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 British singer-songwriter has recorded a unique MacBook Pro music video. Using her new M1 Max model, she recorded it using the machine’s built-in microphones and webcam!
Mary Spender used Logic Pro, which is a pretty demanding app, yet was able to do all the work on battery power – while screen recording at the same time – without the fans kicking in …
Expand Expanding Close
If you’ve ever wanted a peek at Jony Ive’s design process, he has shared four images of his work in progress on a seal for the Terra Carta environmental award.
It uses the typeface Ive himself designed, LoveFrom Serif, and the overall look is very different to his signature minimalism …
Expand Expanding Close
Early iPhone 13 sales saw Apple’s market share of the smartphone market climb in both the US and Europe, but growth was reportedly much more dramatic in the latter – where the company came very close to overtaking Xiaomi.
iPhone growth was more modest in the US, despite the very favorable timings, but that was of course from a much higher base …
Expand Expanding Close
The NSO group, whose Pegasus spyware is used to hack iPhones and Android smartphones, has been officially named by the US government as a threat to national security.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has added the Israeli company to the Entity List, which bans the company’s products from being imported, exported or passed from one organization to another within the US.
Expand Expanding Close
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a Binding Operational Directive, requiring federal agencies to apply 24 Apple security patches.
The deadline for some of these is November 17, less than two weeks from now.
Expand Expanding Close
The first OLED MacBook screen has been delayed, claims a supply chain report. It says that Apple was originally planning to bring the display tech to MacBooks in 2025, a year after the rumored introduction in iPads.
However, the more complicated display tech needed in a laptop is causing problems, says the report, as Apple struggles to contain costs …
Expand Expanding Close
Smart home company Netatmo has announced an upcoming HomeKit-compatible CO detector, joining its existing smoke alarm and indoor air quality monitor. The company also makes a wide range of other smart home devices.
Expand Expanding CloseThe Netatmo Smart Carbon Monoxide Alarm looks out for your safety day and night.
It measures, in real time, the levels of carbon monoxide, which is an invisible, odourless and potentially fatal gas. If your home has any fuel-burning appliances (boiler, fireplace, gas cooker, etc.), the Netatmo Carbon Monoxide Alarm will monitor the carbon monoxide particles emitted by these appliances …
A major backlash to this week’s Notability subscription announcement has forced the developer of the popular note-taking app to make a U-turn in the way it treats existing purchasers. Some existing owners pointed out that the developer was breaking App Store rules.
The company announced a switch to a subscription model, which is rarely a change that goes down well – but the bigger controversy here was regarding those who had previously purchased the app …
Expand Expanding Close
Quadriplegic Apple user and disability campaigner Colin Hughes last year shared his experiences of using Apple kit as someone who uses a wheelchair and has only very limited use of his hands. He’s now followed up with a look at the accessibility improvements Apple made in iOS 15 and watchOS 8.
He highlights the progress Apple has made, as well as the weaknesses in its accessibility support, including a couple of very surprising failings…
Expand Expanding Close
A new Apple Podcasts BBC partnership gives Americans and Canadians access to a range of new shows previously unavailable in either country. The shows are available on the BBC Studios channel, but you’ll need a paid subscription after a seven-day free trial.
Apple first introduced paid podcast channels in June after a slightly delayed rollout…
Expand Expanding Close
LG Smart TV owners will shortly be able to get a three-month free trial of Apple TV+. Apple and LG are making the free trial available to those who bought compatible TVs as long ago as 2016 …
Expand Expanding Close
We reported yesterday on a Mac application memory error that I first saw with the Mail app on my new M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro. Searching Twitter revealed other apps were also exhibiting the same behavior, which appeared to be mostly Apple’s own apps.
However, it’s now clear from the growing number of reports that a very wide range of apps are affected, and that it happens on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs …
Expand Expanding Close
My shiny new Mac arrived on Friday, so after a couple of days of fairly extensive use, it’s time to give my M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro first impressions.
I haven’t used it for anything too taxing as yet, so this piece covers what I think of the design, the screen – including that infamous notch – the heat management, and an early look at real-world battery life …
Expand Expanding Close
A new report estimates that Apple’s app privacy policy – aka App Tracking Transparency – will cost social media companies almost $10B in the second half of this year.
It says that’s because their unique selling point (USP) was the ability to target particular demographics and interest groups, and that now they can no longer offer that, advertisers are taking their business elsewhere …
Expand Expanding Close
Update: The game is back online after a 3-day outage. The company says that restoring service may take a little time to roll out everywhere.
One of the most popular mobile games, Roblox, is down. The company is showing “Service disruption” for every platform: iOS app, Android app, Xbox and Avatar.
Expand Expanding Close
A number of Mac users are seeing an error message: “Your system has run out of application memory.” The error is caused by an app using gigabytes worth of memory – reporting more usage than the Mac has, until it eventually crashes. Culprits include Mail and Final Cut Pro.
The exact behavior varies. In the worst of cases, a user cannot change focus from the alert window, requiring a forced restart …
Expand Expanding Close
Motif canvas prints are the latest product to be offered by the company who provided Apple-branded print products from 2005 to 2018.
It was never clear why Apple decided to exit the business, but the good news is that you can continue to buy the same products in the same way, just under a different branding.
Expand Expanding Close
IDC is out with its latest estimate of global smartphone shipments, and it says that Apple overtook Xiaomi in Q3 to take second place after Samsung. While the market intelligence company describes iPhone growth as “incredible,” this is in large part down to timing.
There was also good news for Apple in China…
Expand Expanding Close
YouTuber MrMacRight, whose focus is gaming on Apple devices, has put together a great roundup of M1 Max games tests, running on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip and 32GB of unified memory.
It shows that the machine equals or exceeds the performance of Nvidia’s Geforce RTX 3060 graphics card, which is a popular choice for mid-range gaming rigs.
Expand Expanding Close
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has been somewhat upbeat about the company’s chances of overtaking Apple’s vast lead in chip design, and now claims that Intel will achieve this by beating Moore’s Law …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple will in future be able to assess the Apple Silicon environmental impact at an early stage in chip design, thanks to taking a lead role in a new research initiative.
The program is likely to help with Apple’s stated environmental goal of becoming 100% carbon neutral by 2030.
Expand Expanding Close
Latest update: Dropbox says Apple Silicon support in the works – see bottom of piece.
Dropbox M1 support still hasn’t arrived, even after Apple launched its new MacBook Pro models that run on more powerful versions of the chip. Worse, the company claims there isn’t yet enough support for the idea to make it a priority. (This statement was made by a company forum rep who was unaware of the position.)
The Mac app only runs on M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max machines under Rosetta, which reportedly kills the battery and uses a gig of memory …
Expand Expanding Close
Dozens of tech giants have banded together in a bid to boost workplace diversity across Silicon Valley. Partners in the initiative include Apple, Google, Snap, and Twitter.
Companies signed up to the Catalyze Tech coalition each agree to take specific actions within their recruitment and supplier appointment processes.
Expand Expanding Close
Tomorrow will reveal AAPL Q4 2021 earnings, and analysts are expecting the Cupertino company to announce a huge revenue boost over the previous year.
That’s in part due to optimism about iPhone 13 sales, but it’s mostly down to timing…
Expand Expanding Close