store network since 2018. Potentially, because it’s as yet unclear whether the first Indian store might open beforehand.
Oddly, the job listings don’t specify where in the country the store will be opening, but the capital, Kuala Lumpur (shown above), would be the obvious choice …
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There have been suggestions for years now that the iPhone maker is quietly working on an Apple Search service, to compete with Google. That idea is back in the news today, in a report suggesting that it could be one element of a three-part “silent war” on Google.
Recent developments do support the idea that the Cupertino company is gearing up to take on Google in a much more direct fashion than it has so far …
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A widescale Microsoft outage had many users unable to access Outlook, Teams, Azure, and more. The company says it is rolling back a network change it believes to be responsible for the problem …
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The Brydge ProDock is effectively a modern take on a product Apple launched way back in the mists of time (well, 1992): The Macintosh Duo Dock. The idea is to be able to instantly switch between using a Mac laptop as a mobile and desktop device.
There have been a number of third-party takes on this idea. The Brydge ProDock is arguably the best of these – but also the most expensive …
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A GoTo hack related to the LastPass security breach was far worse than initially disclosed. The company, formerly known as LogMeIn, has revealed that attackers obtained not only encrypted backups of customer data, but also an encryption key for at least some of that data.
It’s a similar tale to the LastPass hack, which followed a similar path from low-key initial announcement to revelations that it was significantly worse than initially feared …
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Last year saw a record Apple lobbying spend, as the company sought to fight the threat of antitrust legislation, according to public disclosures.
Apple’s spend was part of an “incredible onslaught of money” which derailed proposed antitrust legislation in the Senate, according to its leading sponsor …
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Twitter GodMode – an internal tool that hackers used to tweet from high-profile accounts, including Apple, back in 2020 – remains available to all of the company’s engineers, according to a new report today.
Twitter had previously said that the security hole had been fixed, but a whistleblower said that aside from changing the name of the tool from GodMode to PrivilegedMode, the company had made only one change – and that still allowed any Twitter engineer to trivially gain uncontrolled access to it …
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A beta of a Catalyst-based WhatsApp Mac app was made available back in June last year, but only to a limited number of users via TestFlight. The app is now available to all Mac users, though is still officially considered a beta version …
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The new M2 Macs are available from today, with pre-order customers taking delivery of their shiny new machines.
Apple last week announced the new Mac mini with a choice of M2 and M2 Pro chips, as well as the M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pro models …
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Seven big banks are creating a mobile wallet app, designed to compete with Apple Pay, according to a new report today.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are three of the banks named, with two motivations suggested for the initiative …
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Alongside those for the new Mac mini, the first M2 MacBook Pro reviews are out. Everyone agrees it’s a beast of a machine, but many wonder whether it’s just too much Mac for even its target audience.
Alongside a surprising number of reviewers bemoaning the lack of a touchscreen, there is a common thread that the older M1 models are more than enough computer for the vast majority of people, even video pros …
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An Apple antitrust appeal filed in the UK is likely to be decided on how a court interprets the meaning of a single word. Even more crazily, this is the second time that a single word has had a major impact on potential action against the Cupertino company on the very same issues.
The first time came down to the legal difference between an antitrust “study” and an “investigation,” and this time it all hinges on the legal meaning of the word “shall” …
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