Eric Slivka

Apple recently paid around $200 million to acquire Lattice Data, a firm that aims to turn unstructured "dark data" such as text and images into structured data that can then be handled with traditional data analysis tools. News of the acquisition comes from TechCrunch, and Apple has essentially confirmed the acquisition by issuing its standard statement on the topic.Lattice uses machine learning techniques to take mass amounts of initially unusable data and turn it into properly labeled and categorized data that can be used for AI, medical research, and more. It’s unclear who Lattice has been working with, or how Apple would intend to use the technology. Our guess is that there is an AI play here: Our source said that Lattice had been “talking to other tech companies about

Prominent KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has released a "2017 WWDC highlights" report, outlining his expectations for next month's keynote event. While he expects the typical previews of the next versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, he also predicts we will see several hardware-related announcements.One major debut Kuo expects to see is the long-rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which he says has a greater than 70 percent chance of debuting at the event based on the timing of production ramp-up, which he sees as happening at the end of the current quarter. In line with previous rumors, Kuo believes the 10.5-inch iPad Pro will have a similar form factor as the current 9.7-inch model, squeezing in a larger display thanks to narrower bezels. The newly designed 10.5” iPad Pro will

Last November, longtime Mac vendor OWC was among the first wave of companies to announce Thunderbolt 3 docks designed to expand the capabilities of the new MacBook Pro. It's taken a while to finalize the product design, testing, and manufacturing, but OWC's Thunderbolt 3 Dock is now just about ready to ship and we've had a chance to spend some time with a production-ready unit.Priced at $299, OWC's Thunderbolt 3 Dock includes an array of 13 ports to allow you to connect a host of devices to your MacBook Pro. It all comes in a package measuring about 9 inches by 3.5 inches and an inch thick, with brushed aluminum around the sides and glossy black plastic on top and bottom.The design is relatively unobtrusive, although the OWC logo and "Thunderbolt 3 Dock" text on the front are

Days after a claimed 3D design drawing of the upcoming "iPhone 8" appeared, frequent Weibo leaker KK has shared a different dimensional drawing and renderings showing a device that is somewhat smaller in size than the previous leak. The veracity of the new drawing can not be confirmed, but KK has on several occasions shared accurate details about previous devices.This new iPhone 8 leak shows a device that measures 137.54 mm tall by 67.54 mm wide, nearly identical to the iPhone 7's 138.3 mm x 67.1 mm body. The thickness of the iPhone 8 is not shown on the drawing.According to the diagram, the iPhone 8's display measures 5.768 inches on the diagonal and will indeed cover nearly the entire front of the device. There appears to be only a 4 mm bezel around all four sides of the

Last week, we shared a brief video showing that LG's revisions to the shielding in the UltraFine 5K display have successfully addressed issues with the display flickering and disconnecting when in close proximity to Wi-Fi routers. Apple and LG had temporarily pulled the display from the market while LG adjusted its manufacturing processes to incorporate the fix and push the new stock into sales channels, and sales of the revised display began earlier this month.At the time of last week's post, we noted that customers purchasing the UltraFine 5K display should check for serial numbers beginning with 702 or 703, as these indicate manufacturing dates of February or March after the fix was put into place. Several MacRumors readers subsequently reported, however, that they have recently

We've already looked at LG's UltraFine 5K and 27UD88 displays as companions for Apple's latest notebooks, and today we're taking a look at another USB-C display option that brings something quite different: LG's 38UC99 curved "UltraWide" display.This is a desk-filling display in the truest sense of the term: 37.5 inches on the diagonal with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a native resolution of 3840x1600. It has fewer pixels than a true 4K or Ultra HD display, but its sheer size makes up for it in some unique ways. While the UltraFine 5K and 27UD88 displays work best at Retina or scaled resolutions, the 38UC99 uses a full 3840x1600 desktop that leaves everything on screen at just the right size to be useful. No, it's not a Retina display in this mode, but until we have 8K displays this will

