Eric Slivka
Eric is the Editor-in-Chief of MacRumors and has been writing for the site since 2008.
An avid swimmer and former biophysicist, Eric has been using Apple products for over 35 years and has been interviewed for pieces by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Reuters, BBC, CNBC, and other publications.
Eric's current primary role involves day-to-day oversight of the editorial operations at MacRumors, but he also contributes occasional news and review articles while handling various other duties related to the site's operation.
An avid swimmer and former biophysicist, Eric has been using Apple products for over 35 years and has been interviewed for pieces by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Reuters, BBC, CNBC, and other publications.
Eric's current primary role involves day-to-day oversight of the editorial operations at MacRumors, but he also contributes occasional news and review articles while handling various other duties related to the site's operation.
Eric Slivka's Articles
Microsoft Working on Gaming-Focused 'Xbox Surface' 7-Inch Tablet
Just as Apple's iPad mini joins the market of smaller tablets with displays of 7-8 inches, The Verge reports that Microsoft is preparing to launch its own 7-inch tablet. Interestingly, rather than simply being a smaller version of its just-launched 10-inch Surface tablet, the forthcoming "Xbox Surface" tablet will be a gaming-focused device running a scaled down version of Windows.
Alleged...
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Fourth-Generation iPad Models Now 'In Stock' at Many Online Apple Stores
Following last Friday's launch of the fourth-generation iPad, Apple has apparently already come close to meeting demand for the new device. As noticed by 9to5Mac, Apple is now listing all Wi-Fi models of the new iPad as "in stock" in the company's U.S. online store.
The immediate availability appears to extend to a number of Apple's online stores around the world, including the U.S.,...
European Regulators Reportedly Set to Approve Apple E-Book Settlement Proposal
Reuters reports that regulators with the European Union are preparing to approve an offer from Apple and four book publishers to settle an antitrust action related to e-book pricing.Apple, Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of German company Macmillan, made the proposal to the European Commission in...
Apple's Potential Shift from Intel to ARM for Macs Not Implausible, But Faces Hurdles
Following up on yesterday's report from Bloomberg that has rekindled discussion of Apple potentially making a switch from Intel's processors to custom ARM-based chips for its Mac lines, AllThingsD takes a closer look at the landscape to analyze the benefits and challenges of such a move.
The report contrasts Intel's focus on performance with ARM's focus on power efficiency and notes that...
Apple Sells Out of Meager iPhone 5 Launch Stocks in India
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has sold through its initial stocks of the iPhone 5 in India following the device's launch there on Friday, but the company was said to have delivered only 10,000-15,000 units for the first wave of sales.“We were sold out within 24 hours of launch. It’s all gone,” said Himanshu Chakrawarti, chief executive of The MobileStore Ltd., a retailer that...
iPad's Share of Tablet Shipments Falls to 50% in 3Q 2012
Research firm IDC today released its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the third quarter of 2012, finding that several Android tablet manufacturers saw very strong growth as Apple stagnated during the lead-up to the iPad mini launch. As a result, Apple's share of the market fell to 50.4% from 59.7% in the year-ago quarter and 68.2% in the second quarter of this year."After...
iPad Mini Display Judged 'Very Capable', But Falls Short of iPad and Android Competitors
Much of the discussion about the iPad mini has centered around the device's display, which reportedly represents 43% of the overall cost of manufacturing. While the display is said to take advantage of new "GF2" technology to allow for a thinner, high-quality display, it does not carry the Retina-level resolution users have become accustomed to in the iPhone and iPad.
DisplayMate's Ray...
Google Employees Suggest Apple Approval of Google Maps App 'Unlikely'
In the wake of Apple's move to replace the Google-powered Maps app with its own app in iOS 6, Google has been reported by numerous sources to be working on a standalone version of its service to be submitted to the App Store.
But while Apple has been willing to advertise a number of alternative mapping solutions while it works to improve its own Maps app, The Guardian reports that sources...
Belkin Announces First Official Third-Party Lightning Accessories
While a number of vendors have been launching unofficial Lightning accessories while Apple works to bring official partners up to speed on the new standard, Belkin today became the first official vendor to introduce accessories using the Lightning connector.“Belkin was the first third-party manufacturer to develop accessories for the 30-pin connector back in 2003, and we are thrilled to be...
