About the Author

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 two technothriller novels , a romcom novel, and an SF novella series.

He is old enough to have owned the original Macintosh. He currently owns an M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air 11, 12.9-inch iPad Pro (LTE 256GB), iPhone 13 Pro Max (256GB), Dell Ultrawide 49-inch monitor, an Apple Watch (Series 4 WiFi) and multiple HomePods – he suspects it might be cheaper to have a cocaine habit than his addiction to all things anodised aluminum.

He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.

He’s known for his op-ed and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review:

He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.

He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.

If @benlovejoy-ing him on twitter, please follow him first so that he can DM you if appropriate. If you have information you can pass on, you can also email him. If you would like to comment on one of his pieces, please do so in the comments – he does read them all.

If you enjoy his work and would like to express your thanks, you can save this link as your Amazon bookmark. It will take you to the usual U.S. homepage, and you’ll shop as usual at the same rates, but Amazon will pay a small commission (typically 2-4%).

Ben Lovejoy's Favorite Gear

Yesterday

A new women in tech report shows that Apple is now ahead of the curve when it comes to its leadership roles.

For a long time, Apple was accused of having a “‘male, pale, and stale” leadership – another way of saying “older white men” …

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Both Apple chairman Art Levinson and health lead Sumbul Desai are among the speaker line-up for Life Itself, a conference which aims ‘to inspire and foster changes in healthcare, while celebrating leaders whose work helps us all to be healthier and happier humans.’

The conference is co-hosted by CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta and TEDMED creator Marc Hodosh, and is open to ‘a limited number’ of guests …

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Apple Pay in Russia was last month suspended by the Cupertino company as one of a range of sanctions against the country for its invasion of Ukraine. A class action lawsuit has now been filed against Apple, arguing that Russian consumers have been harmed by losing access to the electronic wallet service.

Russian citizens who have been affected by the withdrawal of Apple Pay in the country are being invited to join the case …

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Apple’s lobbying spend hit a new quarterly record high in the first quarter of this year, as the company continues its efforts to fight antitrust measures.

Apple is feeling particular pressure from bipartisan support for both the Open App Markets Act and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act …

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A campaign group has criticized Apple’s twice-yearly transparency reports, saying that in one very important respect they are not very transparent.

One section of the report covers App Store Takedown Requests, and Apple is accused of deliberately concealing information about the apps it removes …

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April 20

Surfshark VPN and other popular virtual private network services fail security tests

Surfshark VPN is one of six popular virtual private network services to fail security tests, with many others failing so-called “deceptor” tests …

Analysis has shown that a full half of the top 200 Apple suppliers are located within areas of China at risk from COVID-19 lockdowns. These include not just high-profile companies responsible for final assembly of Apple products – Pegatron, Quanta, and Compal – but also critical component suppliers.

One top Chinese tech exec has warned that tech production in the area “will come to a complete halt” unless things change within the next 10 days …

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April 19

I recently got the chance to compare and contrast a completely impromptu iPhone video shoot with a carefully planned interview shoot with a full-on studio setup – and while the results are certainly not comparable, my iPhone 13 Pro Max did a perfectly solid job.

Not long ago, I helped out a friend by shooting three video interviews. To do so, I used two BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera rigs, a motorized slider, studio lighting, a separate sound recordist with his own gear, and two hours of setup prior to shooting. The results won’t be ready to share for some time, but I’ve been able to review the footage …

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The world’s biggest iPhone assembly plant – nicknamed iPhone City – has escaped COVID-19 shutdowns, as three other key Apple suppliers in China were last week forced to halt production.

Foxconn managers say that production is “proceeding well,” with 200,000 workers at work in the facility …

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Beoplay EX wireless earbuds see Bang & Olufsen copy AirPods stem design

Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX wireless earbuds are a new take on the Beoplay EQ model – but copying the AirPods‘ stem design, with the company citing two benefits …

An iCloud crypto wallet attack saw an estimated $650,000 worth of cryptocurrency and NFTs stolen from a trader within seconds.

While the attack relied on a sophisticated piece of phishing, it also revealed a key iCloud vulnerability with MetaMask …

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April 18

NSO spyware Pegasus targeted US iPhones indirectly, despite the company forbidding customers from infecting phones with American SIMs. Devices belonging to Catalan politicians and others were also infected, with the Spanish government suspected to be responsible.

Additionally, it was discovered that a device connected to the network at 10 Downing Street – the office of British prime minister Boris Johnson – was also infected …

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Pro users of M1 Macs have reported disappointing transfer speeds with external SSDs, and tests appear to show that most M1 Mac Thunderbolt ports don’t support USB 3.1 Gen 2 – which means they don’t offer the maximum 10Gb/s transfer speeds that would be expected from Thunderbolt 4.

The tests were conducted on a 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max, and a 2022 Mac Studio M1 Max …

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9to5Mac readers got a few days’ advance notice of Apple’s latest desktop computer – but if you’re in the market for one, which Mac Studio model should you buy? Or should you buy at all?

Apple offers the machine in two versions, M1 Max and M1 Ultra. The former runs the same chip as the top-end MacBook Pro, while the M1 Ultra is – on paper – in a whole new league …

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Many of us have argued that iPadOS needs a major rethink to utilize the full potential of the iPad hardware – and an iPadOS Pro concept is being suggested as a potential solution.

Designing the optimum operating system for the iPad is a huge challenge for Apple, because the devices are used in so many different ways …

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April 15

Apple’s privacy focus is one of the company’s proudest boasts – but engineers and others involved in product development say that it comes at a cost.

Lack of access to usage data means product development teams can’t offer the kind of personalized features they would like to, and some things they want to do are completely impossible because a relatively junior privacy guardian says no …

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Today I learned that you can search your photos by text on your iPhone – that is, by printed text found within the images, using the same tech as Live Text.

Apple seems to have kept quiet about it so far, and that may be with good reason …

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Apple’s supply chain is being badly hit by COVID-19 lockdowns in China, with the situation getting worse, say analysts. It follows Apple production being halted at three key suppliers, affecting iPhoneiPad, and Mac assembly. This has already seen shipping dates slip for build-to-order MacBook Pro models.

The worst-case scenario could see iPhone production falling behind by as many as 10 million units …

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The Department of Homeland Security has opened a TikTok CSAM investigation, after child sexual abuse material was posted both publicly and privately on the video sharing network.

Additionally, the platform is being heavily used by abusers for grooming – the practice of befriending a child online with the intention of later abusing them, either online or offline …

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April 14

Apple has called out Meta for its hypocrisy in taking close to a 50% cut from metaverse content providers despite having criticized Apple for its own 30% cut of App Store sales.

Meta has often commented disparagingly about Apple’s ‘fees and taxes’ on app sales …

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