LG's UltraFine 5K Display returned to the market earlier this month after LG made some changes to the display's shielding following the discovery that the original design left the display vulnerable to interference from Wi-Fi routers and other electronics. The issue was a bit of a black eye for Apple, considering the company recently elected to exit the display market and instead partnered with LG on the new 27-inch UltraFine 5K and its smaller sibling, the 21.5-inch UltraFine 4K.We purchased one of the original UltraFine 5K units back in December, with our model carrying a manufacturing month of November 2016 based on its serial number. LG has now provided us with a unit manufactured last month after the design revisions were put in place, and we've had a few days to compare the

Apple today announced financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2017, which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2016. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $78.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $17.9 billion, or $3.36 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $75.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $18.4 billion, or $3.28 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Both revenue and earnings per share were company records in what is traditionally Apple's strongest quarter due to the launch of new iPhone models.Gross margin for the quarter was 38.5 percent compared to 40.1 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 64 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an upcoming dividend payment of $0.57 per share, payable on February 16 to

Following the closure of the Apple Watch pop up shop at Selfridges department store in London earlier this month, the shop at Galeries Lafayette in Paris has apparently also shut down, as Apple has removed its entry from the company's list of retail stores.The closure of the Galeries Lafayette shop this month was rumored back in October, and it leaves the Isetan Shinjuku location in Tokyo as the only remaining Apple Watch pop up shop.Apple opened the trio of Apple Watch pop up shops in April 2015 at the luxury retailers as part of the company's initial efforts to position the watch as a fashion item, with gold Apple Watch Edition models selling for as much as $17,000.Apple has since toned down the luxury aspects of Apple Watch marketing, focusing more on health, fitness, and

A few weeks ago, we took a look at LG's new 27-inch UltraFine 5K display designed in partnership with Apple to pair with the new MacBook Pro. While it's a high-quality screen that offers a sharp, spacious, Retina desktop, the overall design has generated mixed reactions, particularly in comparison to Apple's design standards.At a standard price of $1299 and even Apple's discounted price of $974, the UltraFine 5K isn't a cheap display. Its smaller sibling, the 21.5-inch UltraFine 4K, at its temporary price of $524 might be more appealing to users who are willing to give up some pixels and a few features, but there are several other Ultra HD and 4K options on the market, some of which we rounded up in mid-November.Among these other options, one of the most popular Ultra HD

Secretive electric car company Faraday Future today held a press event at CES 2017 where it unveiled its first production vehicle, the autonomous FF 91. The unveiling comes just as Faraday Future has been rumored to be "on the brink of collapse" amid financial difficulties and employee departures.Faraday Future has been a bit of a mystery despite its ambitious plans to remake transportation with a fleet of intelligent electric cars. Unfounded speculation had at one point suggested Faraday Future might somehow be related to Apple and its Project Titan vehicle efforts, but Faraday's partnership with Chinese electronics company LeEco, which has electric car ambitions of its own, proved otherwise.Nick Sampson, senior vice president of R&D and engineering at Faraday Future, took to

Apple is preparing to begin seeding builds of iOS 10.3 to developers as soon as next month, according to Sonny Dickson, who has occasionally offered accurate information on Apple's plans from supply chain sources and other contacts. Dickson says iOS 10.3 will include a new "Theatre" mode with a "popcorn-shaped" icon in the Control Center, although he does not explain what exactly this mode will entail.iOS 10.3 to feature a new Theatre mode - will include a new popcorn-shaped Control Center icon.— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) December 30, 2016 iOS 10.3 beta 1 is scheduled to seed on January 10th.— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) December 30, 2016 The most recent significant iOS update was iOS 10.2, which was released to the public earlier this month and included a new TV app and a

At Apple's MacBook Pro media event back in October, the company unveiled a pair of LG-branded high-resolution displays it co-developed with the display manufacturer. The UltraFine 5K and 4K displays are optimized for the Mac with tight software integration, and the 5K model in particular with single-cable connection over Thunderbolt 3 has been highly anticipated.Apple has just begun shipping the UltraFine 5K display, and while a handful of lucky customers received their deliveries late last week, availability is significantly increasing this week and we've had about 24 hours with ours to develop some initial impressions.

