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.
Apple has been granted a patent for a retractable steering wheel and pedals in a car, when it is being used in self-driving mode.
The patent document describes a car which is capable of driving itself in some situations, but not in others – which seems a likely interim stage for both the technology and the law …
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We’re less than a fortnight away from the September Apple event, and by this point we’re reasonably sure we know which iPhone colors to expect in this year’s line-up.
Many of you have already reached at least a tentative decision for the Pro models, based on our renders, with Dark Blue the most popular choice. But does it really matter much … ?
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Market intelligence company IDC says that the global smartphone market is worsening, and that the decline in shipments this year will be even lower than previously expected.
However, it says that Apple will buck the trend in a dramatic fashion, predicting that iPhone market share will reach an all-time high this year …
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The third round of the Apple Impact Accelerator program – which provides a range of assistance to tech startups – has just been announced. Applications opened back in April.
This time, 12 business owned by Black and Brown entrepreneurs have been selected for an enviable level of support by Apple, including a 12-week training program, one-to-one mentorship, access to Apple experts across the business, networking opportunities, and the chance to become an Apple supplier …
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Apple Watch sleep tracking is the reason I decided to hold onto my old Series 4 model when I bought a Series 5. It was worth so little that I figured I’d hang onto it and simply swap watches when I got into bed to use the S4 as a dedicated sleep tracker.
Monitoring my reported sleep patterns in the Health app, however, has revealed that the Apple Watch isn’t actually very good at the finer details – like telling when I’m in bed, when I’m asleep, and when I’m asleep in bed …
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The social network formerly known as Twitter has very quietly announced that it will allow paid political ads on X, reversing the ban imposed by founder Jack Dorsey.
Dorsey said in 2019 that “political message reach should be earned, not bought” and said that it was not credible for a social network to claim to be fighting disinformation while allowing political parties to buy ads to make unchecked claims …
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Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman again indicated that 2024 will see a “major update” to the iPad Pro lineup. This follows his earlier report saying much the same thing, though with less detail.
He described this as a much-needed move, given that we’ve seen no significant since the redesign, which launched back in 2018 – but even this report isn’t tempting me to upgrade …
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Apple says that plans to increase the scope and powers of the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act is “a serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy” – not just to British citizens, but to all tech users worldwide.
The company says that the British government is trying to make itself “the de facto global arbiter of what level of data security and encryption are permissible” after a report last week noted that companies like Apple could be banned from issuing security updates without permission …
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While the entry-level iPhone 13 was the best-selling model in the 2021 lineup, that changed the following year, with a new market intelligence report indicating that the iPhone 14 Pro Max was the best-selling model.
It suggests this was true not just for the launch period – when you’d expect early buyers to trend toward the flagship model – but remained the case throughout the first half of this year …
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I love it when a piece written by one of my colleagues alerts me to an app which then turns out to be incredibly useful, which is exactly what happened when I read Filipe’s piece about MacWhisper audio transcription.
A combination of my belt-and-braces approach to filmmaking, and MacWhisper, saved the day when a video recording was almost ruined by some errant hair …
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This week has seen three iPhone 15 cable rumors, which serve to underline the mess around USB-C cables in general. While that’s not a mess of Apple’s making, it is one the company could and should solve for its own customers.
The first of the three rumors appeared to be good news. It suggested that the charging cable included in the iPhone 15 box might be longer than usual and perhaps also more durable…
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Update: In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple said:
“The App Store was designed to be a safe and trusted place for users to download apps, and the goals of the DSA align with Apple’s goals to protect consumers from illegal and harmful content. We are working to implement the requirements of the DSA with user privacy and security as our continued North Star.”
We learned back in April that Apple was one of 19 companies that would be subject to the Digital Services Act. The law comes into force today, and it’s not clear whether or not the iPhone maker is complying.
Indeed, many are saying that this is the big problem with the act: There’s a lot of subjectivity involved in determining whether a company is breaking the law, making enforcement tricky …
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A few years ago, the idea of Apple backing right to repair legislation would have been almost unimaginable – even if the company’s co-founder did urge it to do so.
The company has spent literally years fighting it, spending money to lobby against it at both state and federal level, either trying to block it altogether or – if it couldn’t manage that – to weaken the legislation as much as possible …
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Everyone in the tech industry facepalms almost every time legislators try to pontificate on technology, but the British government appears to be trying to set a new record. After putting iMessage and FaceTime at risk, the government is now suggesting that it might ban some Apple security updates.
Under the latest plans, tech companies would need to notify the British government before rolling out a security fix but might be refused permission if it blocks a vulnerability that’s being exploited by security services…
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Apple has been granted a patent for an intriguing Vision Pro accessory, which is at one point referred to as a digital “stone.”
The description of the device is intentionally vague, as Apple wants to cover all potential uses, but it appears that the company sees it as a way to allow augmented or virtual reality objects to persist even after a Vision Pro session has ended …
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Apple has voraciously denied accusations that the App Store has monopolistic control over iPhone apps, yet the company’s ability to unilaterally close developer accounts without explanation forms a textbook antitrust case.
One small games developer had its Apple Developer Program (ADP) account terminated without explanation, was unable to appeal as it hadn’t been told what accusations it needed to address, took Apple to court – and then had its account reinstated after five months of lost sales, still without explanation or apology …
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Vision Pro may only have been announced this year, and go on sale in 2024, but we’ve known for many years that the company was working on a product of this kind. What we didn’t know was quite how many years.
A newly-published patent reveals the answer to that question – at least since 2007, the year that the original iPhone launched …
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Facebook Messenger E2E encryption has been available to some users for some years now, but a full rollout has taken longer than expected.
The company says it is now expanding end-to-end encrypted messaging to “millions” more people, and promises that it will be standard for everyone by the end of the year …
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In what appears to be a new feature in the latest iOS beta, Siri explains Conversation Awareness the first time it is activated.
Without the message, people might be confused as to why the volume has suddenly reduced itself on their Airpods Pro 2 …
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If you’re waiting impatiently for the first folding iPhone, Samsung has you covered. In an attempt to sell iPhone owners on the benefits of a folding phone, the company has created a demo that lets you use two iPhones to experience a simulation of the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
The app lets you simulate both a single display stretched across two screens, and drag-and-drop multitasking between different apps on different screens (well, phones) …
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If your commitment to fashion runs as far as color-coordinated Apple Watch faces to match your band or outfit, a future Watch may be able to automate the process.
A newly granted Apple patent describes how a future model could have a sensor embedded beneath the display, which can detect the color or a band or item of clothing, and then adjust the Watch face to match …
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The WSJ yesterday reported that a version of Threads for web would launch this week, and this has now been confirmed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
In a post whose humor is matched only by the quality of the photography, Zuckerberg said that the web version would roll out over the next few days …
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Meta has announced that European users can now opt out of algorithmic feeds on Instagram and Facebook, in order to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
However, the company is not extending the same choice to app users in the US or anywhere else outside Europe …
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Previous reports of iPhone 15 price rises are being echoed in a new supply chain report. As with earlier rumors, this one again suggests that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models will cost $100 to $200 more than the iPhone 14 equivalents.
We would offer the same cautions as we did with the previous reports, however …
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