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.
Update: Reddit user BigPoppa1 has found a simple fix:
Rename a device via Home app in iPhone or iPad. It should force a refresh back to HomePod.
It was just yesterday I wrote about one annoying HomePod error message, and it’s now clear that this isn’t the only one to be bugging HomePod owners this week. Many users are reporting that Siri is responding to all HomeKit commands with: “It looks like you haven’t set up any HomeKit accessories” …
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Two noted analysts have somewhat different views on when we can expect to see the first OLED MacBook. Display analyst Ross Young recently doubled down on 2024 as the year, but while Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo agrees this could happen, he doesn’t see it as a certainty.
Kuo says that Apple will launch an OLED MacBook “by the end of 2024 at the earliest” …
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The airport 5G problem – where some planes with older or faulty radio altimeters could be confused by strong 5G signals – has resulted in a further compromise.
Carriers wanted airlines to have to promptly bring their equipment up-to-date, while an aviation body wanted the current restrictions to be made permanent …
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I felt a real sense of deja-vu recently, when I told one of my HomePods to run a scene and Siri responded with “You’ll need to continue on your personal device.” This is a message many of us will remember from 2020 … and 2021 … and 2022. Welcome to the new year – same as the old year.
But more than just an annoyance, this is, to me, an encapsulation of the biggest problem with smart home tech in general, and HomeKit in particular …
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Under-display Face ID is – along with under-display Touch ID – one of those evergreen iPhone rumors. Now another report suggests that it will make an appearance (or lack of same… ) in the iPhone 16, and will be limited to the Pro models.
The report suggests that this will be the next stage after the Dynamic Island, with just a single punch-hole cutout for the front-facing camera…
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These days, iPhones made in India aren’t just sold within the country – they also help supplement Chinese-made iPhones for Apple’s global sales. The latest data suggests that the value of exports of Indian-made iPhones will hit $3B in Apple’s current fiscal year.
That number represents a mix of good and bad news for the Cupertino company …
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Foxconn has begun the very first stage of iPhone 15 production, in the form of initial trial production. This stage is formally known as new production introduction, or NPI.
The NPI stage is designed to identify any problems with the planned production process, as well as to identify opportunities for refinement and streamlining …
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Opening Indian Apple Stores has been high up Tim Cook’s to-do list since at least 2015, and after a huge number of challenges, setbacks, and delays, it looks like we will now finally see at least two major stores open this quarter. Hiring of retail staff is underway, with some applicants already announcing their successful appointments.
The step is a hugely important one for Apple, as it seeks to grow its business in a country whose population now rivals that of China, and which has a rapidly growing middle class …
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There are probably almost as many ways to organize your iPhone apps as there are iPhone users, and most of us have probably experimented with a bunch of them. But more than eight years later, I’m still using a method I first tried back in 2013 (that screen size! those icons!).
Instead of organizing my apps by what they do, I organize them by where I am when I use them ….
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There are times when something drives you nuts, and a long time later you learn that there was a simple solution all along. So in case anyone else has suffered from Apple Calendar timezone confusion, let me share it.
The confusion arises because of what I personally think is a rather odd default by Apple, which probably reflects the life of senior Cupertino execs more than the average iPhone or Mac user …
Update: Check out a feature request at the end
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It’s been more than five years since plans were announced for an innovative Apple data center town heating plan. The idea was to harvest excess heat, and use it to help warm nearby homes.
That plan still hasn’t been implemented, but there is now much greater interest in the face of huge increases in energy costs …
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A leaker with a decent track record says that Apple is considering an iPhone 15 price cut, when compared to iPhone 14 pricing. The reduced prices would, they say, apply to the base model iPhone 15 and the larger iPhone 15 Plus.
While the idea of Apple cutting iPhone prices sounds unlikely, there is reason to believe that the report may be accurate …
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iPhone 14 Pro availability has greatly improved, now that Christmas demand has eased, and production at the world’s biggest assembly plant is reported to have climbed to around 70% of full capacity.
A few models are now available for immediate pickup at some Apple stores, while the company’s US online store is showing 1-2 week delivery for most other orders …
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The LastPass security breach controversy continues. After an independent security analyst described statements made by LastPass as “half-truths and outright lies,” rival password management company 1Password has also weighed in …
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Apple was concerned that the longevity of the iPhone 14 Pro display could potentially be put at risk from moisture and oxygen making its way into the panel during production, according to a supply chain report.
Apple reportedly asked its display maker Samsung to change part of its intended production process in order to reduce the risk …
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The A17 chip expected to be used in the iPhone 15 may potentially focus more on battery-life improvements than processing power.
Apple chipmaker TSMC placed more emphasis on power efficiency than performance when discussing the 3nm process destined to be used for the iPhone 15 …
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One of the features of the two iPhone 14 Pro models is the 3x optical zoom, compared to the 1x zoom available on the standard model.
During a Boxing Day stroll, I used this lens exclusively to revisit a photographic technique that has long been popular with DSLR owners …
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Yep, it’s that time of the year when all the “new year, new you” advice abounds – and when people enthusiastically make all kinds of vows to themselves, most of which are forgotten by the end of January.
But as any fitness expert or dietician will tell you, the secret to sustainable change is to set realistic health and fitness goals, which rely on relatively modest changes you can incorporate into your everyday life. The Apple Watch can help you in three ways …
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I’ve been using Shokz OpenComm bone-conduction headphones for the past few weeks, and they’ve quickly become my default headphone choice for voice and video calls.
I also found myself using them for watching video when I don’t want to disturb those around me – and, indeed, for pretty much everything other than music …
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The ability to post longer videos on Twitter has been on a fair number of wish lists, and the company has good news and bad news on that front.
TikTok also seems to be feeling left out by all the Twitter controversy, so decided to create some of its own …
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The first-ever TSMC European plant is being considered by the Taiwanese chipmaker, to be located in Dresden, Germany.
It is not envisaged that the plant would make chips for Apple, but the company says that at present “no possibility is being ruled out” …
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The long-running Cambridge Analytica lawsuit against Facebook parent company Meta has finally been settled. The social media company agreed to pay Facebook users a combined total of $725M for sharing their personal data with the now-bankrupt political consultancy.
The lawyers behind the case described the victory as a “historic” one, saying that it was the largest ever payout in a US privacy case …
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I know, it’s about as ironic a request as could be made: a way to help us find AirTags! Specifically, a way to find AirTags with low batteries, which no longer have enough power for the sound alert or precision-finding function.
I explained recently why I’ll in the future do my AirTag battery replacement en masse, but didn’t mention one small piece of entertainment involved in this …
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Some Apple product names are simple and timeless – like MacBook Air or AirPods – while others are, uh, less so. I’m looking at you, iPhone 14 Pro Max.
If you want to get a feel for how Apple names its products, data visualization researcher Nicolas Kruchten has put together a cool interactive map, showing how Apple mixes and matches different core elements in its product naming …
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