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 two technothriller novels , a romcom novel, and an SF novella series.
He is old enough to have owned the original Macintosh. He currently owns an M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air 11, 12.9-inch iPad Pro (LTE 256GB), iPhone 13 Pro Max (256GB), Dell Ultrawide 49-inch monitor, an Apple Watch (Series 4 WiFi) and multiple HomePods – he suspects it might be cheaper to have a cocaine habit than his addiction to all things anodised aluminum.
He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.
He’s known for his op-ed and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review:
He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.
He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.
If @benlovejoy-ing him on twitter, please follow him first so that he can DM you if appropriate. If you have information you can pass on, you can also email him. If you would like to comment on one of his pieces, please do so in the comments – he does read them all.
A new Product Security Verified (PSV) label will in future be used to identify smart home devices which meet new industry standards designed to protect against hacking and data breaches.
It’s the latest initiative by the industry alliance behind the Matter standard, of which Apple is a member …
Expand Expanding Close
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly holding a series of closed-door briefings intended to persuade senators to force the sale of TikTok to a US company, rather than ban it outright.
This follows Congress voting overwhelmingly in favor of either a ban or forced sale, while passage through the Senate is less certain …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple has shared photos of the latest Apple Store, ahead of this week’s opening in Shanghai, China.
The photos reveal a curved glass facade, with stairs leading down into a beautiful circular design in the main display area in the basement of the store …
Expand Expanding Close
If you’ve got big dreams about earning a living from creating iPhone apps, a new report makes for some sobering reading. The median monthly revenue generated by an app after a year on the App Store is less than $50 per month.
There is some encouraging news, though: There seems to be a tipping point if you can get an app to the point where it’s earning $1,000 per month …
Expand Expanding Close
One change Apple made in iOS 17.4 has resulted in a notable increase in the number of iPhone owners choosing to install the Brave Browser app to use in place of Safari.
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) required Apple to prompt European iPhone users to choose their default browser, with its own Safari app merely listed as one of the options …
Expand Expanding Close
Spotify music videos are now available in the UK and ten other countries, but the new feature isn’t yet coming to the US.
In other Spotify news, Neil Young has announced that he is returning to the platform after a two-year absence in protest at COVID vaccine hoaxes …
Expand Expanding Close
There’s been significant progress toward a US TikTok ban, with Congress looking likely to vote in favor, and President Biden confirming that he will sign the bill if it passes – but the latest report saying that it may be blocked by the Senate.
In particular, Senator Rand Paul has said that he would seek to block the ban on First Amendment grounds …
Expand Expanding Close
An interesting look behind the scenes of the court battle between Apple and health tech company Masimo reveals that jailbreaking an iPhone re-enables blood oxygen measurement on an Apple Watch.
The same report notes that even if Apple doesn’t succeed in its appeal against the import ban, it will be able to re-enable the feature by August 2028 at the latest, when Masimo’s patent expires …
Expand Expanding Close
Epic Games has won its battle to be an iOS developer (though who knows how many more twists and turns there may be along the way), and it will now be hoping that its new Unreal Engine fee doesn’t lead to battles with its own developer clients …
Expand Expanding Close
A UK report describes how Vision Pro was used in surgery, with the spatial computer described as a “gamechanger.” It was first used last month by US neurosurgeon Dr Robert Masson in an operation seen in the above photo.
The headset was said to “eliminate human error” by ensuring that the correct processes and instruments were used throughout the operation …
Expand Expanding Close
The bulk of Apple’s new product development work takes place in Cupertino, but the company has a number of research labs around the world. Locations include China, France, Israel, Japan, Sweden and the UK. The company has today announced plans for a further lab in China.
Apple has two primary motivations for most of the overseas labs it operates, but there is an additional factor in the case of the latest example …
Expand Expanding Close
A new survey of both parents and teens explores how families navigate the issues of smartphone usage, with some of the results more surprising than others.
Chief among the unsurprising findings is that around 40% of families have repeated arguments about how much time teens spend on their phones …
Expand Expanding Close
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has argued that for age-restricted apps, age verification should be Apple’s job. He’s now been joined in this view by the new head of trust and safety at Match, the company behind leading dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, and Plenty of Fish.
Yoel Roth – who formerly had the same role in Twitter – said that Apple and Google are in a better position to accurately assess the age of their smartphone users …
Expand Expanding Close
Vision Pro is being used for a wide range of applications in the field of health and medicine, with Apple highlighting an app which helps surgeons plan and visualize operations which are carried out with the help of a surgical robot.
The company says that the device is also helping to familiarize nurses with new medical equipment, in a way that reduces anxiety when they start using the kit in real-life applications …
Expand Expanding Close
Although Apple has long rejected the concept of a touchscreen iMac or MacBook, and for good reason, there was one product which made us wonder whether there might be a role for such a device: the Microsoft Surface Studio (above).
Take away the Microsoft logo and Windows UI, and you could easily imagine it was designed by Apple. It’s today being suggested that a new patent application might hint at the possibility of making a Mac version …
Expand Expanding Close
We don’t yet know the exact cost of Reddit shares when they go on sale, but the company has indicated that the initial public offering (IPO) price will be between $31 and $34 per share.
Selected Redditors will get priority access ahead of the IPO, and unlike most preferential access deals, they will be free to sell their shares immediately if they wish to …
Expand Expanding Close
The OpenAI mess was all but over as of last November, but there was one outstanding item: an official review into the actions of CEO Sam Altman. Update: The internal review is now complete, Altman has now been officially appointed to the board, with three new directors.
The board expressed full confidence in the leadership of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, but the mystery of what led to his removal in the first place remains unsolved – more at the end …
Expand Expanding Close
While many concept designers gave us their takes on an Apple Car design before the project was finally abandoned, a new piece suggests that the reality would likely have been less sporty than most of them envisaged.
With Apple originally aiming for Level 5 autonomy – with no steering wheels or pedals – the main designs created within the company were less sportscar and more minivan …
Expand Expanding Close
Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon resulted in an impressive total of 13 Apple TV+ Oscar nominations – but sadly neither movie picked up any awards on the night …
Expand Expanding Close
It was claimed earlier this week that Apple is actively working on a folding MacBook, and that plans for this are further advanced than those for a folding iPhone or iPad.
The term ‘folding MacBook’ is a rather awkward one given that the description could be applied to any of the existing models, but what’s meant by it is of course something very different …
Expand Expanding Close
Clicking on a video in your normal Facebook friend feed can be a dangerous step, as it opens in a new Facebook videos window, with a TikTok-style endless feed of unrelated clips. That’s intended to suck you in, and the social media platform wants to get even better at this …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple has teased the opening of a new retail store in China, Apple Jing’an. No date has been specified, but the company says it is “opening soon.”
The announcement is accompanied by an absolutely beautiful graphic, with a delicate flower unfolding in the shape of the Apple logo …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple appeared to threaten Epic Games, when the company cancelled its developer account for the second time, and cited the developer’s public criticisms of the iPhone maker as one of the reasons.
The European Commissioner, who heads up the executive branch of the European Union, has now suggested that this breaks the law …
Expand Expanding Close
A new supply-chain report suggests that Apple is getting ready to sell around 8.5 million OLED iPad Pro models this year.
Interestingly, it looks like the Cupertino company is expecting the 13-inch model to be the more popular of the two …
Expand Expanding Close