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
Apple Testing Taller iPhone Prototype with 3.95-Inch 1136x640 Display?
9to5Mac reports that Apple is currently testing two prototypes of the next-generation iPhone that offer a taller screen while maintaining the existing 640-pixel width. According to the report, the two prototypes carry a display with a height of 1136 pixels, up from the current 960-pixel height and leading to an increase in the diagonal size of the display from 3.5 inches to 3.95 inches.These...
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OS X Mountain Lion Bringing Automatic App Downloads to Mac
As noted by Zach Kahn (via 9to5Mac), the latest developer build of OS X Mountain Lion released last week sets the stage for bringing iOS-like automatic app downloads to Mac App Store purchases.
Like on the iPhone and iPad, when you buy and install an app on one of your Macs, all of your other Macs logged into the same App Store account will automatically install the app too.
Unfortunately,...
Apple Reaches Out to Cupertino Neighbors Regarding 'Campus 2' Plans
Apple last week sent out a mailing to neighbors of its planned Apple Campus 2, a massive new facility on the site of an old HP campus in Cupertino that is set to host 13,000 workers. The mailing offers details on the project, solicits feedback, and asks whether neighbors will support the project either in person at public meetings or by writing letters of support.
Click for larger
In the...
Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung Meeting Today to Discuss Patent Issues
Following last month's announcement that Apple and Samsung had agreed to high-level talks involving the two companies' CEOs in an attempt to resolve ongoing patent litigation, Reuters provides a preview of the session set to begin today in San Francisco. The talks, which will be mediated by a federal judge, are scheduled to take place over the next two days.
Commenting before his departure...
Foxconn Building New $210 Million Production Line for Apple Products
China Daily reports that Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn continues to expand its operations in support of Apple's strong growth in product sales, investing $210 million to build a new production line for unspecified components. The new production line is said to be set to come on line in October of this year and will be located in the Chinese city of Huai'an in the eastern province of...
ElcomSoft's Phone Forensics Software Offers Near Real-Time Access to iCloud Backups
Russian forensics firm ElcomSoft earlier this week announced that it has discovered a way to easily access iCloud backups of iOS devices, incorporating the functionality into its Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker software. While the Apple ID and password must be known in order to access the iCloud data, once that information has been obtained the software makes it easy for investigators to...
Apple in Talks to Open R&D Facility in Russia's Skolkovo Innovation Centre?
Russian newspaper Izvestia reports [Google translation] that the organizers behind the Skolkovo technology park near Moscow are currently in talks with a number of high-profile companies including Apple, Google, and Facebook about locating research and development facilities in the area. Skolkovo has already landed agreements with Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, Cisco, and others, with the...
Apple's Annual iTunes Festival in London Moves to September
Each July since 2007, Apple has held its iTunes Festival in London, offering a month's worth of free concerts from some of the industry's top performers. Apple is now beginning to unveil this year's plans, and the most notable change for 2012 is a move to the month of September.
For the fourth consecutive year, the iTunes Festival will be held at The Roundhouse in London, with at least 60...
Steve Jobs 'Worked Closely' on Design of Next-Generation iPhone with Larger Display
Bloomberg reports that Steve Jobs was intimately involved in the design work for the next-generation iPhone scheduled for release later this year, reiterating claims that the device will be a substantial change from previous designs in part because of a larger display.Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has placed orders from suppliers in Asia for screens that are bigger than the 3.5- inch...
Apple Board Member Mickey Drexler on Steve Jobs' iCar Dreams, Apple's Living Room Push
Speaking at Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored conference earlier this week, J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler shared his thoughts (via Business Insider) on several topics related to Apple, including Steve Jobs' dream to build an "iCar" that would have revolutionized the automobile industry. While the idea obviously never developed very far, it is an intriguing glimpse into...
