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Ben Lovejoy

benlovejoy

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.

Connect with Ben Lovejoy

Vision Pro Immersive Video makes it the ultimate entertainment device, says Apple

Vision Pro Immersive Video | visionOS apps

Vision Pro Immersive Video makes it the ultimate entertainment device, according to Apple, as the company highlighted the entertainment capabilities of its spatial computer.

The company previewed “immersive, first-of-its-kind original stories, produced with Apple Immersive Video” which were first demonstrated to the media in the form of Alicia Keys: Rehearsal Room

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AirPods and Vision Pro supplier moving production to Vietnam after Apple pressure

AirPods and Vision Pro supplier moving production to Vietnam (AirPods line-up shown)

Apple supplier Goertek has firmed up plans to move a substantial amount of production from China to Vietnam, after the Cupertino company urged it to do so. The company currently makes AirPods, and is also believed to have been lined up as a Vision Pro supplier.

The company said last year that it had been receiving almost daily queries about how quickly it could move production from China to Vietnam …

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OLED iPad production underway in run-up to reported spring launch

OLED iPad production | Colorful wallpaper shown

A new supply-chain report says that OLED iPad production is now underway. LG is said to have recently started manufacturing displays for the 13-inch iPad Pro, with OLED panels for the 11-inch model expected to begin any day now.

Samsung is reportedly beginning its own production of OLED iPad panels sometime this week, as we approach a reputed spring launch …

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iPhone Diary: Video stabilisation still wows me; low-light video still tops my wish-list

iPhone 15 Pro Max low-light video quality | Still from footage in a dimly-lit restaurant

Back in 2021, I talked about just how much the iPhone 13 video stabilisation impressed me.

For casual usage, the in-camera stabilization is nothing short of miraculous. Would I use it for anything more serious, like short films? I’d still prefer the 100% stability of a tripod for locked-off shots, but it’s honestly very close to the point at which I’d be willing to use it, and I might well do so for panning and tilting movements, which look almost as smooth as tripod-mounted shots.

One year and one iPhone generation later, that was still the case …

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There’s an Apple Car airbag problem – but the company has a solution

Apple Car airbag challenge | Steering wheel airbag deployed

Airbags have been proven to save lives, but an Apple Car airbag system presents a new challenge – one which could be solved by a new approach, says the company.

Airbags have been around for a long time. The first one to be fitted to a car dates back to Chevrolet Impala with a customized Oldsmobile dashboard in 1973, followed by an Oldsmobile Toronado, and they’ve been required by law in all cars sold in the US since 1998. That’s with good reason …

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Windows PCs will follow Mac example with ‘Neural Engines’ this year – Canalys

Neural Engine equivalents coming to Windows PCs | M3 chip line-up shown

While critics might say Apple is falling behind in the AI race, there’s one area where the Cupertino company has led the way: on-device AI processing using the Neural Engine in its iPhone, iPad, and Mac chips.

Market intelligence company says it expects Windows PC brands to follow Apple’s lead this year, putting their own equivalent of Neural Engine chips into high-end laptops this year …

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Xreal Air 2 Ultra ‘Vision Pro competitor’ has been announced – at $699 [U: Hands-on video]

Xreal Air 2 Ultra | Claimed Vision Pro competitor

The first claimed Vision Pro competitor has been announced, in the form of the Xreal Air 2 Ultra. The device is powered by the shiny new spatial computing chip Qualcomm announced on Friday, and costs just a fifth of the price of Vision Pro.

Update: See the hands-on video at the bottom for a sense of what they are like to use …

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Apple tells EU it has five different App Stores, not just one

Five different App Stores | App icons depicted as physical building blocks

While Apple is making behind-the-scenes preparations for allowing third-party app stores to comply with Europe’s antitrust requirements, the company is continuing to make arguments about why it shouldn’t have to.

Latest among these is the suggestion that the App Store shouldn’t be viewed as a ‘platform’ as the company actually operates five different app stores …

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Vision Pro competition heating up, with Sony announcing its own device

Sony offering Vision Pro competition (headset pictured)

We saw the first potential Vision Pro competitor yesterday, in the form of the $699 Xreal Air 2 Ultra – and Sony has also now announced its own device. Interestingly, it doesn’t yet appear to have a name.

As with the Xreal glasses, how much competition the Sony headset will pose to Vision Pro depends on who would be buying it, and for what reason …

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AirDrop cracked by China, revealing phone number and email address of sender

AirDrop cracked by China | AirDrop on two iPhones, against Chinese flag

In a significant breach of Apple’s privacy measures, a new report says that AirDrop was cracked by the Chinese government, to reveal the phone number and email address of senders.

The anonymity of AirDrop was one of the reasons it has been commonly used by activists to share information about protests, and other information censored by the government …

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Samsung and Huawei may have cost Apple 30% of expected iPhone sales in China [U]

Samsung and Huawei cost Apple some 2023 iPhone sales | Galaxy Z Fold shown

Apple last year lost some 2023 iPhone sales, thanks to growing competition from Samsung and born-again competition from Huawei, but a new report today shows that the Cupertino company remains by far the most dominant player in the premium smartphone market.

Update: An analyst report suggests that the impact may be even greater than Counterpoint’s data indicates – see update at the bottom of the piece …

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