Apple Posts Revised Samsung Apology on UK Website, Hides It Below the Fold
Over the past several months, we've been following the situation with a court case in the United Kingdom in which Apple was ordered to post an acknowledgement on its website and place advertisements in newspapers and magazines acknowledging that Samsung did not infringe upon the protected iPad design with its line of Galaxy Tab devices.
The original statement published by Apple playfully...
iPad Mini Component Costs Estimated to Begin at $188
AllThingsD reports on an iPad mini teardown from research firm IHS iSuppli estimating the component costs for Apple's new iPad mini at $188 for the 16 GB model.The base model, a Wi-Fi-only 16 gigabyte iPad mini, which sells for a starting retail price of $329, costs about $188 to build. Adding additional memory — the options are 32GB and 64GB — adds only incremental cost but a fair amount of...
iOS 6.1 to Add Siri-Based Movie Ticket Purchases via Fandango
9to5Mac reports that among the new features included in the iOS 6.1 beta seeded to developers late last week is the ability to purchase movie tickets through Siri. The feature, which is currently limited to the United States, integrates with Fandango to facilitate purchases.When a user asks for movie tickets for a certain movie, the applicable showtimes and theater information will be shown....
Apple Sells Three Million iPads and iPad Minis in Opening Weekend
Apple today announced that it has sold a total of three million iPads since the launch of the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad on Friday. The number was not broken down into separate counts of iPad and iPad mini sales.Apple today announced it has sold three million iPads in just three days since the launch of its new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad—double the previous first weekend...
Apple's New A6X iPad Chip Adopts PowerVR SGX 554MP4 Graphics
AnandTech reports on an examination of the A6X chip found in the fourth-generation iPad. The work, performed by Kishonti Informatics, reveals that Apple has adopted Imagination Technologies' quad-core PowerVR SGX 554MP4 graphics in the new chip.The A6X retains the 128-bit wide memory interface of the A5X (and it keeps the memory controller interface adjacent to the GPU cores and not the CPU...
iPad Mini Sells Out in Two Hours at Apple's Flagship Fifth Avenue Retail Store
While reports have indicated that launch-day lines for the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad have been shorter than seen for many previous Apple product launches, some Apple retail stores are still seeing long lines. Fortune notes that despite the impact of Hurricane Sandy in the northeastern United States, Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan saw over 800 people in line as the...
Nexus 10 Reviews Hit the Web as Fourth-Generation iPad Sales Begin
Just as Apple begins sales of the fourth-generation iPad and the iPad mini today, the embargo has lifted on reviews of Google's Nexus 10 tablet announced earlier this week. The device, which is manufactured by Samsung, builds on the relative success of the Nexus 7 to go head-to-head with the full-size iPad with a screen packing even more pixels than Apple's iPad Retina display.
While tablet ...
Apple Loses 'iPhone' Name Rights in Mexico over Phonetic Similarity [Updated]
Electronista reports that Apple has lost a court case in Mexico over the rights to the "iPhone" name in that country, with the court ruling that the name is too phonetically similar to that of telecommunications company iFone, which registered its trade name in 2003.The decision stems from a legal action that Apple initially filed in 2009 requesting that the company cease using the iFone brand in ...
Apple Removes UK Website Statement Regarding Galaxy Tab Design, Publishes Newspaper Acknowledgement
Yesterday, we reported that Apple had been ordered a UK court to alter its published statement on its website acknowledging that the Samsung Galaxy Tab does not infringe upon the protected design of the iPad. The statement was required by an earlier court order, but Apple's version of the included additional content, playfully quoting statements from the judge's ruling saying that the Samsung...
Emoji Apps No Longer Welcome in App Store Following Native iOS 6 Support
Apple's iOS devices have long carried at least partial support for emoji, picture characters popular for text messaging in Japan but also gaining interest in countries around the world. Initially the feature was unlocked only for Japanese customers, but over time the company has broadened access to emoji and now supports several hundred emoji characters for all users once they enable the special ...
iPad Mini Survives Dunk Test, Cracks in Drop Tests but Still Functions
As is always the case with new iOS device launches, some early purchasers are interested in putting the products through drop tests and other experiments in order to test their durability. The iPad mini is no exception, and several drop and dunk test videos have already been posted.
Android Authority has a comparison between the iPad mini and Nexus 7 tablets, putting each device through a...
