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.
After European legislation forced Apple to allow third-party app stores across 27 countries, Japan is planning to introduce a similar legal requirement.
The antitrust legislation is currently being debated in the Japanese parliament, but is expected to be approved by the end of June …
Expand Expanding Close
International lawyers representing the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo have said that Apple’s supply chain could include “conflict minerals” or “blood minerals.”
The terms are used to refer to minerals sourced from conflict zones, in which armed groups use forced labor, and the proceeds are used to buy weapons for armed conflict …
Expand Expanding Close
The social network formerly known as Twitter has confirmed that X Likes are to be made private, so only the author of the post can see who has liked it. The company says that this is to protect people who are afraid to publicly Like “edgy” content, though users have mixed views …
Expand Expanding Close
Microsoft’s search engine Bing is down for many, with Copilot similarly unavailable for affected users. DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT search are also impacted, as they use the Bing API.
The issue appears to have started in the early hours of the morning ET, and was partially acknowledged by Microsoft a few hours later …
Expand Expanding Close
You might need to prepare yourself for a T-Mobile price increase, if you’re on one of the company’s older plans. The company is reportedly set to announce increases of $2 or $5 per line tomorrow …
Expand Expanding Close
The popular security utility Little Snitch, which monitors Mac network traffic for suspicious activity, has been updated to a much more modern interface, with a whole range of new features.
Key among these is DNS encryption, which shields server name queries, and a curated list of blocklists which can be installed with a single click …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple Music’s ‘100 best albums of all time’ ranking kicked off last week, with the company revealing 10 of its choices each day, starting with 91-100.
Apple has today completed its list, revealing its top 10 choices, with the number one album described as “a seismic event” by a “once-in-a-generation talent” …
Expand Expanding Close
While many publishers were initially cautious about the launch of Apple News+, with some fearing that it could do more harm than good, there’s increasing evidence that it might act as a lifeline in what has become an increasingly precarious business.
News sites have faced a two-pronged challenge in recent years: Traffic alone is worth less than it used to be, and driving that traffic has become far harder …
Expand Expanding Close
The Apple Crush ad missed so badly that the company cancelled its planned TV slots and issued a public apology. That seemed to mostly make the issue go away, but Xiaomi seems determined to try to use the publicity to its own advantage.
The Chinese smartphone maker – which has in the past cloned everything from the iPad to Steve Job’s trademark jeans and turtleneck shirts – has now cloned the Crush ad, with one crucial difference …
Expand Expanding Close
Passe Navigo – the travelcard used for Metro, bus, rail, and tram journeys in Paris – has finally come to Apple Wallet, allowing users to use their iPhone and Apple Watch instead of a physical card.
Navigo already offered support for topping up the pass direct from the iPhone app, but it was not previously possible to add the card to the Wallet app …
Expand Expanding Close
Two new laptops announced yesterday are being touted as “Microsoft’s MacBook Air,” with the company claiming that they offer similar performance to the M3 MacBook Air, with even greater battery life.
But commentators have been quick to point out that this isn’t a like-for-like comparison. A key feature of the MacBook Air is it achieves its impressive performance without the need for cooling fans, so a fairer comparison would be with the MacBook Pro …
Expand Expanding Close
The prospect of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is a nightmare scenario that keeps western intelligence agencies awake at night, and there are growing concerns that this could happen in 2027.
With the US legally obliged to defend Taiwan, the potential consequences could be catastrophic, placing two of the world’s biggest superpowers at war. But among the less extreme scenarios that have been modelled, one of them is what happens if China gets its hands on TSMC’s chipmaking capabilities …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple said back in March that it would appeal the $2B antitrust fine levied against it by the EU in respect of a complaint made by Spotify, and it is now reported to have filed its lawsuit.
It’s the latest example of the iPhone maker taking an aggressive stance against competition law on both sides of the Atlantic …
Expand Expanding Close
With Chinese brand Huawei having risen from the ashes, a new report describes Apple heavily discounting iPhones in the country, offering up to $318 off the iPhone 15 Pro Max as it seeks to compete.
The latest round of discounts are much higher than those offered back in February, and really throws into contrast the US offer of slightly better trade-in values on older phones …
Expand Expanding Close
A new report says that there was a “secret meeting” between Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams and the company’s exclusive chipmaker TSMC.
It’s being speculated that the meeting may have been to agree a deal for Apple to reserve all of TSMC’s 2nm capacity, in the same way it reportedly did with 3nm tech …
Expand Expanding Close
A TikTok buyout by an American company appears to be the only way for the app to survive in the US, and potentially in Europe too. But potential buyers could find themselves paying a lot of money and not getting the one thing they really want: the algorithm.
Real-estate billionaire Frank McCourt and former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin are among those who have confirmed they are planning bids for the app …
Expand Expanding Close
A forged eBay listing of an alleged pass for employee #10, together with a hand-drawn map of Apple’s first campus, seemed superficially convincing, until some started questioning a few of the details. The question of its authenticity was then resolved by a man who really ought to know …
Expand Expanding Close
We’re expecting the first stage of the Vision Pro international rollout to happen soon after WWDC, and there have been pointers to some specific countries. Canada and the UK are now said to be includedm after some earlier uncertainty.
There have so far been a number of clues to Apple’s plans for the next countries in line for launch, after the US …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple is continuing the rollout of Tap to Pay on iPhone, with Japan the latest country to allow small businesses to accept contactless payment without the need for a card terminal.
In addition to expanding into more countries, we’ve also seen increasing opportunities to use the tech for both businesses and customers alike …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple has rejected the idea of making touchscreen Macs for well over a decade now, but a recent remark by a senior company exec did appear to at least open the door to the possibility of a change of heart.
Mac and iPad marketing VP Tom Boger recently responded to a question on the topic by initially appearing to stick to the usual line – but added “I can’t say we never change our mind” …
Expand Expanding Close
A new supply-chain report says that the iPhone 16 battery will have greater energy density than that of current iPhones. This could potentially give the device a longer battery-life, though Apple may instead opt to use a smaller battery.
Additionally, the report says that Apple plans to swap out the aluminum battery housing for stainless steel, which has both pros and cons …
Expand Expanding Close
Elon Musk may have rebranded Twitter to X last summer, but one of the more notable contradictions was that URLs remained as twitter.com. That has finally changed today.
X users accessing via the web today have seen twitter.com URLs redirect to x.com. Musk announced the migration on Twi– er, X …
Expand Expanding Close
An EU investigation has been opened into growing concerns about teen Instagram addiction, to determine whether parent company Meta is breaking the law by deliberately seeking to make its apps addictive.
The investigation will also look into whether the company’s age-verification procedures are sufficiently robust, and the phenomenon of sending users down potentially harmful ‘rabbit holes’ …
Expand Expanding Close