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.
While other tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Meta have been downsizing their workforce, there’s so far been no sign of Apple layoffs. A new report today suggests there may be three reasons for this.
First, it argues, Apple has been more cautious than other tech companies when it comes to expansion …
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A couple of reports earlier this week made two claims about Apple’s VR/AR plans. One, that the company is trying to trim the cost of a second-generation Apple Headset. Two, that work on Apple Glasses has been put on hold.
The first claim is almost certainly correct; the second, almost certainly wrong …
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We’ve long been expecting a switch to OLED iPad Pro screens, with MacBook Pro models to follow, and a new supply chain report says that the project has now been made official for an Apple supplier.
It says that Apple has asked “a domestic display company” to develop the panels – almost certainly a reference to Samsung, though LG will likely be a secondary supplier …
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Three months ago, Apple Music increased its standard monthly subscription by a dollar to $10.99/month, and this has now been matched by an identical Amazon Music price increase …
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We’re seeing a few HomePod 2 first impressions pieces ahead of full reviews, but unfortunately they aren’t particularly enlightening.
Apple invited a small number of tech writers to hear the new version of the full-size HomePod, but seemingly only let them listen to brief snippets of a handful of songs …
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Apple is facing a third class action privacy lawsuit, after the company was found to be collecting analytics data from iPhone users even after they refused permission.
Apple insists that all developers ask permission to collect analytics data, but security researcher Tommy Mysk discovered last year that the company wasn’t playing by its own rules …
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Yesterday’s (re)launch of the new HomePod was a pleasant surprise, but for those in the UK it was accompanied by a less-pleasant one: the UK price of the HomePod mini has risen by a tenner. And that wasn’t all …
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A web developer has created a Siri GPT-3 mashup that is intended to demonstrate the potential for a truly smart voice assistant.
The AI system was able to make sense of conversational speech – including some in which the required action was implied rather than directly stated …
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Apple still manages the occasional surprise, and yesterday was an interesting example. Almost two years after discontinuing the original HomePod, Apple launched a new HomePod.
Or, rather, it basically re-released the original HomePod, at the same price the company was last charging for the discontinued model …
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We didn’t have long to wait for 2023 Mac mini Geekbench scores, for both M2 and M2 Pro variants. As you’d expect, they show pretty dramatic performance gains over the M1 model launched back in November of 2020.
The base model M2 machine gets a relatively modest bump in the single-core test, but a much larger one for multi-core …
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Update: The release notes for iOS 16.3 say that they fix the issue:
Fixes an issue where horizontal lines may temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 Pro Max
The update is already available to developers and beta testers, and will roll out to everyone next week …
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The 27-inch iMac used to be one of the most popular models in Apple’s line-up, and a lot of people still view them with great affection even today. If you wanted a Mac but didn’t need portability, the machine combined all-in-one simplicity with a beautiful design and a great screen in a decent size.
But the iMac Pro was quietly discontinued in March 2021, with the non-Pro model suffering the same fate a year later. Not everyone was happy about this, and reports of a new iMac Pro persist, but I’m honestly not sure there’s a role for either Pro or non-Pro versions any longer …
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Heat was added to the Spotify vs. Apple battle today, when seven other companies and organizations co-signed a letter calling for “swift and decisive” regulatory action to be taken against the Cupertino company.
Spotify told the European Commission that it has been almost four years since the company filed an antitrust complaint against Apple, and accused the commission’s executive VP and former competition regulator of “failing to act decisively” …
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The competition regulator in Russia has fined Apple $17M, after an antitrust investigation concluded that the company broke the law by not allowing app developers to link to payment options outside of the App Store.
The size of the fine is based on the company’s App Store turnover within the country, which is currently lower than usual due to Apple’s compliance with financial sanctions against Russia …
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Apple’s relationship with China has been described as “untenable,” as the company faces criticism from senators on both sides of the political aisle. But unraveling that relationship will take more than 20 years, according to one former Apple engineer tasked with finding ways to automate production.
There is some good news today, as more than a dozen key Apple suppliers were granted permission to expand their work in India, but ironically this only served to underline the company’s dependence on China …
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There have been numerous examples of people losing a lifetime’s worth of photos after being locked out of their iCloud account. The Apple account recovery process often proves impossible, especially in cases where an iPhone has been stolen and its owner forced to unlock it.
Just yesterday there was a fresh example, where an unlocked iPhone was stolen at gunpoint by seemingly tech-savvy thieves …
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A piece on a change of leadership in Foxconn’s iPhone assembly business includes an eye-opening insight into the iPhone quality standards laid down by Apple.
The new head of iPhone assembly said that while production lines for Chinese Android phones required only 100 workers each, the equivalent iPhone production lines needed 1,200 workers …
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We’re expecting a big boost to the telephoto capabilities of this year’s flagship iPhone, as a periscope lens comes to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. This is expected to offer somewhere in the range of 5x to 10x optical zoom, compared to the maximum 3x zoom of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.
All the reports say that the new feature will be exclusive to the top-tier model (which may switch branding from Pro Max to Ultra), but a new supply chain report says that’s set to change next year …
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Touchscreen Macs are back in the news – though it’s unclear whether there’s actually much reason for this. The Bloomberg report didn’t say that Apple actually plans to make any, only that engineers are ‘‘actively engaged‘‘ in the project.
I mean, that much has always been true. Apple has long made touchscreen Mac prototypes, and put them through usability testing. So are we talking a dozen engineers, as has probably always been the case? Or hundreds of ’em, which would indeed be evidence that Apple has serious plans? The report doesn’t say …
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Apple’s Crash Detection feature is undoubtedly saving lives, but there are continuing concerns about the strain placed on 911 centers by false alerts. One center says that dealing with Crash Detection false alerts from skiers and snowboarders can prove extremely time-consuming.
Apple is reportedly working with 911 centers to get a better understanding of the issues …
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A new report suggests that up to half of all iPhones could be made in India by 2027, following earlier estimates of 25% by 2025.
The Chinese report says that local suppliers are already feeling the effects of Apple’s efforts to move production out of the country, with Vietnam also benefiting from the Cupertino company’s plan to reduce its reliance on China …
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Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and as usual Apple is commemorating the occasion by devoting its homepage to a photo and quotation. The company also provides a link to a free copy of the book Strive Toward Freedom.
This year’s quote comes from a speech Dr. King gave in 1967 about the need to speak up against the Vietnam War …
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A Bloomberg report about Apple custom displays is leading to some interesting takes on it. Like Apple is moving into the manufacturing business, or that the company doesn’t already use custom-designed displays.
Neither of these things is true, so I think it’s worth taking a look about what the report did and didn’t say – and what the implications are likely to be …
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Apple has suffered a setback in its long-running Apple Watch patent infringement battle with medical technology company Masimo. A court has ruled that Apple has indeed infringed one of Masimo’s patents in the Apple Watch Series 6 and up.
Masimi is seeking a US import on all current Apple Watches. If granted, this would effectively end Apple Watch sales in the US, as the company would not be allowed to bring in the devices from China …
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