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.
Buying an iPhone 14 Pro 128GB model costs the average American 2% of their annual salary – the second cheapest price in the world when measured in this way.
But there are countries where the same phone costs more than 100% of the average annual salary …
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The Reddit API backlash continues, with moderators finding a new way to protest: They’ve come up with a simple way to demonetize their subreddits, to ensure the company cannot profit from them.
The latest development has seen moderators removed, and then reinstated, with the company refusing to explain the U-turn …
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AirPods Adaptive Audio is Apple’s latest take on active noise cancellation and transparency modes. The idea is that it allows in the external sounds you’re likely to want to hear, like someone speaking to you, while blocking unwanted noise (like vacuum cleaners or Coldplay albums).
But as well as improving your music listening experience when walking down the street, or sitting on a plane, Adaptive Audio could well prove the best solution when listening to live music …
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Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program was the company’s first attempt to turn hardware into a subscription product, but it certainly won’t be the last. To me, there’s a very obvious opportunity here for an Apple Vision Upgrade Program.
In my view, this would be a win for Apple and consumers alike …
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A new TikTok Candle Media partnership will create opportunities for “underrepresented” creators and authors, according to the two companies. This will include a new program with a media company founded by actor and producer Reese Witherspoon …
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While CEO Steve Huffman may be dismissive of the thousands of subreddits going dark to protest his planned API changes, new Reddit usage metrics show that the protests had a definite effect.
Analytics data shows that daily visits dropped steadily as the protest unfolded, and average session length fell to the lowest level in three years …
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It’s been reported in the past couple of days that there’s a problem with the Vision Pro trademark, with some noting that it’s already been registered in China by Huawei.
There have been breathless claims that this might force Apple to change the name of the device – but those reports are based on a very incomplete understanding of the situation …
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The Vision Pro display resolution is one of the many benefits of the device over its rivals, and we yesterday explained the technology that makes it possible – and how it differs from AR/VR headset displays used by other companies.
We didn’t know at the time that they would be used in Apple’s spatial computer, but Sony actually showed off the displays a full year ago – and it turns out I was being a little unfair to the Cupertino company…
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We last week highlighted the four differences between the 2023 Mac Pro and 2023 Mac Studio – with the Mac Pro PCI card slots as the most significant of these. We also talked about what you can’t plug into these slots. Apple has confirmed this, and listed the cards you can use.
Of the seven slots, one is occupied by the Apple I/O card – though you can remove this if you don’t need any of the five ports this provides …
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Apple says that it has doubled its initial $100M commitment to the Racial Equity and Justice Initiative since it launched back in 2020.
With $200M already invested, the company has today announced a further $25M in venture capital funding – and is also continuing the gradual international rollout of the program …
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If you’re fortunate enough to shoot with a Leica camera, and use the popular Darkroom photo and video editor app on iPhone or iPad, the company today announced good news for you: It now integrates with the Leica FOTOS app.
The integration creates a seamless and wireless transition from camera to editing in Darkroom, and you can also now choose your app icon …
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Back in 2019, Apple responded to Trump’s tariff threats by agreeing to make the Mac Pro in the US – proudly bearing a Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in USA label. The 2023 Mac Pro, however, has different wording.
The label instead now reads Designed by Apple in California. Product of Thailand. Final assembly in the USA …
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The highly sophisticated Vision Pro display tech is likely to constrain production of the device, suggests a new report.
But before we get into that, we first need to clear up some confusion about the nature of the display technology used for the devices …
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Yeah, it is somewhat crazy to start an Apple Vision Diary when the first-gen model isn’t set to go on sale until next year, and I currently don’t expect to buy until the third-gen, and I’m saying I think that could be four years away. But here we are (and I kind of already did).
Let’s start by looking at the timings of Vision Pro going on sale – both theory, and potential practice …
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Smart home company Eve Systems – one of the leaders in HomeKit-compatible and now Matter-compatible devices – has been bought by the automation and electrification giant ABB.
Eve will, with immediate effect, become part of the Building and Home Automation Solutions division of ABB. The two parties naturally hope the partnership will be good news, but some will be watching events with some degree of nervousness …
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It’s an experience I’m sure we’ve all had. Your flight takes off, you browse through the music selection on the in-flight entertainment system, decide you’d rather listen to your own Apple Music downloaded playlists, and then… find they are no longer on your iPhone.
Downloaded music seems to have a habit of disappearing from our iPhones right when we most need it …
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One of the compromises Apple made with the launch of its new headset is the use of an external Vision Pro battery. This reduces the weight of the device, but is a rather clunky solution.
Even with the external battery pack, battery life is limited to two hours – but it appears that the battery pack is swappable …
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The Chinese government is still afraid of AirDrop, despite Apple giving in to pressure to make the feature harder to use by protestors.
The Cyberspace Administration of China has issued a draft proposal to clamp down on the use of AirDrop, as well as similar Bluetooth-enabled file-sharing features on Android. Among other things, this would oblige Apple to ensure that people use their real names for the name of their iPhone …
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I’ve always used color-coded calendars, so that I can easily distinguish different categories of activity – something I carried over from using colored pens in the old Filofax days (please pretend you’re old enough to get the reference, thanks).
I just find it gives me a better sense of my day or week when I can see that I have a lot of work to do, or a lot of social events, and so on. But I realized that it’s also a great visual way to get a sense not just of my work-life balance, but also the balance of activities in my life …
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You’ll be able to use your AirPods on United flights when using the in-flight entertainment (IFE) system to watch movies and TV shows, or to listen to the provided music. But don’t get too excited just yet …
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A new WhatsApp Channels feature gives the impression that the app may be aiming to become a Twitter replacement, at least for announcements by major organizations, public and private.
Like the longstanding channels features in Telegram and Instagram, the idea is to use it for one-to-many broadcast announcements …
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ChatGPT for iOS has been given an update, adding support for both Siri and Shortcuts. It also now allows drag-and-drop for the first time.
In other ChatGPT news, the unreliability of the AI’s output has been highlighted a number of times, including its propensity to make up citations – and that has now gotten the chatbot into legal trouble …
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A filmmaker says that Final Cut Pro on Vision Pro will be supported at launch – or rather, when the device goes on sale.
Matti Haapoja, who had the chance to demo the headset at WWDC, says that it will allow editing using a mix of eye movements and gestures …
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Back at the beginning of the year, I questioned whether the 2023 Mac Pro would be dead on arrival – since it seemed Apple would have enormous difficulty in distinguishing it from other Macs powered by the same chips.
Apple has of course now announced the new Mac Pro, and while it does offer a handful of benefits the updated Mac Studio launched alongside it, very few people are going to buy one …
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