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.
Next-generation battery technology is much like fusion power: a major breakthrough is always a year or two away. We keep being promised things like laptop batteries that can last for a month, and true wireless charging throughout a room. None of it ever materializes.
However, one modest but still worthwhile breakthrough in battery tech is real and available today: solid-state powerbanks – including a new MagSafe model from Zens …
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Apple’s Liquid Glass user interface has met with what can best be described as mixed reactions by the company’s own customers – but that seemingly isn’t deterring Google from … being inspired by it.
After last month teasing that this is going to be one of the biggest years for Android yet, the company generated considerable commentary when it officially announced an Android event with a figure looking exceedingly Liquid Glass-like …
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A report earlier this week said that Apple was considering diversifying chip manufacturing away from its current sole dependence on TSMC.
Samsung was one of two companies named as potential future suppliers of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips, and that report saw the company’s share price rise significantly …
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Meta’s latest attempt to comply with age verification requirements in Europe, Brazil and the US is to roll out AI-powered tech to analyse the faces of teenage users of Facebook and Instagram.
The company says AI analysis will be used to estimate the ages of faces but that it does not amount to face recognition. Update: It doesn’t appear to be working too well – a 12yo kid fooled it by using an eyebrow pencil to draw a fake mustache …
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We reported earlier this week that Apple had reached a $250 million settlement over delays to the introduction of the new Siri features.
Payouts to eligible iPhone buyers won’t be automatic, so you need to understand whether you’re one of them and be ready to act within a 90-day window …
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Safety regulators have long expressed concern about the potential risks to children posed by the easily-opened battery compartment of AirTags. It’s not uncommon for children to swallow objects with a similar size and shape to candy – like the coin batteries used – and this can potentially cause life-threatening injuries …
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Rumors of a smaller Dynamic Island are nothing new, but there’s been considerable speculation about this in respect of the iPhone 18 Pro.
Adding fuel to the fire are claimed CAD images showing a smaller Dynamic Island, but we reiterate our earlier skepticism …
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I guess this is one “benefit” of the Apple ecosystem that won’t make it into a press release from the Cupertino company: Pornhub’s parent company has announced that it will be relying on Apple’s own age verification feature for its UK web visitors …
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Apple’s painfully slow launch of the new Siri has become such a long-running saga, it seems to have all the makings of a movie – though probably not one we will see launch on Apple TV.
The announcement at the start of this year that it will be powered by Google’s Gemini models finally gave us reason for optimism, and the latest Apple AI news could be an equally important development …
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Three new Bose AirPlay speakers have launched today, and the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker appears to be going head-to-head with the original HomePod.
Bose has dusted off the Lifestyle sub-branding it first introduced in 1990 before discontinuing in 2022. The original Lifestyle speakers achieved iconic status, so perhaps choosing this name for the latest lineup reflects the company’s hopes here …
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Leaker Instant Digital has a decent track record when it comes to iPhones, but their latest post may need to be treated with a certain amount of caution.
They list seven new features we might expect from the 20th anniversary model, but it may be more of a wish list than a leak …
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Bloomberg yesterday reported that Apple has been in discussion with both Intel and Samsung regarding future production of its device processors.
The move is said to be motivated by Apple seeking to reduce its reliance on Taiwan’s TSMC as its sole supplier of A-series and M-series chips …
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Anecdotally, I’ve been hearing for a very long time that Facebook and Instagram users are growing ever more dissatisfied with their social media feeds, and there now appears to be some hard data to support this.
Meta has admitted that its daily active users declined by 20 million this quarter, and the company is taking steps to try to improve the quality of both Facebook and Instagram feeds …
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The book-style folding smartphone market continues to grow ahead of the expected launch of the iPhone Fold or iPhone Ultra later this year. We’ve so far seen models from Oppo, Huawei and Samsung, with a new Motorola device available soon.
We already knew a lot of details about the Motorola Razr Fold, but this now includes the price and launch date in the US …
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We’re expecting to see the launch of an Apple Glasses product at some point next year, and a sketchy rumor suggests that they may borrow a key feature from Vision Pro.
Specifically, it’s said they may be able to recognize hand gestures as a means of interacting with the wearable device – but there’s good reason to doubt the claim …
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Apple’s launch of the MacBook Neo – and especially the incredible price/performance balance – sent shockwaves through the Windows world.
Intel has now responded with the launch of a CPU aimed at similar budget laptops. An early benchmark suggests that it is 21% faster than the A18 Pro used in the MacBook Neo …
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The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments about the legality of so-called geofence warrants, sometimes also referred to as “digital dragnets” because they capture the location data of a great many innocent citizens in addition to criminal suspects.
In a practice raising obvious privacy concerns, tech giants are increasingly being asked by law enforcement to identify all of the smartphone users present at a particular location at the time a crime was committed …
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We can argue endlessly about how innovative Apple is as a company, and indeed many people do. Personally, I would argue that some of its greatest innovations have been in the seemingly smallest of features, and AirDrop is one of these.
AirDrop is a really simple and convenient way to move a document from one of our Apple devices to another, as well as to exchange files and information with other iPhone users. The introduction of NameDrop in iOS 17 was a particularly great application of the tech in my view …
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Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus is going to be facing two critical decisions soon after he takes the helm, says a new Financial Times report.
First, how to respond to a massive increase in memory prices, with Apple’s RAM costs increasing by more than 400% by next year. Second, how to shape the company’s manufacturing plans across China, India, and the US …
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A new report says Apple paid more than $1.2 million in one year to privately hire police to protect three of its San Francisco retail stores. The payment was said to have been made through a private security company.
San Francisco allows private companies to pay police officers to protect their shops and offices, and the report says that many tech companies take advantage of this …
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The past few days have seen conflicting views from AI companies about the future of smartphones. Perplexity thinks AI will only benefit iPhones, while OpenAI reportedly thinks its own smartphone can render them obsolete.
I would bet very heavily that the OpenAI smartphone will either never materialize or will be a commercial failure, but I still think the attempt is good news for iPhone users …
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Former Apple design chief Jony Ive famously prioritized sleek aesthetics over almost everything else, and there was widespread agreement that he sometimes took this a little too far.
However, his long-term vision of the future of the iPhone as a single slab of glass has persisted beyond his tenure, and a new post does seem to present a persuasive view of what we might expect from a 20th Anniversary iPhone next year …
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A report yesterday suggested that we may be seeing a succession of Apple Ultra products, including the upcoming folding iPhone and an M6-powered MacBook. So far, of course, we’ve only seen the branding used for an Apple Watch.
It may potentially be pointing to a new tier of Apple products across almost the company’s entire range of devices, and to me that would make sense for both the company and its customers …
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Tap to Pay on iPhone has today launched in Malaysia as Apple continues the rollout of the service aimed at small businesses. Interestingly, the iPhone maker is slightly lagging behind when it comes to acceptance of its own payment terminal solution …
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