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 exec who was the Apple exposure notification lead when he headed up the company’s strategic health initiatives has described his frustrations with attempting to persuade governments to adopt the technology.
He says that the situation in the US remains a mess today, and that the single biggest missed opportunity was a federal exposure notification app …
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A former IOS software engineer at Tumblr has described Apple’s App Store review process as perplexing, random, discordant, and asinine. He claims that his view is shared by the “vast, vast majority” of iOS developers.
He focuses on the Tumbler experience, describing the random rejections the company would get for app updates, but says the problem is a much bigger one …
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It’s time for my Apple Report Card 2021 – a personal view of how the company performed this year, taking into account everything from product launches to issues impacting the company’s reputation.
When it comes to new products, it could be argued that 2021 was more of a continuation year rather than one in which we saw anything completely new (beyond AirTag), but I think that doesn’t really do justice to the importance of some of the product developments we did see …
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Apple Car antitrust concerns are already being voiced, despite the fact that it doesn’t yet exist, and may never exist. Indeed, the potential for antitrust action could be greater if Apple doesn’t ever sell its own car …
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Almost two years ago, Apple applied for a patent on an all-glass iMac design with a built-in keyboard and trackpads. The company appears to be continuing to work on this idea, with a fresh iMac patent today adding no fewer than 20 new elements, including a partial touchscreen, and a solution to the obvious ergonomic flaw…
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Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo was the first to suggest that next year will see an iPhone 14 hole-punch camera to replace the notch, and this is backed by a new supply-chain report today.
The report says that LG will be supplying some of the display panels with the hole-punch cutouts …
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We learned yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had ruled that one embarrassing AAPL shareholder proposal must be put to a vote, and it turns out that the company will have to allow two more.
Yesterday’s news related to a proposal for a civil rights audit following employee complaints, and concerns about slow progress in diversifying the workforce …
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We learned earlier this month that NSO’s Pegasus spyware was used to hack US State Department iPhones in Uganda, with no clue at the time who the attacker was.
A new report strongly suggests that the Ugandan government was behind the attacks, as the country – which has an appalling human rights record – is now known to have purchased the spyware. It also appears that this was, indirectly, the tipping point that led to NSO’s downfall…
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A new poll today claims that fewer Americans trust Apple than Google and Amazon. The results show that 44% of respondents trust Apple, against 48% for Google and 53% for Amazon.
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Updates: Ross Young initially tweeted a single-word reaction – surprising – and Digitimes issued a correction to yesterday’s report stating that it was an error. Young subsequently tweeted that he still thinks Apple will use mini-LED.
See additional update at end.
While most reports are pointing to the 2022 27-inch iMac using the same mini-LED backlighting system as the latest MacBook Pro models, a fresh supply chain report today disagrees.
However, the report is confusing, and possibly confused …
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We don’t imagine many people actually read Apple’s terms & conditions before creating an Apple ID, but if you wanted to do so, it would take you a half-hour, according to an infographic from Statista.
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The degree to which mobile carriers sell your personal data to third-party companies, allowing targeted ads based on your data, is rather tricky to ascertain from their privacy policies.
If you want to play safe, however, all three of the largest US carriers offer opt-out options…
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There aren’t too many Pro Display XDR competitors at present, but LG has offered one of the few – and is about to add another …
The top end of the pro monitor market comprises reference monitors costing tens of thousands of dollars. Alongside these, Apple’s Pro Display XDR looks comparatively affordable at $5k, and only a handful of other companies compete in this middle ground …
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Smartphones have been described as “a new tax on the poor” by an academic, as more than a quarter of low-income Americans rely solely on their phone for internet access …
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A listing of TSMC clients shows that Apple generates just over a quarter of the chipmaker’s revenue, at 25.9% – with no other companies reaching double digits …
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M1 Max ProRes benchmark testing on ProRes video exports shows that the high-end 2021 MacBook Pro is three times faster than the 2019 Mac Pro …
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A Reddit IPO (initial public offering) plan has been announced by the company, which would allow its shares to be publicly traded …
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Update: As we suspected, nothing has changed. An Apple spokesperson told The Verge that the feature is still delayed, not cancelled.
Apple’s website references to CSAM scanning have been quietly removed by the company in the past few days.
The company’s child safety microsite previously described the company’s plans for scanning iPhones for Child Sexual Abuse Materials, alongside the Communication Safety in Messages feature, and warnings when someone searches for CSAM. However, the section on CSAM scanning has now been removed …
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An Apple optical data transfer patent granted yesterday could facilitate super-fast communications between devices. The patent says that the technology could offer transfer speeds of “terabits per second” …
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The ability to preview WhatsApp voice messages before sending has now landed, following discovery of the plan back in May.
This solves two of the more annoying issues with sending voice messages in the chat app …
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Pegasus spyware maker NSO Group is reportedly running out of cash following actions by both the US government and Apple. This has led the company to explore options to put itself up for sale.
Two US funds have expressed an interest, claiming that they would change the company’s mission from offensive to defensive, though skepticism has been expressed about this …
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Companies large and small have had to rethink their office-based work plans, with many opting for a remote working compromise. Google recently pushed back its own return-to-office plans, and its own deal is similar to that of Apple, but with a bit more flexibility.
While Apple appears unlikely to have a major rethink about its stance, it did last month offer one additional concession, and it strikes me that extending this could be a win-win for company and employees alike …
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Global AirPods shipments fell by a third in Q3, according to a new market intelligence report today. The figures for Apple include Beats products, but the greatest fall is likely to have been for AirPods, as consumers waited for the third-generation model.
However, Apple’s dominance of the true wireless stereo (TWS) headphones market is so great that no other brand came anywhere close to challenging the company’s lead …
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Apple has announced that on the 10th anniversary of the Employee Giving program, almost $725 million has been raised for 39,000 different organizations.
The company says this includes nearly 2 million hours of voluntary work by Apple employees…
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