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 Silicon Macs offer truly excellent battery life compared to their Intel predecessors, but there are still times when you need to plug in to power.
If I know in advance I’m going to need mains power, then the Chargeasap Zeus is the power brick I normally carry with me. When I expect to be able to work solely on battery but have the MacBook equivalent of range anxiety, I’ve found the Rolling Square Super Tiny to be the perfect solution …
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Denon has upgraded its multiroom speaker system with three new models starting at $399. The ecosystem competes directly with Sonos by allowing up to 64 devices to be interconnected throughout your home …
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Almost every new wireless router for use in US homes is now banned from sale within the country under a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling.
The FCC says that all routers made outside the US “pose unacceptable risks to the national
security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons” …
Meta claimed for years that it was technically challenging to implement end-to-end encryption across Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs, but back in 2023 said that it had resolved those issues.
Unfortunately, the company has now made a U-turn on Instagram direct messages, and that’s bad news for all of us …
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The tech industry is currently in the middle of a rather gradual security transition from usernames and passwords to passkeys.
Passkeys are far more secure as online services don’t store your username and password, but Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says that the use of Face ID and Touch ID has an additional benefit …
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Early folding phones were notorious for the internal display being vulnerable to damage. Indeed, the first Samsung Galaxy Fold saw all pre-orders cancelled because of this issue.
A new supply chain report suggests that Apple is adopting two further measures in order to protect the iPhone Fold display, as well as reduce the visibility of the crease …
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While everyone is careful to acknowledge that Apple CEO Tim Cook isn’t likely to retire imminently, and that the decision about his replacement hasn’t yet been made, there seems little doubt that John Ternus is the current heir apparent.
An extensive new Bloomberg profile underlines this, describing both internal and external pointers to the company’s favored choice …
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I know, we’ve been waiting forever for the new Siri and it still isn’t here yet. Many are adopting the cynical view that it won’t be worth the wait, and that AI is mostly hype anyway.
I’ve long felt that my own view of AI is somewhat at odds with the very polarized views mostly expressed on the internet. That it’s a villain or a hero. That it’s a mental toddler or a professor. I don’t see it as either, but a recent experience with Claude suggested to me that it is now close to reaching a tipping point …
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Apple added yet another subscription service to its roster last summer in the form of AppleCare One, and it now appears that the company is preparing to launch it in Europe.
A European trademark application has been accepted for “AppleCare One,” and it is now pending approval by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) …
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We learned this week that Apple has become an official partner of this year’s London Marathon, which takes place next month.
The Apple Watch has of course helped a great many runners prepare for their own marathons and other long-distance races, but one of them wonders whether the sponsorship indicates plans to go further …
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The US has long been an outlier when it comes to Apple’s keyboards, using text labels for things like the tab, return and delete keys. The company has long been using glyphs instead of text for all of its keyboards in the rest of the world.
That has now changed, with Apple switching from text to glyphs in the latest US versions of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, and matching this in the new MacBook Neo. There are some exceptions, however, and a likely practical reason for this …
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Both the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) have confirmed that they’re buying location data of US citizens from data brokers without warrants.
Senator Ron Wyden has described this as both “dangerous” and an “outrageous” privacy abuse of the Fourth Amendment …
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Apple created an adorable Little Finder Guy to promote the MacBook Neo on TikTok, and PCalc developer James Thompson turned them into some equally delightful 5K wallpapers.
Three of them are in the classic blue and white color scheme, while two others are rather more colorful …
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Sam Henri Gold last week wrote a rather sweet blog post about the difference between advice from tech reviewers and real-world usage of our devices.
He rejected arguments by reviewers saying that the MacBook Neo is not the right machine for those wanting to do things like video editing, and a new test backs his view …
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We noted yesterday that Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations, which began in New York, were moving on to China. CEO Tim Cook was spotted at a celebratory event in Chengdu.
Unfortunately for the company, the party atmosphere has been rather dampened by a dispute with the Chinese government …
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Ikea smart home products have long been the preferred choice of those who want to begin or expand a smart home at an affordable price. The company’s use of physical remotes also simplified the process for those new to the technology.
But when the company expanded its lineup with some budget Matter-over-Thread devices, things rather quickly headed south – with Apple Home users among those affected …
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It’s taken Apple a long time to advance work on the iPhone Fold, and the reason for that was said to be that the company was unhappy with the visible crease in earlier iterations of the display technology.
By late last year, around 100 iPhone fold models were said to have been made for testing purposes. These will of course be closely guarded, but a competing Android phone has given us a reasonable idea of what we might expect …
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Apple began its 50th anniversary celebrations at New York’s Grand Central Station on Friday and is reportedly continuing them in China tomorrow.
We’re again expecting a live performance by a popular singer, and Apple retail head Deirdre O’Brien has been spotted in the country …
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Eleven tech giants and major retailers have signed up to a new anti-scam initiative ahead of a United Nations global fraud summit.
The Industry Accord Against Online Scams & Fraud recognizes the growing use of AI by criminal gangs to create more convincing scams, and pledges cooperation between the companies to combat this …
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One of the biggest mysteries ahead of the MacBook Neo launch was the price. We’d seen various estimates in the $599 to $799 range, and while we’d certainly hoped for that lower-end figure, experienced Apple watchers weren’t necessarily expecting it.
Reaction to the price was universally positive, all the more so as it breaks the $500 barrier for education users. School and college students can buy the machine for just $499 …
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Apple has highlighted all of the new products which went on sale this morning, both online and in Apple stores around the world.
Unsurprisingly, the company positions the MacBook Neo as the headline news among the seven new products …
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Meta says that it has removed over 159 million scam ads and taken down 10.9 million scam accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The company is also today launching new anti-scam tools on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. These aim to alert you to the three most common scam tactics used …
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One of the compromises Apple lists for the MacBook Neo is that it doesn’t support fast charging, and the machine is supplied with just a 20W power adapter (except in Europe).
Based on Apple’s statement, there didn’t appear to be any point in using a beefier charger with the new machine, but tests reveal otherwise …
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The MacBook Neo officially goes on sale today, and Apple Stores appear to be going all-in on welcoming the latest member of the Mac family.
The first owners are now taking delivery of their machines, but even if you haven’t pre-ordered yours, it looks like you have a good shot at getting one for same-day pickup from your local Apple Store …
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