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.
A poll of nearly 3,000 9to5Mac readers revealed the unsurprising news that the most popular model in the upcoming lineup is the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
But what may be a little more surprising is that, based on what we know so far, the iPhone 17 Air is more appealing than the iPhone 17 Pro …
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One of the many delayed Apple Intelligence features is known as App Intents, and we’re starting to see evidence that taking an extremely cautious approach to the rollout may be no bad thing.
Before the comments catch fire, I should stress that I’m most assuredly not giving Apple a free pass on the slow rollout of new Siri capabilities in general. There are a great many capabilities which should very definitely have been launched years ago. Indeed, I’ve argued that the delay is now so embarrassing that Apple should probably allow us to choose our own chatbot to stand in for Siri, and the majority of you agreed with me. But when it comes to AI agents, taking things slowly may be the right approach …
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The Chipolo POP proved a popular AirTag competitor when it launched earlier this year, and the company has now added two further Find My compatible trackers.
The new models are the Loop and a new version of the Card, with the former essentially a Pop with an integrated silicon loop for even easier attachment to bags, keys, and so on …
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Six people have been arrested after Apple chipmaker TSMC said that several then-employees tried to steal trade secrets relating to the company’s most advanced chip process. TSMC fired the individuals concerned and is now taking legal action against them.
Update: Three of the six have now been indicted, and prosecutors are seeking a 14-year prison sentence for one of them – see the update at the end …
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You would think certain things would be blindingly obvious, among them “if you are listening to music or a video on your phone on public transit, wear headphones.”
But anyone who regularly uses transit services can tell you that this is definitely not the case. London has now decided to take executive action with a PR campaign …
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The iPhone 17 event is finally official with the slogan “Awe dropping,” taking place on Tuesday, September 9.
We’re expecting Apple to announce either six or seven new devices, alongside some possible new iPhone cases and Watch bands too …
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Apple is doubling its retail footprint in India with the imminent opening of two new stores next week, one in Bengaluru and the other in Pune.
As usual, the company is offering downloadable wallpaper to celebrate the openings, this one with a peacock theme …
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Apple is engaged in legal battles in both the UK and the US over 4G patents used in its mobile devices. The company has applied for permission to appeal a UK verdict which would cost it an additional 13 cents per iPhone.
While this might sound crazy, the company says that very much more is at stake, not just for its own business, but for companies of every size …
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Earlier this year, we spotted signs of a Logitech MX Master 4 in the works, replacing the 3S, and we subsequently got a closer look at it. Now a new report says it will include haptic feedback …
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Historical precedent suggests that the latest iOS 26 beta may be the final one, and therefore the version that will be released into the wild next month.
But while the stats may favor this, not everyone is convinced that beta 8 is ready to be unleashed. Given that there’s now very little time left before the iPhone 17 launch, is iOS 26 good enough … ?
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Earlier this year, we saw an Apple Music tool intended to make it easier to switch from Spotify, and that tool is now available in more countries, including the US.
But wait! Are you sure you really want to do that when Spotify has just rolled out its very latest feature? Direct messages …
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One feature that has been available for a number of years on Android has long been expected to come to iPhone too: reverse wireless charging. A leaker yesterday suggested that it’s coming to the two iPhone 17 Pro models.
If true, this would be good news for three reasons, but there is reason to suggest that may not be possible – due to MagSafe …
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My colleague Michael Burkhardt posed an interesting question earlier in the week: if you had to start again with your Apple kit, what would you buy?
There’s already one Apple product category I no longer use, and a second one I use only on a technicality …
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Apple’s Vision Pro is a very nice piece of kit, but the $3,400 price means that even CEO Tim Cook has acknowledged it’s a niche product, and the 600g plus weight also means many find it uncomfortable to wear for longer than an hour.
Chinese brand Vivo has attempted to address both issues in a design which looks remarkably like a direct copy of Apple’s spatial computer …
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The most annoying thing about X is, well, X – but the company has at least fixed an app behavior many of us found frustrating.
Just 18 years after users started complaining about it, X’s head of product said that a fix is now rolling out …
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A former Meta product manager has claimed that the social network circumvented Apple’s privacy protections, as well as cheating advertisers, and fired him when he repeatedly raised the issue internally.
Meta is said to have found ways to identify Apple users even after they refused consent for app tracking, in order to avoid an estimated $10 billion loss of revenue …
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The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) carried out a record number of phone searches of travelers arriving at, or returning to, the US in the last quarter.
The legal position on these searches is unclear when it comes to US citizens, but there are steps you can take to protect your privacy …
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Amazon Fire tablets have so far been cheap and cheerful devices, often bought for children. Running a heavily-customized version of Android known as Fire OS, they haven’t achieved much traction in the market …
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More than 370,000 Grok AI chats have been published on the Grok website and indexed by search engines, making them public.
In addition to the interactive chats themselves, Elon Musk’s xAI company also published photos, spreadsheets and other uploaded documents …
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Two of Verizon’s mobile plans are getting some upgrades at no additional cost. The improvements are being made to the Simple Mobile and Total Wireless plans.
All five of the Simple Mobile tiers are being upgraded, while the same is true of the top two Total Wireless levels …
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It’s proving a very long wait for the new Siri, but perhaps it doesn’t matter so much after all. A new survey shows that most people are using Siri and other voice assistants in exactly the same way they did way back in 2018.
While some new capabilities have been added, and there are some generational differences in usage, the vast majority of it falls into five rather basic categories …
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If you prefer to do your own repairs of Apple devices or to use independent shops, then it’s now easier to do so in Canada.
Apple has today brought its self-service repair and genuine parts distributor programs to the country …
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A random report from an account with zero track-record for anything claims that the iPhone 18 will drop the Camera Control button as too few people are using it.
The claim is entirely meaningless, but I strongly suspect that it’s right in one respect: that hardly anyone is using the feature …
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Indie content platform Substack now lets you subscribe to newsletters, podcasts, and video channels via an in-app purchase.
However, while this removes friction from the subscription sign-up process, you definitely shouldn’t use it, for two reasons …
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