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.
Social network Threads has now launched in EU countries, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noting that this now opens it up to an additional 448M people. The company first teased this last week.
EU citizens will also be able to browse Threads without having to create an Instagram account – a move likely intended to placate antitrust regulators …
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One of the key features added in the iOS 17.3 beta is Stolen Device Protection. This is a thoughtful and creative solution to balancing out the need for protecting iPhone users without stopping them do the things they want to do with their devices.
What I love about Apple’s solution here is that someone has clearly put a lot of thought into that balancing act …
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For the first time ever, customers wanting to carry out DIY repairs on their devices will be given access to Apple diagnostics software. This software was previously limited to Apple Stores and authorized service providers.
Apple announced the news today, noting that its Self Service Repair program has also been extended to the iPhone 15 line-up, and M2 Macs – as well as rolling out to new countries …
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We’re today learning of a major acceleration in plans to shift more production of Apple devices from China to India. In less than one year, Foxconn has increased its planned investment in an Indian plant by almost 400%.
It follows a recent report that Apple has told its battery suppliers that it would like as many iPhone 16 batteries as possible to be manufactured in India …
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X owner Elon Musk has continued his tirade against major corporations who’ve suspended advertising on his social network, after growing concerns about hate speech on the platform.
Musk last year asked whether Apple “hate[s] free speech in America” when the company paused advertising over previous concerns about the social network, and is now calling for Disney CEO Bob Iger to be fired …
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Yesterday saw an Epic Games victory in its court case against Google, a jury finding that the Play Store was indeed operated in an anti-competitive fashion.
This is despite the fact that Epic mostly lost a near-identical case against Apple back in 2021. The differing conclusions in the two cases puts Apple back under pressure …
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When it was revealed that foreign governments were demanding push notification data from Apple and Google, it was suspected that the US government was doing the same. This has now been confirmed, one use of it being to investigate January 6th Capitol rioters.
Apple was not previously allowed to reveal that it was receiving legal demands for the information, but now that it can do so, it has also set a higher bar for compliance …
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As part of the company’s continuing work to reduce its dependence on China, Apple has reportedly told suppliers that it has a preference for iPhone 16 batteries being made in India.
One battery supplier which already manufactures in India has been asked to scale-up production there, and Chinese suppliers have been urged to establish battery factories in the country …
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Update: Apple issued the following statement to 9to5Mac:
Apple is committed to transparency and we have long been a supporter of efforts to ensure that providers are able to disclose as much information as possible to their users. In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information and now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests
Apple has confirmed that foreign governments have been carrying out what has been described as “push notification spying,” stating that the company was not previously allowed to disclose the practice.
Governments have been serving both Apple and Google with secret legal orders to hand over details of the push notifications sent to iPhones and Android smartphones …
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The European Union’s iMessage antitrust investigation looks set to rule in favor of Apple, meaning that the secure messaging service would be exempt from upcoming interoperability rules.
If confirmed, it would mean that Apple would not have to make iMessage able to exchange messages with rival chat apps …
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A new supply-chain report suggests that we could see an under-screen Face ID camera in the iPhone “after 2026,” using technology developed by LG Innotek.
It’s likely that the tech would initially be used for Face ID only, but would be a stepping stone toward a later true all-screen design, with the front-facing camera similarly embedded beneath the screen …
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iPhone assembler Foxconn had already predicted “significant growth” during the holiday quarter, but now says that October and November have been even stronger than expected.
The company told investors that its November revenue hit T$650 billion ($20.65 billion), the second highest on record for the month …
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India is planning to copy the European Union’s USB-C charging port law, requiring all smartphones to adopt the standard, which poses three big problems for Apple – and not just in India.
A new report today says that Apple is lobbying either for an exemption for older models still manufactured in the country, or delayed enforcement of the proposed legislation …
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A new industry group known as the AI Alliance believes that artificial intelligence models should be open-source, in contrast to the proprietary models developed by OpenAI and Google.
Meta, IBM, Intel, and NASA are just some of the organizations to sign up, believing that the approach offers three key benefits …
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A new Verizon Netflix and Max bundle is being offered to some customers, priced at just $10 per month – which essentially amounts to getting Netflix free with Max.
However, the bundle is limited to the ad-supported tiers of the streaming video services, and is only available to Verizon myPlan customers …
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A few Windows laptops are already powered by ARM CPUs rather than Intel ones, but we can expect to see a lot more in the future.
A new report says that Microsoft is accelerating efforts to overcome the current limitations of these, so that more PC brands can follow Apple’s example in using ARM chips …
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If you’ve ever sent or received photos or videos via WhatsApp, you’ve probably been frustrated by the awful quality of them. The chat app down-rezzes both to a truly appalling degree. But a new update to the iOS app fixes this by finally allowing images and videos to be shared at full quality.
The update is currently rolling out for the iOS app, but not yet for the Android one …
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A third round of Spotify layoffs this year will see some 1,500 employees lose their jobs in the run-up to the holidays. This follows the loss of 600 jobs at the start of the year, and several hundred more in the summer.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek described the move as a ‘strategic reorientation,’ but the company’s fundamental problem remains unchanged …
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X is now hoping to sell more ads to small businesses, after owner Elon Musk told large ones like Apple and Disney to “go f*ck yourselves” …
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New market intelligence data suggests that the Apple Watch has seen its best ever Q3 shipments, up 7% year-on-year. The latest Apple Watch SE was credited with contributing “significantly” to that growth.
The biggest winner was Huawei, which this year emerged as a major player in the premium smartwatch market, taking many of its sales from Samsung …
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It was confirmed back in September that Apple will need to comply with antitrust requirements relating to app sales, and it seems most likely this will require the company to allow third-party app stores on iPhones. Microsoft has now indicated its intention to run one of these.
One key driver for the plan is likely Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of mobile gaming giant Activision Blizzard …
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After an earlier test, all Evernote free users now have their accounts limited to a single notebook containing just 50 notes.
While the company claims that most free users won’t be affected, that is almost certainly counting anyone who briefly trialled it before abandoning it. Almost no active users will fall within the new limits, effectively ending the free tier. The change will likely drive many to switch to Apple’s Notes …
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Apple’s annual support for World AIDS Day this year includes donating all proceeds from in-app purchases in three popular games.
Apple is also suggesting the (PRODUCT)RED Apple Watch Series 9 and Sport Band combo as a holiday gift …
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When Apple announced the Emergency SOS via Satellite service with the iPhone 14 line-up, it said at the time it would be free for the first two years – implying that it would require a paid subscription after that.
Earlier this month, Apple gave iPhone 14 owners an extra year. As things stand, then, both iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 owners will get free service until September 2025. After that, though, Apple has a problem …
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