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 new Apple patent application for iPhone reverse charging has been published today, further boosting speculation about when the Cupertino company will finally offer the wireless power sharing capability.
The application describes another possible application for the technology: placing two iPhones back-to-back to enable one to charge the other …
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While Apple opted to name the larger base model the iPhone 14 Plus, it had been widely referred to as the iPhone 14 Max in media reports ahead of the keynote.
It now appears that the iPhone 14 Max was indeed Apple’s planned name for the device, with the Plus decision being made relatively close to launch …
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Adobe has said that the Figma free tier will remain available if the company’s planned acquisition of the collaborative design platform is approved by shareholders and antitrust regulators.
The company has also offered some additional reassurances …
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It’s official: The iPhone 14 Pro camera is now good enough for me to use it as my only travel camera – something I couldn’t have even imagined five years ago.
I’d already made the switch from a heavy and cumbersome pro-body DSLR system to a much lighter and more portable mirrorless camera when travelling, but switching to an iPhone had still felt like an enormous step.
Grab a coffee and buckle in: There are 2,738 words coming up!
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Apple’s A17 chip is of course expected to be used in iPhone 15 Pro models. It’s reported that the chip will use TSMC’s new 3nm process, which we’re expecting to be used first in M2 Macs later this year.
Given the increased sophistication of the fabrication process, TSMC has reportedly told Apple it plans to increase the price it charges, but Apple is said to have “rejected” the new planned pricing …
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More Apple Music Classical app references have been spotted in Apple Music code, as we get closer to the company’s self-imposed launch deadline of the end of the year.
Previous references have been spotted in an iOS 15.5 beta, and in the Android version of Apple Music …
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One of the most impressive features shown in the Apple keynote was the Apple Watch Ultra dive computer functionality. This effectively allows the new rugged watch to completely replace a dedicated dive computer.
However, anyone who’s just taken delivery of their Apple Watch Ultra, and is wanting to don their scuba gear and head down to the nearest coral, will need to wait a while …
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Yale has announced that it will launch a new range of Matter-compatible smart locks in the fall – which are upgraded versions of its existing Assure Lock range. Matter support is likely to be added some time after the initial launch.
You’ll be able to open two of the models with your voice, iPhone, Apple Watch, keypad code, or physical key; the other two models lack the physical key slot …
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Meta has confirmed that it is developing a way of allowing users to automatically block nude photos in Instagram DMs. While the nature of the images that can be detected isn’t specified, one hopes it will block unsolicited nude photos to which too many women are subjected …
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Meta is facing a class action lawsuit after both Facebook and Instagram were found to be using an App Tracking Transparency workaround to track users on the web, even after they were denied permission to do so.
The company is accused not just of breaking Apple’s privacy rules, but also violating both state and federal laws …
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An announcement this morning has seen all TikTok election fundraising banned by the platform. Politicians and parties will not be able to use the short-form video app to solicit funds for the midterms, and they will also have all forms of monetization switched off …
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iPhone production in India will increase to around 25% of total global output by 2025, according to a new analyst report. The report suggests a similar percentage of other Apple products will be made outside China by the same year.
We’ve seen a number of signs recently that India is growing increasingly important to Apple as a second key manufacturing hub, as the company continues efforts to reduce its dependence on China …
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Facebook has been conducting an interesting experiment in “informed democracy” as it figures out how to deal with the huge number of posts containing climate change misinformation …
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Spotify audiobooks are now on sale, following the company’s announcement that it was further diversifying its business model by acquiring the audiobook platform Findaway. It follows a previous diversification into podcasting.
If this sounds like old news, that’s because Spotify previously dipped its toe into the waters by offering just a handful of public domain titles, but has now 300,000 paid titles available …
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You can already switch on an auto Shazam feature on your iPhone, but Apple is envisaging a more intelligent version, which could work with anything from AirPods to an Apple Headset …
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Execs from Instagram and Pinterest have been ordered to appear before an inquest into the death of a 14-year-old girl, Molly Russell. Russell took her own life after using the apps to view extensive material on self-harm, depression, and suicide.
It’s the latest development in growing concerns about the impact of social media platforms on the mental health of teenagers, girls especially …
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A new Serial podcast episode is now available, almost eight years after the 2014 series investigated the conviction of Adnan Syed for the alleged murder of his former girlfriend. That conviction has now been overturned, after prosecutors and judge alike said that it was unsafe.
Serial became the most popular podcast in the world, with more than 340 million downloads – still a record today …
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Apple gets caught up in all kinds of controversy, from antitrust issues to advertising, but one of the stranger ones concerns the company’s involvement with The App Association.
A piece this morning claims that the company exerts significant influence over a body designed to represent developers, when their interests may be at odds with those of the App Store owner …
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While some people reported a smooth journey, a significant number of people had a terrible experience when attempting to pre-order the iPhone 14. I was one of them. (Terrible in the FWP sense, of course.)
As always, I was fully prepared for sales to go live. I had my chosen model saved in the Apple Store app, and my finger and thumb were ready to do the CMD-R dance on the website …
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Apple can never change anything without someone complaining, of course, but I think my complaint about “upgraded” watchOS 9 complications is fair. The Simple watch face used to offer a delightfully minimalist look, with only icons and minimal text, but has now turned into something way busier.
Indeed, I’d argue that Apple has completely ruined the Simple watch face in watchOS 9 …
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DOJ antitrust lawyers have asked to make 10 minutes of oral argument during the upcoming Apple versus Epic Games appeal. The Department of Justice wants to follow up its previous written brief, which argues that the court erred in finding mostly in Apple’s favor.
Technically, the DOJ isn’t appearing for either side, but the argument it makes supports Epic’s contention that the App Store is in breach of antitrust laws …
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A Chinese spy carrying out industrial espionage against GE Aviation and Honeywell’s aerospace division was caught with the help of access to an iCloud backup of his iPhone. The data obtained included a never-before-seen copy of a security form used by the Chinese security service when recruiting spies.
Xu Yanjun, an officer in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) was arrested and brought to trial in the US after investigators lured him out of the country to a meeting in Belgium, from where he was extradited to America …
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It’s clear from the increasing shipping delays and lack of in-store availability that iPhone 14 Pro sales are extremely high, compared to those of the base model iPhone 14. We already know one reason for this, but analysts suggests two further factors are at play.
This year’s iPhone launch is unusual for two reasons. First, only the Pro models get the latest processor – though this is probably not a major draw for many …
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An Uber hacker who has gained access to a number of the company’s internal systems, including its Slack channels, claims to have full control of the company’s cloud-based servers and more. This includes the company’s servers on both Amazon Web Services and Google’s GSuite.
Incredibly, the attack appears to have mimicked the one back in 2016, which compromised the personal data of 57 million. This suggests that Uber failed to fix a massive security hole, enabling the same attack to be made six years later …
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