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.
Verizon is offering both new and existing customers free Netflix for a year – if they sign up to another streaming service too.
The offer is intended to promote Verizon +play, a service that lets customers manage all their streaming subscriptions in one place …
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The Emergency SOS via Satellite feature rolled out to four new countries yesterday, but a patent granted the same day suggests that Apple satellite plans may extend much further than getting help in an emergency.
While the emergency service is limited to text-based communications, Apple’s patent describes how it could use satellite comms for voice, video, and more …
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One of the ironies of Apple’s long-running battle with the FBI over the agency’s desire for a security backdoor into iPhones is that it could have taken advantage of one which already existed: The fact that iCloud backups of iPhones didn’t use end-to-end encryption. Apple has now finally fixed this with Advanced Data Protection (ADP).
ADP not only closes a privacy hole which should have been closed a long time ago, but will also relieve Apple of the need to engage in any similar legal battles in future …
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With Lensa AI taking the top slot in the App Store charts, thanks to the viral appeal of its “magic avatars,” brace yourself for a deluge of AI photo apps – both real and fake.
AI and machine-learning have so far been buzzwords that developers love to include, whether or not their apps really use it – but the open-source Stable Diffusion deep learning tool is currently blowing minds, and Lensa AI is using it to turn selfies into impressive avatars …
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A series of tweets from Tim Cook in Japan include the usual fare – praising developers who work with Apple, celebrating the use of Apple tech in education, and so on – but one less usual one. Cook also tweeted a photo of a visit to Sony’s secretive camera sensor facility in Kumamoto.
It’s not exactly a secret that Apple’s camera sensors are made by the Japanese company: Sony model numbers have been found in iPhone teardowns for years now. But it is the first time I can recall Apple’s CEO openly mentioning this …
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An Apple patent battle with healthtech company AliveCor has been won by the Cupertino company, likely saving the Apple Watch from a potential import ban next week.
It’s a big step forward for Apple, but doesn’t end the legal fight between the two companies …
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Proton Drive, a Dropbox and iCloud rival, has today launched iOS and Android apps for both free and paid cloud storage tiers.
As you’d expect from the company that launched an encrypted email service, Proton Mail, the emphasis is on privacy and security …
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Apple CEO Tim Cook said yesterday that TSCM Arizona plants would see Apple Silicon made in America. This appeared to contradict earlier reports that the US plants would always remain a step behind the most advanced chip tech TSMC uses in Taiwan.
On the face of it, Cook’s statement would seem to trump earlier “inside source” reports – but the stated timings are problematic, leaving open two distinct possibilities …
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Later today, Apple CEO Tim Cook will be attending a celebratory event for the upcoming TSMC Arizona chip plants in Arizona. We’re now learning a little more about the company’s plans, including a tripling of the original investment.
However, it’s becoming even clearer that US-made chips are never going to rival those TSMC makes in its home country, Taiwan …
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The National Labor Relations Board’s Atlanta regional director has concluded that Apple anti-union tactics deployed in the Atlanta store broke the law. The company’s actions led to a planned unionization bid being abandoned after what was described as “intense union-busting” by Apple.
The next stage in the National Labor Relations Board investigation will be for a panel of NLRB judges to rule on the matter …
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In a series of local press releases, Apple has announced a new set of HomePod mini countries, as the slow global rollout continues. This follows hints back in July.
Finland, Norway, and Sweden will each get the smart speaker on December 13. South Africa will be next in line, from December 19. Apple has said that other countries will follow next year …
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Apple is being sued by two women over AirTag stalking, with the company accused of making it too easy for exes to track their movements. The case could form the basis of a class action lawsuit.
In a separate case, police are being sued for conducting an alleged illegal search after they raided a property based on an iPhone (very vaguely) located using the Find My app …
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The Apple Self Service Repair program has now launched in eight more countries, following the initial US-only debut back in April.
The program lets customers access repair manuals, purchase genuine Apple parts, and rent the tools needed to carry out DIY repairs …
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It appears to be AirTag battery replacement season. I have eight of them, and I think it was around six weeks ago when I got my first battery low warning …
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Strong AirPods Pro 2 sales played a major role in Apple substantially increasing its share of the TWS (True Wireless Stereo) market, according to a new market intelligence report.
Apple substantially grew its already-strong lead over the rest of the market during Q3, as second-placed Samsung saw its Galaxy Buds shipments fall by 25% …
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Apple Q1 2023 revenue seems certain to be badly hit following disruption to iPhone 14 production, with a Foxconn source today saying that production is not expected to return to normal levels until late December, or early January.
The company says that the COVID-19 outbreak within its biggest plant has now been “brought under control,” but did not give any official timeline for restoring full production …
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Major ad agencies say that almost all of the big brands have paused or dramatically cut their ad spend on the platform, fearing the wild west created by the changes Musk has made. Twitter advertisers offered buy-one-get-one-free ads in the latest desperate attempt to persuade them to return …
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In what appears to be the first reported use of Emergency SOS via Satellite, a snowmobiler in Alaska was successfully rescued when he became stranded in an extremely isolated area.
Alaska State Troopers received an alert from the Apple Emergency Response Center in the early hours of yesterday morning …
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Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested earlier this week that tight supply constraints could cost the company as many as 15-20M iPhone 14 Pro sales. Not just temporarily, he argued, but permanently: Most of those sales would just “disappear.“
He’s not the only person to suggest this, and there are four arguments that can be made in support of the view – but I don’t buy any of them …
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It’s not just Elon Musk using Twitter to complain about Apple (even if Tim Cook is now his new bestie): Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has tweeted a lengthy thread about his views on the Cupertino company.
He claims that Apple doesn’t care about consumers, courts, or the law – only its own interests …
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Foxconn closed-loop production, in which workers remain inside the campus 24/7 for up to a month at a time, is to continue – despite the fact that most of the city has been released from lockdown.
It had been hoped that a return to normal operation would improve conditions for workers, and help the company recruit new staff to replace those who left, but these hopes appear to have been dashed for now …
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The LastPass security breach that occurred back in August did allow attackers to access customer data, says the company. It had previously said that no customer data was compromised.
LastPass owner LogMeIn stresses that customer passwords have not been compromised, as the company uses end-to-end encryption so that only the subscriber has the decryption key …
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Apple will definitely use US chips made in TSMC’s Arizona plant, according to a new report today, which says that around a third of chips made there will be for the iPhone maker. Additionally, the plant’s capabilities will be boosted to 4nm chips, rather than the 5nm plans originally announced.
There have long been indications that Apple would be a key customer, and it appears that all doubt will be removed next week, as Tim Cook is said to be attending a TSMC event on Tuesday …
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A new Apple accessibility video highlights a variety of features designed to offer independence to people with a range of disabilities.
Set to the soundtrack “I Am the Greatest” by Spinifex Gum (with Marliya Choir), it opens by showing a woman telling Siri to set her morning scene …
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