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.
I didn’t waste any time when AirTags first came out, immediately buying eight of them: for five bags, keys, a videography rig, and a bicycle. But I’ve also repurposed some of them during trips for some AirTag sharingwith friends, and iOS 18.2 makes this option even better.
I’ve confessed before to being something of a bagaholic, so the first thing I did was to slip an AirTag into each of my main bags, where they live almost permanently …
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We learned earlier this week of a Bluesky extortion issue, emerging after the social network said that it would use domain name ownership as a way to verify the identity of public figures.
Bluesky hasn’t fully addressed the issue, but has taken one step toward reducing the problem of scammers impersonating well-known people on the platform …
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AI video editing based on text prompts is coming to Instagram next year, with the company’s head showing off the ability to do things like change your clothing and video background, as well as some funkier stuff like adding animated characters.
The company had earlier shown a demo video (below) of completely AI-generated video, stating that it was just a research project, but it seems the first practical application of the tech is arriving sooner than expected …
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Apple’s Vision Pro strategy of launching a very high-end professional product first, and a more affordable consumer version second, is likely to prove successful in the long-run, predicts market intelligence company TrendForce.
The company says that although many have criticized the very high price tag, the device has still captured a respectable 5% of the market, and has created expectations which competitor brands will need to meet …
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Analytics data suggests that we’re downloading fewer iPhone apps this year than last, but spending significantly more money on them. That’s because almost half of developer revenue now comes from subscriptions.
App Store downloads declined slightly in the past 12 months, but the total spend increased dramatically from $73.7B last year to $91.6B this year …
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An Apple Intelligence Chinese launch isn’t looking much closer, as the company continues forced talks with local companies about partnerships.
Apple reportedly wanted to use its own generative AI models in China, but that would require government approval which – it has been strongly implied – would not be forthcoming …
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The Apple Intelligence summary feature should be banned after it falsely claimed that Luigi Mangione had shot himself, says Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF).
The non-profit body advises the United Nations, Council of Europe, and other governmental agencies on issues relating to journalism and freedom of information …
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AirTags will be made in Indonesia for the first time, and production will ramp up to 20% of global production over time, according to a new report.
The plan is Apple’s way to meet a government requirement for a billion dollar investment in the economy in order to reverse a ban on the sale of iPhones in the country …
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Seagate is finally offering its largest-ever hard drive – a staggering 32TB in a single drive, made possible by tech which uses lasers to heat and cool tiny sections of a platter in a nanosecond …
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Electricity regulators are concerned that the huge growth in AI usage could lead to power blackouts in the US and Canada as early as next year. The prediction was published shortly after the public release of iOS 18.2 brought many more Apple Intelligence features online.
Artificial intelligence services like ChatGPT and Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute servers will see data center power usage double in the course of just four years, and power grids will likely struggle to keep up with this demand …
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has today announced a new rule which will ban apps and websites in the hotel and event industries from using hidden fees to engage in bait-and-switch pricing.
The agency found it was common practice for companies to show a misleading price, which was then inflated by hidden costs like booking and resort fees, only revealed during the checkout process …
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The most popular home internet router brand in the US may be banned from sale in the country over fears that it represents a threat to national security.
Three separate US agencies have opened investigations into TP-Link routers, which account for 65% of the US market, in part because badged versions are supplied to customers by more than 300 ISPs …
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Two leakers, each with enough of a track record to give them some credibility, are clashing over the iPhone 17 camera layout.
The first says that the iPhone 17 Pro will adopt a horizontal layout in a module with a similar shape to the Dynamic Island, while the other says that the design of the camera module is indeed changing but the triangular arrangement remains …
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Bloomberg this weekend reported that Apple has made prototypes of a foldable iPad, and plans to release it in 2028. The device is said to open out into a screen with a size approaching 20 inches.
The report is intriguing, because it describes a product that might seem almost as niche as Vision Pro, but it may be that Apple will launch it for similar reasons …
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has for the first time revealed the daily number of Threads users, stating that there are now more than 100 million daily active users. It’s also been suggested that the current trajectory means that the app could catch up with the social network formerly known as Twitter.
Zuckerberg is likely aiming to fight back against the growing popularity of Bluesky, also citing a new milestone in monthly active users …
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The TikTok ban is once again in doubt, despite an appeals court rejecting the company’s argument that it was protected by the First Amendment.
Parent company ByteDance has applied to the US Supreme Court for an emergency injunction against the law requiring it to sell TikTok to a US company or be banned …
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Amnesty International says a security vulnerability in HomeKit was used to target iPhones belonging to Serbian journalists and activists.
The civil rights organization conducted an investigation after Apple notified two of the victims that their devices had been compromised by Pegasus spyware …
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A new survey suggests that Apple Intelligence matters to iPhone buyers, but the majority say that the initial features add little to no value. It remains to be seen whether Genmoji and ChatGPT integration will change that view.
Things are even worse for Samsung smartphones, with an even greater majority of owners saying they can’t see much point in the AI features offered …
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Deep fakes are arguably the most dangerous aspect of AI. It’s now relatively trivial to create fake photos, audio, and even video. See below for deep fakes of Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise, for example.
But while social media has so far been used as a mechanism for distributing deep fakes, Instagram head Adam Mosseri thinks it can actually play a key role in debunking them …
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Apple Intelligence managed to create a piece of Luigi Mangione fake news last week, thanks to the notification summary feature. It somehow decided that the suspect in the killing of United Health CEO Brian Thompson had shot himself.
The mistake, in itself, is not surprising: AI systems make this kind of error all the time. What is rather more surprising is that Apple allowed it to happen when it could have been easily avoided …
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Plenty of people have tried to replace Twitter/X, but only a few new social media apps have achieved any traction, notably Threads and Bluesky.
But a new app created by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams isn’t trying to replace those, but instead do one of the things I most value about social media, and absolutely nothing else …
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Continuity is one of the biggest strengths of the Apple ecosystem, and iPhone Mirroring is a great addition to that – letting us not only mirror our iPhone to our Mac desktop, but also take full control of it.
I’m a huge fan of the feature, and use it every single day, but it does have a few weaknesses that I’d love to see Apple address …
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The iPhone 17 Air has reportedly entered the new product introduction (NPI) phase – the first step toward manufacture of the ultra-thin model.
Apple is believed to have prioritized a sleek design above feature set for the upcoming model, which may well be the most expensive one in the iPhone 17 line-up …
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If you’ve ever wondered whether security cameras and alarms are effective at deterring burglars, the answer is yes – and that comes from a very reliable source: burglars.
KGW-TV asked 86 inmates convicted of burglary what would make them more likely to rob a home, and which things would deter them …
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