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
Nortel Completes $4.5 Billion Patent Sale to Apple-Led Consortium [Updated]
Nortel today announced that it has officially completed the $4.5 billion sale of over 6,000 patents to a consortium of companies led by Apple. The proposed sale had previously passed muster with both bankruptcy courts and Canadian regulatory authorities, and antitrust concerns regarding the bidding process appear to have also been satisfied.Nortel Networks Corporation announced that it,its...
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Apple Updates Online Order Status Pages During Overnight Downtime
During the U.S. overnight hours, a number of readers noted that Apple's online store had been taken down for updating, and with Friday not being a typical day for new products and nothing rumored to be launching, the downtime was assumed to be for store maintenance. Such maintenance windows are not infrequent, and thus there was relatively little anticipation for the store's return beyond simply ...
Apple's Profit Share Among Top Mobile Phone Vendors Rises to 66%
Apple's share of profits raked in by the world's top publicly-traded mobile phone vendors rose once again this quarter, as asymco's Horace Dediu notes in the latest edition of his quarterly tracking reports. According to Dediu's calculations, Apple's share of profits among the eight companies tracked rose to 66%, up from 57% last quarter.This quarter saw a slight sequential decline in overall...
Apple TV Seeing Moderate Success, But No Hardware Update Imminent?
Yesterday, we noted that Logitech had slashed the price of its Google TV-powered Revue set-top box to below cost following a quarter in which customer returns actually exceeded new sales. We reported that development within the context of Apple's measured steps into the television market that have seen the Apple TV primarily function as a media hub for iTunes Store content and a handful of...
New Mac Purchases Bring iLife '11 to Users' Older Computers
Apple's new computers shipping with Lion do not include physical restore media and instead utilize a hidden recovery partition to allow users to reinstall their system software should the need arise. But as noted by Macworld, reinstallation of the iLife '11 software included on new Macs occurs via the Mac App Store, which recognizes the machines' iLife licenses and links them to users' Apple IDs ...
Samsung Halts Public Disclosures of Mobile Phone Sales Numbers
Even as its smartphone sales explode and appear set to cruise past Apple during the current quarter to take the top spot in the market, Samsung has instituted "a new information policy" that will see the company cease public reporting of its quarterly phone sales numbers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While industry analysts will still be able to make some reasonable estimates of...
New MacBook Air Using Scaled-Down Thunderbolt Chip
Portion of MacBook Air motherboard with Eagle Ridge chip outlined in teal (Source: iFixit)
AnandTech takes a look at the Thunderbolt controller used by Apple in the new MacBook Air, finding that the company has opted to use a scaled-down "Eagle Ridge" controller chip from Intel instead of the "Light Ridge" chip found in larger Thunderbolt-enabled machines.[Light Ridge] features four...
Apple Passes Nokia and Holds Off Samsung to Become World's Top Smartphone Vendor [Updated]
Just hours after research firm IDC released data showing Apple dramatically outpacing the overall mobile phone industry in year-over-year growth for the second quarter of 2011, Strategy Analytics has confirmed that Apple has indeed become the world's largest smartphone manufacturer. In that smaller but faster-growing submarket, Apple dethroned long-time leader Nokia and just barely held off a...
Apple Closing on LG for Title of Third Largest Mobile Phone Vendor With 142% Growth
Research firm IDC today released results for global mobile phone sales for the second quarter of 2011, showing strong growth for Apple as it sits firmly in fourth place and closes quickly on LG in the race for third place among global phone vendors.Apple maintained its number four position overall but closed the gap on Top 5 competitors thanks to another record unit shipment quarter. The...
Pegatron Coming On Board as New Manufacturer for iPad 3?
Taiwan Economic News reports (via BGR) that Pegatron is set to win a contract to produce the iPad 3, at least partially displacing Apple's current exclusive manufacturer for the popular tablet device, Foxconn/Hon Hai.
But while BGR suggests that the iPad contract between Pegatron and Apple is an exclusive one shutting Foxconn out entirely, the somewhat unclear article leaves the situation...
