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 University' Trains Future Apple Executives with Focus on Missteps of Apple and Others
Details of Adam Lashinsky's new Inside Apple book set to debut tomorrow continue to surface, and while some of the ideas behind the company's "Apple University" program for training the next generation of executives were previously disclosed in Lashinsky's original Fortune piece on the topic and in a Los Angeles Times article last October, the new book takes a more extensive look at the concept.
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EFI Firmware Update Brings Lion Internet Recovery to Mid-2010 13-Inch MacBook Pro [Updated]
As noted in our forums, Apple today pushed out a new firmware update specifically targeting users of the company's Mid-2010 13-inch MacBook Pro model. The new MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5 brings compatibility with Lion Internet Recovery, allowing users of OS X Lion to reinstall the operating system from scratch on a brand-new hard drive without the need for physical recovery media.About ...
Apple's First Dutch Retail Store to Open in Amsterdam on February 18?
We've been following the development of Apple's first Dutch retail store for some time now, as issues over historic preservation have slowed the timetable for construction at the landmark Hirsch building in Amsterdam. But things now appear to be coming together as iPhoneclub.nl [Google translation] and One More Thing [Google translation] offer a number of details on plans for the store, which...
'Evi' Arrives as Potential Challenger to Siri
TechCrunch reports on Evi, a new Siri-like offering from True Knowledge that has launched for iOS devices [App Store] and as a beta for Android devices. While Siri provides a fair amount of integration with Apple apps and services such as reminders and calendaring, it is currently limited to the iPhone 4S, while Evi is compatible with all iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS 4.0 or...
Sony Introduces Next-Generation Image Sensor to Advance Mobile Device Cameras
Sony today announced (via Macworld UK) the launch of new image sensor technology that the company expects will help improve performance and shrink the size of cameras on mobile devices by later this year. The new back-illuminated complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor utilizes a pixel section layered directly onto the sensor's circuitry, significantly reducing the sensor ...
U.S. Tablet Ownership Nearly Doubles over Holiday Season
According to new survey data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (via VentureBeat), the share of U.S. adults owning a tablet device nearly doubled during the most recent holiday season, moving from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January. While the introduction of Amazon's Kindle Fire certainly played a significant role in the tablet growth, the news still bodes well for...
Early iBooks Textbooks Downloads Estimated at 350,000
AllThingsD reports on a new research note from Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry claiming that customers downloaded approximately 350,000 iBooks Textbooks from the iBookstore over the first three days of availability. That performance was accompanied by over 90,000 downloads of Apple's iBooks Author app from the Mac App Store.If those numbers are accurate, Apple’s textbook effort...
McGraw-Hill CEO Credits Steve Jobs' Digital Textbook Vision Amid Evidence of Pre-iPad Interest
AllThingsD share some thoughts from McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw, who during a Q&A session following yesterday's iBooks Textbooks media event described how the development was part of Steve Jobs' vision for what textbooks should be like.Sitting and listening to all of this, I wish Steve Jobs was here. I was with him in June this past year, and we were talking about some of the benchmarks, and...
New Samsung Ad Targets iPhone's Lack of Built-in Turn-by-Turn Directions
Samsung is continuing its string of Galaxy S II television ads directly targeting the iPhone with a new commercial highlighting the iPhone's lack of built-in turn-by-turn directions. The ad contrasts that with the Galaxy S II (and other Android devices), where the functionality comes standard through Google's mapping services.
The new commercial uses the familiar scenario of devoted Apple...
'Absinthe A5' Brings First Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iPad 2
Noted iOS jailbreak author pod2g has teamed up with the Chronic Dev Team to release "Absinthe A5", an enhancement to the popular Greenpois0n jailbreaking tool which adds the ability to perform an untethered jailbreak of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 for the first time.
A related effort from the iPhone Dev Team will include a command-line tool for more control over the jailbreaking process and to...
Publisher Touts 20-Point Boost in Student Performance with Textbooks for iPad
With Apple announcing its iBooks Textbooks initiative yesterday, the company has been pushing its view that the iPad can help revolutionize education by keeping students engaged with unprecedented levels of interactivity.
In an attempt to assess the effect of iPad textbooks on student performance, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) performed a year-long pilot program using an iPad version of...
Camera-free iPhone 4 and 4S Now Officially Available in Singapore
Last week, we noted that several carriers in Singapore were working to offer camera-less iPhone 4S models for users whose professions prevented them from carrying camera-equipped mobile phones. With Singapore requiring all male citizens and many permanent residents to serve up to two years in the military, there is a significant market for camera-less phones in the country.
CNET Asia now...
Apple Retail Stores Coming to India?
Indian business newspaper Mint reports (via iPhone Hacks) that Apple may be preparing to open retail stores in India, dramatically increasing the company's presence in the country.Apple Inc. may open its own shops following the Indian government allowing full ownership of single-brand retail stores by foreign companies, according to a senior official of the department of industrial policy and...
Apple Posts Video of iBooks and iTunes U Media Event
Following today's media event that saw the introduction of iBooks 2 with new iPad digital textbooks alongside expanded iTunes U functionality, Apple has now posted video of the event to its site. The video is also available as a podcast video download in HD and standard formats. Among today's announcements:
- Apple Launches iBooks 2 with Interactive Textbooks
- 'iBooks Author' eBook...
iBooks Textbook Sales: Authors Set Pricing Up to $14.99, Apple Takes 30%, iBooks-Exclusive
Engadget highlights the economics of publishing iBooks Textbooks to the iBookstore, noting that paid downloads follow Apple's traditional App Store and iBookstore model where the company takes a 30% cut of the purchase price of each book. Authors are free to set their own pricing, although Apple has placed a maximum price tag of $14.99 on the textbooks.
In addition, the report notes that...
Apple Launches iBooks 2 with Interactive Textbooks
At its education-focused media event today, Apple introduced iBooks 2, an updated version of the company's e-book software for iOS devices. The update comes as part of a push into interactive digital textbooks in partnership with a number of major publishers.
From the iBooks 2 description:Introducing iBooks 2 — now with iBooks textbooks.
- Experience gorgeous Multi-Touch textbooks...
Live Coverage of Apple's Education-Focused Media Event
Apple today is holding its education-focused media event where it is widely expected to introduce a new push into digital textbooks. The event is scheduled to kick off at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 Pacific.
Apple will not be providing live video coverage of the event to the public, but a number of news sites will be on hand to provide text and photo...
Apple's Textbook Project Code Named 'Bliss' and Inspired by Al Gore's 'Our Choice'?
AppleInsider reports that it received a tip earlier this week claiming that Apple's digital textbook project rumored for unveiling tomorrow has been developed internally under the code name "Bliss". The source also indicated that the project was inspired by Apple board member Al Gore's Our Choice e-book app focused on global climate change.
Al Gore's Our Choice app
Some of the source's...
Apple's Smartphone Market Share Surge Continues through December on iPhone 4S Strength
Last week, research firm NPD released data showing that Apple's iOS had significantly closed the gap on Android in new U.S. smartphone sales in October and November, narrowing Android's 34 percentage-point lead to just four points in the wake of the iPhone 4S debut.
Nielsen now takes a look at its own data, showing similar momentum that had carried over through the end of 2011.Among recent...
Apple's Textbook Initiative to Feature Strong K-12 Focus, Aid Publishers Large and Small
Bits and pieces of Apple's announcement plans for its education-focused media event to be held tomorrow are continuing to flow in, and Bloomberg now weighs in with its sources indicating that the company's new publishing tools will have a strong focus on shaking up the kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) textbook market.At an event in New York tomorrow, Apple will announce a set of tools that...
