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 novels.
He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.
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.
The latest Kantar data has two pieces of good news for Apple: the iPhone XR was the best-selling smartphone in the UK during the first quarter of the year, and iOS significantly grew its market share in the US …
The future of Google News in Europe is now in doubt as EU member states approved The EU Copyright Directive. The new law – which could see Google having to pay publishers to include brief snippets in search results – was previously passed by the European Parliament, but was subject to approval by individual countries.
Not every country agreed to implement the directive, but most did so this morning …
Update: Facebook has confirmed to us that it is testing ways to improve the messaging experience but has no further details to share at this stage.
Facebook has taken the next step in its plans to unify its Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram messaging apps into a single, unified messaging service. The result would be something likely to rival iMessage as an ultra-convenient one-stop messaging option …
Two US senators have introduced the DETOUR Act, a bipartisan bill designed to ban apps and websites from using deceptive behavioral psychology tricks to obtain access to your personal data …
The UK wants to get tough on ‘harmful content’ within apps, on social networks and on websites – and is consulting on new legislation which could see companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter fined up to 4% of their worldwide turnover if they don’t act quickly to remove it.
Government minister Jeremy Wright said that “the era of self-regulation for online companies is over” …
Executives from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks could face jail in Australia if they fail to promptly remove violent material from their platforms.
The Australian parliament passed new legislation in the wake of live-streamed footage from the terrorist attack in Christchurch …
Fortnite aims to grow into much more than a game, says the CEO of developer Epic Games …
How Facebook’s feed algorithm works has always been something of a mystery. The algorithm determines which posts and ads you see, and which are given more prominence, and has often been a source of frustration for users.
For the first time, however, the Facebook app is letting you see how your own feed works …
Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has beaten Q4 profit expectations after more than doubling hardware sales outside China, and success in its ‘Apple plus’ approach to Services. Xiaomi profits hit the equivalent of $276M in the quarter.
While the company reported lower revenue than predicted, it more than tripled its net profit year-on-year …
YouTube says that in the hours after the terrorist attack in New Zealand, people were uploading copies of the shooter’s live-streamed video footage at the rate of one copy every second.
Facebook said that it automatically blocked 1.2 million copies at the point of upload, and removed another 300,000 copies …
Spotify last year offered a free Google Home Mini speaker to Premium for Family subscribers in the US, and it is now offering the same deal to customers in the UK …
Google said that it removed a total of more than 2.3 billion bad ads last year – more than a quarter of a million per hour. The company has also introduced an almost complete ban on cryptocurrency ads, though allows regulated cryptocurrency exchanges to advertise in the United States and Japan.
The company added that it removed ads from almost 28 million web pages, and 1.5 million apps …
If you have been considering a Spotify Premium account, the company is upping the ante with a new offer. Just under a year ago, it offered a deal to bundle in a basic Hulu plan for $12.99/month – a $5/month saving – but it’s now going one better and making Hulu completely free …
It’s 30 years today since Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal for what would become the World Wide Web. The inventor has said that while he feels the web was a force for good for its first 15 years, he now thinks action is required to prevent a ‘downward plunge to a dysfunctional future.’
Berners-Lee said that the 30th anniversary was a time to reflect on both the positives and negatives …
The number of Facebook users in the US fell by 15M people between 2017 and 2019, says a new report, with the various privacy-related controversies likely to have played some role in that.
But, ironically, Facebook-owned Instagram has seen to biggest increase in US users over the same timescale …
Uber Rewards, a loyalty program which launched in nine US cities in November of last year, has now gone live across the USA …
The NSA spying program to analyze logs of the domestic calls and texts of US citizens is reportedly no longer in use, and the legislation which made it legal may not be renewed when it expires at the end of the year.
The National Security Agency’s mass monitoring of logs of phone calls and texts relating to US citizens first began in 2006, some five years after the 9/11 attacks. The program was revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013, and was later declared illegal by a federal appeals court …
We always recommend that people take advantage of two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect online accounts, but a second problem with Facebook 2FA has now been discovered.
The company last year admitted that it used 2FA phone numbers for ad targeting, and it has now been revealed that it also makes your phone number searchable – and you cannot fully opt out …
While 5G promises significantly faster mobile data connections, it does also raise two privacy concerns, according a former researcher at Bell Labs and AT&T Labs Research …
The Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) is a smartphone hacking tool commonly used by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies in the US and elsewhere. It’s the most powerful tool yet created by the Israeli company, able to extract a huge amount of data – even data which has been deleted from phones.
A brand new one normally costs $5,000 to $15,000 depending on the model, but older models can be found on eBay for as little as $100 …
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USB 3.2, the next-generation USB standard expected to start appearing in devices later this year, will double the maximum speed supported to 20Gbps. This is achieved by allowing for two lanes of 10Gbps each, which can be achieved without reducing cable length.
The bad news is that the naming confusion around USB speeds is going to get even worse …
Sprint 5G service will, says the company, launch in May. But as with every other carrier to announce 5G plans so far, there’s an asterisk against that claim.
Verizon kicked off the fun back in October of last year, when it claimed to have launched a ‘5G Home’ service. This did offer an improvement in speeds over existing LTE service, but wasn’t actually 5G – and the company last month abandoned the rollout …
Pressure is growing on Apple and Google to remove Absher, a controversial Saudi app which can be used by male family members to track the movements of women and even bar them from travelling. Some 14 members of Congress have accused the two companies of being ‘accomplices in the oppression of Saudi women’ …
