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.
Apple has been increasingly focused on generating recurring monthly income with its various subscription plans, and a rumored Google Pixel Pass could potentially point the way to the ultimate subscription for hardcore Apple fans.
Apple currently has two key subscriptions aimed at its most dedicated fans…
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The first TP-Link HomeKit smart plug has quietly gone on sale, more than two years after support for Apple’s smart home ecosystem was promised …
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The first Apple Watch Series 7 deliveries are scheduled for Friday, and those lucky enough to be in line for day-one delivery are now starting to receive shipping notices. Earlier statuses showed them as “preparing to ship.”
Apple uses a two-stage delivery process to control when launch orders are received …
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There’s been growing concern about Instagram teen usage after leaked internal reports suggested that the app could be unhealthy for some teenage girls. App owner Facebook now says it is taking action to promote healthier usage.
Separately, an academic argues that lawmakers don’t understand teenagers, and that they are trying to legislate control of the wrong app …
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A report back in July described a search for an Apple LA Culver City campus, and the company has today confirmed its plan for a complex totaling more than half-a-million square feet – but hasn’t confirmed the rumored reason for it.
The previous report said that the facility would primarily be used for Apple TV+ production soundstages …
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Although we tend to think of text messaging and SMS as synonyms, that’s not quite the case. SMS (short messaging service) is simply the original technical standard for text messages. In recent years, there’s been a drive to switch to RCS (rich communications services, or rich communications suite), a more sophisticated text messaging standard.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened, mostly due to the rivalry between Apple and Google, and that’s something Google wants to change …
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A report last month described problems caused by power outages in China, and a new one today describes Apple suppliers struggling to keep production on track.
We previously described three reasons for the increasingly common electricity restrictions in the country …
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Cybersecurity Awareness Month is mostly geared toward businesses rather than individuals, encouraging them to ensure they carry out risk assessments and follow best practices to protect their IT systems. (There appear to be one or two companies who could use a little work there…)
But it’s also a worthwhile reminder to individuals to check their own cybersecurity, and for us to offer some advice to less-techie friends and family members.
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Both the Facebook and Twitch messes were caused by configuration errors, admit the companies. A mistake by Facebook led to a prolonged global outage of all the company’s services, while a similar error by Twitch left all its files exposed to a hacker …
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An Apple Japanese antitrust investigation was closed last month, when the Cupertino company made a major concession. But just six weeks later, a new antitrust investigation has been opened in Japan, into the market dominance of iOS and Android.
The news comes on the same day that the Dutch antitrust authority found Apple’s in-app payment arrangements to be anti-competitive …
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One of the features Apple announced for iOS 15 is Legacy Contacts, a way to ensure that your digital life outlives you – if you would like it to.
The company hasn’t yet launched it, saying only that it is “coming in a software update to iOS 15,” but there are signs that Apple is preparing for its introduction …
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A new supply chain report suggests that we’ll see OLED iPad Pro models in 2024, but there is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding Apple’s plans for the various display technologies.
There is a potential four-stage transition strategy for iPad displays, with Apple having already moved to the second of these …
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It appears that the entirety of Twitch.tv was hacked, so if you have an account there, you’ll probably want to change your password …
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In a new interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, mental health is the focus of the discussion. Cook says that there is currently a mental health crisis, and he believes technology can either help or hinder, depending on how it is used.
Cook also met with the developers of the mental health app Shine, which Apple featured as part of its Best of the App Store awards last year …
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A Chinese consumer has been given the go-ahead to take an “Apple tax” antitrust case to court, as China’s Supreme Court rejected Apple’s call for the lawsuit to be thrown out.
A local report says that this is a small legal loss, but could have big implications for the Cupertino company …
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Apple has to pay taxes of up to $46M in South Korea on benefits it failed to declare, says a lawmaker – citing figures based on data from the Korea Fair Trade Commission.
The controversy relates to an investigation that found Apple guilty of antitrust behaviors in respect of local mobile carriers …
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Eyebrows were raised during the iPhone 13 keynote when Apple said nothing about the A15 performance gains, choosing to compare its latest model against Android competitors rather than against the iPhone 12.
Some suggested that this indicated very little improvement in performance, but a new analysis suggests that although the A15 isn’t massively different to the A14, Apple has still managed to push the chip hard …
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Yesterday’s Facebook outage – which took down Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp as well as the main service – resulted from a mistake by the company’s own network engineers.
The mistake led to all of Facebook’s services being inaccessible, with one analogy likening it to a failure in the “air traffic control” services for network traffic …
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A relatively simple change to the iPhone setup process would mean Apple could keep kids safe from social media apps, along with any other apps that shouldn’t be used by children.
The suggestion comes from a somewhat ironic source – Facebook’s former head of security…
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Apple has announced that Apple Watch Series 7 orders will open this Friday, October 8. The first orders will deliver from a week later, on October 15.
Apple announced the new model during the iPhone 13 keynote, but didn’t say at the time when it would go on sale …
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We recently reported on an ophthalmologist using the iPhone 13’s new macro photography feature to document patient progress.
Thanks to the Macro mode, Dr Tommy Korn can take extremely detailed photos of the eyes, which lets him observe and record important details about patients’ health.
Korn came under fire in some quarters, with people suggesting he should instead be using a DSLR with proper macro lens, and has now explained why this isn’t necessary …
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The App Store Report a Problem link was removed years ago, but has quietly returned in iOS 15. It is not yet available in all countries.
Apple has also made two significant improvements to the feature …
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I’ve so far only done a handful of quick Cinematic Video tests on my iPhone 13 Pro Max following my earlier macro photography tests. While the results haven’t been perfect, they have certainly been good enough to show the potential of the technology.
In particular, the ability to adjust the focus points in editing makes it an extremely powerful tool. Honestly, for manual mode in particular, I’m excited…
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iPhone assembler Foxconn has bought an EV factory in Ohio in a $230M deal. The purchase was made from electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors.
While a key Apple supplier buying an EV plant in the US will inevitably create speculation about potential Apple Car production, this appears unlikely …
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