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 has today updated Logic Pro for both Mac and iPad, with an improved stem splitter now able to separate guitar and piano tracks from existing recordings, new sound packs, and even the ability to rescue you if you forgot to save a track.
The Learn MIDI feature has also come to iPad for the first time, letting you easily assign functions to knobs, faders, and buttons on MIDI devices …
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While I’m neither religious nor extreme about it – my entire belongings do not fit into a backpack – I’m still one of the most minimalist people I know. Where both household items and design are concerned, I’m relatively close to the less-is-more end of the scale.
But even I ended up feeling that iOS 7 had taken things a bit too far. I did enjoy the very stark aesthetic for a time, but I’m very much looking forward to something a little more interesting in iOS 19 …
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Apple’s Self Service Repair program first launched for iPhone back in 2021, after the company did a u-turn on the right to repair. It expanded to MacBooks in 2023, and from tomorrow will be available for iPad too.
Support will be limited to relatively limited models. Apple has also recently launched a Genuine Parts Distributor program, which allows any repair business to order components directly from the company …
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An update to T-Mobile’s T-Life app is rolling out at present, and customers are finding that it has screen recording on by default.
The carrier has confirmed that this is by design, but claims that it’s not a privacy risk, and says that it can be toggled off if desired …
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A leaker with a decent track record is suggesting that one or more iPhone 19 models will have an under-screen selfie camera.
With the Face ID tech expected to move beneath the display next year, that would potentially enable Apple to have an all-screen front, with no notch, Dynamic Island, or camera punch-hole by 2027 …
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Tap to Pay on iPhone, the most convenient and cost-effective way for small businesses to accept contactless payment from both mobile wallets and physical cards, has today landed in eight more countries.
Apple says this latest rollout will enable millions more businesses to use the service, with multiple payment platforms supported in each new country …
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The Mac app Arc set out to re-invent the web browser as an “internet computer” app – something which felt more personal and usable than mainstream browsers.
Less than two years later, the company has announced that it’s discontinuing Arc in favor of a new app – Dia – which it is also pitching as the future of internet usage …
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Nothing Technology numbers ‘father of the iPod‘ Tony Fadell among its key investors, but Carl Pei – CEO of the British smartphone company – thinks today’s Apple has grown boring.
Pei also believes the future of smartphones is a single app that knows you well, but thinks it will take 7-10 years to reach that point …
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The long-term promise of Apple Intelligence and next-gen Siri is that it will be able to access all our apps, and the data stored in those apps, to become massively more helpful.
ChatGPT has effectively given us a preview of this type of capability through its integration with a handful of Mac apps, and I’ve been putting it to the test …
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Jony Ive and Sam Altman yesterday released a strong candidate for most frustrating video of the year: promising a completely new concept in AI hardware, but giving very little clue as to what it might be.
I transcribed the video to see whether I could spot any clues, in conjunction with other things the two have said. I think we can draw some pretty safe conclusions about what it’s not – and there are one or two clues about what it is …
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Apple login credentials were among a massive database of 184 million records found sitting unprotected on a web server. Other logins included Facebook, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, and PayPal.
The owner of the database is unclear, but the security researcher who discovered it says that it amounts to “a cybercriminal’s dream working list” …
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A lost dog has been reunited with its owner thanks to an AirTag attached to its collar – but the story also serves as a reminder to monitor the battery levels of our tags.
The AirTag was out of power, but thankfully the dog chose to wander into the home of a tech writer who had some spare batteries to hand, ensuring that the owner could quickly locate the errant pet …
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Oura Ring has announced a raft of upgrades intended to provide better fitness metrics, along with new integrations with Apple Health and more.
A key strength of the Oura app is the way it helps users make sense of trends across time, and the company has added a new active time trend view …
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Amazon is sending refunds for product returns dating as far back as 2018. The company says these relate to historical cases where it had been unable to verify receipt of faulty products sent back by customers …
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Microsoft has filed a court brief in support of Epic Games, blaming Apple for its delay in plans to open an Xbox mobile store using.
While Apple yesterday allowed Fortnite back into the US App Store after some strong words from the judge, Microsoft says there’s still a very big problem …
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Many iPhones stolen in places as far apart as New York, LA, and London end up in a single building in China, where they are resold or stripped for parts.
One victim whose iPhone 15 Pro was snatched from his hands in the street was able to track its 6,000-mile journey to the place many locals in Shenzhen, China, refer to as “the stolen iPhone building” …
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Customs data reveals that the import of iPhones and other smartphones into the US from China slumped to their lowest level since 2011.
While the more extreme tariffs have been “paused,” a 20% tariff imposed in March remains in place, and that’s believed to be behind a $1.8B fall in the value of smartphones being moved from China to the US …
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Adobe is giving its Creative Cloud All Apps plan a new name – Creative Cloud Pro – and a hefty bump in pricing. The annual plan will increase to $799.99 while the monthly cost now breaks $100.
The company says users will get some new capabilities in return for the price bump, including unlimited access to some of the AI tools …
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We’re not expecting to see Apple’s rumored folding iPad until next year at the earliest, but Huawei’s new MateBook Fold is a good match for reports of the form-factor.
The launch coincides with a new report saying that Amazon is also working on something similar, and that too is expected to launch ahead of the foldable iPad …
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When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy 25 Edge, I noted that it was remarkably similar to what we’re expecting to see from the iPhone 17 Air.
I suggested that reviews of Samsung’s ultra-slim phone might provide clues to the likely reception of Apple’s ultra-slim phone – so how are things looking so far … ?
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I won’t reprise the sad story of how Apple went from being at the forefront of AI technology with the launch of Siri in 2011 to being hopelessly left behind in 2025.
The company’s current approach appears to be to retain the Siri branding for simpler tasks, while using Apple Intelligence for the shiny new things – but there’s now an obvious problem with this …
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Apple was instrumental in TSMC setting up chipmaking plants in the US – not just by offering to be the first customer, but also in lobbying for the CHIPS Act funding that persuaded the company to proceed.
The Taiwanese company takes extreme precautions to protect the secrecy of its chipmaking processes, even for the somewhat older chips made in Arizona, but BBC News was given a very rare tour of the facility …
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A WSJ piece today suggests that big tech lawyers for Apple, Amazon, Google and other industry giants are not only failing to properly advise their clients, but are “actively encouraging” them to break the law.
The piece suggests that one reason Apple was rebuked by the judge in the Epic Games lawsuit was that its lawyers encouraged the company to abuse legal privilege …
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Update: Apple says that the claims made in this book are false and there are many inaccuracies throughout. The company asserts that the author didn’t perform proper fact-checking.
The original post is below, but we encourage readers to cross-reference its claims with other sources.
Based on more than 200 interviews with former Apple execs and engineers, Patrick McGee’s Apple in China – The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company ought to leave Tim Cook laying awake at night. It makes a convincing argument that the iPhone could be killed overnight should the Chinese government wish it.
This is a book reminiscent of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs in its careful research and the detailed inside stories it tells about Apple. The company’s official line is that it’s full of inaccuracies, but the case it makes is an incredibly persuasive one …
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