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 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is calling on carriers to implement better security protections against SIM-swap and port-out attacks.
These attacks are a common way for criminals to carry out identity theft, and take over anything from an Apple ID to a bank account …
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Apple employee activism is shifting the balance of power within the company, suggests a report today. It says that more employees are willing to speak out about issues which concern them – such as pay disparity – and feel more protected than they have in the past.
The evidence presented is mixed, but it does indicate there has been at least some shift in the culture of secrecy at the company …
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Update: Automated tools like UserWay are highly controversial among disabled web users.
Susan Bennett revealed back in 2013 that she only found out by chance that she had become the original voice of Siri. She’s now taking advantage of her accidental fame to promote a new approach to web usability.
Bennett stars in an amusing Siri-based ad for an AI-based approach to making websites accessible to people with disabilities, such as those using screen readers …
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While there are those of us who end up buying a new iPhone every year, most people upgrading to the iPhone 13 will be doing so from a phone that is older than the iPhone 12.
Apple does have a comparison feature on its website allowing you to manually compare features, but Jason Snell has done the work for you, showing what you’ll get when you upgrade from any model from the iPhone 7 up …
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A new market intelligence report says that 2021 smartphone production is being hit hard by the global chip shortage, and that means growth will be significantly slower than expected.
iPhone production is faring better than other brands, but is still being slowed – with iPhone 13 cameras a particular issue …
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A new antitrust law in South Korea will force both Apple and Google to support app store third-party payment options – and the two companies have now been given to the middle of the month to explain their plans to comply.
This could have wide-ranging implications, as similar pressures are being applied in other countries, and Apple is likely to want to adopt a consistent approach around the globe. Whatever the company proposes in October could reveal its third-party payment plans worldwide …
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Facebook has attempted to defuse the controversy over its Instagram teen research by releasing two of the reports to the public, annotating them with what it says is important context.
The social network also accuses the WSJ, which obtained copies of the reports, of “mischaracterizing” their conclusions. The paper has not yet directly responded to that accusation, but has instead shared four more reports that Facebook did not make public …
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Despite widespread support for a federal privacy law across US citizens, businesses, civil rights groups, and even politicians, efforts to create one appear to have stalled.
Congress now appears to be placing its hopes in FTC regulation instead …
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Suppliers of iPhone 13 camera parts are giving priority to Apple orders, according to supply chain reports. Many of them supply components to a wide range of smartphone brands.
The report says there are two reasons for Apple getting more of their output …
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AAPL stock options have been declared for Tim Cook and five other Apple execs. The SEC filing shows that Cook is in line for more than half a million shares, worth $75M at current value.
Four other execs stand to receive shares worth $20M each, while another is in line for $2.25M …
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A security researcher has shown that AirTags can be weaponized by injecting code into the phone number field before placing it into Lost mode and dropping it in strategic places. Apple has confirmed the finding.
When someone finds the AirTag and scans it, they will be redirected to the website of the attacker’s choice, which could include a fake iCloud login to report the find …
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Dropbox is offering its own Windows and Mac screen recording apps as one of three updates to help with remote working.
Although you can already do this with QuickTime or commercial third-party apps, Dropbox says its focus was on creating a free tool that is both powerful and easy to use.
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The Italian antitrust regulator has found that Apple’s iCloud terms and conditions are unreasonable and unfair to consumers, and may breach consumer protection laws. It’s the latest in a long line of antitrust investigations and lawsuits faced by the Cupertino company.
An investigation and public consultation was carried out following complaints, and a number of Apple’s terms were considered unlawful.
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Apple made some changes to the iPhone 13 Face ID setup in terms of both hardware and software, and this seems to be causing problems for some disabled and seriously ill users.
Specifically, Face ID registration is failing when some owners are wearing a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) mask – used by those with respiratory issues. This is despite the fact that Face ID coped fine with the same masks on older iPhones, all the way back to the iPhone X …
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Facebook says it will make public two Instagram teen research presentations, following claims that these showed the app to be “toxic” to teenage girls.
The controversy over the studies has now reached Congress, with Facebook’s head of safety being called to testify before the Senate later this week …
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One of the new features of the iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max is its macro photography capabilities. Early reviews seem to indicate that there is essentially no limit to how close you can get to the thing you’re photographing, so I put this to the test.
I half joke that photographing gadgets is 5% photography, 5% editing, and 90% cleaning. When it comes to macro photography, that would be more like 99.9% cleaning…
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A crackdown on energy usage in China has seen a number of key Apple suppliers halt production, according to a new report today.
One supplier to both Apple and Tesla said that it had been forced to suspend production from Sunday until this coming Friday, while another said it would need to cease production in two cities until the end of the month …
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An internal report describes a number of ways in which Instagram is harmful to as many as 20% of teenage girls using the app. It can increase anxieties about physical attractiveness, social image, and money, and even increase suicide risk, according to Facebook’s own research.
However, the social network says that the leaked report has been misunderstood …
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Complaints about very high Spotify battery drain on iOS 15 and iOS 14.8 have been acknowledged by the company, which it says it is investigating …
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The Unlock with Apple Watch feature is not working for some new iPhone 13 owners, displaying an error message when attempting to toggle it on …
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Back in the day, I used to do an iTunes backup and restore when buying a new iPhone, because that was both faster and more comprehensive than an iCloud transfer. However, Apple’s direct iPhone-to-iPhone transfer process now works so beautifully that it is, in my view, a complete no-brainer to use it.
I’ve just done it with my shiny new iPhone 13 Pro Max, and it really couldn’t have been a smoother experience …
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The zombie-like remains of bankrupt wearables company Jawbone is suing Apple for patent infringement. The claim relates to the noise-cancelling features used in AirPods Pro and AirPods Max models.
Jawbone was once a successful company in the wearables and audio business, with its fitness bands sold in Apple stores …
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A horizontal iPad Pro orientation is set to become the new normal with future models, suggests a leaker with a decent track record.
Currently, there are a number of ways in which an iPad signals vertical – or portrait – orientation as the default, rather than horizontal or landscape …
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We’ve already seen photos of the first iPhone 13 pre-orders arriving, and now Apple has shared photos of some of the first customers to buy the iPhone 13 in its retail stores.
So far Apple has shared photos from Apple Sanlitun in Beijing …
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