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.
The Apple design chief role long held by Jony Ive is a hard one to fill, says a new report today, as so many of the core designers have left the company.
Of the three options open to the company, none seem likely to provide the leadership and team buy-in required for such a high-profile position …
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Another day, another Twitter roundup – ranging from an early investor describing Elon Musk as “alone and winging it” to the billionaire owner considering putting the entire Twitter platform behind a paywall.
A former senior Twitter engineer has also told the story of how the company wanted him to comply with a carrier request to track individual user locations from leaving home in the morning to everywhere they went during the day …
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Apple is now the most profitable company in China, thanks to a combination of US sanctions against Huawei, and CEO Tim Cook’s corporate diplomacy with the government, says a new report today.
The iPhone maker has escaped the Chinese government crackdown on other tech companies in the country, thanks to a symbiotic relationship between the two …
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Former Apple design head Jony Ive talks to the press relatively infrequently, and it seems clear that one reason for this is that he’s always asked the same questions, and ends up recounting the same stories.
But some interviews reveal a few more things, as is the case in his latest sit-down, with WSJ Magazine deputy editor Elisa Lipsky-Karasz …
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The Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou – colloquially known as iPhone City – is entering a week-long lockdown from today, following a growing COVID-19 outbreak within the facility.
Given that the plant was already operating closed-loop production, where workers live and work within the campus for up to a month at a time, it’s not immediately clear what form the iPhone City lockdown takes, but one report refers to it as a “seven-day closure” …
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The Netflix Basic with Ads subscription tier launches tomorrow, after the company brought forward its plans to pre-empt a similar plan by Disney. However, the ad-supported tier needs fresh agreements with content owners, and a report today says that five big studios aren’t yet on board …
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Another day, another roundup of the Twitter latest developments. These begin with employees worried that Elon Musk would fire them before their stock vested, thus depriving them of the bonuses they were due …
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After starting with still photography, it was time to put my iPhone 14 Pro Max video capabilities to the test – and I was incredibly impressed with how well the camera performed, especially at night.
Ok, it’s still not going to be replacing cinema cameras anytime soon, but my experience gave me a lot to think about …
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Foxconn has more than tripled iPhone worker bonuses as it fights to persuade them to remain working in extremely tough conditions amid a COVID-19 outbreak within its largest iPhone assembly plant.
For those who go further, and agree to forgo their leave this month, the bonus could amount to a 1,000% increase – from 1,500 yuan ($200) to 15,000 yuan ($2000) …
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Twitter chaos continues, following the purchase of the social network by Elon Musk. From engineers being asked to work crazy hours, to Musk pulling the plug on a Twitter Blue contract with more than 300 web publishers.
Musk appointed himself as absolute dictator of Twitter by disbanding the original board of directors, and replacing it with a single director: himself …
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Pantone colors have long been free to use in Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator – but that’s now changed. If you want to use the industry-standard colors in future, you’ll need to pay a $15/month subscription.
Worse, if you have existing PSD files which use the color set, you may find that they have been replaced with black if you don’t buy the subscription …
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A video producer with a 3D printer has been creating and selling a range of iBook G3 iPad conversions – that is, a genuine iBook G3 case modified to hold a 10.9-inch iPad Air or 11-inch iPad Pro, complete with working keyboard.
Someone asked whether he could make tiny ones for iPhones, and Billy Skipper Hughes couldn’t resist the challenge …
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Another Apple supercycle has been predicted, thanks to a growing number of products being bought by those new to the company’s products.
A new market intelligence study says that the iPhone 14, Macs, and Apple Watch all saw very large numbers of those buying for the first time …
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iPhone workers have reportedly been walking out in significant numbers after an outbreak of COVID-19 at the world’s largest iPhone assembly plant in Zhengzhou, China.
Some are worried about the risk of the infection, while others are unhappy about Foxconn’s stringent lockdown policies, which allow the plant to continue operations …
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Twitter verification is to be available to anyone, under a reported plan by the company’s new owner Elon Musk. The catch? If you want that blue checkmark, you have to pay $19.99/month for a Twitter Blue subscription.
According to the report, existing verified users will have 90 days to subscribe, or lose their checkmark …
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Early trading today has seen AAPL up by more than 6% following yesterday’s earnings report. The company had reported a mix of good news and bad, but investors seem happy …
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Twitter going private under Elon Musk’s ownership does have a number of advantages for the billionaire, including fewer regulatory requirements and no need for quarterly earnings reports. But the route is not without its challenges …
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Apple originally positioned the Apple Watch as being about three things: productivity, communication, and fitness. While the device can indeed help in all three areas, it quickly became apparent that its core appeal was helping people reach health and fitness goals.
Some years back, my colleague Zac Hall told an inspiring story of using Apple Watch data to successfully lose weight, and I have now decided to follow his example. I have several health and fitness goals I want to hit, and I’m hoping that my Health app data will help keep me on track …
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A report yesterday suggested that Apple has a 16-inch iPad in the works, which could be released late next year. It follows an earlier report of a 14-inch one.
Talk of larger iPads dates back several years, with 9to5Mac readers long expressing an interest in a model larger than the current 12.9-inch maximum …
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TikTok gaming has so far been a very small part of the streaming video app, but the company is said to be just days away from announcing an “enormous” push into the games market …
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A new market intelligence report says that iPhone shipments grew 36% year-on-year in China in Q3, while all other major brands saw theirs fall between 16% and 27%.
The data says that this saw Apple’s smartphone market share in the country grew from 11% to 16%, but the news for the iPhone maker wasn’t all good …
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If you can see yourself as the Ted Lasso of IT, the Apple Learning Coach program is now open to more US teachers. The program first launched back in March, with 1,600 graduates now qualified …
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A reported Foxconn COVID-19 outbreak in Zhengzhou – known locally as iPhone City – has been confirmed by the company, with some impact on iPhone 14 production.
However, Apple’s primary iPhone assembler says that the number of cases is low, and iPhone 14 production remains “relatively stable.” Foxconn has introduced tough lockdown rules to minimize the spread …
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If you haven’t yet updated to iOS 16.1, you may want to do it sooner rather than later: Among the changes is a patch to a zero-day vulnerability. Apple says that exploits may be in active use.
The security vulnerability is of a type often exploited by hackers to enable them to run malicious code on targeted devices …
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