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
More Retail Store Openings Scheduled for El Paso, Texas and Bologna, Italy
Just yesterday, we noted that Apple was planning two retail store openings for this week, with the Stratford City store in London opening today and the Jungfernstieg store in Hamburg, Germany following suit on Saturday. Apple has now announced two additional store openings for this Saturday, continuing its third quarter retail push to bring dozens of new stores online ahead of the holiday...
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Apple Preparing to Release Updated AirPort Express Base Station
AppleInsider reports that Apple is preparing to release an updated version of its compact AirPort Express wireless base station. Hints of the imminent refresh come from shortages of the existing model being observed at several third-party retailers, but the most concrete evidence comes from a source reporting that Apple is finishing work on its AirPort Utility 5.6 software which makes reference...
Apple Preps for Thunderbolt Display Release with MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update
Apple today released MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.1, a 3.99 MB update addressing a pair of issues on the company's latest MacBook Air models. The fixes include enhanced stability for Lion Recovery over the Internet and improvements for Thunderbolt-related issues including compatibility with Apple's forthcoming Apple Thunderbolt Display.This update includes fixes that enhance the stability ...
New MacBook Air and Mac Mini Models Driving Record Mac Sales for 3Q 2011
Business Insider reports on new sales data from market research firm NPD, as shared by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. According to NPD, Apple's U.S. Mac sales are up 22% year-over-year for the the first two months of the third calendar quarter of 2011, setting the company up to set a new record for quarterly Mac sales. The strong performance has unsurprisingly been driven by new MacBook Air...
NBC, TNT and TBS Bring Full-Length TV Episodes to iOS Devices
NBC's iPad application
Late last week, NBC announced that it had enhanced its iPad application to offer viewers access to full-length episodes, providing a significantly improved set of offerings for users."We are thrilled to offer our fans full episodes via our NBC.com app. Now the app truly reflects the deep fan experience that we have created online at NBC.com," said [NBCUniversal Digital...
New UK and German Retail Stores Opening This Week, Largest Chinese Store Coming Soon
Apple is continuing to press forward with new retail store openings this week, working toward making good on plans to open over 30 new stores during the third quarter of this year.
Apple's Stratford City retail store in London (Thanks, Luke!)
One unusual store opening will take place tomorrow as the Stratford City store opens up in the new Westfield Stratford City shopping center in the...
Apple Sending iOS 5 to iPhone Assemblers at End of September, No Sign of Redesigned iPhone 5
In a new research note provided to MacRumors, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that Apple is scheduled to send the golden master version of iOS 5 to its iPhone and iPod touch assembling partners during the timeframe of September 23rd through 30th, suggesting a launch for the new hardware around mid-October once the assemblers have had time to install the software on already-produced hardware and ship ...
Apple Rolls iCloud Beta into New OS X 10.7.2 Build 11C55
Apple today seeded a new version of OS X 10.7.2, termed Build 11C55, to developers. Notably, the build appears to fully incorporate iCloud functionality for the first time. The iCloud components had previously been included as a separate download to be installed on top of earlier OS X 10.7.2 builds.OS X Lion Software Update 10.7.2 is an update to OS X Lion 10.7 and includes support for iCloud ...
Apple Reopens iTunes Match Beta for U.S. Developers
Apple has sent out an email to registered developers today notifying them that the company has opened the iTunes Match beta to additional developers in the United States. The iTunes Match beta was initially opened late last month, but closed to new registrations within a few hours after the initial quota of developers was reached.iTunes Match beta testing has now been expanded to additional...
Sprint Blacking Out Employee Vacations for First Half of October?
Following on today's fresh claims of Sprint launching the iPhone 5 by "mid-October", reportedly with unlimited data plans, Sprintfeed now shares a purported internal Sprint memo for employees noting that vacations have been blacked out for the period beginning September 30th and extending through October 15th.Due to the possibility of a major phone launch in October we are blacking out...
Apple Seeds New iTunes 10.5 and iWork for iOS Betas to Developers
Apple today seeded new builds of iTunes 10.5 and iWork for iOS to developers, continuing to push forward on work toward a full launch of the company's iCloud services. The releases include iTunes 10.5 beta 8 and iWork for iOS beta 3.
The new iTunes 10.5 build supersedes beta 7, which was released alongside iOS 5 beta 7 on August 31st, while the new iWork for iOS version is an update over...
Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 Brings Flash Video Streaming to iOS Devices
Adobe yesterday announced the release of Flash Media Server 4.5 and Flash Access 3.0, updated tools to allow publishers to host streaming Flash video content. As noted by Computerworld, the release includes a new solution to allow Flash content to be repackaged and streamed to iOS devices, which famously do not support Flash Player directly."With Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5, media publishers...
Apple's Strict Security Measures for Pre-Release Hardware
Leaked photo of iPad bolted to table (Source: Engadget)
Business Insider offers some details from one of the first outside developers to work with the original iPad before its debut, describing the steps Apple went through to ensure secrecy. While some of the same details were reported last year, the new account offers a few additional items of interest.The criteria was that we had to have a...
Apple Releases Security Update 2011-005 for OS X to Address Compromised Certificates
Apple today released Security Update 2011-005 for OS X, a small update addressing a specific security issue related to fraudulent certificates from DigiNotar. Impact: An attacker with a privileged network position may intercept user credentials or other sensitive information
Description: Fraudulent certificates were issued by multiple certificate authorities operated by DigiNotar. This issue ...
Dropbox May Have Declined $800 Million Acquisition Offer from Apple
Business Insider files this report under "gossip", but says that it has heard from a pair of second-hand sources that Apple bid up to $800 million for file storage and sharing service Dropbox, but Dropbox passed on the deal to remain independent. The company has since raised a new round of funding at a $4 billion valuation.Enterprise software-as-a-service company Citrix and Apple took a long...
Sprint to Launch iPhone 5 with Unlimited Data Next Month
Bloomberg reports that Sprint will indeed begin offering the iPhone next month as had been previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, seeking to set itself apart from AT&T and Verizon by offering unlimited data plans for the device. The carrier is said to be launching the iPhone 5 in mid-October under its new deal with Apple.Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) will offer Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone...
LG Resolves Quality Issues with iPad 2 Display Production
Last month, word surfaced that Apple had shifted orders for iPad 2 displays away from LG Display after the company experienced quality issues with its production. The issues were said to be related to an unacceptably high number of panels failing drop testing.
Digitimes now reports that those issues have been resolved, and iPad 2 display panel shipments have returned to normal at LG...
German Injunction Against Sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1 Upheld
FOSS Patents and Bloomberg report that a German court has upheld an earlier ruling preventing Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that country following an infringement complaint by Apple.“The court is of the opinion that Apple’s minimalistic design isn’t the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible,” [Presiding Judge Johanna] Brueckner-Hofmann ...
Apple Online Store Tweaks: iPad Model Selection Layout, New 'In Stock' Status
Apple's online stores went down for several hours earlier today, and while the downtime did not bring any new products, it did see a few visible changes for the stores.
One immediately visible change is in the iPad model selection page, where Apple previously listed all 18 iPad 2 models available in the U.S. store. The company has replaced that system with a new, more dynamic process in which ...
Apple Again Tops J.D. Power Rankings of Smartphone Consumer Satisfaction
J.D. Power today announced (via BGR) the latest results of its semi-annual reports on consumer satisfaction among U.S. smartphone and traditional mobile phone manufacturers. Apple once again topped the list in the smartphone category, marking its sixth consecutive victory in the survey.For smartphones, the key factors are: performance (35%); ease of operation (24%); features (21%); and...
