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.
Tinder face verification is becoming mandatory for all new US users, starting this week in California and gradually rolling out to other states. The Face Check feature is already in use in six other countries, including Canada.
When you first open the app, you will be asked to carry out a moving face scan similar to that used when setting up Face ID …
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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is one of more than a thousand public figures to call for an interim ban on the development of AI superintelligence. Other signatories include Nobel laureates, AI pioneers, and other tech luminaries …
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While there are some who view Vision Pro as a solution in search of a problem, there are at least as many of us who are very attracted to the idea but deterred by the price and comfort issues. I’ve said that if Apple could produce a lighter Vision Air model at $2,000 or less, I would likely find it hard to resist.
Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset has just demonstrated that this is a very realistic prospect. The specs are impressively close to those of Vision Pro, but it’s gone on sale at just $1,800 …
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Back in the summer, Adobe launched the Indigo camera app in response to complaints about the artificial look of typical smartphone photos, including those from Apple’s stock Camera app. Indigo uses far less aggressive processing in order to give a more natural look, with users saying the results look more like those from a DSLR.
However, weeks after the launch of the iPhone 17, the latest iPhone models still don’t support the app. Adobe has now briefly explained the reason why, and how the company plans to proceed …
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There’s been a lot of doubt about the number of iPhone Air orders being placed by customers, given that delivery times have never slipped between launch and today..
A Nikkei report today adds fuel to the fire, suggesting that Apple has slashed its own orders to suppliers to levels normally only seen as a product winds down to the end of production …
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A tactic used by a growing number of scammers is to impersonate help centres in order to trick victims into sharing their screens via WhatsApp. By doing so, they can obtain sensitive information like bank account details and verification codes.
Meta says WhatsApp will now intervene when someone attempts to use screen sharing with an unknown contact during a video call. The company will also proactively flag suspicious-looking chats in Facebook Messenger …
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Just days after Apple accused Epic Games of seeking a free ride in one antitrust case, the company is continuing to engage in a war of words with the EU over another.
In a court hearing on the legality of the Digital Markets Act, Apple’s lawyer said that it “imposes hugely onerous and intrusive burdens” on the company, while the EU says the iPhone maker wants “absolute control” in order to lock-in users to achieve “supernormal profits” …
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The latest version of the Oura smart ring app provides an improved and simplified view of key health information.
I’ve argued before that Apple could learn some lessons from Oura, and I think this is even more true today – here’s why …
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Samsung officially reveals Project Moohan, its Vision Pro competitor, at its Galaxy Event later today. The company has so far allowed tech writers to try a prototype, but there is still a great deal we don’t yet know – including the official name of the device.
Our sister site 9to5Google got a chance to try the prototype in December of last year and Abner Li was impressed. MKBHD was too, saying the key difference from Vision Pro was the onboard AI capabilities …
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For a very long time, I urged patience with Apple’s efforts to turn Siri into a truly intelligent assistant. Back in 2023, I argued that the stakes were higher for Siri than for primarily text-based AI systems like ChatGPT.
I’ve also said that Apple’s commitment to privacy poses a far greater challenge for the company’s AI efforts, and that the payoff would be worth it. But it’s gotten harder and harder to maintain this position, and the latest report certainly doesn’t help …
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There’s been something of a debate going on recently over what some term “the non-pro MacBook Pro,” with what John Gruber refers to as “the no-adjective M-series chip.”
The debate centers on whether it makes sense to buy the base model MacBook Pro rather than the significantly cheaper but similarly-specced MacBook Air …
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Both the cheapest and the most expensive iPhone 17 models are reportedly seeing strong demand. A new market intelligence report says that the base iPhone 17 is proving especially popular.
The report says that in the first 10 days of availability, sales of the entry-level iPhone 17 were almost a third higher than those of the iPhone 16 a year earlier …
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A major Amazon Web Services outage resulted in many different platforms and services being taken down for many users in the US. This includes Amazon, Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, ChatGPT, and more.
The problem first occurred shortly after midnight PDT. The company identified the cause a couple of hours later and says that it is now “continuing to observe recovery” across most services …
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Apple has accused Epic Games of seeking a free ride as the games company asks a court to permit its apps to be sideloaded onto iPhones with no commission to the Cupertino company.
The accusation was made after an Australian court indicated it was likely to rule that Apple must permit sideloading – but with details yet to be decided …
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As photo and video sharing apps get swamped by AI slop, Pinterest has taken a small step in the right direction: a setting to dial back on the volume of it in your feed.
The company has seemingly made the move in response to growing complaints about the number of AI-generated images found within the app …
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I’ve gone back and forth on mechanical keyboards a few times over the years. This isn’t due to any indecisiveness about whether or not I prefer them – I very much do – but a couple of practical issues.
One of these is that I’m not aware of any mechanical keyboard available with a Touch ID key. This is one of those features that once you’ve had it, you don’t ever really want to go back …
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Even five years on, I’m still blown away by the impressiveness of Apple Silicon Macs. I’m still rocking a pair of M1-powered MacBooks myself, albeit one of them the M1 Max, and I’ve never felt that either one was underpowered.
Apple yesterday told us that the latest generation M5 chip is significantly better than even the M4. But the most impressive thing about the chip isn’t found inside the MacBook Pro …
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There was quite a lot of discussion yesterday – and not a little confusion – when it was revealed that the new M5 14-inch MacBook Pro announced yesterday doesn’t include a power adapter in the box when bought in the UK or EU countries.
Many were claiming that this is because EU law prohibits the inclusion of a charger when selling new electronic products, but that is not actually the case …
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The Department of Homeland Security says that Chinese criminal gangs have made more than $1 billion from text scams sent to US phone numbers over the past three years.
Scam texts about fake highway toll payments, US Postal Service fees, and traffic violation fines are used to obtain credit card details. They also trick victims into submitting a one-time code from their bank, which allows the criminals to add the card to Apple Wallet …
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While I’m generally a fan of the Liquid Glass user interface, not everybody is. For some, it fails usability tests, while others are just not keen on the aesthetics.
Fortunately Apple allows a huge amount of control over the effects, and Adam Engst over at TidBITs has put together the ultimate guide for this …
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Apple has long been rumored to be working on a significant improvement to the main iPhone camera in the form of a variable aperture lens. Some reports claimed that this would be introduced in the iPhone 17, but this of course didn’t happen.
Ming-Chi Kuo first reported plans to introduce the feature in the iPhone 18, and this has now been corroborated by a supply chain report which says that work is already underway on the new hardware …
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Apple is lobbying for a change in the tax law in India as it potentially faces billions of dollars in taxes for new iPhone assembly equipment.
Some 25% of iPhones are now made in India, and the company is looking to push this percentage even higher, but there is a potential major barrier to further expansion …
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All Spotify-using parents know the pain of seeing their recommendations and Spotify Wrapped list destroyed by music played for or by their kids. The company has been piloting a solution to this problem and is now rolling it out to the US, UK, Canada and elsewhere.
The Spotify managed account feature essentially ensures that younger listeners get their own sub-accounts, with parents and guardians remaining in control …
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The popularity of the iPhone 17 lineup saw Apple almost match Samsung’s market share for the third quarter of the year, according to new IDC data.
The firm describes it as “a remarkable achievement,” attributing the ability to sell even more premium phones in a challenging economy to a combination of three factors …
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