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.
One of the likely challenges of the upcoming iPhone 17 Air is battery life. Indeed, Apple’s own tests reportedly show that a lot of us wouldn’t make it through the day with the ultra-slim model.
The company may have a fix for that in the works, in the form of a new power-efficient display upgrade. But Apple isn’t expected to incorporate the new tech before 2027 at the earliest …
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If you ever need to transcribe audio or video to text, most current apps are powered by OpenAI’s Whisper model. You’re probably using this model if you use apps like MacWhisper to transcribe meetings or lectures, or to generate subtitles for YouTube videos.
But iOS 26 and Apple’s other developer betas include the company’s own transcription frameworks – and a test suggests that they match Whisper’s accuracy while running at more than twice the speed …
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Adobe Firefly, the popular AI app for generating both images and video, is now available as an iPhone app. It follows the release of a Vision Pro app back in February.
The app has the same capabilities as the the web tool, but in a form optimized for mobile use. The app doesn’t limit you to using Adobe’s own image-generation models – you can also choose between a selection of third-party ones by Google, OpenAI, and others …
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There are strong indications that Apple Intelligence could be about to launch in China, following its deal with Alibaba to use its Qwen models.
A local report says that Alibaba has updated its ChatGPT competitor Qwen3, which has been optimized for the AI framework used on Apple devices …
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A new report found that around a million two-factor authentication codes sent by text message appear to have been intercepted.
A tech industry whistleblower revealed that the 2FA security codes passed through an obscure foreign company with links to government intelligence agencies and companies engaged in digital surveillance …
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If you’ve had your eye on any tech goodies, the dates for Amazon Prime Day 2025 have been announced by the company. What started as a single day and was later extended to two has again been doubled, running for a full four days this year …
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Update: Business Insider notes that Meta has now added a warning message when users share chat queries.
The Meta AI app has been described as “a privacy disaster,” as users unknowingly make their embarrassing questions public.
One tech writer described it as like discovering your web browser history has been public all along without you knowing it …
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If you’ve ever forgotten to download Spotify playlists to your Apple Watch before a walk, run, or cycle ride, a new feature should make life much easier.
Instead of having to manually download to the Watch, you can use any Apple device to queue up playlist downloads, which will happen the next time you open Spotify on your Watch. The same feature also allows you to queue downloads for any other Apple device, like an iPad …
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It had been widely expected that AirPods Pro 3 would launch sometime in 2025, in part based on reports from reliable leakers, in part simply because an update is due. AirPods Pro 2 will be three years old by this year’s iPhone launch.
But Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said last month that the new model won’t launch until next year, and that view has now reportedly been echoed in a new timeline …
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Apple may have belatedly responded to accusations of showing off Siri vaporware at last year’s WWDC, but the controversy is showing no sign of dying down anytime soon.
John Gruber – author of the original piece taking issue with Apple showing off features it hadn’t demonstrated to anyone outside the company – is now joined by M.G. Siegler and others …
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Scammers are using AI tools to create increasingly convincing ways to trick victims into sending money, and to access the personal information needed to commit identity theft. Deepfakes mean they can impersonate the voice of a friend or family member, and even fake a video call with them!
The result can be criminals taking out thousands of dollars worth of loans or credit card debt in your name. Fortunately there are steps you can take to protect yourself against even the most sophisticated scams. Here are the security and privacy checks to run to ensure you are safe …
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WWDC 2025 ends today, and we’ve seen all the new features on offer from Apple’s shiny glassy new iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26.
The first developer betas are available now, and anyone can sign up to try them – but you probably shouldn’t. If you’re not a developer with sacrificial test devices, exactly how long should you wait in the beta cycle before risking them on your daily drivers … ?
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A massive international law enforcement operation coordinated by Interpol has seen one of the biggest ever takedowns of a malware network.
The simultaneous strike across 26 countries resulted in more than 20,000 domains being taken offline, and the arrest of 32 suspects …
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A new Apple framework makes it easy for developers of smart home apps to help cut your electricity bills. While EnergyKit is currently limited to thermostats and EV chargers, it’s the first step toward optimizing energy usage throughout your entire home.
Some smart home devices can already help you reduce power usage and costs, like the Ecobee and Nest thermostats, but EnergyKit takes this much further …
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iPadOS 26 arguably brings the biggest update to the iPad ever seen, turning it into something much more Mac-like in both UI and capabilities.
But since iPads have been using the same chips as Macs since 2021, why did it take so long? That’s the question Apple’s software head Craig Federighi sets out to answer in a new interview …
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I bet nobody had ‘Meta arguing for privacy on Apple’s behalf’ on their tech bingo cards, but that’s exactly what the social networking company is hoping to do.
Meta has asked the court’s permission to give evidence in support of Apple’s privacy battle with the British government over a feature intended to apply end-to-end encryption to almost all iCloud data …
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With the announcement of iPadOS 26, Apple has finally done something it had seemed to be resisting for well over a decade: turning the iPad into a computer.
Apple has long sent mixed messages about the device, sometimes arguing that it is a computer, and other times arguing that iPads and Macs are two very different devices with two very different roles …
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There’s no denying that Apple made a major mis-step when it showed off impressive new Siri features during last year’s WWDC, before doubling-down in an iPhone 16 ad. The company was forced to delete the ad and walk back the timing.
That led even the most upbeat of Apple commenters to criticize the company for showing off “vaporware,” implying that the demos had been faked. But two Apple execs have now categorically denied this, and said everything it showed at the time was the real thing …
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Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite service has been slowly expanding from a major emergency role – essentially letting you call in an air ambulance when injured in a remote location – to a broader way of remaining in touch when outside mobile data coverage.
A new satellite-based service spotted in the iOS 26 developer beta will be useful in both extreme situations and more everyday scenarios in areas with poor mobile coverage …
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With such a significant update to the look and feel of Apple devices, it’s not surprising that design and UI professionals have things to say about the new Liquid Glass design language.
As you might expect, views are mixed, but it’s notable how willing people are to give Apple time to refine the look based on reactions to the early betas …
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While Apple quickly dismissed major Siri improvements as coming next year, the company still announced a lot at WWDC 2025. From a whole new look across all Apple devices to full-on windowing on iPads, it was a fast-paced event with a lot to cover.
Here’s a roundup of all the major announcements – please take our poll on your favorites of these, and share your reactions in the comments …
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Apple said yesterday that iOS 26 was its biggest update to the look and feel of the iPhone since iOS 7, with the same visual design language used across all the company’s devices.
It’s certainly a pretty dramatic change, depending on how far you want to take the look. For example, in addition to the ‘tint’ options we got in iOS 18, there’s a new ‘Clear’ option to make all our app icons monochrome glass – which you can see above …
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iPadOS 26 is a big step up this year, and definitely worth upgrading if your iPad model is able to run the upcoming version.
Apple aims to maintain compatibility with new versions of iPadOS for as long as possible, but each year does have to drop support for some models …
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Apple has announced two new AirPods features coming to some existing models – including bringing back a feature from the EarPods days …
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