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Ben Lovejoy

benlovejoy

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.

Connect with Ben Lovejoy

iPhone 18 Pro 5G via satellite rumor gets new support

iPhone 18 Pro 5G via satellite rumor gets new support | NASA satellite photo

Apple is believed to be on a gradual journey that began with Emergency SOS via Satellite on the iPhone 14 back in 2022 and will at some point progress to full 5G access via satellite, bypassing ground-based antenna altogether.

It’s previously been suggested that the iPhone 18 Pro might take a significant step in this direction with support for 5G over satellite links. A new report today adds weight to that idea …

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Jony Ive’s AI hardware is delayed to 2027 and won’t be called io

Jony Ives' AI hardware is delayed to 2027 and won't be called io | A pebble-like render created by ChatGPT

The mysterious AI hardware device designed by Jony Ive for OpenAI has been delayed, according to a new court filing. It had originally been scheduled to launch later this year but now won’t ship any earlier than February 2027.

The same court paperwork also reveals that the company is no longer planning to use the name io for the upcoming device …

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AirPods cameras could mean support for Vision Pro-style hand gestures

AirPods cameras could mean support for Vision Pro-style hand gestures | Existing model shown

One of the more persistent and long-standing Apple rumors has been the launch of new AirPods models with built-in cameras. Another leaker added their support for this idea just yesterday.

Exactly what role these cameras would perform has been the subject of much speculation, with some suggesting they will be used to support Apple Intelligence visual features. While that is certainly possible, I can’t help wondering whether the reports point to support for hand gestures similar to those used with Vision Pro

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Apple makes four promises to developers about fairer treatment

Apple makes four promises to developers in response to antitrust complaints | Photo shows Apple Cotai Strip store in Macao

Apple has responded to complaints that it abuses its dominant position in the iPhone app market by making four promises to third-party developers about fairer treatment.

Developers and others are being asked for their comments on the proposals, and the UK’s antitrust regulator says it will be closely measuring the effectiveness of the measures …

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Two reasons helped Apple hit record iPhone sales, and they’re both orange

Two reasons helped Apple hit record iPhone sales, and they're both orange | Photo shows iPhone 17 Pro Max in Cosmic Orange

Apple recently reported the best iPhone sales in the company’s history in the final quarter of last year. While the long-term trend has of course been upward, the company revealed a dramatic boost to the numbers.

We’ve already seen analysts describe some of the reasons for this, but a new report suggests two additional factors – and both of them are the color orange …

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Jony Ive Ferrari interior might be a glimpse of the Apple Car that never was

Jony Ive Ferrari interior (shown) might be a glimpse of the Apple Car that never was

Jony Ive would have done years of work on the design of the Apple Car interior before the project was finally abandoned. While we’ll almost certainly never see those designs, a new electric Ferrari may provide a good clue as to the aesthetic of the interior.

The cockpit of the upcoming Ferrari Luce was designed by Ives’ consultancy Lovefrom, and it likely echoes a number of the elements we could have expected to see in an Apple car …

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Leak suggests Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max may be the same chip

Apple's M5 Pro and M5 Max may be the same chip | Graphic illustrating an M5 Max chip

It’s previously been suggested that the upcoming M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models will allow you to make a more flexible choice of CPU and GPU cores. A recent change to Apple’s website seems to support this theory.

A new report suggests that the change could be even more radical, and that the M5 Pro and M5 Max might be not two distinct chips but rather variants of the same one …

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Could Apple really press pause on new features in iOS 27? [Poll]

Could Apple really press pause on iOS 27? | Image shows the number 27 in a rounded rectangle in Liquid Glass style

No news isn’t usually good news when it comes to hardware, and the expectations for the new Apple products coming soon are somewhat underwhelming.

But when it comes to software updates, sometimes less really is more. A new report says that this will be the case with iOS 27, but is that really a possibility – and would it be the right call for Apple … ?

