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.
An application to register an Apple Music trademark has been denied in its entirety, after the Cupertino company tried to include protection of the name for live music performances …
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At least six scam loan apps have been removed from Apple’s official App Store in India after it was revealed that they engaged in a range of outrageous tactics, from fees of up to half the loan value, to threatening to send fake nudes to the contact lists of borrowers.
Four of the apps made it into the top 20 financial apps in India before Apple removed them …
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Reddit NSFW protestors – moderators who applied the Not Safe For Work flag to their subreddits to prevent monetization – have now been given a “final warning” to remove the label …
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An email initially rejected as spam led to a partnership that has seen a new Jony Ive Linn turntable design, as part of the high-end British audio company’s 50th anniversary celebrations …
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Some €14.3B ($15.5B) has been sitting in an Apple Irish tax escrow account, while we await for a final ruling on whether or not the sum has to be paid. But it’s reported that the fund has lost almost a billion euros (or dollars) since it was established back in 2018.
The current value of the fund – which will either be handed over to the Irish government, or returned to Apple – is said to have fallen to €13.4B ($14.6B) …
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One of the more… interesting discoveries yesterday is that there’s no way to delete your Threads account without also deleting your Instagram one.
After widespread objections to this, the company now says that it is “looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately” …
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TSMC‘s Apple chip production is not expected to be affected by China’s decision to restrict exports of two key materials, but there are fears that this could change dramatically if the relationship between China and the US continues to deteriorate.
The biggest fear is that China could take the same step with rare earth elements, like lithium …
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China’s 618 sales festival proved another tough gig for most smartphone brands this year, with the market as a whole experiencing a year-on-year drop of 8%.
Apple managed to precisely reverse this, enjoying an 8% increase in iPhone sales in this year’s shopping event, but that did come at a cost …
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Twitter’s implosion has helped Threads get off to a great start, gaining 10M users in the first 10 hours. But the app’s rush to market has meant some surprising failings, the biggest being that you can’t have a Threads feed comprising only people you follow.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri has responded to a request by tech videographer MKBHD, stating that this is “on the list” of improvements to come to the app …
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Update: The album is now live on Apple Music after what has been described as a “misunderstanding” between Apple and digital aggregator Ditto Music.
A Vision Pro parody ad on an album featuring actor Stephen Fry has been banned from an album on Apple Music. The spoof ad for an iHead product was actually created some four years before Apple actually launched a headset (sorry, spatial computer), and you can watch it below …
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Meta’s attempt to replace Twitter officially kicks off tomorrow, with the Threads iPhone app launch scheduled for Thursday – but Mark Zuckerberg has opened a welcome thread, which you can already view on the web.
Initially billed as a text-based offshoot of Instagram, the world might not have paid too much attention had it not been for a sudden and urgent need for a viable Twitter replacement …
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A Supreme Court affirmative action ruling that bans race-conscious admissions into higher education will end up hurting US companies, and the economy as a whole – according to Apple and many other US brands.
An amicus brief arguing in favor of continued affirmative action by colleges was filed by Apple, Adobe, Airbnb, Cisco, Dell, Google, Ikea, Intel, Lyft, PayPal, Salesforce, Uber, and many other major corporations …
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Reports of the death of Twitter have so far been somewhat exaggerated. Musk may have made dumb decision after dumb decision, but each time either did a rapid U-turn shortly afterwards, or the sheer momentum of Twitter as the default social media app has carried it through.
But this time, Musk has not only achieved Michael Scott levels of ineptitude, but Meta has brought forward the launch of its Twitter rival Threads in order to take advantage of the chaos …
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We’ve been waiting a long time for the first Apple Watch with a micro-LED screen, and it seems the wait won’t be over any time soon. The latest report says that we won’t see the new display tech until the launch of the 2026 Apple Watch Ultra.
Optimistic reports about this date back as far as 2019, when it was suggested that Apple might begin the switch from OLED to micro-LED as early as 2020 – which, of course, did not happen …
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Apple will have until March 5 next year to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which in theory means that it will have to permit either third-party app stores, or sideloading of apps, by that date.
The deadline has been revealed after Apple confirmed that it qualified as having “gatekeeper” status, meaning that it is one of the companies that will be subject to the upcoming law. However, don’t expect much to change on this date …
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From one extreme to the other! I recently got the chance to try a $6,500 enterprise mixed-reality headset, and I’ve also been experimenting with the $300 Meta Quest 2, to see whether there’s a place in my life for this type of tech as I wait for a more affordable Apple Vision Product.
I mentioned before that I’d previously bought what was then the Oculus Go, and the novelty had rather quickly worn off, but one commenter did make a fair point about that: that the Go was more about 360-degree viewing (of both video and VR worlds), and that a Quest would be a better taster for truly interactive virtual reality …
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Some Twitter users are reporting that TweetDeck is down for them. Some are seeing the web app stalled with “Loading” spinners; others are getting Retry buttons that do nothing; and yet others are seeing populated columns frozen in time …
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When your business model is selling eyeballs to advertisers, it’s hard to imagine anything dumber than blocking access to your own site and telling users to go outside instead, yet somehow Twitter rate limits are a real thing.
But analysis suggests that this may be even dumber than we thought, as it appears to be a Twitter bug that created the “emergency” that saw the rate limits introduced in the first place …
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Everyone I know who has tried Apple’s upcoming spatial computer has been impressed, but the big question remains: What is Vision Pro for? Who will buy it, and why?
Having had the opportunity to use a similar high-end mixed reality headset, and to consider some of the use cases of that device, I think I’m now a step closer to being able to at least partially answer that question …
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We’ve been keeping a close eye on the ticker tape (ok, the Stocks app) as it seems that any day now could see a milestone APPL $3T valuation.
But as the company gets ever closer to hitting that market cap, a new Bloomberg piece argues that the recent announcement of Vision Pro likely plays little role in this …
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Apple’s spatial computer may not go on sale until some point next year, but that’s not stopping third-party companies from announcing Vision Pro accessories.
Popular iPhone case maker CASETiFY has announced a range of accessories for the upcoming headset, under the Bounce Vision sub-brand. These include personalized color combinations, and even one-of-a-kind designs …
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Construction work on TSMC’s Arizona chip plant, which is set to make chips for some older Apple devices, has run over budget and behind schedule – leading to plans to send over hundreds of additional workers from Taiwan to try to address the problems.
The news follows concerns about safety at the plant, after multiple accidents, and a claim that an active shooter drill was used to disguise the need to evacuate the plant after a gas leak …
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There aren’t many cases of another company charging more than Apple for a similar product, but the Varjo XR-3 mixed-reality headset is a rare example.
Not having been one of the chosen few to be invited to try Vision Pro (was it something I said?), I took advantage of an invitation to try what Varjo believes is the most advanced mixed-reality device available. In particular, I wanted to see whether it could change my view of the tech as something that doesn’t yet justify the steep price-tag when it comes to my own needs …
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It would be hard to imagine iPhones being sold through a home shopping TV channel, but apparently Apple livestreaming in Chinese online shopping apps is a thing.
Livestreaming is a popular way for Chinese brands to promote themselves, but most of it is every bit as tacky as TV shopping channels, making it all the more surprising that Apple would join in …
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