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 Mailchimp hack means that you’ll want to be even more vigilant than usual about phishing emails. Attackers have taken a clever approach to making their emails appear genuine …
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Bloomberg reported last year that Apple is eyeing a new market for its wearable, with an extreme sports Apple Watch model under consideration. A new waterproofing patent application by Apple lends weight to this idea.
The tech described in the patent would provide the potential for the Apple Watch to progress from IPxx ratings used for everyday life to the far more rigorous ATM ratings used for water sports …
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Apple Fitness+ is adding a postpartum fitness program to the service, a year after pregnancy workouts (such a shame it wasn’t nine months later… ).
The workouts are geared to new parents not just in the types of exercise offered, but also in the timings …
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An iPhone saved the life of a British snowboarder after he fell into an off-piste crevasse and was unable to climb out. He was alone at the time, something he now says was a mistake he will never repeat.
He said that he will never be able to repay Swiss rescue services, but also credits an emergency feature of his iPhone for being able to call for help in the first place …
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A major Wyze Cam security flaw easily allowed hackers to access stored video, and it went unfixed for almost three years after the company was alerted to it, says a new report today.
Additionally, it appears that Wyze Cam v1 – which went on sale back in 2017 – will never be patched, so it will remain vulnerable for as long as it is used …
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When Apple compared the M1 Ultra GPU performance to what was then Nvidia’s most powerful graphics card, the company’s chart and quote were technically true, but rather misleading, says Macworld.
Apple gave the impression that the M1 Ultra outperformed the Nvidia RTX 3090, but this was not the case – and will be even less so now that Nvidia has launched the 3090 Ti …
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A disruption to Apple’s supply chain for iPhone storage chips could see the Cupertino company buying flash memory from a Chinese supplier for the very first time.
It’s not an ideal situation at the best of times, given that Apple is aiming to reduce, rather than increase, its dependance on China. But it may prove particularly controversial in the current climate …
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Code found in the latest version of the TweetDeck app suggests that it may soon require a Twitter Blue subscription, which currently costs $2.99 per month.
Tweetdeck is a popular way for social media professionals and power users to manage multiple accounts. It also provides the ability to create distinct feeds for users whose tweets you don’t want to miss, as well as tweets with particular keywords …
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A bizarre situation involving a woman accused of stalking Tim Cook may have been resolved, following a court hearing yesterday.
Apple was previously granted a restraining order in the run-up to the hearing, and this has now, in effect, been extended to three years …
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I have a non-functional original Macintosh in my office just as nostalgic decoration, but SystemSix is a super-cute home-built alternative. Its creator and former Apple engineer J Calhoun describes it as a ‘love-letter to my first Macintosh’ – which was a Macintosh Plus.
It’s a DIY project which recreates the front panel of a classic Macintosh, coupled with an e-ink display to emulate the look of the original machine, while a Raspberry Pi gives it a little functionality …
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The concept of a smart contact lens has been around for many years, but one company working on the tech says that its device is now feature-complete, but will require FDA clearance. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said last year that Apple is also working on augmented reality contact lenses …
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If you want to ensure your iOS devices are updated as soon as new releases are available, you should do manual iOS updates. The indirect advice comes from no less a source than Apple SVP of software engineering, Craig Federighi.
If you instead rely on automatic updates, you could be waiting days or weeks …
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An NFL mobile streaming app is reportedly under development, with the provisional branding NFL+ or NFL Plus. Teams were apparently briefed on the plans over the weekend.
It’s as yet unclear how this might tie in to a long-rumored deal between Apple and NFL Media …
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Apple has already been fined $55M by Dutch antitrust regulators, but a new Dutch class action lawsuit is going after the Cupertino company for billions rather than millions.
The lawsuit alleges that the 15% or 30% commission Apple charges makes app prices higher than they should be, and that the total cost to consumers is almost €5B ($5.5B) …
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Ad-dependent companies like Facebook parent Meta are already upset about App Tracking Transparency, but Apple’s privacy plans may go further than this – and involve a further battle with advertisers that are trying to track users.
The report today is purely speculative but would be consistent with the company’s direction – especially given the whack-a-mole battle against ad tracking …
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A report today says that ‘Russian Google’ Yandex is sending data harvested from millions of iOS app users to Russia – whether or not you use the company’s apps. Laws there could compel the company to make the data available to the Russian government.
Your data can be grabbed from a wide range of third-party apps which use a developer tool created by Yandex. Developers save time and money by using the Yandex API AppMetrica to obtain analytics data for their app, while the company gets user data in return …
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The US antitrust bill, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, has been endorsed by the Department of Justice.
The bill was introduced after a report stating that a number of tech companies – including Apple – were guilty of engaging in “deeply disturbing” anticompetitive behavior …
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Messaging interoperability encryption challenges are being discussed by security experts, following the European Union’s decision to make cross-platform messaging capabilities a legal requirement.
There was much debate on whether or not to include messaging interoperability in the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the challenges of maintaining end-to-end encryption was one of the key issues …
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We’re used to reports of people misusing AirTags to track people, but one accused domestic abuser has used his Apple Watch to track his girlfriend…
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Apple Maps UK ground surveys are today beginning in three cities, using backpack-mounted cameras and sensors.
Both Apple and Google use similar backpack systems to provide both Look Around imagery of areas that can only be reached on foot – whether mountain trails of pedestrian shopping precincts …
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Apple investment in US technology is likely to be boosted in response to the Ukraine crisis demonstrating the fragility of over-dependence on Taiwan and China, suggests a new analyst report.
The report cites a recent statement by the CEO of the world’s largest asset management company …
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Two independent sources have today reported that iPhone SE demand is lower than Apple expected following the recent launch of the latest version of the company’s most affordable phone.
Apple is said to have told suppliers to reduce production by millions of units …
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Matty Benedetto makes delightfully silly things, like a standing keyboard instead of a standing desk, under the branding Unnecessary Inventions. All are equally whacky, but most have one thing in common: they do actually work. Sadly, this is not true of the latest UI project …
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Messaging interoperability – in which it would be possible to send a message to someone without knowing or caring which chat service they use – finally made it into the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.
It was one of the most controversial elements of the upcoming legislation, with some arguing that it would be a technological nightmare to implement, and others that it would benefit both startups and consumers …
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