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.
It was discovered last year that location data for US military and intelligence personnel serving overseas was being sold by a Florida-based data broker, but the source of that sensitive data was unclear at the time.
It’s now been claimed that the data was captured by a variety of mobile apps with revenue-sharing agreements with a Lithuanian ad-tech company, and then resold by an American company …
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While most of us are have welcomed Apple Intelligence and are impatiently waiting for it to do more, there are some who’ve opted out. Some of these users are reporting that the latest macOS and iOS updates have re-enabled the feature.
While it’s clearly a bug, it’s not clear at this point what causes the unintended behavior, nor how widespread it is …
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TSMC agreed to build a series of chip plants in the US, with Apple a key customer, using subsidies provided by the bipartisan CHIPS Act. Trump has now called the Act “ridiculous” and wants to renege on the promised funding.
If he followed through on the threat, it could throw into doubt the viability of the US chipmaking plants, and lead to cancellation of TSMC’s expansion plans …
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A supply chain report on Samsung Display confirms expectations that the first OLED MacBook Pro models will launch in 2026. It says that the company is currently working on the first samples of the displays, and expects to be in full production in 2026.
The report also suggests that we’ll have to wait even longer than expected for the first MacBook Air models with OLED screens …
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A new accessibility program based on an app for deaf and hard of hearing users is being tested on the New York MTA system. It will provide riders with instant access to a live sign language interpreter when engaging with staff.
The approach means that any member of Metropolitan Transit Authority will be able to help with directions and other queries without the need for any ASL skills themselves …
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The two biggest criticisms of Vision Pro have been price and the weight. We know Apple is working on a lower-priced model, and a new patent application describes a way to make the headset very much lighter.
Early reviewers commented on the fact that it starts to feel very heavy when you wear it for more than brief sessions, something I was able to confirm from my own experience of the device …
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Apple Silicon chips have transformed attitudes toward ARM architecture, from being suitable mostly for power-efficient mobile devices to also capable of powering desktop processors which Intel behind.
ARM CEO Rene Haas has now weighed-in on the DeepSeek controversy in a new interview, expressing his skepticism about one of of the key claims and voicing his expectation that China’s AI chatbot will be banned in the US …
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A growing number of people are wearing their Apple Watch on their ankle, according to a new report, with five different reasons cited.
The most mundane of these are people with tiny wrists who find that the Watch is too loose during workouts, even with the smallest of bands …
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Neither Apple nor Google have returned TikTok to their respective app stores, and with very good reason: the supposed get-out-of-jail-free card offered by Trump is nothing of the sort. Both companies would be left exposed to hundreds of billions of dollars of liability.
As of the weekend, Android users who want to download TikTok do have another option – but it’s not one I’d advise them to take. Instead, they’d be better off using the workaround available to iPhone users …
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If you’re looking for a way to stream the 2025 Super Bowl in 4K for free, Tubi will be showing the entire event – including Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show. The Tubi app is available for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Vision Pro, as well as on the web.
FOX Sports says that it will be doing a special takeover of Tubi for the game, with no sign-in required …
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A Metropolitan Police crackdown on phone snatching in London has seen 230 people arrested and more than 1,000 phones recovered in the space of just one week.
The police service also reported that a gang found guilty of handling more than 5,000 stolen phones have been sentenced to a total of 18 years in prison …
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Multiple security flaws have been found in the DeepSeek iOS app, which is still one of the most popular downloads in the App Store after topping the charts when it first launched.
The latest findings are far worse than the previous security failure which exposed chat history and other sensitive information in a database requiring no authentication …
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It’s being reported that the British government secretly ordered Apple to create a security backdoor into all content uploaded by iCloud users anywhere in the world.
Apple is certain to refuse the demand, leading to the possibility of a similar privacy stand-off to the one seen between the iPhone maker and the FBI back in the San Bernardino shooter case …
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Leica is known for making absolutely beautiful, minimalist cameras and jaw-droppingly great lenses with pricing in the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” range.
There’s no doubt that the newly-launched Leica LUX grip for iPhone ticks the beautiful box – but also the Leica pricing one …
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Consumer electronics from China are getting more expensive for both consumers and businesses, as Trump’s 10% import tariffs take effect. Additionally, removal of a small-value exemption on existing tariffs means some products are now subject to import taxes as high as 45%.
Courier companies are also applying their own collection fees on top of the tariffs, further increasing costs – and some companies are pausing imports while they figure out what to do …
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Reddit banned more than 90 subreddits yesterday, later restoring them and blaming it on a bug, but some moderators are worried about what the move might signal for the future.
The banned subreddits were all ones allowing NSFW content, but while that is commonly thought of as adult entertainment, it also includes communities as diverse as r/cubancigars and r/transgender_surgeries …
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A new conversational Alexa is expected to be revealed at an Amazon media event on February 26, with press invitations sent out yesterday.
A report citing Amazon insiders says that the all-new Alexa will be powered by generative AI, dramatically boosting its capabilities and putting even more pressure on Apple to launch a smarter Siri …
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Update: SuperDuper developer Dave Nanian reports that Apple has fixed the issue in macOS 15.3.
One or more backup bugs in macOS 15.2 Sequoia is affecting Apple’s own Time Machine utility, as well as third-party apps SuperDuper and CarbonCopyCloner. Initially the problem appeared to affect bootable backups only, but it now appears that it is either more general than this, or there is more than one bug affecting Mac backups …
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So-called macOS Stealers – malware that seeks to extract personal data like passwords and credit card numbers from your machine – is expected to be significantly more prevalent this year.
A new annual report on the state of malware says that Mac owners could be at almost as much risk as Windows PC users this year …
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We’re expecting to see an M5 chip powering this year’s MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro. That chip has now entered mass production, according to a new supply-chain report.
Not much is known about it for sure, though it is expected to have enhanced AI performance, and it’s also been suggested that it may have a somewhat different design to previous M-series chips …
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Most Apple products sold in the US could see price raises, after Trump imposed 10% import tariffs on all imports from China. While Apple has been working on diversifying its supply chain, the majority of its products are still assembled in China.
Trump did a similar thing in his first term, applying tariffs to thousands of products. That time, Apple was successful in lobbying for exceptions, but the new policy appears to be a blanket 10% across all products arriving from China …
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China is considering opening an antitrust investigation into Apple’s App Store commissions, mirroring those already carried out in the US, EU, and elsewhere.
However, it’s likely that the Chinese government is simply raising the possibility as a form of leverage in the latest trade war instigated by the Trump administration …
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After I commented on the ASUS Zenbook A14 not only emulating the look of the MacBook Air, but exceeding its specs in several respects, I got the chance to spend some time using the machine.
While I’m certainly not going to be making the switch from macOS to Windows, there are a few things I’d love to see Apple replicate in future MacBooks …
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Adobe’s Acrobat AI assistant has long had the ability to summarize documents for you, but it now claims to be able to help you make sense of contracts – and catch discrepancies between them …
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