Logitech Slashes Google TV-Based Revue to $99 as Returns Exceed Sales
As noted by This is my next..., Logitech today revealed that its Google-TV based "Revue" set-top box has been a complete flop, actually recording negative sales numbers last quarter as returns exceeded new sales. In response, Logitech has announced that it will be slashing the Revue's price from $249 to a below-cost $99 and taking a $34 million charge to cover the loss.
Google TV had been...
Apple's Existing Mac Lines Tweaked for OS X Lion
While Apple released new MacBook Air and Mac mini models alongside OS X Lion last week, the company also updated its other Mac lines to begin shipping them with Lion. But Apple changed a bit more than just the operating system on those models, as MacTrast details with a comparison of a new MacBook Pro with Lion pre-installed to another MacBook Pro purchased just a few months ago.
The...
BBC iPlayer for iPad Going International: Western Europe Today, U.S. and Others Later This Year
The Guardian reports that the BBC is finally set to launch its popular iPlayer service on an international basis, rolling out a new iPad app to eleven countries in Western Europe today and to the United States, Canada, and Australia by the end of the year.The service will offer a limited amount of content for free, supported by pre-roll ads and sponsorship, but its core business model is...
Photos of Purported iPhone 5 Case Based on Latest Design Claims Surface
Earlier this week, a purported case design for the iPhone 5 surfaced showing tapered edges more reminiscent of pre-iPhone 4 designs along with a possible larger screen and gesture area around the home button.
That schematic is not merely a random design drawing, however, as 9 to 5 Mac has received photos of an actual case apparently manufactured based on that design, which has reportedly been...
Survey: 35% of U.S. Consumers Planning to Purchase Next-Generation iPhone
Earlier this week, shopping comparison site PriceGrabber released the results of a survey of nearly 3,000 U.S. online consumers conducted earlier this month, revealing that 35% of respondents intend to purchase the next-generation iPhone. The strong consumer interest comes even as Apple has to yet announce or even acknowledge such a device and with rumors offering conflicting information on what ...
Apple 'Evaluating' Solar Cell Vendors for Future Products?
DigiTimes reports that Apple and Samsung are both "evaluating" the use of solar cells in future consumer products, with the process having advanced as far as discussions with several Taiwanese solar firms about the technology. Any such products are said to be some time off, however, with projects still in the research stage as vendors work toward increasing efficiency of energy conversion.Samsung...
HTC Looking to Strike Deal, Google and Apple Likely to Drive Up Price of Patent Acquisitions
Bloomberg reports that HTC has expressed willingness to strike a deal with Apple in the patent dispute between the two companies that has seen Apple score an initial victory in front of the U.S. International Trade Commission while HTC has increased its firepower by acquiring a company that had already won a decision against Apple.“We have to sit down and figure it out,” Winston Yung, chief ...
Apple Still Using SSDs With Varying Speeds on New MacBook Air
Several months ago, we noted that Apple appeared to be using two different suppliers, Samsung and Toshiba, for the solid-state drives (SSDs) on its MacBook Air models. Notably, the Samsung SSDs registered significantly faster read and write speeds than the Toshiba SSDs. User reports indicated that Apple was indeed using both suppliers simultaneously, rather making it a luck of the draw as to...
Apple Releases Revised Mac OS X 10.6.8 With Patch for Existing Users
Apple today released a series of Mac OS X 10.6.8 releases, apparently revising the original version as well as offering a "supplemental update" to patch systems that have already been upgraded to the latest version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.The Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and resolves issues with:
- Transferring personal...
Apple Releases iOS 4.3.5 to Address Security Issue With Certificate Validation
Only ten days after releasing iOS 4.3.4, Apple has just pushed out iOS 4.3.5 to address a security issue with certificate validation.iOS 4.3.5 Software Update
Fixes a security vulnerability with certificate validation.The new version checks in as Build 8L1, and is for the GSM iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, all iPads, and the third- and-fourth-generation iPod touch. A separate iOS 4.2.10 (Build...
