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.
It was suggested yesterday that new iPads might be announced as soon as tomorrow, and our own sources indicate that something iPad-related is landing this week, but a new report suggests that something might be an Apple Pencil 3.
The latest report gives weight to earlier talk of an upcoming Apple Pencil update with a choice of three magnetically attached tips …
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Customers on older T-Mobile unlimited plans are facing a price hike, thanks to a sneaky approach by the carrier.
Although it was prohibited by both regulators and its own promises from increasing the prices of the four plans concerned, T-Mobile will move customers onto new plans, and charge more for those. Thankfully, you can opt out – and here’s how …
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A MOVEit data breach resulted in “at least” 64 million people having their personal data exposed by the failings of a company they’ve likely never heard of.
The breach affected customer organizations ranging from Sony to the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles, and the SEC is now investigating …
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The new Apple Maps experience – which include more detail, better navigation, and Look Around – has today launched in two new countries, Denmark and Greece. This brings the total number of countries covered to 35.
Apple Maps expert Justin O’Beirne notes that this is the 20th expansion of the new mapping data, which the company built from scratch …
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The launch of the two iPhone 15 Pro models is being heralded as a success for chipmaker TSMC, with the A17 Pro chip expected to account for between 4% and 6% of its total sales this year.
Next year, Apple is expected to adopt TSMC’s next-gen chip tech, known as N3E, for the iPhone 16 Pro models. Five other companies are expected to do the same for their most advanced chips …
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A class action lawsuit against Apple claims that AirTag stalking has led to “multiple murders.”
The lawsuit alleges that AirTags have been used by stalkers in at least 20 US states, and that Apple has failed to take adequate action to protect victims …
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The row over widespread Israel-Hamas hoaxes and antisemitic hate speech on X continues, with the social network’s CEO insisting the company is taking the matter seriously, while others are unconvinced …
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A new bill being put forward in New York state would require kids to get parental permission to use apps with algorithmic feeds. This would include TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and more.
The bill is known as the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, and has the backing of the state’s governor and state attorney general …
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While there was once hope of the first M3 MacBooks being launched this month, more recent reporting has suggested we’re going to have to wait until next year for these. This is echoed by a new supply chain report, which says that Apple plans to make the switch to 3nm chips in 2024.
There is still some hope that we may see some M3 Macs before then, just not laptops …
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A new report says that the impact of inflation made only a tiny dent in the spending of US teens, but that an iPhone and Apple Watch remain top priorities.
Investment banking giant Piper Sandler has shared the results of its latest large-scale survey of the behaviors and plans of US teenagers …
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A powerful new California privacy law has now taken effect, designed to make it far easier for consumers to request that data brokers delete their data instead of selling it. The state’s right to repair legislation is also now active.
It’s hoped that both laws will serve as models for other US states, with a more ambitious goal of seeing their provisions enacted in federal law …
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Update: A third US state is suing TikTok for harming children “by intentionally keeping young users spending unhealthy amounts of time on the short-video sharing platform.”
There have been threats/promises of a federal TikTok ban since 2020, but little progress has been made in the past three years. The latest development is that there are now two completely separate potential laws competing for support …
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The Narwhal for Reddit app now has confirmed pricing, after surveying the views of users. The developer says that thoughts of tiered subscriptions have been abandoned, and that the app will instead have a single plan costing $3.99 per month.
This is the same as Now for Reddit, which also considered multiple tiers – while Android app Relay is going with usage-based pricing …
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If you’re on one of four older T-Mobile unlimited plans, you’re facing a price hike of around $10 per month – but you can opt out of the increase.
Click here for instructions of how to opt out
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A new report says that Apple’s spend on Killers of the Flower Moon was between $200M and $250M in production costs – including at least $25M to DiCaprio – with millions more on marketing.
The movie, due for theater release next week, before a later release on Apple TV+, represents a big gamble for the company …
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The Google search payment – the annual amount Google pays to Apple in return for being the default search engine in Safari – reportedly makes up 14-16% of the Cupertino company’s total profits.
With that payment now threatened by the antitrust case against Google, Bernstein analysts look at what that could mean for Apple …
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Major content moderation failures by both X and Meta are serving to underline the risks of both deliberate disinformation and inadvertent misinformation impacting on next year’s presidential elections …
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A patent granted today describes a possible way to reduce neck strain when using an Apple headset. It follows a report that the company is concerned about neck fatigue from the Vision Pro’s weight.
Counter-intuitively, the method proposed would make a future version of Vision Pro heavier, rather than lighter …
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Update: Unity’s CEO has now left the company’s employ, with immediate effect. The decision reflects the anger felt by developers about the original announcement.
Mobile game developers who rely on the Unity game engine have forced a rethink after the company announced changes to its pricing policy that would have proven a disaster for some. The company is now offering developers a choice of charging models.
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Most of those using a 2019 Mac Pro should switch to the Mac Studio, rather than the 2023 Mac Pro, argues Macworld videographer and gamer Thiago Trevisan.
He argues that there’s only one reason to choose the current Mac Pro over the much more compact Mac Studio, despite the fact that the 2019 model was “the best workstation [he has] ever owned” …
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Two different market intelligence agencies both reported that Q3 Mac shipments fell dramatically year-on-year, experiencing a far greater drop than competing PC makers.
IDC estimates that global Mac shipments fell 23.1% year-on-year, while Gartner has the number at 24.2%, against an overall PC market decline of around 8%. But neither number should be any great surprise …
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The vast majority of my smart home control comprises asking Siri to activate a scene – or having one automatically triggered by a time or event. For example, when going to bed, a single command switches on low lighting in the bedroom while switching off all other lights in the home.
Most of these scenes are created from scratch, thinking about exactly what I want to happen in particular circumstances – but there’s another approach I’d like to be able to take …
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You know something’s bad when you’re about to write a feature request and then realise you already did do, more than a year go. Some 18 months after I asked Apple to fix the awful iPhone jiggle mode, nothing has changed, so consider this my renewed plea.
It was travel which brought it to mind last time, while this time around it was just doing a small rejig of my Home screen to remove a couple of apps I use less frequently, replacing them with ones I now use more often …
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The Chinese developer behind the hugely popular Genshin Impact mobile game has twice tried to evade Apple’s 30% cut on in-app purchases, according to a new report.
This is despite a close relationship between gaming giant miHoYo and Apple, including multiple awards, a personal visit by CEO Tim Cook, and two of the company’s games being featured during the iPhone 15 launch …
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