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.
The HomePod mini is now officially available in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Apple had previously said that the smart speaker would launch in these countries by the end of March.
Apple updated earlier news releases to confirm today’s launch, with identical copy aside from the country and price …
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Apple has announced that it will be using carbon-free aluminum in future products, with the latest iPhone SE in line to take advantage of the new environmentally friendly manufacturing process.
But the company has been quietly using the ‘revolutionary advancement’ in aluminum production since 2019, in the 16-inch MacBook Pro …
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A new report yesterday said that Apple is working on a new 15-inch MacBook Air, for potential release in 2023.
There are no further details at this stage, but to me such a machine makes a huge amount of sense, and could be the perfect MacBook model for many users …
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A Twitter DM search feature that actually works has been announced by the social media company. It’s available in the iOS and Android apps, as well as on the web …
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The Okta hack revealed yesterday, and which dated back to January, may have impacted up 366 clients, says the company’s chief security officer, David Bradbury. Okta hasn’t named any of them, so it’s not known at this stage how many end users may be affected.
We noted yesterday that Okta offers single sign-on services to a huge range of blue-chip clients, with its services running on Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android …
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Premium smartphone sales reached a new record high in 2021, according to a new report today, with Apple taking the top slot in each of the six global regions covered.
The iPhone maker is also said to be best-placed to take advantage of Huawei’s effective demise …
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Brits have been wondering when we might see a UK Apple Card ever since the US launch back in 2019. A new report today suggests that the company may now be preparing the ground.
Apple has acquired a UK startup company which takes a new approach to assessing the credit-worthiness of finance applicants …
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A report today claims that Apple will introduce under-display Face ID on the iPhone 15 Pro next year, and that it will use technology developed by Samsung.
It is expected that the Cupertino company will continue working toward a vision of the iPhone as “a single slab of glass,” with an all-display front. Hiding biometric authentication beneath the screen will be part of that journey for sure – the question, however, is how and when …
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The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) – which is primarily a voice for Epic Games, Spotify, and Tinder parent company Match in their antitrust fight with Apple over App Store commissions – has lost a second key figure.
In December of last year, Spotify’s legal officer Horacio Gutierrez left the company to join Disney. Today we’re learning that CAF executive director Meghan DiMuzio is also moving on …
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Hackers have posted credible screengrabs to back reports of an Okta security breach. Otka provides single sign-on user authentication tools in the enterprise sector, with a huge range of blue-chip clients. Its tools are available for Mac and iOS, as well as Windows and Android.
The hacking group LAPSUS$, known for its ransomware attacks, says that it is targeting Otka users …
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Apple Podcasts improvements coming into effect next month include improved analytics and support for those wanting to take advantage of the opportunity for paid subscriptions.
Apple has also announced new marketing tools for shows …
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This week has seen Apple fined for the ninth time as it again failed to satisfy the Dutch antitrust regulator ACM that it was complying with the law in respect of the App Store.
Fines now total €45M ($49.7M), and if a tenth one is issued, that will hit the legal cap of €50M ($55M) – but that won’t be the end of it …
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The global chip shortage doesn’t appear likely to end any time soon. The manufacturer of crucial chipmaking machines has warned that its kit will be in short supply for another two years.
That’s particularly bad news for Intel as it seeks to play catch-up with the capabilities of Apple’s M1 chips …
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The Apple TV app on both Android TV and Google TV no longer offers the option to buy or rent movies, while Apple TV+ subscriptions can still be purchased.
It’s being suggested that the change may have been made to avoid Google’s 30% commission on sales through its platforms …
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European sanctions against Apple and other tech giants need to be much more severe if companies are to take them seriously, argues the bloc’s competition watchdog.
European Commission competition head Margrethe Vestager points to Apple’s failure to properly comply with a Dutch App Store ruling, seemingly preferring instead to pay the weekly fine of €5M ($5.5M) …
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The Telegram ban imposed in Brazil has now been overturned. The secure messaging app was banned in the country for failing to comply with court orders to take down groups and channels used by criminal gangs, as well as those used by politicians to spread disinformation.
Amusingly, Telegram says that it didn’t comply with the orders because it didn’t receive the emails …
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A major case of Apple employee fraud has been uncovered, with a former supply chain buyer estimated to have cost the company $10M.
Dhirendra Prasad, who for 10 years worked as a buyer in Apple’s Global Service Supply Chain division, faces five federal charges …
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A password-less future could be even more convenient, thanks to the latest addition to the FIDO standard – which Apple brands as Passkeys in iCloud Keychain.
The proposal means that you could automatically log in to a secure website, for example, simply by having a second Apple device with you …
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LG’s display division is working on being ready to compete for OLED MacBook orders sometime around 2025, says a new supply-chain report today. It follows an earlier report that the company is also prepping for OLED iPad displays, which are expected to launch around a year earlier.
There have been numerous reports of Apple working on introducing OLED MacBooks at some point, but there’s as of yet no clarity on when they might launch …
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Some kind of new Porsche Apple partnership may be in the cards after the two companies held meetings to discuss “possible joint projects.”
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume revealed the meetings when announcing the company’s annual results …
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Many tech giants – including Apple – have implemented digital sanctions against Russia, cutting the country off from the supply of hardware, software, and services alike. It’s even been suggested that the country is just two months away from running out of cloud storage.
But while the pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin is to be welcomed, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) warns that if the situation continues, it could result in a “splinternet” …
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The AirTag stalking controversy, which forced Apple to beef up the protections offered against misuse of the tracking device, has led Tile to follow the Cupertino company’s example.
Tile has announced a Scan and Secure feature, which allows anyone to check for the presence of its own trackers – though in a clunkier fashion than Apple’s safeguards …
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Colin Hughes, a quadriplegic Apple user who often shares his experience of accessibility features on Apple devices, has reported that Apple has quietly added a valuable new Mac Voice Control feature.
Although it isn’t shown in the release notes, it appears to have been added in macOS Monterey 12.3 …
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The launch of the universal smart home standard Matter has been delayed yet again. This is the third delay since the standard – backed by Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, and others – was originally set to debut back in 2020.
The standards organization behind Matter claims that this latest delay is caused by the unexpected popularity of the protocol …
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