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.
New York’s flagship Fifth Avenue Apple Store was spray-painted by climate change protesters, calling for a boycott of the company.
Three slogans were sprayed onto the glass frontage of the store, with Extinction Rebellion accusing Apple of hypocrisy on environmental issues …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple puts its products through a lot of tests during the development process, intended to ensure they have a long and reliable life even in challenging conditions. The company tests at least 10,000 iPhones prior to launch in an attempt to cover all the bases.
It’s not often the iPhone maker lets outsiders into its labs, but Apple invited some of those attending WWDC 2025 to visit one to see for themselves the conditions it expects its gadgets to survive …
Expand Expanding Close
iPhones and Android smartphones started to play more nicely together after Apple finally opted to support the Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard. Prior to this, messages between the two platforms had to use the ancient and insecure text messaging service.
Not all RCS features are supported as yet, with the all-important strong encryption waiting for RCS 3.0 support in iOS 26. Another RCS 3.0 feature is the ability to edit outgoing messages after sending them, and that one has started a limited one-way rollout …
Expand Expanding Close
A pair of market intelligence reports show that the Apple Watch and AirPods continue to dominate the global market in their respective categories.
However, Apple’s long-held lead in the smartwatch market is now being challenged by Huawei, according to the latest estimates …
Expand Expanding Close
A alarming new study has found that som teen drivers in the US spend as much as 21% of their time at the wheel looking at their phones, creating a substantial risk of distracted driving crashes.
While much of this was brief glances, more than 5% of driving time comprised looking at their phone for 2+ seconds a time, long enough to qualify as dangerous …
Expand Expanding Close
The long-rumored iPhone Fold – the colloquial term used for the company’s unannounced folding iPhone – is reported to be on schedule for a potential launch in the second half of next year.
The device is said to have reached the Prototype 1 (P1) stage last month, which is the first point at which the company creates fully-functional devices …
Expand Expanding Close
A Qantas data breach resulting from a cybersecurity attack has put up to 6M customer records at risk of exposure, with names, email addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth confirmed to be included. The hack was of a contact center database operated by one of the airline’s partners …
Expand Expanding Close
More than 300 Chinese iPhone engineers and technicians have been recalled from an Indian production plant, says a new report.
No public acknowledgement or explanation has been offered, but suspicion is falling on the Chinese government, which has previously been accused of actively hampering Apple’s attempts to move more iPhone production out of the country …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple has accused a former senior Vision Pro engineer of stealing thousands of documents containing plans for unreleased features, and taking them to his new role working on glasses–based projects for Snap.
A lawsuit alleges that Di Liu claimed he was quitting his job for health reasons, hiding from Apple that his true plan was to join Snapchat as a developer in a “substantially similar” role…
Expand Expanding Close
A new market intelligence report lists the eight reasons people opt to upgrade Mac or PC, divided into three categories.
It also reveals that Mac shipments grew faster than any PC brand in the first quarter of the year, with year–on–year growth of almost 29% …
Expand Expanding Close
Almost 700 Brother printer models have been found to contain a number of serious security flaws that could allow an attacker to access other devices on your network, and potentially access your documents. The same is true of some printer models made by Fujifilm, Toshiba, Ricoh, and Konica Minolta …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple introduced new HomeKit architecture back in 2022, with the primary aim of making the smart home system more reliable. At the time, users could choose between upgrading or remaining on the original version of the platform.
Fast–forward to March of this year, and 9to5Mac discovered code showing that the company was planning to drop support for the old version. That was subsequently confirmed by Apple, and a further reminder has now been found in the latest iOS 18.6 beta – with a little more detail …
Expand Expanding Close
9to5Mac is brought to you by CleanMyMac: Tidy up your Mac and iPhone today! Try 7 days free and use our code 9TO5MAC15 for 15% off. Also check out CleanMyPhone for your iPhone!
macOS Tahoe 26 represents one of the more dramatic changes we’ve seen to the look and feel of the Mac operating system in recent years.
There’s new functionality too, of course, and Apple thinks the blend of the two will greatly enhance the experience of Mac users …
Expand Expanding Close
Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist has been around for a full decade now, aiming to introduce you to singers and bands you don’t know but may like, with particular emphasis on emerging artists. It’s been great for me, but if it isn’t quite hitting the spot, you can now help it do better …
Expand Expanding Close
Analyst Ming–Chi Kuo has suggested that Apple plans to launch an all–new MacBook next year, powered by an iPhone processor. Specifically, he expects it to have the A18 Pro chip which currently powers the iPhone 16 Pro line–up.
While there’s no word on pricing, the only way the report makes sense is if Apple is targeting an even lower price than the $999 starting–point of the current MacBook Air. Indeed, if you factor in discounted pricing on that, then it would have to be significantly cheaper. But there may be a more cynical possibility …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple last week announced an insanely complex set of changes to its App Store terms in the EU, and hidden in the small–print is one sign that the company might be reducing its standard commission from 30% to 20%, and that it may make this change globally.
If so, it would be the first time the company has ever reduced its 30% cut for all developers, and might go a long way to tackling its legal battles with antitrust regulators around the world …
Expand Expanding Close
I wrote a year ago that I hardly use an iPad any more. With one small exception, that remains the case – but iPadOS 26 did have me revisit the question.
That’s because this transforms the device so much that, for the first time, I considered it impossible to argue that the iPad isn’t now a (proper) computer …
Expand Expanding Close
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has said that the platform is being spammed by AI bots, and is now in “an arms race” to detect and block these fake posts.
The irony here is that the very reason Reddit is being targeted by bots is because the company sells access to user posts for AI training …
Expand Expanding Close
Some data brokers may be illegally selling your information – preventing you from finding out what personal data is held, and opting out from its collection and resale.
Privacy campaigners say they’ve “uncovered a troubling pattern” that may indicate companies who collect and re–sell personal data may not be complying with state laws …
Expand Expanding Close
Anyone running a beta version of any software should of course expect issues, but if you own an Apple Watch Hermès, you’ll want to completely avoid the beta 2 versions of both watchOS 26 and iOS 26.
Apple has warned of an incompatibility issue between watchOS 26 beta 2 and the Hermès watch, believed to be due to a problem with the watch faces unique to that model …
Expand Expanding Close
While the rush to AI–ify all the things gets exceedingly silly at times, adding intelligence to Ring security cameras does at least have the potential to be a smart move.
The company has announced a beta version of Video Descriptions, which attempts to describe exactly what doorbell and other security cameras are seeing when notifying you …
Expand Expanding Close
The new Finder icon in the first beta of macOS Tahoe 26 raised a lot of eyebrows when Apple did more than glassify it: the company also flipped the light and dark sides.
The internet wasn’t happy, and beta 2 saw the natural order of things restored – but many still think Apple has lost sight of an essential element, and one designer has put it right …
Expand Expanding Close
2025 iPad Pro production is reportedly already underway, as both Samsung and LG began making the displays earlier this month. The new models are expected to launch toward the end of the year, with October a likely bet.
However, the high pricing of the OLED iPad Pro models is said to have deterred many potential buyers last year, and the same is expected to be true this year …
Expand Expanding Close
Audi and Mercedes–Benz are among the car makers to reject CarPlay Ultra, despite Apple listing them as future partners, and they are not alone.
Aston–Martin was the first to adopt it, and Porsche has said that it will be doing so – but others previously named by Apple have either changed their minds, or are keeping suspiciously quiet …
Expand Expanding Close