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.
Apple is today highlighting an Apple Pay card balance feature in the UK after it was expanded to 10 banks and finance companies there.
It’s likely to quickly come to other UK brands – as well as rolling out in European Union countries – while the US rollout is likely to be significantly slower …
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Apple and Google should be held legally responsible for gatekeeping app downloads by teenagers, suggests Facebook and Instagram developer Meta.
The proposal to shift legal responsibility comes as social media platforms face increasing legal battles from parents and lawmakers alike …
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The First Amendment doesn’t protect developers from lawsuits alleging that apps like Instagram and TikTok led to social media addiction among teenagers, a US district judge has ruled …
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It’s been reported that Apple is working on making iOS 18 the biggest update in years, and I’ve argued that it needs to do so, with artificial intelligence at its heart.
In particular, I’d like to see Apple bring AI smarts to HomeKit. That is, make Apple’s smart home ecosystem truly smart …
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Apple and Google will be made responsible for paying Japanese sales tax on apps and in-app content sold by developers based outside the country, the government has said.
There are two different routes the companies could take to comply with the new policy …
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A new Venmo Groups feature makes it easy for family and friends to split bills, track shared holiday spending, or even sort out shared expenses for longer periods.
The PayPal-owned app says that there’s no longer a need to use third-party apps or spreadsheets to keep track of who owes what to whom …
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A new report says that personal information sold by data brokers is even more sensitive and detailed than previously thought, making so-called anonymized data even easier to tie back to specific individuals.
The report says that those buying data are able to target people working in extremely sensitive professions, including military personnel and “decision makers” working in national security roles …
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In the second piece of somewhat gloomy iPhone news this morning, Foxconn revenue will fall during the holiday quarter, according to the company. This contrasts with its earlier forecast of growth.
More than half of that revenue comes from Apple, as the Cupertino company faces a triple challenge in China …
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iPhone sales in China are continuing to be affected by the surprise re-emergence of Huawei as a competitor in the premium smartphone market, says a new report.
US sanctions on China last year appeared to have removed Huawei as a serious iPhone competitor, but the company surprised the world when it launched the Mate 60 …
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A TaskRabbit competitor dubbed Uber Tasks is being tested in two US cities by the ride-sharing company, as it seeks to address slowing revenue growth …
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Tap to Pay on iPhone has today launched in France, the eighth country to get access to the ultra-convenient payment system for small businesses – though some major brands are also adopting it.
Nine banks and financial service companies are on board for the launch, with others joining the French rollout “soon” …
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Apple may have made a U-turn on the right to repair, but the battle is far from over. The growing practice of parts pairing – something which has been increasingly adopted by the iPhone maker – is coming under increasing fire.
Requiring components to be individually linked to the serial numbers of specific devices is proving a major barrier to affordable third-party and DIY repair. The EU is already considering a ban on parts pairing, and right-to-repair campaigners are pushing for this in the US too …
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Anyone reading a couple of recent reports on Apple’s iOS 18 plans might be forgiven for feeling a certain amount of confusion.
The first said that the company had paused all development of new features in iOS 18, macOS 15, and watchOS 11 to focus on bug fixes. The second said that Apple intends iOS 18 to be its biggest update for years …
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Growing concern about Zelle scams has seen parent company Early Warning Services (EWS) begin to refund some people duped into sending money to criminals. The U-turn on its previous stance that customers are responsible for their own transactions is believed to have been made in an effort to stave off potential legislation …
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General Motors announced back in March that it was ditching CarPlay from future vehicles, in favor of its own infotainment systems.
The company originally partnered with Google on this, but now seems to have decided it needs an Apple touch – by hiring one of the Cupertino company’s former design directors to work on the user interface (UI), along with three more former Apple employees …
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Apple Wallet account balances can now be viewed for a total of 10 UK banks and card companies, as Apple continues the rollout of the new feature.
Users can follow a short process to connect the app to their bank account, and it will then show the current account balance directly underneath the card itself …
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Apple has admitted to discriminating against US citizens and green card holders when hiring workers through Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM).
It has been fined $6.7M, and has agreed to pay a total of $18.25M to compensate those who were victims of its “unintentional” discrimination …
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Just as HomeKit led to the development of the broader smart home standard Matter, so Apple’s Home Key is spurring the adoption of a new industry standard for smart locks and digital keys: Aliro.
The new standard is being championed by Apple, Google, and Samsung – along with a number of smart lock companies …
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Understanding what’s happening to Mac sales over the past few years is a tricky business, due to the convergence of three different factors: pandemic-induced demand, COVID-related supply disruptions, and early upgrades driven by the switch to Apple Silicon.
Last week’s earnings report led some to wonder whether Mac sales were in trouble, but my own view is that the underlying longer-term trend of slow and steady upward growth is essentially unchanged …
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Macworld has updated its tables in which the performance of every Apple processor is compared – from the A13 Bionic in the 9th-gen iPad, to the top-end M3 Max in the new MacBook Pro.
It’s been a week since we first saw just how impressive an achievement the M3 Max is: Apple’s top-end mobile chip matching that of its previous generation maxed-out desktop chip …
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Apple’s Irish tax battle looked to have reached the end of the line when the case went before the European Court of Justice – the equivalent of the US Supreme Court. Whichever way the ECJ ruled, its decision would be final.
The ECJ was set to announce that result as soon as this month (though more likely early next year) – but this now looks unlikely, following a major setback to Apple and the Irish government …
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Most messaging apps let you choose whether or not to reveal that you’ve read a message, but there was no way to switch off Instagram read receipts. That is now changing, albeit only for some users initially …
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Free access to Spotify audiobooks is now available to Premium subscribers in the US. The new perk first launched last month in the UK and Australia …
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The launch of the M3 MacBook Pro has reignited a long-standing debate over Apple’s memory tiers and pricing.
A new piece describes 8GB as an insulting starting point in a 2023 professional machine, and calls Apple’s upgrade pricing “pure corporate greed” – while Apple claims that its base model is equivalent to 16GB in PC terms …
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