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.
The popular Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones already got one update back in the summer, but the company has now announced a bigger update deserving of a 2nd-generation label…
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Apple has been working for many years on developing its own mobile data modem to replace the Qualcomm ones on which it has traditionally relied. The first of these, the C1 chip, was used in the iPhone 16e, and is also expected to be used in the upcoming iPhone 17 Air.
There have so far been mixed messages on how well it compares to Qualcomm’s current chip, and a new study by Ookla provides our most detailed comparison yet …
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There’s just one day to go until the iPhone 17 event, and the Awe Dropping announcements will of course be streaming online.
You have a choice of three different ways to watch the event live, and if you’re watching from a browser, it’s worth having two different tabs open …
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Apple has always been unapologetic in its premium positioning. You know that when you buy Apple, you’re going to be paying a higher price than for almost any competing product, and are willing to do so for the perceived benefits of this – whether that’s the quality, the style, or the ecosystem.
The company has made a few nods toward affordability over the years, and we’re expecting the next one to be a new entry-level MacBook. But we’re also moving into an era where three new product launches are going to push the boundaries ever higher …
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If you’re planning to replace your wireless router with a new one and you have a smart home, there’s a new certification you’re going to want …
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Adobe Premiere Pro users will be happy to hear there’s an iPhone app launching later this month, which the company is promising will be closer to the capabilities of its desktop app than the cut-down Premiere Rush app.
The company will also be hoping to attract those who are newer to video editing on iPhone, in order to create a potential new market for the desktop app …
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With Apple TV+ and other streaming services increasing their prices this year, there’s some rare good news from Paramount. For a limited period, you can get one of two annual plans for half price …
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We’ve known for some time that there was major news on the way from Philips Hue, and the company has now announced all of the details.
One of the headline features is a new Bridge Pro which turns your existing smart bulbs into motion sensors. Bulbs also get more affordable, light strips get brighter, and there’s support for Matter-over-Thread. Finally, the smart doorbell leaked earlier in the year is now official …
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For more than a year now, there have been debates about whether Google’s payment to Apple to be the default search engine in Safari would be outlawed.
While it had seemed likely this would be the case, what we got was a compromise ruling. It turned out that the difference between Apple earning $20 billion a year and $0 hinged on a single word …
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A second Windows laptop has demonstrated that there is potential for the MacBook Air to be even lighter. Earlier this year, we saw a 14-inch Asus laptop come in lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air, and now Acer has done the same with a 16-inch model.
Interestingly, the Acer Swift Air 16 manages to be lighter than the MacBook Air despite being thicker, at 0.63-inches against 0.44 inches …
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Apple is already under massive fire for falling behind in AI, and Google’s Gemini smart home plans are about to make that a whole lot worse.
Not only is Siri lagging dramatically behind generative AI chatbots in smartphone-based tasks, but Google is about to make Apple’s assistant look really dumb when it comes to smart homes …
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The latest Apple Store opens tomorrow, just a couple of days after the previous one, which saw the Genius Bar and Pickup counter integrated into a single area.
Apple Koregaon Park Also adopts this approach, and both stores also take a new approach to blurring the line between the interior and exterior …
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It seems clear we’re still a year away from the first iPhone Fold, but the rest of the market isn’t standing still. Samsung is planning to launch its first trifold phone this year, and Huawei is already onto its second-generation model.
On a pedantic note, I would argue that as they have two sets of hinges, they are bifold rather than trifold, but the industry seems to have adopted the latter term, so I guess we’re stuck with it now …
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A new survey of US iPhone owners claims that almost a third of them would consider switching to either Samsung or Google in order to get a folding phone this year, rather than waiting until the expected launch of the iPhone Fold next year.
There’s a mix of good and bad news for Apple in the rest of the findings, but the headline claim seems a real stretch …
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A TransUnion data breach has exposed sensitive personal information for millions of US consumers, including dates of birth and social security numbers.
However, reports of a major Gmail security problem affecting all 2.5 billion users are false, though loosely based on a far more contained incident back in June …
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We wouldn’t think many aspects of iPhone user interface design could be more straightforward than the time picker in the alarm function – but it appears we would be wrong …
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The last 11-inch MacBook Air model ever made has now been declared officially obsolete by Apple, some nine years after it was last sold by the company.
The smallest of Apple’s MacBooks had long proved a popular choice with many, for two different reasons …
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Apple’s commitment to end-to-end encryption is so strong that it withdrew a key privacy feature from the UK market rather than be forced to compromise it globally. The company also faced pressure on this front from the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
In a surprising twist, the White House came out in support of strong encryption, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is now urging Apple and other tech giants to stand firm on the issue …
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Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said back in March that he expected the iPhone Fold to have Touch ID on the side button rather than using Face ID. He has today reiterated this.
While there have been some suggestions that Apple might use an in-display ultrasonic Touch ID sensor, Kuo says this is “unlikely” …
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A dedicated Pickup counter has been one of the most notable changes in Apple store designs over the last few years, giving a faster service to those customers who have ordered a product for in-store collection.
First launched in 2021, the very latest Apple store design has combined this with the Genius Bar in a single counter …
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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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