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.
Both the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) have confirmed that they’re buying location data of US citizens from data brokers without warrants.
Senator Ron Wyden has described this as both “dangerous” and an “outrageous” privacy abuse of the Fourth Amendment …
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Apple created an adorable Little Finder Guy to promote the MacBook Neo on TikTok, and PCalc developer James Thompson turned them into some equally delightful 5K wallpapers.
Three of them are in the classic blue and white color scheme, while two others are rather more colorful …
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Sam Henri Gold last week wrote a rather sweet blog post about the difference between advice from tech reviewers and real-world usage of our devices.
He rejected arguments by reviewers saying that the MacBook Neo is not the right machine for those wanting to do things like video editing, and a new test backs his view …
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We noted yesterday that Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations, which began in New York, were moving on to China. CEO Tim Cook was spotted at a celebratory event in Chengdu.
Unfortunately for the company, the party atmosphere has been rather dampened by a dispute with the Chinese government …
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Ikea smart home products have long been the preferred choice of those who want to begin or expand a smart home at an affordable price. The company’s use of physical remotes also simplified the process for those new to the technology.
But when the company expanded its lineup with some budget Matter-over-Thread devices, things rather quickly headed south – with Apple Home users among those affected …
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It’s taken Apple a long time to advance work on the iPhone Fold, and the reason for that was said to be that the company was unhappy with the visible crease in earlier iterations of the display technology.
By late last year, around 100 iPhone fold models were said to have been made for testing purposes. These will of course be closely guarded, but a competing Android phone has given us a reasonable idea of what we might expect …
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Apple began its 50th anniversary celebrations at New York’s Grand Central Station on Friday and is reportedly continuing them in China tomorrow.
We’re again expecting a live performance by a popular singer, and Apple retail head Deirdre O’Brien has been spotted in the country …
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Eleven tech giants and major retailers have signed up to a new anti-scam initiative ahead of a United Nations global fraud summit.
The Industry Accord Against Online Scams & Fraud recognizes the growing use of AI by criminal gangs to create more convincing scams, and pledges cooperation between the companies to combat this …
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One of the biggest mysteries ahead of the MacBook Neo launch was the price. We’d seen various estimates in the $599 to $799 range, and while we’d certainly hoped for that lower-end figure, experienced Apple watchers weren’t necessarily expecting it.
Reaction to the price was universally positive, all the more so as it breaks the $500 barrier for education users. School and college students can buy the machine for just $499 …
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Apple has highlighted all of the new products which went on sale this morning, both online and in Apple stores around the world.
Unsurprisingly, the company positions the MacBook Neo as the headline news among the seven new products …
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Meta says that it has removed over 159 million scam ads and taken down 10.9 million scam accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The company is also today launching new anti-scam tools on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. These aim to alert you to the three most common scam tactics used …
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One of the compromises Apple lists for the MacBook Neo is that it doesn’t support fast charging, and the machine is supplied with just a 20W power adapter (except in Europe).
Based on Apple’s statement, there didn’t appear to be any point in using a beefier charger with the new machine, but tests reveal otherwise …
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The MacBook Neo officially goes on sale today, and Apple Stores appear to be going all-in on welcoming the latest member of the Mac family.
The first owners are now taking delivery of their machines, but even if you haven’t pre-ordered yours, it looks like you have a good shot at getting one for same-day pickup from your local Apple Store …
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Our editor-in-chief Chance Miller has been testing the MacBook Neo for just under a week, and his review described it as “a truly great Mac at an unbelievable price.” Other reviewers clearly share his view. While there are of course compromises, everyone agrees that this machine leaves all of the Windows competition in the dust …
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It’s been predicted that Apple could sell four to five million MacBook Neo machines this year, with even hardcore Windows fans seeing the appeal of switching.
A new market intelligence report today suggests that the new machine could become even more attractive later this year as competing laptops become more expensive …
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Apple is pitching the MacBook Neo at people who’ve never owned a Mac before, and it’s reaching out to them in the place it thinks it will find this new generation of potential Mac users: TikTok.
The company has been running a series of quirky ads on the video streaming platform, some of them featuring an adorable little Finder guy …
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Apple last year shifted a substantial amount of iPhone production outside of China despite the fact that it has to pay a premium to do so.
The company reportedly hit a significant milestone, reaching the halfway point in its objective to split iPhone production equally between China and India …
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Attitudes to the hugely delayed launch of the new Siri seemed to be split between frustration and resignation. Apple promoted the more intelligent voice assistant in a deleted video ad for the iPhone 16, but it appears it may officially launch alongside the iPhone 18.
Amazon’s Alexa+ service initially looked to be well ahead of Apple, but it too was delayed – and also appears to be failing to deliver on its promises …
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Apple hardware design lead Molly Anderson said that the company started from scratch when it came to the process for manufacturing the new MacBook Neo, resulting in far more efficient use of materials.
The company is also reportedly looking to adopt an extremely challenging manufacturing technique for the aluminum chassis of future iPhones and Apple Watch models …
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Apple said that it wanted the new MacBook Neo to be seen as a fun new addition to the Mac lineup, and this was reflected in the colors as well as the name.
The new machine comes in a choice of four colors, although admittedly these are less vivid in the aluminum than they appear in photos …
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The Cosmic Orange color Apple offered for the iPhone 17 Pro proved hugely popular, and was credited with helping the company hit record iPhone sales last year.
It seems the company’s competitors were paying close attention, several of them adopting a very similar color tone for their latest Android smartphones – with the above one of the more blatant clones …
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Apple finally unveiled the long-awaited entry-level MacBook, the MacBook Neo – and it was certainly worth the wait. The shiny new machine hit the most optimistic of price estimates, with a starting price of just $599.
There’s little doubt that the Neo will cannibalize some sales of the MacBook Air. Although it certainly involves compromises, it will be the right choice for many. However, my suspicion is that it will actually end up cannibalizing even more iPad sales …
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You’d expect Windows Central to be pretty adamant in favoring Windows laptops over any MacBook. Yet not only the website itself, but also its readers, see the MacBook Neo as a move that should see Microsoft panicking.
The site says that the timing couldn’t be better for Apple given that more Windows users than ever before are looking to switch platform, and thinks it will hurt sales of machines like the $600 ASUS Vivobook 14 shown above …
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I earlier estimated that Apple would sell gazillions of MacBook Neo machines. TrendForce is now out with a slightly more formal estimate of four to five million units this year.
The market intelligence company also notes that Apple is headed in the opposite direction to most of its competitors …
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