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.
HomeKit compatibility used to attract a noticeable price premium when buying smart home products, but the Matter standard is changing that – and Ikea is now going all-in on this.
The company says that it has more than 20 new affordable Matter-compatible smart home devices in the works, with likely plans to expand into completely new product types too …
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The HBO streaming video app became HBO Max when the company added Warner Bros movies and Turner TV shows. In the worst rebrand since Twitter became X, the company later dropped the unique and valuable HBO part of the name and kept the generic and worthless Max part.
Two years later, the company is fixing that. It today becomes HBO Max once more – and this time around, your apps should automatically update …
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Apple Arcade is getting four new games next month, with Play-Doh World topping the bill. Apple says this and the other games will be available from August 7.
The other new titles are Worms Across Worlds, the latest addition to the Worms franchise; the 3D puzzle game Let’s Go Mightycat!; and Everybody Shogi, described as a vibrant strategy game based on the traditional Japanese board game …
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A new supply-chain report suggests that the iPhone 17e will launch next spring, which is in line with previous reporting.
It doesn’t sound like the upcoming model will be a major update, with today’s report indicating that it will use the exact same display as the iPhone 16e …
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A leaker with a mixed track record has suggested that the “main” color option for the upcoming iPhone 17 Air will be a “very light” blue.
They go on to say that the color will be so faint that it will simply appear to be white in some lights. This seems reminiscent of “barely blue” colors we’ve seen from Apple before …
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Macs and Apple Watches are among the products to be hit by new tariffs on products manufactured in Thailand, taking effect on August 1.
Products imported from Thailand into the US will be subjected to a 36% tariff, increasing the cost to Apple by more than a third …
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The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking pitches from tech companies for a forensic tool intended to find “hidden language” in messages on smartphones searched at the border …
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White House condemnation of a free app has drawn substantial attention to it, helping ICEBlock become the most popular social networking app in the App Store, beating out apps like X and Instagram.
ICEBlock alerts people to sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in their area, following a major immigration crackdown by the White House. Update: The US attorney general has said the app’s developer “had better watch out” – see end of the piece …
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The ongoing TikTok saga rumbles on, but a new report claims that we may be close to a resolution. It says US TikTok users will get their own version of the app, which will be owned by an American company.
The latest development happens shortly after we got sight of the letter sent to Apple to persuade the company to return TikTok to the App Store despite it being illegal to do so …
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New York’s flagship Fifth Avenue Apple Store was spray-painted by climate change protesters, calling for a boycott of the company.
Three slogans were sprayed onto the glass frontage of the store, with Extinction Rebellion accusing Apple of hypocrisy on environmental issues …
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Apple puts its products through a lot of tests during the development process, intended to ensure they have a long and reliable life even in challenging conditions. The company tests at least 10,000 iPhones prior to launch in an attempt to cover all the bases.
It’s not often the iPhone maker lets outsiders into its labs, but Apple invited some of those attending WWDC 2025 to visit one to see for themselves the conditions it expects its gadgets to survive …
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iPhones and Android smartphones started to play more nicely together after Apple finally opted to support the Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard. Prior to this, messages between the two platforms had to use the ancient and insecure text messaging service.
Not all RCS features are supported as yet, with the all-important strong encryption waiting for RCS 3.0 support in iOS 26. Another RCS 3.0 feature is the ability to edit outgoing messages after sending them, and that one has started a limited one-way rollout …
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A pair of market intelligence reports show that the Apple Watch and AirPods continue to dominate the global market in their respective categories.
However, Apple’s long-held lead in the smartwatch market is now being challenged by Huawei, according to the latest estimates …
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A alarming new study has found that som teen drivers in the US spend as much as 21% of their time at the wheel looking at their phones, creating a substantial risk of distracted driving crashes.
While much of this was brief glances, more than 5% of driving time comprised looking at their phone for 2+ seconds a time, long enough to qualify as dangerous …
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The long-rumored iPhone Fold – the colloquial term used for the company’s unannounced folding iPhone – is reported to be on schedule for a potential launch in the second half of next year.
The device is said to have reached the Prototype 1 (P1) stage last month, which is the first point at which the company creates fully-functional devices …
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A Qantas data breach resulting from a cybersecurity attack has put up to 6M customer records at risk of exposure, with names, email addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth confirmed to be included. The hack was of a contact center database operated by one of the airline’s partners …
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More than 300 Chinese iPhone engineers and technicians have been recalled from an Indian production plant, says a new report.
No public acknowledgement or explanation has been offered, but suspicion is falling on the Chinese government, which has previously been accused of actively hampering Apple’s attempts to move more iPhone production out of the country …
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Apple has accused a former senior Vision Pro engineer of stealing thousands of documents containing plans for unreleased features, and taking them to his new role working on glasses–based projects for Snap.
A lawsuit alleges that Di Liu claimed he was quitting his job for health reasons, hiding from Apple that his true plan was to join Snapchat as a developer in a “substantially similar” role…
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A new market intelligence report lists the eight reasons people opt to upgrade Mac or PC, divided into three categories.
It also reveals that Mac shipments grew faster than any PC brand in the first quarter of the year, with year–on–year growth of almost 29% …
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Almost 700 Brother printer models have been found to contain a number of serious security flaws that could allow an attacker to access other devices on your network, and potentially access your documents. The same is true of some printer models made by Fujifilm, Toshiba, Ricoh, and Konica Minolta …
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Apple introduced new HomeKit architecture back in 2022, with the primary aim of making the smart home system more reliable. At the time, users could choose between upgrading or remaining on the original version of the platform.
Fast–forward to March of this year, and 9to5Mac discovered code showing that the company was planning to drop support for the old version. That was subsequently confirmed by Apple, and a further reminder has now been found in the latest iOS 18.6 beta – with a little more detail …
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macOS Tahoe 26 represents one of the more dramatic changes we’ve seen to the look and feel of the Mac operating system in recent years.
There’s new functionality too, of course, and Apple thinks the blend of the two will greatly enhance the experience of Mac users …
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Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist has been around for a full decade now, aiming to introduce you to singers and bands you don’t know but may like, with particular emphasis on emerging artists. It’s been great for me, but if it isn’t quite hitting the spot, you can now help it do better …
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