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 latest Apple antitrust case could see the company face an unspecified fine in Russia. This follows the company failing to meet a September deadline for allowing app developers to tell customers about alternative payment options.
While the potential size of the fine is not specified, the wording implies that it could be significant …
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Apple is being sued in China for failing to include iPhone chargers in the box. The report says that the lawsuit has been put forward for ‘public interest’ status, suggesting that it could be fast-tracked or given a higher profile.
It follows a consumer protection fine in Brazil for the same issue, and Apple being forced to continue to supply EarPods with iPhones in France …
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A video has been posted illustrating a MacBook Pro notch problem in which status bar items can end up hidden beneath the notch.
A separate video shows how extended menu bar items wrap around the notch, which also reveals an inconsistency in the way macOS handles the mouse pointer …
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If there’s one complaint I’ve heard more than any other this week it’s this: Why is there no MacBook Pro Face ID feature in the notch?
Views on the notch itself have been mixed, but one recurring comment has been that it would have been better justified if it had contained Face ID.
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Apple’s lead over Intel when it comes to laptop chips is undeniable, even by the US chipmaker itself. A deep dive showed that the new MacBook Pro competes against even the best desktop PCs powered by Intel chips, with a similar story emerging against ultra-high-end GPUs.
There have, though, been those suggesting that the lead is either slim or temporary. Two high-profile names dispute this claim: former Mac chief Jean-Louis Gassée, and ex-Windows president Steven Sinofsky.
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While there has been one sketchy claim that the iPhone SE 3 will be based on the iPhone XR, all reliable sources are pointing to a much less interesting design update. A new report today reiterates that the 2022 iPhone SE will still have a 4.7-inch display, strongly indicating that it will remain based on the iPhone 8 form factor.
There is also a suggestion that it could be called the SE Plus, but this is most likely a misunderstanding.
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An M1 Pro and M1 Max deep dive shows that the new chips don’t just allow the new MacBook Pro models to outclass Windows laptops, but also compete against the best desktop PCs – something that wasn’t even considered possible for a mobile chip!
Making this all the more remarkable is the fact that the actual CPU cores appear to be the same ones found in the base-level M1 chip; it’s just that everything else is better.
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The Facebook Papers – a huge set of internal company documents provided to news organizations by whistleblower Frances Haugen – look set to reveal a lot of compromising information about the company.
Initial reports published today include confirmation that CEO Mark Zuckerberg was fully aware of the way in which the social media platform was contributing to the polarization that played a significant role in leading to the US insurrection.
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A New York Times journalist covering the Middle East has described the experience of his iPhone being hacked, and the security precautions he now takes as a result.
Ben Hubbard says there were four attempts to hack his iPhone, and that two of them succeeded, with all the signs pointing to the use of NSO’s Pegasus spyware.
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An Apple product launch wouldn’t be complete without some kind of controversy, and the MacBook Pro notch has been giving people plenty to talk about.
While some people are really unhappy about it, Apple says it’s a really smart feature.
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The iPod success story was far from assured, even after it was launched, says Tony Fadell, the man dubbed “father of the iPod.”
Early sales were nothing to write home about, and Fadell felt it would take three generations before the product line would take off, so he asked Apple cofounder Steve Jobs to make a promise…
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We’re expecting the 2022 iPhone SE to be a rather unexciting update, retaining the existing form factor and simply getting a faster chip and 5G. However, a sketchy report today suggests that it will be a much more significant design update.
A Chinese site claims that the instead of being based on the iPhone 8, it will instead be based on the iPhone XR, with its far more contemporary appearance …
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An FTC investigation found that major ISPs monetize private customer data in a variety of ways, all while telling users that their data is not sold …
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Back in April, the REvil ransomware group hacked into Mac assembler Quanta to reveal 2021 MacBook Pro designs ahead of the launch. Now REvil has itself been hacked in an FBI-led operation, in partnership with the Secret Service and law enforcement agencies in multiple countries.
Law enforcement gained control of a number of REvil servers in an operation designed to prevent further attacks, and to pursue individuals involved in running the ransomware group …
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Apple has confirmed the specification of the new MacBook Pro SD card slot, and there’s reasonably good news for videographers.
Apple says that the slot supports UHS-II transfers, though not UHS-III or SD Express.
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M1 Mac sales were credited with an 11% year-on-year increase to Mac shipments in the third quarter of the year in a new report. That will, of course, be given a further boost this quarter as the new M1 Pro and M1 Max powered MacBook Pro models go on sale.
The report does, however, warn that component shortages are a continuing challenge…
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Donald Trump has very belatedly responded to his permanent Twitter ban by carrying out his promise/threat to launch a competing social network, Truth Social …
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Tomorrow sees the opening of the latest Apple Store, at Bağdat Caddesi in Turkey. The deceptively large two-level design includes a floating carbon fiber roof, while also incorporating local materials.
The launch is being celebrated with a unique six-week Today at Apple program, and an augmented reality exhibition …
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A Bloomberg piece today argues that Apple product design has improved since former design chief Jony Ive left the company.
It says that without Steve Jobs’s moderating influence, Ive went too far in prioritizing form over function, and that this has since been corrected …
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Apple is already facing a class-action lawsuit over the potential for iTunes purchased content removal, and it’s now faced with another on the opposite side of the country.
Both lawsuits make the same complaint: that the iTunes store wording says that you can “buy” or “rent” movies, while the reality is that you can only license them – and that license can be later withdrawn.
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The just-launched AirPods 3 come with a number of improvements over the previous generation, including shorter stems, a new battery-case with MagSafe support, and Spatial Audio – but a report today notes there’s an additional small but useful enhancement…
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A new report today offers a claimed look at Apple’s 2022 iMac plans, namely to prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to the display. The report says that Apple is sticking to 27 inches for next year’s iMac, but will offer the same display tech used in the just-launched MacBook Pro models.
This contradicts expectations of a 32-inch iMac, which would seem the obvious next step for a couple of reasons …
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A report today apparently answers an open question about MacBook Pro USB-C ports: whether or not they support the new USB PD 3.1 EPR standard needed for fast charging.
Unfortunately the news isn’t good. While there is a specification that supports the higher voltages needed, the new 16-inch MacBook Pro models don’t support it …
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If you enjoyed yesterday’s Unleashed event music, you can now listen to it as an Apple Music playlist. TechRndr‘s Brahm Shank put the list together …
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