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.
Enhanced 5G services offering higher speeds aren’t yet available to many, but there’s good news for AT&T 5G Plus – the faster service will now be fully usable by the iPhone 12 and up.
The carrier had previously indicated that only 2022 devices would be able to take advantage of the full range of frequencies …
Expand Expanding Close
The Apple Store union established at the Towson, Maryland, store has issued surveys asking staff what they would like to be the priorities when it comes to negotiating with the company. The detailed list gives a good insight into the sources of dissatisfaction among retail employees …
Expand Expanding Close
It was only a matter of time before one of the established social media apps created a BeReal clone, and it seems Instagram is in the running as it confirms an “internal prototype” feature called Candid Challenges …
Expand Expanding Close
Update: Elon Musk’s lawyers have now issued a subpoena to speak to Zatko about the claims.
Former Twitter security head Peiter Zatko has filed a formal complaint that the company has “extreme, egregious deficiencies” in its protections against hackers, and has done little to defeat spam.
He accuses the company of deceiving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), following promises made back in 2011 after hackers twice took full control of Twitter …
Expand Expanding Close
The Apple Store union battle has now expanded to Australia, with a series of Zoom briefings organized by Apple Together. It previously reached the UK.
Apple is still attempting to talk retail staff out of joining a union, though it has now made its in-store anti-union briefings “voluntary” …
Expand Expanding Close
The Apple Self Service Repair program first launched for iPhone in November of last year is tomorrow being extended to M1 MacBook models – both MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
The company says that the program will also be expanding into other countries, beginning in Europe, later this year …
Expand Expanding Close
The British government has backed a call by the country’s security services for client-side scanning for child sexual abuse material – aka Apple’s CSAM approach.
Home Secretary Priti Patel has written an op-ed in which she indicates government support for the stance, while also attacking Facebook’s plans to make all Messenger chats end-to-end encrypted by default …
Expand Expanding Close
Spyware company NSO, whose Pegasus app can be used to give attackers almost full remote access to an iPhone, has announced that it is downsizing, and losing its CEO.
Bizarrely, the company argues that this is in order to prepare for growth …
Expand Expanding Close
The latest Apple return-to-office policy is being opposed by Apple Together, which rejects CEO Tim Cook’s argument that in-person collaboration is essential to effective working. The group points out that Apple’s valuation doubled during the pandemic, when most corporate employees were working from home.
The group has started a petition calling for a more flexible approach, though is not currently revealing the names of signatories for fear of retaliation by HR …
Expand Expanding Close
Tech YouTuber Luke Miani managed to get his hands on three Apple AirPower prototypes, and demonstrate them working – albeit briefly! The 91Tech channel has done the same.
The videos provide a very graphic demonstration of why Apple was forced to very publicly abandon the project …
Expand Expanding Close
Update: AmpliFi, which offers routers with built-in VPN capabilities, backs Proton’s position that the fix doesn’t reliably work – see below.
A debate about whether iPhone VPN app security is flawed continues today, with Apple insisting it has offered a fix since 2019, while ProtonVPN says that it’s only a partial solution.
The controversy began when a well-known security researcher said that iOS virtual private network (VPN) apps are broken, due to a flaw that he claims Apple has known about for at least two and a half years. This backed a previous report by ProtonVPN …
Expand Expanding Close
My first experience of using a 360-degree camera was a few years ago, the Insta360 ONE iPhone module. The Insta360 ONE RS Twin Edition is the company’s attempt to provide a complete action cam package, combining both 360-degree footage and conventional GoPro-style video in one modular system.
It’s a very neat approach, for not too much more than the cost of a single-camera GoPro Hero 10, and integrates extremely well with an iPhone app. You also get dedicated editing apps for both iOS and Mac …
Expand Expanding Close
TikTok shopping is about to get easier, as the short-form video app offers advertisers no fewer than three different types of Shopping Ads …
Expand Expanding Close
If Steve Jobs were announcing the iPhone as a new product today, that famous introduction would be about it being four devices in one, not three.
In 2007, it was a widescreen iPod, a revolutionary phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator. In 2022, he’d be adding “an intelligent camera” – and that might even have been the first thing mentioned …
Expand Expanding Close
You might think the Apple Watch Workout app is more for casual use by amateurs, but Australia’s national swim team has credited it with helping it to achieve its best-ever results.
The team does use custom apps too, but the Workout app has played an important role in letting swimmers see their metrics during training sessions, says the world record holder …
Expand Expanding Close
Update: Apple does appear to have introduced an (optional) fix for this as of iOS 14, but questions remain – see update at end.
A well-known security researcher says that iOS VPN apps (virtual private networks) are broken, due to a flaw that he claims Apple has known about for at least two and a half years.
This backs a previous report by ProtonVPN that a VPN vulnerability has been present on iOS devices since at least iOS 13.3.1, and that there is no 100% reliable way of ensuring that your data is being sent via the VPN …
Expand Expanding Close
Back in December of last year, we saw an interesting proof of concept of being able to control smart home devices simply by pointing your iPhone at them. Now a startup called Fluid One has brought that developer on board, and added the missing piece of the puzzle: hardware.
The video demo below looks extremely slick, but setting it up for a typical home won’t be cheap, coming in at $800 at the Kickstarter price …
Expand Expanding Close
An official survey in the UK shows that TikTok has replaced TV as the most popular entertainment source for young adults, while a separate Pew study reveals that 95% of US teens watch YouTube, many of them “almost constantly.”
Use of both apps and streaming services has dramatically changed the landscape for broadcast television …
Expand Expanding Close
Fears about midterm election disinformation have led both Meta and TikTok to outline the defensive measures they plan to deploy. It follows a disastrous experience in 2016, when Facebook unwittingly sold political ad space to disinformation agents working on behalf of Russia.
Meta subsequently put in place protections for the 2020 elections, and says that it will maintain the strategies shown to be effective, as well as improving on them …
Expand Expanding Close
MacBook design changes have made it practical for the machines to be assembled in Vietnam for the first time. So far, only iPads and AirPods have been made in the country.
The move marks the continuation of Apple’s gradual effort to reduce its dependance on China as a manufacturing center …
Expand Expanding Close
The iOS 16 Lock Screen sees a new user-interface for the music player, most notably letting you see full width album art, like the gods intended.
But things get messy when notifications are shown, something a design student set out to correct …
Expand Expanding Close
Spotify deals and discounts are one of the key ways the company keeps its numbers up, and the latest of these offers a premium account for three months – either as a free trial, or at a heavily discounted price of just $9.99 …
Expand Expanding Close
A phishing attack on communications giant Twilio led to a Signal privacy compromise for around 1,900 users. Their phone numbers were exposed, along with SMS verification codes that would allow an attacker to register accounts to a new device …
Expand Expanding Close
We learned last month that Apple would be taking a more cautious approach to hiring new staff, and a new report today confirms that the company is serious about it. Around 100 Apple recruitment contractors have been laid off in the past week.
It follows CEO Tim Cook stating that hiring would continue, but at a slower pace reflecting the “realities” of the environment” …
Expand Expanding Close