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The Viture Luma Ultra is almost the Apple Vision Air I’d like to see

The Viture Luma Ultra is almost the Apple Vision Air I’d like to see | Image shows a large virtual monitor being used for video editing

What started life as a humble face monitor geared to watching video and playing games wherever you happen to be has now evolved into something drawing ever closer to a Mac-powered Vision Pro.

The Viture Luma Ultra it isn’t perfect, but it is the closest thing I’ve seen yet to what I’d ideally like from a future Apple Vision Air product …

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IKEA acknowledges connectivity problems with budget Matter-over-Thread devices

IKEA acknowledges connectivity problems with budget Matter over Thread devices | Two new IKEA smart home lights pictured

Swedish self-assembly furniture giant IKEA has made an additional name for itself through its growing range of budget-priced smart home devices. But if you were thinking of picking up some of its new Matter-over-Thread products, you may want to wait a little while.

There have been a number of frustrated posts from people experiencing connectivity problems with Apple Home and other smart home ecosystems, and IKEA has acknowledged the issues …

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Here’s how Apple may protect the display of the iPhone Fold

Here's how Apple may protect the display of the iPhone Fold | Abstract image of flexible glass

Apple appears to be working hard to ensure it doesn’t repeat Samsung’s mistakes when it launches the iPhone Fold. A new report says the company is considering the use of a new built-in screen protector with exceptional surface hardness and scratch resistance.

It follows an earlier report on another move Apple is said to be making in order to maximize the robustness of the upcoming model …

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iPhone 17 Pro Max has the best battery life of 35 smartphones tested

iPhone 17 Pro Max (shown) has the best battery life of 35 smartphones tested

Battery life tests carried out by CNET reveal that the iPhone 17 Pro Max has the best battery life of any of the smartphones tested, and that Apple heads the brand rankings across its models.

Apple’s flagship model took first place, ahead of several models with substantially higher battery capacity, with the base model iPhone 17 in equal second place …

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‘Reddit for bots’ Moltbook (probably) isn’t being used to plot an AI uprising

Moltbook (probably) isn't being used to plot an AI uprising | Render of an intimidating-looking robot

Moltbot, a personal AI assistant being run on batches of Mac minis, got a lot of attention when creator Matt Schlicht effectively partnered with his own assistant to develop a social media platform for the bots. Known as Moltbook, it’s been colloquially referred to as Reddit for AI bots.

Schlicht says he didn’t write a single line of the code himself, and it wasn’t long before it was being suggested that Moltbot agents were using the social network to plot an AI uprising …

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All-new MacBook Pro design reportedly set to launch in final quarter this year

All-new MacBook Pro design reportedly set to launch in final quarter this year | Photo shows laptop with punch hole camera.

We’re expecting to see two MacBook Pro launches this year. The first, expected sometime this month, is an M5 Pro and M5 Max version of the current design. But the far more exciting prospect is an all-new MacBook Pro design later in the year.

A new supply chain report says that Samsung is gearing up for production of the OLED panels for the new machine and that it will launch in the final three months of this year …

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Lawsuit claims WhatsApp encryption is a lie; cryptography professor weighs in

Lawsuit claims WhatsApp encryption is a lie | WhatsApp seen on the home screen of an iPhone

Both the founders of WhatsApp and current owner Meta state that the app uses end-to-end encryption, meaning that nobody outside the chat can access the content. A lawsuit claims that this isn’t true and that anyone inside Meta can get full access to all of the messages sent or received by any WhatsApp user.

Johns Hopkins University professor and cryptographer Matthew Green has weighed in with a blog post analyzing the claims and likely reality …

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Apple will need to walk a tightrope if it keeps pushing subscriptions

Apple needs to walk a tightrope as it plans to boost subscription services | A highline walker in the Blue Mountains

The list of Apple subscription services keeps growing. iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, Apple News+, MLS Season Pass, Apple One … The company of course also takes a cut of subscriptions sold through the App Store, Apple Books, and Apple Podcasts. Then there are the hardware-related subscriptions, AppleCare+ and the iPhone Upgrade Program.

Most recently, we’ve had the launch of Apple Creator Studio, and a new report says that we can expect to see even more subscriptions to come …

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