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.
iOS 18.1 will reportedly launch on October 28, and if you own an iPhone 15 Pro or any iPhone 16, that’s the date you can expect to get your hands on the first six Apple Intelligence features.
I’ve been using them all in the developer betas, and here are my personal experiences, and the AI features I think are most impressive …
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A Russian YouTuber allegedly provided a first ever unboxing video of an unannounced Mac, and claims to reveal specs for the M4 MacBook Pro we’re expecting Apple to reveal later this month.
Judging the authenticity of the video is a tough call, but it’s not such a challenge to make an informed guess about the likely accuracy of those specs …
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Both the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 15 before it offer the option to limit charging to 80% rather than 100%. The thinking is that many people don’t need the full battery capacity of the device in a typical day, and it reduces wear on the battery, extending its life.
But is the theory backed up by real-world results? A sister site of Macworld decided to collect some data and carry out a statistical analysis to find out …
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I’m very late to the sit-stand desk party, I know. My colleague Jeff Benjamin first made the switch way back in 2016, and Apple did the same for all its Apple Park employees in 2018.
I’d so far been using a large custom-made desk, but there are two reasons that now seemed a good time to make a switch …
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The controversy over MKBHD’s wallpaper app isn’t showing any signs of dying down, but whatever your thoughts on the $50/year subscription, there are plenty of places you can go to download free wallpaper for your Apple devices.
There are both wallpaper-specific sources, as well as stock photography sites offering a huge variety of choices suitable for iPhone, iPad, and Mac …
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The AAPL earnings call for Q4 2024 has been scheduled for October 31, and will give our first official hint about early iPhone 16 sales.
The fiscal quarter covers July to September. Pre-orders for the new iPhone models opened on September 13, with the phones available in Apple Stores from September 20, so launch orders will be included in the iPhone revenue …
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Back in February, I talked about the difficulty of smoothly zooming video footage using the on-screen controls, and said I’d really love a hardware control. The iPhone 16 looked like it might give me what I wanted, with the Camera Control video zoom feature.
Unfortunately, right now, it doesn’t. Using the Camera Control slider to zoom in or out during video shooting is currently so bad it’s unusable …
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Some developers yesterday argued that a change to iPhone contact privacy in iOS 18 made it harder for new social media apps to compete.
But I think they’re wrong, and that the more granular privacy control offered in iOS 18 actually makes it more likely that we’ll be willing to grant contacts access to apps …
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Two of the iPhone 16 designers have spoken on the Cool Hunting Design Tangents podcast, sharing some of the thinking behind the development of the new Camera Control button.
Senior product designer Rich Dinh said that he’s worked on the iPhone since the original model, but they still approach each generation afresh …
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A new version of Oura’s smart ring has been announced, the Oura Ring 4. The new model is slimmer, has recessed sensors for greater comfort, and uses new algorithms to provide more complete and accurate measurements.
The 4th-gen smart ring is also now available in a greater range of sizes, and with a new black finish described as combining a deeper color and improved durability …
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Two Maryland-based iPhone fraudsters who cheated Apple out of $2.5M were handed prison sentences yesterday, and ordered to pay restitution.
One was sentenced to 57 months, the other to 54 months, with the pair ordered to repay a total of a little under $1.5M …
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Apple CEO Tim Cook has sold AAPL shares worth more than $50M at a time when the stock is close to an all-time high – but the timing is coincidental.
The stock value broke $200 per share back in June, hitting a record $236 in July. There’s been a little up-and-down since then, with Cook selling his shares at an average value of $227 …
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An iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Pixel 9 Pro XL camera shootout carried out in a variety of indoor and outdoor lighting conditions has seen the iPhone declared the winner, albeit by a relatively slim margin.
You might not get that impression when you first start reading the piece, as Google’s flagship Android smartphone takes an early lead …
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Apple famously dispensed with a physical keyboard when it revolutionized the smartphone market, and the company’s long-term goal appears to be to do the same for laptops.
A succession of patents have revealed Apple’s work on an all-screen MacBook with a virtual trackpad and keyboard, and a new continuation patent published yesterday shows that this project is still very much alive …
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If there’s anyone who knows a thing or two about iPhone photography, it’s Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of the developer behind the Halide app. In an incredibly deep dive into the iPhone 16 Pro cameras, he finds much to love – and a few flaws.
While his experience of comparing many iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro images mirrored mine – like for like, it’s hard to spot any differences – he still had a lot of positive things to say …
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Sonos has been struggling to regain the trust of its customers after its disastrous launch of a new version of the app.
After initially doubling down on the new app, the company’s CEO later apologized for it, and he has now made seven promises about how Sonos will operate going forward. This includes giving all products currently under warranty an additional year of coverage, but customers don’t seem too impressed …
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Two new subscription-free versions of Office for Mac are now available from Microsoft, with Office Home 2024 costing $149.99.
For my money, the standalone versions are by far the best value, letting you buy them once and use them as long as you like, only upgrading if you want the latest features …
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A succession of T-Mobile data breaches saw millions of customers have their personal data exposed. The company has now been fined $15.75M, and has agreed to spend the same amount again on upgrading its security.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that the combination of fine and promised security enhancements represents a model for future handling of such incidents …
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The Apple versus Epic Games case rumbles on despite the rejection of attempts to appeal by both companies.
Yesterday one of the judges in the case effectively accused Apple of lying, and now the Cupertino company is attempting a new tactic in a bid to have the ruling either thrown out altogether or narrowed so that only Epic Games benefits …
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If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to attend an iPhone launch event in the Steve Jobs Theater, Om Malik has shared a series of photos intended to give an inside view of Glowtime, together with his thoughts on what it’s like to be there.
The writer, photographer, and investor says that this event was quite different to previous ones as there was a new type of attendee …
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Apple’s Messages via satellite service is likely to be in demand for some time, to help people check in on friends and family in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Some 370 cell towers in North Carolina are completely out of action, with a further 103 operating on backup power …
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The growing phenomenon of dating app burnout is leading major players to do at least a partial pivot into friend-finding, according to a new report …
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One of the biggest barriers to upgrading to a new Apple Watch this year is that, if you’re in the US and currently own a model with blood oxygen measurement, you wouldn’t get that feature in your new model.
That’s due to the patent dispute between Apple and Masimo, but now that the health tech company’s CEO has resigned, there could be a potential way to resolve the matter …
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Two of the four iPhone 16 models have made it into the best smartphone battery life rankings compiled by Tom’s Guide. The status of a third model is unclear.
Earning a place on the list requires a smartphone to last for more than 14 hours of wireless web browsing on 5G at a brightness of 150 nits, and a total of 15 smartphones qualify …
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