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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

Here’s my top 10 list of Apple and non-Apple tech – what’s yours?

Here's my top 10 Apple and non-Apple tech – what's yours? | Photo of my home office desk setup

When it comes to favorite technology, Apple gets a double win from me. My MacBook Pro is my single most important piece of tech, and the Apple ecosystem is absolutely core to my approach to a whole range of things, across both work and leisure.

But I also have a number of non-Apple devices that either serve as important accessories or standalone devices in their own right …

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A delayed Vision Air could easily become a cancellation

A delayed Vision Air (conceptual image shown) could easily become a cancellation

We’ve for some time been expecting a cheaper and lighter version of Vision Pro, possibly branded as Vision Air. Potential launch dates have been variously reported as 2025, 2026, and 2027.

But a report yesterday suggested we may have even longer to wait for this as Apple shifts resources to accelerate work on an Apple Glasses product …

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Neon app to sell your audio calls says it will return after massive security breach

Neon app to sell your audio calls says it will return after massive security breach | Reel-to-reel tape recorder shown

Neon, the app that pays you to share your audio recordings with an AI system, says that it will return despite its recent massive security breach.

The app shot up the App Store ratings after promising to pay users hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year for allowing their audio conversations to be used to train AI chatbots …

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The British government is still insisting Apple has to create a backdoor into iCloud

The British government is still insisting Apple must create a backdoor into iCloud | Low-key photo of eyes peering from the darkness

We learned back in February that the British government had secretly ordered Apple to create a worldwide backdoor into iCloud. We said at the time that the demand was “as technically clueless as it is outrageous.”

Apple responded very intelligently, and it seemed from a development last month that the UK had withdrawn its demand. We’re learning today that this isn’t in fact the case …

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Amazon announces smarter Echo Show as we await HomePod Touch/HomePad

Amazon announces smarter Echo Show (left) as we await HomePod Touch/HomePad (render, right)

We’re not expecting to see Apple’s long-awaited combo speaker and smart home control panel until sometime next year. We’ve been using HomePad as a placeholder name, but a leak back in the summer suggests it may be known as the HomePod Touch.

The form factor is expected to be broadly similar to Amazon’s Echo Show, and the company has just announced smarter versions …

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Peloton completely revamps its hardware (shown) and of course adds AI features (screenshot inset)

New Peloton hardware is almost a complete revamp, with AI features

Fitness tech company Peloton really took off during the pandemic, with multiple suggestions that it might be in line for an acquisition by Apple, but has struggled to find its way since then.

The company is today seeking to address this with an almost completely new hardware lineup, with AI features naturally playing a key role. This includes the company’s first commercial treadmill …

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Epic Games gives backhanded compliment to Apple over removal of scare screens

Epic Games gives backhanded compliment to Apple over removal of scare screens | Screenshots of the new flow

Epic Games has given Apple a backhanded compliment over the changes it made to reduce the barriers to installing the company’s games store on iPhones.

Apple had long come under antitrust fire for forcing users to take 15 separate steps to install a third-party app store. The company has now reduced that to six steps and eliminated what has been described as a “scare screen with a misleading message” …

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Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme laptop chip catches up with Apple’s M4

Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme laptop chip (render shown) catches up with Apple's M4

The first generation of Apple Silicon chips took other chip makers by surprise. While everyone knew it would be good, the M1 chip was so far ahead of its competitors in both power and efficiency that there must have been a lot of worried faces in Intel and Qualcomm’s respective boardrooms.

Three generations later, Qualcomm appears to have finally caught up with Apple’s M4 chip with its new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip, intended for laptops. However, that situation may not last for long …

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Pressure mounts on Siri as ChatGPT ads start airing on primetime TV

Pressure mounts on Siri as ChatGPT ads start airing on primetime TV (still shown)

OpenAI is about to launch a series of ChatGPT ads, airing on primetime TV, streaming, and social media – with the first video being broadcast later today during NFL Primetime.

The latest move adds further pressure on Apple by highlighting the vast gulf between the current capabilities of Siri and generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT …

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Tile security flaws can let both the company and stalkers track your location

Tile security flaws can let both company and stalkers track your location | Tile tags shown

Researchers have discovered major Tile security flaws that could let both the company itself and a tech-savvy stalker track your location. These arise from two crucial differences between the security used for AirTags and Tile tags.

The flaw could even be exploited to allow a malicious actor to falsely frame a Tile owner for stalking, by making it appear as if one of your Tile tags is constantly in the vicinity of somebody else’s tag …

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Next year may see the most fragmented iPhone line-up ever

Next year may see the most fragmented iPhone line-up ever | Abstract image of rounded, colourful rectangles

Once upon a time, there was just a single iPhone. Today, things are rather more complicated, with a choice of four new models plus two older ones remaining on sale directly from Apple.

Next year may see the most fragmented iPhone lineup we have ever seen in the company’s history – and that could be bad news for some of us …

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Bizarre app that pays you to share your audio calls hits #2 in App Store social apps

Bizarre app that pays you to share your audio calls hits #2 in App Store social apps | Promo graphic

A bizarre app that invites you to record and share your audio calls so that it can sell the data to AI companies has become the second most downloaded social app in the app store.

Neon Mobile says that users can sell their privacy for hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year by allowing their audio conversations to be used for AI training …

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Apple says EU law will mean more features are delayed, maybe even new hardware

Apple says EU law will mean more features are delayed, maybe even new hardware | Close-up photo of hourglass with blue sand

The European Union is currently carrying out a consultation process into the impact of its Digital Markets Act (DMA). This is the antitrust legislation which required Apple to permit third-party app stores and which the company says has made it impossible to release some software features to EU users.

In its response, Apple says it has not yet released either iPhone Mirroring or AirPods Live Translation within EU countries over privacy concerns, and it expects more features to be delayed in Europe. The company in its submission to regulators said there was a possibility some hardware launches might be affected …

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