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.
When Apple chipmaker TSMC was granted federal subsidies for building its first US plant, creating jobs for American workers was one of the key arguments. But with hiring well underway, a new report says that almost half of the TSMC Arizona plant hires are from Taiwan.
Additionally, plans for a six-step expansion program – intended to allow the Arizona plant to rival the production volumes of those in Taiwan – are now said to be unlikely to proceed ….
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Photoshop AI features are already incredibly impressive, thanks to things like generative fill and generative expand, but the company isn’t done yet.
The company has just provided a sneak preview of a new AI feature expected to be officially announced at next week’s Adobe Max event, and it looks pretty stunning …
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MacBook Pro battery life is set to be boosted by more efficient backlighting on the upcoming models, according to a new supply chain report.
It suggests that Apple will be using brighter miniLEDs for the backlight, but won’t be increasing the maximum brightness level of the displays …
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Returning packages is one of life’s most tedious chores, especially when it involves a trip to an inconveniently located USPO, FedEx, or UPS office …
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A number of TikTok deepfakes have been called out by the celebrities whose likenesses have been stolen. These include MrBeast, Tom Hanks, and Gayle King.
The fake video of MrBeast claimed that viewers had been selected to receive an iPhone 15 Pro for just $2, leaving the YouTube star to question whether social media networks are prepared for deepfake scams …
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A reported Spotify audiobooks development has now been confirmed by the company. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to 15 hours of audiobooks at no extra cost – though Americans are not first in line.
Whether or not 15 hours will let you listen to an entire book will depend on the book …
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Multiple reports of problems with iPhone wireless charging in BMWs do not appear specific to the iPhone 15 line-up, but may be exacerbating existing heating issues which Apple says are most acute in the latest models.
Some owners of BMW cars with wireless charging pads are reporting a range of problems, including the NFC chip used for Apple Pay being left unusable …
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An Indian iPhone plant run by Foxconn was temporarily closed down back in 2021 due to major health infractions in worker accommodation – including the presence of rats, food crawling with worms, and toilets without running water.
Now for the first time, we’re learning of the findings of a subsequent government inspection, which revealed many more safety infractions within the plant itself, some of which were described as “highly hazardous” to the health of workers …
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A week after other companies did so, Apple has finally complied with a Chinese app law that requires developers to have a registered local company in the country.
The move comes after it was suggested that social media apps like X, Instagram, and Facebook would have to be removed from the Chinese version of the App Store …
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A busy time meant that my first test of the new 5x telephoto lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max was nothing more than a quick 3x versus 5x comparison shot from my apartment as part of a first impressions piece.
Yesterday, I got the chance to see how useful the new lens is for portraits – from the purely optical bokeh seen above, to testing iOS 17’s newfound ability to automatically add depth data, letting you adjust focus after taking the photo …
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An Apple Pay antitrust lawsuit will go ahead, after the judge rejected the iPhone maker’s motion to dismiss the case.
Three credit unions are suing Apple for what it says is a 100% monopoly on mobile wallets on iPhones and Apple Watches …
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Apple and its former engineer Cher Scarlett didn’t exactly part on the best of terms, but the company has publicly thanked them for identifying a Find My privacy flaw …
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Security researchers have highlighted a couple of potential iCloud Keychain issues you may want to be aware of in iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma.
One is that upgrading may switch the feature on if you previously had it off, while the second arises if you have the feature enabled and then toggle it off …
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Eufy security cameras are getting an update that allows them to track a visitor across multiple cameras, and send you a single video alert which follows the visitor between views.
A demo video shows a delivery driver dropping off a package, and one view shows them placing the package in a yard, combined with a view from a second camera which shows the driver getting back into their van at the front of the home …
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If your Apple Watch weather complication is not working, we already found one workaround that seems to help, but Apple now has two suggested fixes.
What is happening for a significant number of people is that all weather complications – conditions, temperature, and precipitation – show no data, with two dashes where the numbers should be …
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Update: Reuters reports that the Chinese regulator has now published a list of 26 companies who have complied with the law, and Apple is not listed.
A range of Android app stores have taken action to comply with the latest developer clampdown in China, meeting a deadline of the end of August. Several days past the deadline, however, Apple’s Chinese App Store appears to have taken no action to comply with the new law …
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Apple’s environmental credentials were front and center in the iPhone 15 event thanks to a lengthy and somewhat cringeworthy skit (making an unfunny video with Octavia Spencer is kind of an achievement in itself, but I guess that’s what happens when you commission a sketch during a writers’ strike).
A new piece says that the company’s actions and commitments put it way ahead of major rivals, but the elephant in the room is the annual product cycle for iPhones …
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The new Oceanic+ 2.0 app finally supports freediving of up to 130 feet (40 meters) on both the original Apple Watch Ultra and the new Ultra 2.
The ability to use the Apple Watch Ultra as a fully-fledged dive computer was one of the headline features when Apple launched the original model, but it’s taken some time for all the promised features to arrive …
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The iPhone 12 enjoyed some unexpected time in the spotlight, some three years after launch, when French authorities suddenly announced that it was found to have exceeded legal radiation exposure limits. There was talk of having the model withdrawn from sale.
The drama now looks set to end, as Apple has delivered a promised software update to resolve the issue, and the French government is now testing it …
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Widespread reports are circulating about the iPhone 15 overheating, seemingly across all models. Measurements taken with an infrared camera show temperatures as high as 116F.
The issue appears to affect all four iPhone 15 models, with some owners reporting that their phones get too hot to even hold without a case – including 9to5Mac’s Ian Zelbo …
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I may have just taken delivery of my shiny new iPhone 15 Pro Max, but I do get to write one last diary post about its predecessor, before it gets unceremoniously packaged up to be sent back to Apple.
Not content with one time-consuming hobby – Argentine tango – I attempted to add another: amateur filmmaking. The latter didn’t get too far, as it struggled to compete for my time and attention (I’ve so far managed just two micro-shorts, totaling all of three-and-a-half minutes), but I did get to combine the two in one project …
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Streaming video piracy is on the rise again, according to a new study, in apparent response to growing subscription costs for services like Netflix and Disney+ …
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iFixit has shared a video of its iPhone 15 Pro Max teardown, with the periscope camera and its 5x telephoto lens the key new thing to see.
The company also found the new titanium casing is vulnerable to scratches, and that Apple has further extended the parts pairing that makes DIY repairs more difficult …
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Apple has now moved a total of $7B worth of iPhone production out of China and into India, according to an unnamed government official cited in a new report.
The same official says that Apple plans to hit $40B within the next five years, as the company accelerates plans to reduce its dependence on China …
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