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Ben Lovejoy

benlovejoy

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.

Connect with Ben Lovejoy

Check whether you qualify for share of $20M Apple Watch payout

Way back in 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple, alleging a defect in early Apple Watch models that could cause the display to crack or detach from the casing.

While Apple has acknowledged some issues related to swollen batteries, and offered free service, it refused coverage for cracked or detached screens. The company has now agreed to a financial settlement for this …

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Super Bowl Sundays are really noisy everywhere in the US – Apple Watch study

Apple Watch study finds that Super Bowl Sundays are really noisy everywhere in the US | Stylized image of soundwaves

You don’t have to be in the Super Bowl stadium to be exposed to a lot of noise during the game. A new Apple Watch study found that noise levels across America are significantly higher than normal for about nine hours on Super Bowl Sundays.

On average, across the US, you’re likely to be exposed to noise levels between 1.5 and 3 decibels higher than usual – which is a lot worse than it sounds when it comes to potential hearing damage

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Satellite video calls coming to Europe and US, starting this year

Satellite video calls coming to Europe and US, starting this year | Screengrab from demo video

Satellite video calls will be coming to Europe from later this year, following a successful demo of the tech by Vodafone in partnership with AST SpaceMobile. Rollout in the US through AT&T will follow some time later.

As with existing satellite text and voice calls, the service will operate in remote areas where no cellular coverage is available …

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DeepSeek privacy under investigation in US and Europe; removed from App Store in Italy

DeepSeek privacy under investigation in US and Europe | App seen on an iPhone

DeepSeek privacy concerns have led to investigations being opened in both the US and Europe, and seen the app removed from the App Store in Italy. It seems likely the same will happen in other countries.

Italian’s privacy regulator questioned whether the app complied with GDPR, a tough privacy law that applies across 30 different countries …

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The X Everything App will launch this year, aiming to compete with Apple Pay

The X Everything App will launch this year, and compete with Apple Pay | X logo with a bag of cash

When Elon Musk bought Twitter, one of his many controversial decisions was to rebrand the company and social network platform as X. He said at the time that the purchase was “as an accelerant for X, the everything app” – aka a western clone of China’s WeChat.

Part of this vision includes becoming a mobile payment platform to compete with Apple Pay, and the company’s CEO today said part of this functionality will launch later this year …

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Trump’s threatened tariffs on imported chips likely wouldn’t affect Apple devices

Trump's proposed tariffs on imported chips likely wouldn't affect Apple devices | Apple Store seen from the air

Along with threatening to impose a tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico, Trump said this week that he also plans to impose duties of up to 100% on silicon chips imported into the US.

Some are suggesting that this would affect the price of everything Apple makes, as its chips are made in Taiwan, but that’s almost certainly not the case …

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SLAP and FLOP security flaws affect all current Apple devices, and many older ones

SLAP and FLOP security flaws affect all current Apple devices | M-series chip shown

Security researchers have discovered two flaws present in all current iPhones, iPads, and Macs – as well as many earlier ones. The vulnerabilities, known as SLAP and FLOP, could potentially allow an attacker to see the current contents of your open web tabs.

The flaws were introduced in the A15 and M2 chips, and are also found in subsequent ones, up to and including the latest version of each device …

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Tested: Moom is my new Mac window management app

The Moom Mac app window management software

I’m a self-confessed neat freak in both physical and virtual worlds, so I like to keep my Mac app windows organised. I previously did so using Stay, but when the developer seemingly abandoned it I switched to Moom.

The app lets me instantly restore all my app windows to my preferred sizes and positions, whether I’m using my MacBook Pro in standalone mode or hooked up to my external monitor …

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MKBHD hands-on with Project Moohan, a prototype of Samsung’s Vision Pro competitor

MKBHD hands-on with Project Moohan, a prototype of Samsung's Vision Pro competitor

Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee has shared a hands-on experience of Project Moohan, a prototype of Samsung’s Vision Pro competitor.

Samsung has previously allowed other tech writers to try it, including 9to5Google’s Abner Li, but this is the first time the company has allowed video footage to be shared …

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AAPL climbed 3% on DeepSeek news, as other tech stocks fell

AAPL climbed 3% on DeepSeek news, as other tech stocks fell | App seen on a smartphone

While shock at yesterday’s DeepSeek news saw the stock prices of many tech giants fall, AAPL climbed 3.25% across the course of the day.

Experts yesterday expressed amazement at the Chinese company’s AI model being on a par with US chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Llama despite being developed for a fraction of the cost and running on far lower-spec hardware …

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Beyond the iPhone 17 Air, would you accept a portless phone to go thinner? [Poll]

Beyond the iPhone 17 Air, would you accept a portless phone to go thinner | Oppo phone shown next to iPhone 16

We’re expecting the iPhone 17 Air to be Apple’s thinnest ever phone, but with the depth of phones now constrained by the USB-C port, would you go portless to get a thinner iPhone?

Chinese Android smartphone maker Oppo has been teasing an ultra-thin model, and saying that the height of the USB-C port is preventing phones from getting any slimmer …

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Judge limits FBI powers to trawl data from Apple and others; Cloudflare privacy flaw

Judge limits FBI powers to use data from Apple and others | FBI command post shown

A judge has limited FBI powers to trawl through data obtained from tech giants like Apple, Google, and ISPs under FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).

Separately, a Cloudflare privacy flaw has been identified in one of Apple’s IT service providers, which could have exposed the rough location of millions of web and app users before it was fixed …

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China’s DeepSeek hits #1 on App Store, shocks AI researchers, sends US tech shares tumbling

China’s DeepSeek – an AI chatbot intended to rival ChatGPT – is currently the number one download in the App Store, after its performance took US companies by surprise.

The Chinese startup appears to be rivalling the performance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT despite having cost far less to develop, and that’s hitting the market valuations of major US AI players …

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Leakers clash on whether iPhone SE 4 will have notch or Dynamic Island [U]

Leakers clash on whether iPhone SE 4 will have notch or Dynamic Island | iPhone 14 shown

One of the big questions about the upcoming iPhone SE 4 is whether the display will have a notch or Dynamic Island. Two leakers have presented clashing views on this, with the latest dummy models appearing to support the notch. Update: See Ross Young’s input at the end.

The dummy models also give us our clearest view yet of what the new entry-level iPhone may look like, with high-quality photos, and a video …

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Apple Watch bands safe to wear, says company, after toxic chemicals report and lawsuit

Apple Watch bands safe to wear, says company, after toxic chemicals report and lawsuit | Sports Bands shown

Apple Watch bands are safe to wear, says the company, after concerns were expressed about the presence of PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) in a number of smartwatch bands.

PFAS has been linked to a number of health concerns, and is known as a “forever chemical” as it doesn’t break down in the body or the environment …

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Samsung Galaxy S25 copied more than a dozen iPhone features, says Macworld

Samsung Galaxy S25 copied more than a dozen iPhone features, says Macworld | Ultra model shown

The newly-launched Samsung Galaxy S25 copied more than a dozen iPhone features, argues Macworld, pointing to everything from the slab-sided design to Siri’s glowing border.

The piece acknowledges that both companies copy from each other, but suggests that Samsung is a little less subtle in its approach …

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