Verizon Clarifies Discontinuation of Grandfathered Unlimited Data: Applies to New Subsidized Devices
Verizon yesterday made headlines for comments from Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo revealing that the carrier is planning to discontinue its grandfathered unlimited data plans when the carrier rolls out new shared data plans this summer. Verizon dropped those unlimited data plans within months of introducing the iPhone early last year, but customers who had previously been on the unlimited...
Apple Cutting Off Mac App Store Hotkey Apps as Sandboxing Requirement Goes Live on June 1? [Updated]
TUAW reports that Apple will be scaling back on systemwide "hotkey" apps, which allow users to call up other apps and functions, in the Mac App Store as of June 1, the same date the company's sandboxing requirements are scheduled to go into effect.Apparently, Apple will allow hotkey apps that are already in the Mac App Store before June to offer only bug fixes after that. New sandboxed apps and...
Apple's Data Centers to Be Powered by 100% Renewable Energy
Earlier today, we noted that Apple had received official approval for its 20-megawatt solar farm across the street from its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. But even more significant developments are also occurring today, with Apple posting a new page to the environmental section of its website touting that all of the company's data centers will be powered by 100% renewable energy.
At ...
Apple Receives Regulatory Approval for 20-Megawatt Solar Farm at North Carolina Data Center
The North Carolina Utilities Commission today officially approved (PDF) Apple's proposal to construct a 20-megawatt solar farm across the street from its data center in Maiden, North Carolina.The Public Staff presented this matter to the Commission at its Regular Staff Conference on May 14, 2012. The Public Staff recommended that the Commission approve the application and issue a certificate of...
Apple Censoring 'Jailbreak' in U.S. iTunes Store Listings [Update: Fixed]
Exploring an observation initially made by iOS hacker @planetbeing, Shoutpedia notes that Apple has mysteriously begun censoring the word "jailbreak" in the U.S. iTunes Store. While not all mentions of the word are affected, the vast majority of them across all content types are currently being censored to "j*******k".
Apple has long objected to the jailbreaking process, which opens up iOS...
Apple Takes Possession of iPhone5.com Domain
Earlier this month, we noted that Apple had filed a claim with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) seeking to gain ownership of the iPhone5.com domain, which had hosted a small independent discussion forum for the past year and a half.
The Next Web now reports that the case has been terminated, indicating that the dispute has been resolved without WIPO having had to render a...
Apple Updates OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview to Build 12A206j
Apple today pushed out another update to its OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion developer preview program, moving to build 12A206j. The update comes on top of build 12A193i, which was released on May 1.
Apple notes that "MacBookPro3,1", which corresponds to mid and late 2007 machines, is not compatible with the new build, but that issue will be rectified in a later build.
No other details on...
Retina-Resolution Displays to Add Up to $100 to Apple's MacBook Pro Costs
With Apple's MacBook Pro line now widely rumored to be gaining ultra high-resolution "Retina" or "HiDPI" displays at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference, CNET reports that such panels are already available in the supply chain and that they carry price premiums of up to $100 over their non-Retina counterparts. But what remains to be seen is whether that price difference will be passed...
Samsung's Market Cap Takes $10 Billion Hit Amid Rumors of Apple DRAM Deal with Elpida
Digitimes' poor track record has been thrust into the spotlight in recent days, but that hasn't stopped one of the Taiwanese news site's reports from having a major effect on stock prices for Samsung and Hynix. The report from earlier this week claims that Apple has placed "huge" orders for DRAM chips with Elpida, soaking up half of the capacity at the firm's main plant in Hiroshima, Japan.
...
HTC Delays Evo 4G LTE Launch as U.S. Customs Investigates Shipments for Breach of Apple Patent
Last December, Apple won a U.S. International Trade Commission case against HTC, with the agency ruling that several of HTC's handsets infringed upon a pair of Apple-held patents. The agency's ruling included a ban on the import of infringing devices beginning in April, although HTC quickly responded to say that it had already designed a workaround for the issue in question.
But as reported...
