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.
The Controller for HomeKit app has just been updated with a new AI feature which the developer is promoting with the phrase “just say it”.
The idea is that you use natural language to describe what you want to happen and the AI will automatically create the required HomeKit scene, workflow, and/or automation …
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White has been reported to be one of the confirmed colors for the upcoming iPhone Ultra, and a new dummy model gives us a very basic idea of how it might look.
While the automatic translation of the text accompanying the photo claims it to be a prototype of the device, I’m certain that it’s simply a dummy model created by a third party …
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It was clear that the launch of the MacBook Neo at just $599 took most Windows PC makers by surprise. However, Dell appears to have had a strong suspicion of what was coming as the company has just launched its own direct competitor, (sort of) starting at the same price.
Apple also has a new rival when it comes to Apple Silicon. Nvidia has just announced its first ever PC chip which also aims to provide a similar leap forward in performance …
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We learned last month that Apple TV would be airing the first major live sporting event shot entirely on iPhone – specifically, a set of fifteen iPhone 17 Pro Max models.
A new piece has given us a behind-the-scenes look at the setup for this, with MLS, saying that it offered a number of benefits over conventional cameras – though there is a rather sizeable asterisk …
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I am sometimes astonished that a company built on the notion of prioritizing the user experience is still capable of allowing some absurd UI oversights to remain unfixed through countless macOS generations.
One of the most absurd examples to me is the fact that menu bar items can end up being hidden behind the MacBook Pro notch …
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Wearables like the Apple Watch and Oura Smart Ring often have substantial positive impacts on the health and fitness of their wearers thanks to providing detailed information and encouraging healthy activity.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a dangerous chronic condition that disrupts breathing during sleep and can prove fatal. Oura rings are now not only able to detect signs that may point to this condition, but also to help sufferers get medical assistance …
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Indie singer-songwriter Brye has shared a TikTok video revealing that her song Lemons – that notched up 100M streams – was produced in GarageBand on a school iPad with a cheap plug-in mic.
The pop singer, whose full name is Bryanna Noelle Sebring, says her experience demonstrates that you don’t need fancy equipment in order to achieve a music hit – and echoes the promise made by Steve Jobs when launching the app for the Mac back in 2004 …
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We’ve long been expecting a major redesign of the MacBook Pro this year, with an OLED screen one of the key features. However, a Bloomberg report last month suggested that the launch might be delayed into early next year.
We still don’t have any clarity on that, but a new supply chain report does seem to suggest that Apple’s manufacturing partners are now gearing up for production …
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Act surprised! A new privacy study has found that data brokers and AI companies deliberately deceive consumers who attempt to opt out of the sale of their personal data. An audit of the opt-out processes of dozens of major data companies found that they employ a variety of underhand practices – including fake forms …
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The appeal of Apple devices has always been a mix of hardware quality and software features, with the wider ecosystem absolutely key. Effectively, Apple devices gain value as soon as you have more than one of them.
Handoff is a perfect example. You can begin working on a document on your Mac, seamlessly continue on your iPad, and then make some last-minute changes on your iPhone. Google is now cloning this feature in Android 17 …
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Discord is now using end-to-end encryption for all voice and video calls across all platforms: desktop, mobile, web and console.
It’s been a very long time coming – the company first shared its privacy plans back in 2023 and began the migration process a year later …
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Epic Games has said that Fortnite is now back on the App Store worldwide, although there is one notable exception.
The company has again criticized what it calls “junk fees” from Apple and indicated it expects to win an ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the iPhone maker …
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Apple has today announced that it’s using AI to boost the power of a number of accessibility features. These include VoiceOver, Magnifier, Voice Control and Accessibility Reader.
Additionally, power wheelchair users will now be able to use their eyes as controls when using Vision Pro …
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Yesterday saw the launch of an unusually generous Apple Card promo, which effectively offers new cardholders a free pair of AirPods Pro 3.
However, we noted that the small print means claiming your free AirPods isn’t straightforward, and there is one particular potential gotcha you need to look out for …
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An iPad Fold has been rumored for years now, but so far none of the predicted launch timings have panned out. One of the more recent reports even suggested that it was a bit of “a wacky experiment” that may never see the light of day.
However, one leaker with a decent track record believes that the product is still in the works and that the iPhone Ultra (or iPhone Fold) is going to take us a significant step closer to an iPad Fold launch …
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Whenever the new Siri finally launches, it’s going to be the most privacy-respecting AI chatbot out there, with an additional privacy feature reported yesterday.
We already knew that Apple’s agreement with Google will mean that Siri is not allowed to be used to train the Gemini model, and Bloomberg is now reporting an option to automatically delete our Siri conversations …
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Apple has for years been using a procedure known as chip binning to reuse faulty chips in other models of a product, or even entirely different products.
A new report gives further examples of cases where Apple has been able to take chips which failed quality control for one product and subsequently use them in another – and says that the practice dates all the way back to the original iPad and iPhone 4 …
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An Apple gift card scam saw buyers lose hundreds of millions of dollars. One raid alone recovered 4,000 iPhones worth between $8M and $9M, with the New Hampshire-based operation even involving a murder.
The sophisticated operation started with the theft of Apple gift cards from retail outlets before they were tampered with and then replaced in the stores. The moral of the story is only to ever buy the cards direct from Apple stores …
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A to-do list feels like one of those things that almost everyone on the planet has, be it an old school one handwritten in a paper notebook or some kind of app.
Personally, however, I don’t have any kind of conventional to-do list. Instead, for decades now, I’ve been in the habit of using a calendar as my to-do list, and here are the reasons you too might want to give this a try …
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Of 33 current smartphones tested, the iPhone 17 Pro offered the fastest overall charging speed, when wired and wireless charging times are averaged.
Apple also took four out of the five top places when it came to wireless charging speeds specifically, with manufacturing precision the likely reason …
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There’s been an epidemic in the past few years of iPhone thieves using scooters and electric bikes to snatch devices from the hands of their owners while they’re walking down the street.
The reason this is the method of choice for thieves is because it enables them to grab an unlocked iPhone, which can be worth $800 more to them than a locked one …
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A sketchy supply chain report out of Korea claims that the bezel-free display destined for the iPhone 20 is an early iteration of the technology and there is “a possibility of screen distortion.”
The report was updated from an earlier version, which said that Apple was willing to accept a “compromise” on the 2027 model, with a better version planned for 2028 …
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As I mentioned a few days ago, breakthroughs in battery tech always seem to be two years away, but there have been some modest but worthwhile developments.
One of these, silicon-carbon batteries, is already found in some Android brands, and battery-test results clearly illustrate the benefits. But experts say it will be a little while before Apple adopts the new battery chemistry in future iPhones …
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Apple confirmed back in January that Google’s Gemini AI model will power new Siri features. That not only frees us from the need to wait for Apple’s own AI models to catch up, but also means we have a pretty good idea of what’s in store for us.
Gemini Personal Intelligence provided our first glimpse of what we can expect from the new Siri, and a Google event has pointed to a number of additional features …
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