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.
Both Apple chairman Art Levinson and health lead Sumbul Desai are among the speaker line-up for Life Itself, a conference which aims ‘to inspire and foster changes in healthcare, while celebrating leaders whose work helps us all to be healthier and happier humans.’
The conference is co-hosted by CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta and TEDMED creator Marc Hodosh, and is open to ‘a limited number’ of guests …
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Apple Pay in Russia was last month suspended by the Cupertino company as one of a range of sanctions against the country for its invasion of Ukraine. A class action lawsuit has now been filed against Apple, arguing that Russian consumers have been harmed by losing access to the electronic wallet service.
Russian citizens who have been affected by the withdrawal of Apple Pay in the country are being invited to join the case …
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Apple’s lobbying spend hit a new quarterly record high in the first quarter of this year, as the company continues its efforts to fight antitrust measures.
Apple is feeling particular pressure from bipartisan support for both the Open App Markets Act and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act …
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A campaign group has criticized Apple’s twice-yearly transparency reports, saying that in one very important respect they are not very transparent.
One section of the report covers App Store Takedown Requests, and Apple is accused of deliberately concealing information about the apps it removes …
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Surfshark VPN is one of six popular virtual private network services to fail security tests, with many others failing so-called “deceptor” tests …
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Analysis has shown that a full half of the top 200 Apple suppliers are located within areas of China at risk from COVID-19 lockdowns. These include not just high-profile companies responsible for final assembly of Apple products – Pegatron, Quanta, and Compal – but also critical component suppliers.
One top Chinese tech exec has warned that tech production in the area “will come to a complete halt” unless things change within the next 10 days …
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I recently got the chance to compare and contrast a completely impromptu iPhone video shoot with a carefully planned interview shoot with a full-on studio setup – and while the results are certainly not comparable, my iPhone 13 Pro Max did a perfectly solid job.
Not long ago, I helped out a friend by shooting three video interviews. To do so, I used two BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera rigs, a motorized slider, studio lighting, a separate sound recordist with his own gear, and two hours of setup prior to shooting. The results won’t be ready to share for some time, but I’ve been able to review the footage …
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The world’s biggest iPhone assembly plant – nicknamed iPhone City – has escaped COVID-19 shutdowns, as three other key Apple suppliers in China were last week forced to halt production.
Foxconn managers say that production is “proceeding well,” with 200,000 workers at work in the facility …
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Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX wireless earbuds are a new take on the Beoplay EQ model – but copying the AirPods‘ stem design, with the company citing two benefits …
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An iCloud crypto wallet attack saw an estimated $650,000 worth of cryptocurrency and NFTs stolen from a trader within seconds.
While the attack relied on a sophisticated piece of phishing, it also revealed a key iCloud vulnerability with MetaMask …
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NSO spyware Pegasus targeted US iPhones indirectly, despite the company forbidding customers from infecting phones with American SIMs. Devices belonging to Catalan politicians and others were also infected, with the Spanish government suspected to be responsible.
Additionally, it was discovered that a device connected to the network at 10 Downing Street – the office of British prime minister Boris Johnson – was also infected …
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Pro users of M1 Macs have reported disappointing transfer speeds with external SSDs, and tests appear to show that most M1 Mac Thunderbolt ports don’t support USB 3.1 Gen 2 – which means they don’t offer the maximum 10Gb/s transfer speeds that would be expected from Thunderbolt 4.
The tests were conducted on a 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max, and a 2022 Mac Studio M1 Max …
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9to5Mac readers got a few days’ advance notice of Apple’s latest desktop computer – but if you’re in the market for one, which Mac Studio model should you buy? Or should you buy at all?
Apple offers the machine in two versions, M1 Max and M1 Ultra. The former runs the same chip as the top-end MacBook Pro, while the M1 Ultra is – on paper – in a whole new league …
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Many of us have argued that iPadOS needs a major rethink to utilize the full potential of the iPad hardware – and an iPadOS Pro concept is being suggested as a potential solution.
Designing the optimum operating system for the iPad is a huge challenge for Apple, because the devices are used in so many different ways …
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Apple’s privacy focus is one of the company’s proudest boasts – but engineers and others involved in product development say that it comes at a cost.
Lack of access to usage data means product development teams can’t offer the kind of personalized features they would like to, and some things they want to do are completely impossible because a relatively junior privacy guardian says no …
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Today I learned that you can search your photos by text on your iPhone – that is, by printed text found within the images, using the same tech as Live Text.
Apple seems to have kept quiet about it so far, and that may be with good reason …
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Apple’s supply chain is being badly hit by COVID-19 lockdowns in China, with the situation getting worse, say analysts. It follows Apple production being halted at three key suppliers, affecting iPhone, iPad, and Mac assembly. This has already seen shipping dates slip for build-to-order MacBook Pro models.
The worst-case scenario could see iPhone production falling behind by as many as 10 million units …
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The Department of Homeland Security has opened a TikTok CSAM investigation, after child sexual abuse material was posted both publicly and privately on the video sharing network.
Additionally, the platform is being heavily used by abusers for grooming – the practice of befriending a child online with the intention of later abusing them, either online or offline …
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Apple has called out Meta for its hypocrisy in taking close to a 50% cut from metaverse content providers despite having criticized Apple for its own 30% cut of App Store sales.
Meta has often commented disparagingly about Apple’s ‘fees and taxes’ on app sales …
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The Apple supply chain last year doubled its use of clean energy, as the Cupertino company works on its goal of its entire supply chain being 100% carbon neutral by 2030.
The iPhone maker said that a total of 213 of its major manufacturing partners have now committed to powering all Apple production from renewable energy …
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Instagram eating disorder content is being promoted to children as young as 9 years old, according to a report from a child advocacy group …
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A rumored new MacBook Air design looks set to see the biggest shakeup to the look of Apple’s cutest laptop since it was launched in 2008.
If the reports are true, it strikes me as a doubly clever move by Apple: a new look that will appeal to many, and encourage them to update, while being actively off-putting to others, effectively pushing them to buy a MacBook Pro even if they don’t need the power …
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Back in January, Apple announced an iPhone Macro Challenge as its latest ‘Shot on iPhone‘ competition. iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max users were asked to share their best photos taken in macro (close-up) mode, and the company has today announced the winners.
Nature themes dominate, with flower and other plant photos accounting for six of the ten winning shots…
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If you want an Apple-branded monitor with true mini-LED backlighting, it’s unclear how long you might have to wait. But a Porsche mini-LED monitor is coming in June, and you can pre-order one now.
The monitor offers a USB-C connection, which should make it suitable for Macs, but you probably won’t want to buy one – and not just because of the price …
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