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.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly told officials that he slept “with one eye open” after he attended a classified CIA briefing on Taiwan, home to the company’s chipmaker TSMC.
US intelligence agencies have been worried for years that China may plan to invade the island, and the briefing warned that this could happen as early as next year …
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Apple yesterday announced plans to start manufacturing the Mac mini in the US and has now shared more details of the initiative, alongside photos and video footage.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is also accelerating production of AI servers made in the Houston plant where the Mac mini models will be assembled …
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Microsoft has a habit of porting Windows apps to Mac without bothering to make the UI look even remotely Mac-like. OneDrive was a classic example of this, but the company has finally managed to make it look like a Mac app as it gets a complete makeover for Liquid Glass …
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The iPhone 18 Pro has reached the test production stage ahead of its launch in September, according to a leaker with a decent track record.
The report is sufficiently vague that it’s not clear whether or not it clashes with an earlier one from Bloomberg …
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Once the new low-cost MacBook launches this week, those wanting to buy a portable Mac will have a choice of three ranges: the MacBook, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro.
For those with very undemanding or demanding needs, the choice may be very obvious – the low-cost MacBook on the one hand, or a MacBook Pro on the other. But what about those who sit somewhere in the middle … ?
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The US Supreme Court has declared on Friday that most of the import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration last year were illegal. Trump’s response to this now leaves Apple in a worse position than it was in before.
While lobbying by Apple had resulted in almost all of its products being excluded from the previous tariffs, Trump has announced new ones which will include them again. Update: Apple responded – see end of piece.
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Despite having a 2TB iCloud account, I also have an identically sized Dropbox one, and the latter is my primary cloud service for working files.
The reason for favoring Dropbox over iCloud is the speed of synchronization. Dropbox almost always syncs near instantaneously while iCloud is much less reliable …
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A new report suggests that a Meta smartwatch will launch at some point this year, but it likely won’t compete with the Apple Watch.
Based on previous comments by the company, it may serve as more of an accessory to a future Meta smart glasses product …
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When Amazon announced a wider rollout of a surveillance feature to help Ring smart doorbells locate lost dogs, it was immediately seen as a precursor to using the feature to identify people.
That the company did in fact plan to do this has now been confirmed by a leaked email which Ring has admitted is genuine …
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Apple commenter John Gruber is spitballing again. After suggesting that the special event on March 4 may be preceded by a series of new product announcements through press releases, he now has another idea.
Based on a reader drawing his attention to the timing, he suggests that another announcement could be immersive F1 viewing on Vision Pro …
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An unsecured database that likely contains tens of millions of unique Social Security numbers, alongside email addresses and passwords, has been discovered by security researchers.
While the database appears to have been collated from a number of separate data breaches over approximately a decade, the researchers explain why even very old personal data remains a live threat …
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Badged versions of TP-Link routers are supplied to US customers by more than 300 ISPs, making them the most widely used Wi-Fi routers in the country, found in millions of US homes.
It therefore caused grave concern when security researchers at Microsoft found that a hacking group based in China was using vulnerabilities in the devices to carry out cyber attacks in the US. It had been widely expected that the routers would be banned from sale in the US, but politics seemingly intervened. However, the battle is not yet over …
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Apple’s low-cost MacBook has been a long time coming, but it now seems clear that we can expect it to be launched in the first week of March.
Apple has a special event taking place on March 4, but a subsequent report says that this will not include a keynote presentation. Instead, it says we can expect a series of press releases along the lines of the ones we saw back in 2024 …
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Apple previously accused Qualcomm of “double-dipping” as a result of the company’s policies over selling radio chips for use in iPhones. The Cupertino company had also objected to Qualcomm charging a percentage of the price of an iPhone rather than a fixed fee per chip.
Apple withdrew its claims back in 2024, but an independent class-action lawsuit was still being pursued on behalf of iPhone owners. This lawsuit has now been abandoned …
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The Rode Wireless Micro introduced a feature called Direct Connect, which allows the wireless microphones to pair directly with an iPhone via Bluetooth without the need for a receiver. This same feature is now coming to Wireless Pro and Wireless Go users thanks to a firmware update …
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For me iPhone Mirroring has been one of the most useful enhancements to the Apple ecosystem in recent years, and is something I use on a daily basis.
However, while I completely understand Apple’s focus on privacy protection, for my usage the way it works at present is simply annoying …
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Excessive use of in-ear headphones like AirPods can result in hearing damage and ear infections, warn audiologists.
They recommend a simple guideline to reduce the risks of noise-induced hearing loss, tinnitus, and sound sensitivity – known as the 60/60 rule …
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The EU has opened its own investigation into the Grok chatbot generating child sexual abuse material. It’s estimated that Grok generated 23,000 CSAM images in just 11 days. Update: A second investigation has been opened in Ireland, focusing on possible privacy violations.
Despite multiple calls for Apple and Google to temporarily remove both X and Grok from the App Store, neither company has yet done so …
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A Best Buy worker has been charged with fraud after he allegedly used his manager’s override code to give himself discounts of up to 99% on MacBook Pro models and other high-value electronics.
Police say the total value of the products “purchased” by the employee and his associates was more than $118,000 …
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Amazon’s plan to turn Ring doorbells into a neighborhood-wide surveillance system was roundly denounced as dystopian even when it was just searching for lost dogs.
The company does at least seem to have learned from the privacy backlash, announcing that it has now abandoned plans for a partnership with police …
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The long-awaited low-cost MacBook powered by an A18 Pro chip is now expected to launch on March 4. It will reportedly be priced somewhere around $700, making it significantly cheaper than an entry-level MacBook Air.
Given that the upcoming machine is likely to meet the needs of a great many of those who currently opt for the MacBook Air, it could cannibalize a lot of sales. One possible solution to this is to use the strategy Apple once adopted with the iBook and Powerbook lineups …
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Samsung has introduced a new privacy feature to its Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone, and a new report suggests that future MacBooks may adopt the same technology.
If so, it will be rather ironic as MacBooks were among the earliest laptops to benefit from a feature which can now sometimes be considered a bug …
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When the first rumors of a folding iPhone emerged, we didn’t know which of the two possible formats Apple was planning: an iPhone Fold or an iPhone Flip.
It later became clear that what we’re expecting to be launched first is a book-style iPhone Fold. However, there are signs that we may get both …
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I’m just about starting to believe that I may be heading into the final stages of an extremely lengthy attempt to sell one apartment and buy another, so I’m currently giving some thought to the smart home technology I’ll want in my new home.
This will be some 13 years after I first adopted smart home tech, so I’m expecting to make a few changes – some small, one potentially much larger …
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