Apple's product lineup has expanded over the past couple of years with the addition of the Apple Watch, a third notebook line, and most recently AirPods, and while 2016 turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for some with the Mac in particular seeing many models go the entire year without an update, there were still a number of significant updates.July 2016 mockups showing iPhone 7 and two variations of iPhone 7 PlusAs we reach the end of the year, it's worth a look back at some of the more notable and accurate rumors and leaks from 2016 to see how the sometimes long and winding road of rumors led to the product launches we eventually saw.

Apple's "Hello Again" media event kicks off at 10:00 AM Pacific tomorrow, and as usual some MacRumors readers who can't follow the event live are interested in avoiding all of the announcements and waiting until Apple posts the recorded video of the event so as to experience it without already knowing the outcome.For those individuals, we've posted this news story, which will be updated with a direct link to the presentation once it becomes available from Apple. No other news stories or announcements will be displayed alongside this story.Apple has become quicker about making event videos available for replay over the past several years, and videos are now frequently available within an hour of an event's conclusion.Users waiting for the video to be posted are welcome to

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has released a new research report outlining his expectations for next Thursday's "Hello Again" event where Apple is expected to make a number of Mac-related announcements.In line with long-standing rumors, Kuo believes the highlight of the event will be a redesigned MacBook Pro in both 13-inch and 15-inch sizes, adopting an OLED touch bar and Touch ID sensor, USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, and the same butterfly keyboard design introduced on the MacBook in 2015. Kuo also adds several new tidbits to the rumor mix: Our new predictions also include: (1) Intel’s (US) Skylake processor; (2) the same panel resolution but better display quality and energy efficiency thanks to an oxide panel; (3) a new option of 2TB SSD storage capacity; (4) adoption of a

With the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 launches having dominated the Apple news cycle in recent weeks, attention is now turning back to the Mac lineup, which has been in need of updates for quite some time as highlighted by our Buyer's Guide. Looking ahead to the rapidly approaching holiday shopping season, rumors have suggested Apple is preparing to update several of its Mac lines before the end of the year, led by a redesigned MacBook Pro that has been rumored to be ready for launch "as soon as October."MacRumors has learned that Apple is indeed moving rapidly toward a launch of the new MacBook Pro models, with the company's current development work on macOS 10.12.1 focused largely on preparing the operating system to support the updated hardware's new features, which have

As a lifelong swimmer, I found the addition of 50-meter water resistance and swim workout tracking in the Apple Watch Series 2 to be a welcome improvement that made the new watch a must-have upgrade for me. While the original Apple Watch was not rated for swimming, many users had no issues regularly using it in the water, although its lack of built-in swim tracking features limited its usefulness.With Apple Watch Series 2, Apple has not only upgraded the water resistance with new gaskets and seals to make it suitable for swimming, but added new Pool Swim and Open Water Swim workouts to help track your progress. As part of the Apple Watch Series 2 introduction earlier this month, Apple highlighted how it worked with swimmers in the company's fitness labs to develop the software to

While many Mac notebook users have been long awaiting refreshes for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lineups based on Intel's 6th-generation Core "Skylake" processors, a recently leaked April roadmap for Intel's processors beyond Skylake posted to the AnandTech forums raises questions about future updates for the 15-inch MacBook Pro in particular.The update bottleneck for future Mac notebooks is primarily related to the performance of Intel's integrated graphics, and it appears that an emphasis on processing cores over graphics by Intel may force Apple to make some changes to its graphics strategy down the road.

It's been a busy day of macOS Sierra news following the public launch, so we've put together a quick rundown of all of our coverage to make it easy for everyone to find everything all in one place. With enhancements involving Siri, iCloud, Apple Pay, Photos, Messages, and more, there's a lot to catch up on.- Apple Releases macOS Sierra With Siri, Apple Pay, Apple Watch Unlock, Universal Clipboard, and MoreFeature Highlights and How Tos- macOS Sierra: How to Use Apple Pay on the Web- macOS Sierra: Save Disk Space With the New 'Optimize Storage' Option- macOS Sierra and iOS 10: Universal Clipboard for Cross Device Copy/Paste- macOS Sierra: Photos Gains 'Memories' and Messages Adds Rich Links, Tapback, and Large Emoji- macOS Sierra: Picture in Picture Mode for Safari and