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 version of the Eve motion sensor has been launched, with support for the Apple-backed Thread protocol which enables smart home devices to easily communicate with each other.
The Eve Motion also gets an ambient light sensor, which is exposed to HomeKit so can be used to directly trigger actions, with or without motion.
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The combined tech lobbying spend of Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google has hit $35.3M so far this year. All four companies are trying to fight antitrust measures that would reduce their market dominance.
In the second quarter of the year, the tech giants and their trade groups outspent big pharma – though Apple’s lobbying spend has returned to its prerecord level.
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A nasty piece of Mac malware is being actively used in the wild to capture personal data from Macs. Security researchers say that CloudMensis spyware can allow an attacker to download files, capture keystrokes, take screengrabs, and more.
Cybersecurity firm ESET says that the spyware has been in active use since February, and appears to be targeting specific individuals …
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One piece of tech which has proven slow to, uh, take off is an electronic baggage tag to replace the usual paper label applied to hold baggage at check-in. Alaska Airlines is hoping to boost adoption by offering it free of charge to frequent fliers.
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Apple has been granted a patent for an emergency communication system, designed to extend cellular coverage to areas that would otherwise have no signal.
The approach is intended primarily for law enforcement and emergency services personnel, and it’s possible that the tech could have saved the lives of first responders inside the World Trade Center on 9/11.
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A $52B US chip subsidy bill has convincingly passed a new Senate vote, with 64 in favor and just 34 opposed. Apple has said that the subsidy is ‘vital’ to the construction of a TSMC chip-making plant in Arizona, which is expected to make chips for the Cupertino company.
The latest vote had been described as a test of whether there was sufficient backing to include additional funding for science and defense research …
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A union representing some UK retail store staff says that Apple pay raises awarded recently actually amount to a pay cut after inflation is factored in.
The union noted that Apple’s revenue and profit both rose dramatically last year and also pointed to the increase in Tim Cook’s compensation.
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We noted earlier today that Apple will probably use security as a defence to an Apple Pay lawsuit, and we didn’t have long to wait. Three new Apple Pay videos have been posted to YouTube, each promoting the security of the service.
Each video is super-short. The longest is 15 seconds, while the other two are just six seconds each …
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Banks need to take more responsibility for protecting the victims of cash app scams, says a US finance watchdog. There have been a growing number of scams involving instant cash transfer apps, like Zelle and Venmo …
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The MKBHD M2 MacBook Air review landed today, after a flurry of earlier reviews last week. The overall tone is extremely positive, Brownlee praising the design, performance, and battery-life.
He does, however, warn that it’s really a $1,500 purchase, and that while the Midnight color is beautiful, it’s also a fingerprint magnet – and is easily scratched …
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A class action Apple Pay lawsuit has been filed by Hagens Berman, the law firm that previously won two high-profile antitrust cases against Apple.
The lawsuit accuses Apple of making a billion dollars a year in fees to card companies by forcing them to sign up for Apple Pay as the only way to let their customers make payments from iPhones and Apple Watches.
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Although it’s been possible for some time to turn an old Mac into a Chromebook, Google has now made the process easier than ever. You can even run Chrome OS from a USB key if you’re not sure whether you want to remove macOS.
Chrome OS is designed to be an extremely lightweight operating system, which can breathe new life into older hardware that is struggling to keep up with today’s demands. That’s true, but I’d still suggest that most owners of older Macs shouldn’t do it …
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The latest Pegasus iPhone hack to come to light targeted more than 30 pro-democracy protestors. Apple detected that their phones had been infected by NSO’s spyware, and alerted them.
Thailand has been the subject of multiple military coups over the years, the most recent of which was in 2014, with an army-backed leader still in power today after elections widely believed to have been fraudulent …
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An Apple Store robbery at London’s flagship Covent Garden store yesterday saw ‘at least’ 10 masked raiders steal thousands of pounds worth of products in a daylight raid. One report claimed that the robbers were armed.
Video footage captured from inside the store shows criminals fleeing, and one section of the clip shows a security guard grappling with a man outside the store.
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London is to get a third flagship Apple Store, this one very close to the world-famous Harrods department store. Apple Brompton Road is located at a suitably prestigious location, which the Royal Institute of British Architects refers to as “the gateway to Knightsbridge.”
Knightsbridge is an upscale shopping area with many designer stores. These include Christian Louboutin, Gucci, Hermes, Jimmy Choo, and more. The store is directly opposite Harvey Nichols, another very well-known upmarket department store.
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Another week, another patent troll suing Apple for alleged infringements of patents purchased for the sole purpose of filing lawsuits.
Sonrai Memory has filed similar infringement claims against a wide range of other tech companies, including Google, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, and Western Digital.
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Apple has today posted two new iPhone 13 videos to its YouTube channel, one promoting the Ceramic Shield toughened glass, the other the phone’s ability to cope with water splashes.
Both ads use the ‘Relax, it’s iPhone’ slogan first used for the iPhone 12 …
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Apple has today announced Apple Music Sessions, comprising exclusive live releases recorded in Spatial Audio. The first two artists featured are Carrie Underwood and Tenille Townes.
Each performance includes companion live videos …
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Augmented reality shopping is about to level up, thanks to a new capability introduced in iOS 16. The new Apple RoomPlan API uses the LiDAR scanner in recent iPhone Pro models to create a 3D room plan – and an impressive new demo shows just what it’s capable of.
Shopify has created a proof of concept that scans a room and then allows you to virtually empty it, ready to see how new furniture would look in the space. Alternatively, you can remove specific items, like a couch, and then slot new ones into the space …
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The Nothing Phone launched this week, and the most distinctive thing about the design is a transparent rear cover to reveal the internals of the device – along with some funky lights. You can now give your iPhone 13 Pro Max the same look with a new Dbrand skin …
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Putting AirTags in baggage was one of the things I did as soon as I got mine, and this seems to have become a very popular use of the tiny tracking devices.
But while they can be a big help when baggage gets lost, a number of reported experiences show that they still can’t solve airline incompetence …
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Update: Twitter is back as of 8:43 a.m. ET, after an outage of around 40 minutes.
Social networking platform Twitter is down for many users, with feeds no longer updating in either the official Twitter app or third-party ones, while the web version is showing various error messages.
The outage happened at around 8 a.m. ET/5 a.m. PT this morning …
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Update: The vote on the bill is now expected to be delayed until the fall – see end for more details.
A proposed new CSAM law in the UK could force all messaging companies to use the type of client-side scanning approach that Apple planned to launch to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on iPhones.
An amendment to the Online Safety Bill has been put forward that would require tech companies to identify and remove CSAM, even in end-to-end encrypted private messages …
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Pixelmator 2.7 is out today with a modern redesign, support for Pixelmator Pro documents, and performance improvements, thanks to the use of Metal graphics.
The company warns that Pixelmator Pro document support is limited at present but promises more to come.
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