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.
We reviewed the Kensington StudioDock back in March, describing it as an impressive iPad dock offering a plethora of I/O options. Unfortunately for anyone hoping to use it with the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro, the company has stated that it is not compatible …
Expand Expanding Close
Almost two weeks after iOS 14.5 started offering the choice of opting in to App Tracking or opting out, analytics data provides the unsurprising evidence that vanishingly few Americans are choosing to allow it.
What’s rather more surprising is that the global opt-in rate is three times higher …
Expand Expanding Close
A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report on “anti-competitive repair restrictions” specifically calls out Apple for a number of practices that hamper repairs by independent workshops.
The FTC says that repair restrictions hurt both consumers and small businesses, and argues for a combination of new right-to-repair laws and better enforcement of existing ones …
Expand Expanding Close
An award-winning iPhone hack was used by the Chinese government to spy on Uyghur Muslims, giving Beijing total control of their phones.
A detailed report says that Chinese white-hat hackers used to participate in the annual Pwn2Own contest designed to uncover and exploit zero-day security vulnerabilities. The hackers win cash prizes, and the issues are reported to the companies concerned so that they can be fixed before details are shared publicly …
Expand Expanding Close
A new report today says that AirTag stalking is “frighteningly easy” thanks to a number of weaknesses in Apple’s privacy protections.
It reveals several ways that an abusive partner could circumvent the measures Apple takes to alert stalking victims …
Expand Expanding Close
I have always seemed to be one of the few people in the tech world who had no objection to App Tracking, but Facebook has finally succeeded in changing my mind.
Just not in quite the way the company intended …
Expand Expanding Close
A British university study in 2019 indicated that Night Shift doesn’t work when it comes to helping you sleep, and that has been confirmed by a new study carried out in the US.
Apple says the Night Shift feature “may” aid sleep by gradually reducing the amount of blue light in the display and increasing the amount of yellow light…
Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund has provided a further $410M to optical tech company II-VI (formerly known as Finisar), following an initial advance of $390M back in 2017. The company makes the vertical cavity lasers used in the TrueDepth camera system for Face ID.
Apple says that the payment will help to support more than 700 jobs across four US states …
Expand Expanding Close
We heard last month that today would see the launch of Apple Pay in Israel, and that has now been confirmed. A local report says that Apple Pay is supported by all bank and credit card companies in the country, though not for all cards …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s launch of the 24-inch M1 iMac is likely to see the company become the market leader in All-In-One (AIO) PCs this year, according to a new market intelligence report. Apple is set to overtake HP partly due to the appeal of the all-new iMac, but also in part due to Apple’s advantage in the chip supply chain.
HP achieved its success in AIO PCs through a combination of a good range of sizes, stylish design, and extremely affordable pricing …
Expand Expanding Close
American families below or close to the poverty line will soon be able to apply for a broadband subsidy worth $50 per month, as part of the COVID relief package. Applications open on May 12, with a number of additional ways to qualify…
Expand Expanding Close
AAPL stock buybacks – in which the company buys back its own shares – will help protect the US equities market as a whole, according to an equity research firm.
Apple announced a major increase in its stock buybacks during last week’s earnings call …
Expand Expanding Close
It’s almost a year since TSMC announced that it was planning to spend $12B on a chip plant in Arizona, but a new report today suggests that this is just the start.
The first plant is due to begin production in 2024, and sources now claim that additional chip-fabrication plants in the state will follow …
Expand Expanding Close
Yesterday saw Apple’s AirTags withdrawn from sale by Australian retail chain Officeworks, apparently over child safety concerns. Officeworks has more than 160 stores across the country.
While the issue is currently limited to a single chain, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) confirmed concerns over ease of access to the button battery used in the device …
Expand Expanding Close
If you were wondering whether you could use AirTags to track your checked baggage, and find out whether it really is where the airline says it is, a travel website says the answer is yes.
There is one scenario where AirTag doesn’t help, however…
Expand Expanding Close
Epic Games has announced that it has acquired artist portfolio and sales site ArtStation, for an undisclosed fee. In a move likely designed to strengthen its antitrust case against Apple, Epic has told artists that it is reducing its standard commission from 30% to 12%.
Expand Expanding Close
A new folding iPhone report, if accurate, answers two questions. When will the first model be launched? What size will the display be?
The answer to the first appears to be 2023. The answer to the second seems to be 8 inches – but that still leaves unanswered what is, to me, a crucial question: Will the fold be vertical or horizontal?
Expand Expanding Close
On the day that the Apple/Epic case begins, a senior Google engineer has used a blog post to undermine a key part of the Cupertino company’s antitrust defense.
Apple denies that the iOS App Store amounts to a monopoly, for two reasons. First, it says that developers can create apps for other platforms, like Android and games consoles. Second, it argues that those who want to reach iPhone users can simply create web apps. It is this latter claim that has come under fire …
Expand Expanding Close
Noninvasive Apple Watch blood sugar measurement probably tops the list on the consumer wish list for the company’s wearable, and a partnership with a UK startup may have brought us one step closer.
Apple is listed as the largest client of Rockley Photonics, an electronics company working on a system that uses similar sensors to the existing Apple Watch ones, but with many more capabilities …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple didn’t take down the online store before pre-orders of the new iMac and iPad Pro, but perhaps it should have done. Twitter is full of complaints saying the Apple Store is messed up, something several of us here at 9to5Mac can confirm from first-hand experience.
Would-be buyers are reporting a range of problems …
Expand Expanding Close
I took delivery of my shiny new, and unusually cheap, new toys from Apple this morning. First impressions of AirTag are very good indeed – accessories, less so.
I’d ordered two four-packs, for five bags, keys, a videography rig, and a bicycle. On the accessory side, I opted for Apple’s keyring plus one baggage tag …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple was careful to address AirTag stalking concerns when it announced the new tracking tags, but was a little vague on the details of the privacy protections built into the system. It has now revealed a little more, as concerns are expressed about the potential for misuse by abusive partners.
There appears to be a particular loophole if someone wants to track a partner who uses an Android phone …
Expand Expanding Close
AAPL was up almost 3% in pre-market trading, following the company’s blockbuster earnings report for calendar Q1/fiscal Q2. The boost was short-lived, however, quickly falling to less than 1% at the time of writing.
Apple reported record-breaking Q2 2021 earnings of $89.6B, up a staggering 54% year-on-year. Analysts had been expecting big things from the quarter, but nothing like the numbers Apple achieved …
Expand Expanding Close
New smartphone intelligence data puts into perspective the exceptional iPhone sales Apple reported yesterday as part of a true blockbuster of a quarter.
Worldwide smartphone shipments grew by 27% in the first quarter of the year according to the latest Canalys data. The market intelligence company said that total shipments across all brands hit 347M units …
Expand Expanding Close