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.
It’s not uncommon for younger music fans to create their own song mixes for social media posts, especially on TikTok. The problem is that artists don’t get paid for these unofficial mixes, and that’s something an upcoming Spotify song remixing feature aims to (kinda) change …
Expand Expanding Close
DuckDuckGo started life as a privacy-first search engine before adding a web browser, email protection and more, and the company has now announced its first ever paid subscription: DuckDuckGo PrivacyPro.
This bundles an open-source VPN service with personal information removal and identify theft restoration for $9.99 per month …
Expand Expanding Close
Instagram is rolling out a new safety feature, designed to protect teens from being exposed to unwanted nude photos in Instagram direct messages. The system will blur nude photos in Instagram DMs when the recipient is believed to be a teenager.
The safety measure is designed to protect against three problems, including the growing problem of ‘sextortion’ on the platform …
Expand Expanding Close
The judge due to hear the Apple antitrust case brought by the US Department of Justice has recused himself, meaning that he will no longer preside over the case.
Judge Michael E. Farbiarz yesterday filed paperwork stating that his recusal is “necessary” under Code of Conduct rules …
Expand Expanding Close
One of Vision Pro’s most exciting capabilities, to me personally, is the ability to display multiple Mac monitors in virtual form. Viture One XR glasses have now gained that same capability.
When I first tested the glasses, I noted that while they could act as a Mac monitor, they were limited to a single monitor – this this has now changed …
Expand Expanding Close
Dramatically rising streaming prices have lead to an increase in video piracy, and major Hollywood studios are now asking Congress to pass a new law to address it.
The exact same law, in fact, that it tried and failed to get passed in 2012, after major websites went dark in protest …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple chipmaker TSMC appears to be on track with its work on a 2nm chip destined for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in 2025 – as well as for the 1.4nm chips beyond that.
A new supply-chain report said TSMC has faced two challenges, but indications are that neither of them will significantly impact on its production schedule …
Expand Expanding Close
One of the changes Apple had to make to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was to present customers with a list of iPhone web browsers during setup, and to choose the one they want. Browsers must be listed in random order, so that Safari isn’t highlighted.
We’d previously seen some indication that the new antitrust law was proving effective, and a new report today says this is true for six leading browser companies …
Expand Expanding Close
Internet service providers (ISPs) now have to display broadband ‘nutrition’ labels, being upfront about the true costs, speeds, and data allowances offered,
The rule was introduced in response to growing consumer complaints about hidden fees, data caps, and other misleading marketing of broadband packages – and takes effect today. You can see below full details of the information which must be provided …
Expand Expanding Close
A new report says that one in seven iPhones are now made in India – pointing to a significant acceleration in Apple’s work to reduce its dependence on China.
Apple’s reliance on China as its key manufacturing hub has been placing the company in an increasingly vulnerable position …
Expand Expanding Close
An Apple research paper describes how the company has been developing Ferret-UI, a generative AI system specifically designed to be able to make sense of app screens.
The paper is somewhat vague about the potential applications of this – likely deliberately so – but the most exciting possibility would be to power a much more advanced Siri …
Expand Expanding Close
Subscription creep – the term given to increases in subscription fees after someone has signed up – hit a full two-thirds of US consumers in the past year.
Some of the increases were steep ones, and others imposed with little notice …
Expand Expanding Close
We first heard last year that former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were working on some kind of AI hardware project. It was later reported that Tang Tan, Apple’s chief iPhone and Apple Watch designer, was also joining the project.
A report now suggests that the pair are now seeking a billion dollars in funding, and are in talks with Steve Jobs’ widow, founder and president of the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs …
Expand Expanding Close
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has suggested that Apple is considering launch an Apple TV with a built-in FaceTime camera.
But does that idea actually make sense, compared to plugging in a separate camera, or using your iPhone as a camera … ?
Expand Expanding Close
The need for a federal privacy law has long been clear to most, but making it actually happen has been another matter. However, a compromise could potentially see it introduced by the end of the year.
Apple has been calling for Congress to pass a GDPR-style privacy law since at least 2018, but little progress has been made since then. All that may be about to change, however …
Expand Expanding Close
Spotify’s AI DJ feature launched more than a year ago now, but users had little control over it. A new AI Playlist feature changes that for beta uses, as you can now create playlists from ChatGPT-style text prompts.
Spotify recommends specifying a combination of genres, moods, artists, and decades – but you can also try off-the-wall things like “beats to battle a zombie apocalypse” …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple chipmaker TSMC has announced plans to open a third Arizona chip plant, in addition to the two already under construction. This will be the most advanced of the three plants, making 2nm chips.
The expansion plan appears to have been part of a deal for the company to receive a total of $11.6B in US grants and loans …
Expand Expanding Close
The European Union is investigating Apple’s response to a Spotify complaint, to determine whether the anti-steering changes made by the Cupertino company are sufficient to comply.
Update: GamesFray had suggested that this amounted to a fourth DMA non-compliance investigation into Apple, but it’s now my understanding that they have misinterpreted remarks made by a regulatory risk company …
Expand Expanding Close
A classified TikTok national security briefing given to senators may have been in part based on claims made by a fired member of staff who is now making further … interesting claims.
The former staffer says that his firing was instigated by the US attorney general, and that the FBI and CIA shared his personal information with foreign governments …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple has recently started in-store testing of a Presto system, which can provide software updates to iPhone stock in Apple Stores without even opening the boxes.
We now have more details about how Presto works, and it’s even more sophisticated than it first appeared …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple chip production is largely back on track following the major earthquake in Taiwan, thanks in part due to “world-class seismic mitigation measures” in TSMC’s plants.
Some plants were temporarily evacuated to ensure the safety of employees, and there was some damage – the worst of which appears to have been to the company’s most advanced plant, using the 2nm process expected to be used for the iPhone 17 Pro chips …
Expand Expanding Close
With Apple now having dragged its decade-long car project to the trash can, the company is reportedly now working on another skunk-works project: an Apple Robot.
Both self-driving cars and home robots have a lot in common. They have long been a science-fiction dream, and nobody has come anywhere close to realizing that dream. But a truly useful and capable domestic robot is an even bigger challenge than an autonomous car …
Expand Expanding Close
A Right to Disconnect law introduced by a Californian lawmaker aims to end the tyranny of employers who expect their staff to respond 24/7 to emails, Slack alerts, text messages, and other out-of-hours notifications.
It mirrors similar laws already passed in several European countries …
Expand Expanding Close
The biggest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years has killed at least four people, with TSMC plants evacuated as a safety precaution.
Apple’s chipmaker is still assessing the impact on production; even the slightest vibration can result in entire batches of chips being destroyed …
Expand Expanding Close