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.
A fun piece of Apple history has been revealed thanks to a look at how Sonos started and where it is headed. It turns out that ‘father of the iPod‘ Tony Fadell wanted Apple to buy the premium audio company.
Fadell tried to persuade Steve Jobs to do so, but Apple’s co-founder refused, saying that he instead wanted to sue the company …
Expand Expanding Close
We know from previous Apple patents that the company is hard at work figuring out ways of embedding Face ID in the display of future iPhones.
The biggest barrier here is that the infrared light needed for Face ID doesn’t travel well through a display – but a newly-granted Apple patent suggests that the company may have figured out a solution …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple is facing tougher export checks by Chinese authorities as part of a claimed crack-down on technology with potential military applications.
While the increased scrutiny is said to be for security reasons, many believe the real reasons are both economic and political …
Expand Expanding Close
The European Union has denied a report that it has paused action against Apple and other US tech giants in the light of anticipated pressure from the incoming US president.
The report claims that the EU is “reassessing” antitrust investigations of Apple, Meta, and Google and that all decisions and fines will be paused until this process is complete …
Expand Expanding Close
The first US plant to make A-series chips for Apple devices is expected to begin mass production as early as this quarter, says a new report.
It implies that test production by TSMC has already begun, with Apple said to be in the final stage of verifying the chips produced in Arizona …
Expand Expanding Close
It’s always been clear that Vision Pro was simply Apple’s first step into the AR/VR headset world, and that a lower-priced Apple Vision product would follow, but there have so far been mixed reports on when we might expect to see it.
We’ve so far seen reports variously suggesting that the non-Pro Apple Vision headset would launch in 2025, 2026, and 2027 – with the latest of these saying the company is “ramping up” development work …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple was already facing a $1B lawsuit on behalf of British developers, but is now up against an even larger one on behalf of app buyers in the UK.
Both antitrust lawsuits have the same basis – that Apple is abusing its monopolistic control over the sale of iPhone apps to charge excessive commissions …
Expand Expanding Close
Sonos CEO Patrick Spence has been replaced in his role and is leaving the company. Its interim CEO says this is because the company “let far too many people down.”
Customers have been calling for Spence to be sacked ever since the disastrous launch of a new app left many of them struggling with connectivity problems and broken features …
Expand Expanding Close
The upcoming change in the presidency has seen a number of companies make changes to long-standing policies, in fields spanning content moderation to DEI policies.
As we reported on Friday, however, Apple is holding firm on its own Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, urging shareholders to reject a resolution to abandon them …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple Arcade is welcoming the new year with ten new games, seven of them launching today. The remainder – which includes PGA TOUR Pro Golf – will be available from February 6 …
Expand Expanding Close
Sony has had the exclusive manufacturing contract for iPhone camera sensors for more than a decade, but Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last year suggested this would be changing with the iPhone 18. This has now been backed by two further reports, one of which provides a little more detail.
Samsung is said to be working on a 3-layer stacked camera sensor for Apple, which should improve the performance of future iPhone cameras. Update: Digitimes now backs the report …
Expand Expanding Close
If you have an iPhone 14 or later, you can send text messages via satellite where cellular service is unavailable. This can be particularly valuable in emergency situations like the Los Angeles wildfires, where cellphone masts have been damaged or destroyed.
T-Mobile and Starlink have now teamed up to offer the same capability to owners of phones without this feature …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple likes to celebrate the Chinese New Year with a specially-commissioned Shot on iPhone video, and an unofficial copy of this year’s short film has been posted ahead of the official reveal expected later today. The lunar new year begins on January 29.
The 12-minute short musical film entitled I Want to Listen to You is directed by Michael Gracey, who previously directed the Hollywood musical film The Greatest Showman …
Expand Expanding Close
The greatest attraction for me about Vision Pro is being able to have huge virtual monitors for both work and entertainment, but the downside is the discomfort of wearing one for an extended time. The Brelyon Ultra Reality Extend is a funky new monitor tech that aims to solve this problem.
You don’t have to wear anything – just sit in front of a monitor, which can project a virtual display as wide as 122 inches from a much smaller physical display …
Expand Expanding Close
A leaker with a good track record on iPhone camera improvements has lent their support to a report that the 12MP front-facing camera in current iPhones will be upgraded to 24MP in the iPhone 17 line-up. They also endorse the suggestion that all three rear cameras in the iPhone 17 Pro Max will have 48MP sensors.
The latest report goes a little further, however, and suggests that this year’s upgrade to the 5x telephoto camera sensor will apply to the iPhone 17 Pro as well as the Pro Max …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple CEO Tim Cook has described the Los Angeles wildfires as “heartbreaking,” and said that the company will be making a donation to assist the recovery effort.
Multiple fires across parts of LA have so far led to at least five deaths, and forced more than 130,000 people to abandon their homes, and it’s feared there is more to come …
Expand Expanding Close
I’m a great fan of robot cleaners, and they’ve grown more capable over the years. They started with vacuuming, then added mopping, then auto-emptying.
But this year’s CES announcements go further, and I can’t help feeling like companies are now just adding capabilities purely to have something to talk about …
Expand Expanding Close
It says a lot about Apple’s design that the MacBook Air is seen as the ultimate standard targeted by PC laptop brands. Just matching the aesthetics and performance of the machine is seen as a tough goal, but ASUS may have gone one better with its new Zenbook A14.
The new machine not only succeeds in emulating the look of the MacBook Air, but exceeds its specs in no fewer than five different ways – including being even lighter …
Expand Expanding Close
You have to feel sorry for Intel at this point. Not only has Apple left its CPUs in the dust, but AMD’s new Ryzan AI Max chips claim to do the same to Intel’s flagship Core Ultra 9 288V.
The new chips take the same approach as Apple Silicon in combining CPU, GPU, and unified memory. AMD doesn’t credit Apple with the idea, but does admit the chip wouldn’t exist without the Cupertino company …
Expand Expanding Close
Oura remains the king of the smart ring business – at least until Apple enters the arena – but two competitors are trying very different approaches in launching their own models.
French branch Circular hasn’t made much progress to date, thanks to a plastic construction and an absence of wireless charging, but it has fixed both issues in its latest model …
Expand Expanding Close
Washington State is suing T-Mobile over a 2021 security breach which exposed the personal data of some 79 million people, including 2M Washington residents. Data exposed included social security numbers, phone numbers, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver’s license information.
The carrier is accused of failing to follow industry-standard cybersecurity processes, which allowed the breach to go unnoticed for four months …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s long-term goal for Vision Pro is believed to be an Apple Glasses product, in which an ordinary-looking pair of glasses will be able to display both text and AR content.
We’ve seen some competitors take early steps in that direction, and the RayNeo X3 Pro AR glasses look like the closest thing we’ve yet seen in a real-world product …
Expand Expanding Close
Around fifty Apple employees have been fired for allegedly defrauding the company via its Matching Grants program, in which the company agrees to match charitable donations made by employees.
So far, six of the former Bay Area employees have also been charged with tax fraud relating to fake donations …
Expand Expanding Close
Depending on the model, an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro officially supports between one and three external displays, but a software workaround lets you boost that number.
The new Plugable UD-7400PD dock takes advantage of that fact to provide a very neat way to allow even an M1 MacBook Pro to simultaneously drive up to five external monitors …
Expand Expanding Close