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.
Suspicious bulk orders of used books have led many booksellers to believe they are being purchased on behalf of AI companies so that they can be scanned and used as training material without author consent or payment.
An AirTag hidden inside a rare book sold as part of a bulk order appears to confirm the theory after it ended up at an Amazon AI training facility …
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The latest macOS 26.7 beta appears to have revealed quite a lot about a number of upcoming Apple home products. It includes references to a new HomePod mini, a security camera, a next-generation Siri remote for a new Apple TV 4K – and the long-anticipated HomePad product.
A deeper dive into the code also appears to provide significant clues about what we can expect from the HomePad …
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One of the hidden expenses in upgrading to a new iPhone can often be the need to replace your case when the dimensions differ.
That so far seemed a likely bet for anyone upgrading from one of last year’s Pro models to the iPhone 18 Pro, but two accessory makers think not – with one of them going all-in on the bet …
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It was reported yesterday that Apple has agreed to comply with “fairer” App Tracking Transparency rules in the EU, following an investigation by the German antitrust regulator.
Apple said it was complying voluntarily, and we understand it will be making a total of eight changes in order to do so …
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Collectors have proven avid fans of Steve Jobs memorabilia over the years, and a new piece seems likely to attract significant interest. It’s an 8th-grade science fair project with two demonstration circuits – and a warning note from Steve to his teachers.
It’s remained at the Jobs family property in Los Altos ever since, but is now one of more than 200 items in an Apple 50th anniversary auction …
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Apple has been fighting hard to ensure that it is still able to take a commission from app sales made through third-party stores. Its aggression in doing this landed it in hot water with the judge in the long-running Epic Games case.
The company has since submitted a proposal for a more toned down version with lower commissions, but it has admitted in new regulatory filings that it may not make any commission at all from these sales …
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Whether or not you need to buy Apple’s largest iPhone Pro in order to get the best camera features has varied by generation. So far, reporting has mostly suggested that there will be no camera differentiation between the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, but a leaker today casts some doubt on this.
Specifically, they say that two new features expect to come to both Pro models “may” now be exclusive to the Pro Max …
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App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is an Apple privacy initiative intended to allow iPhone owners greater control over how developers collect and use their data. However, the company was accused of treating its own apps more favourably than third-party ones.
The company has now agreed to apply new rules to how ATT works throughout the EU, following an investigation by the German antitrust regulator. Update: Apple statement added at the end of the piece …
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As someone who writes for a living, you would correctly guess that I’m wholeheartedly in favour of allowing AI-generated text to be detectable and marked as such. There’s just a ridiculous amount of AI slop out there, and an “AI content” label means I don’t need to waste my time reading any of it.
However, Anthropic has just announced that it’s complying with an EU initiative to have Claude watermark AI-generated text, but doing so in a particularly perverse manner …
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Apple recently released updates to three versions of macOS, stating that they fixed a serious screen sharing vulnerability in macOS Tahoe, Sequoia, and Sonoma.
At the time, there was no indication that the security flaw was being exploited in the wild, but now there is, so if you haven’t yet updated your Mac, you’ll want to do so asap …
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An Apple job listing appears to be suggesting that the company might be planning some live Apple Fitness+ sessions. However, my strong suspicion is that all is not quite as it seems.
The job opening is for a studio producer, and Apple is specifically seeking someone with a strong background in live production and “a genuine curiosity about where live content is headed next” …
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I fully acknowledge that my DIY iPhone camera mod looks exceedingly silly – but it’s actually made my iPhone photography more practical and more enjoyable.
It was initially something I came up with to solve a problem for one particular video shoot, but I’ve actually found myself using it a surprising number of times …
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The very first Samsung Galaxy Fold launched back in 2019 proved so vulnerable to screen damage by dust and dirt ingress that the company cancelled all pre-orders for the device. Eight generations later, we’re today learning that the issue still hasn’t been fixed.
Ensuring that the iPhone Ultra did not share this vulnerability has reportedly been one of the reasons Apple waited so long before launching its own folding phone. We should know how well Apple has succeeded within minutes of next month’s launch …
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I today discovered a feature tucked away in the System Settings app that I never knew existed: you can set different default languages for individual Mac apps. If you already knew this, then there’s nothing to see here, move right along. But otherwise, this is how it does (and doesn’t) work …
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Jeff Johnson, developer of the popular StopTheMadness Safari extension, has said that “obvious” App Store ratings fraud is going undetected by Apple despite the company’s claims to review listings.
He said that although he doesn’t go proactively looking for App Store fraud, he does encounter it rather frequently, citing the latest example …
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The Apple store in the Oracle Shopping Centre in Reading, UK, is being moved to a new location with a completely new design in December.
Ahead of this, Apple Festival Place store in Basingstoke will be closing in November, leaving the company with 38 retail stores in the UK …
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As Apple’s lead iPhone assembler, contract manufacturing company Foxconn long made more than half of its revenue from the Cupertino company.
As of the last quarter, however, that proportion fell to below 29%, and the company says the shift is going to be permanent – leaving investors concerned …
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This week has seen conflicting reports on whether or not Apple has given up on its plan to launch a radical new iPhone design next year, which I’ll refer to as the iPhone 20 Pro for now.
An Apple analyst claimed that the company had found the task too challenging, while Bloomberg quickly said this isn’t true and that the design is on track to launch in 2027. Today sees new support for the latter view …
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iOS 27 Beta 5 includes references to an upcoming new feature to allow Apple to authenticate iPhone photos.
Not many iPhone users will need to use this for reasons we’ll get to in a moment, but the move is just the start …
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Parents are being urged to revisit the screen time limits they impose on their kids when they head back to school. It says stressed parents may take a more relaxed attitude to screen time during the summer break, and this can prove seriously detrimental to their children once the new school term begins.
Additionally, experts say that the two hours a day limit previously recommended is now outdated, and parents should take a more sophisticated approach based on “the 5 Cs” …
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A Zoom vulnerability discovered with the help of an AI tool gave an attacker the ability to remotely execute code on whatever device a meeting participant was using, including both iPhone and Mac …
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Yesterday saw two conflicting reports about next year’s 20th anniversary iPhone, said to embody Apple’s long-term vision of “a single slab of glass.”
There have already been contradictory reports about exactly what we should expect, but yesterday’s disagreement was the biggest yet …
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Security researchers last week revealed a flaw in Apple’s iCloud Private Relay feature. While this is supposed to protect your IP address from the websites you visit, a vulnerability means that it often fails to do so.
Any time there’s a problem with an Apple product or service, a class action lawsuit is sure to follow, and this is no exception …
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One of Apple’s proposed solutions – or at least mitigations – for the memory shortage was to buy RAM from two Chinese companies, CXMT and YMTC.
While it was not technically banned from doing so, this would have put it into conflict with the US government, and the idea is now looking even less likely thanks to two developments …
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