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
Nuance Debuts Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.5
Speech recognition firm Nuance today announced the launch of Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.5, bringing a number of new features including compatibility with the company's recently-released Dragon Remote Microphone app for iOS devices. Nuance is of course also apparently working closely with Apple on its "Assistant" function currently under development in iOS 5.
Among the other key additions in...
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OS X Lion Raises Bar on Security, But Battery Firmware Vulnerability Surfaces
The Register reports on some of the new security improvements in OS X Lion, with researchers calling the changes a "major overhaul" that goes far beyond the minor security tweaks Apple made going from Mac OS X Leopard to Snow Leopard."It's a significant improvement, and the best way that I've described the level of security in Lion is that it's Windows 7, plus, plus," said Dino Dai Zovi,...
Apple Seeds iOS 5 Beta 4 to Developers, Over-The-Air Updating Going Live
Apple today seeded the fourth beta version of iOS 5 to developers, continuing progress on the next-generation mobile operating system for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch set for public release in the fall alongside iCloud. The new version is listed as Build 9A5274d.
We've yet to hear word of specific changes in the release, although it does appear that Apple has also issued it as an...
T-Mobile USA Begins Offering Micro-SIMs, Targets iPhone Owners
Last month, T-Mobile USA revealed that it had over one million iPhones running on its network, despite not being officially sanctioned by Apple and the handsets not being able to take advantage of 3G data speeds due to differences in the carrier's network standard compared to other GSM networks. T-Mobile customers had also needed to trim down their T-Mobile SIM cards to fit into the iPhone's...
Mac Mini Teardown Reveals Potential for User-Installable Second Hard Drive
Just like the MacBook Air yesterday, iFixit has also conducted a teardown of the new Mac mini. While the internals are very similar to the previous generation, the teardown does reveal that users may be able to install a second hard drive on their own if a proper cable can be found.
The possibility of adding a second hard drive is made possible by Apple's removal of the optical drive from...
'New' iPhone Reportedly Coming Soon to China Telecom and China Unicom
Bloomberg briefly reports on comments from Chinese media group Caixin sharing that Apple's "new iPhone model" will be coming to carriers China Telecom and China Unicom "as early as the third quarter of the year".China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom will sell Apple Inc's new iPhone model in the country as early as the third quarter of the year, Caixin reported today, citing an unidentified person.C...
Verizon Sees 2.3 Million iPhone Activations in 2Q 2011
Verizon today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2011, and in a slideshow presentation (PDF) accompanying the release revealed that it activated 2.3 million iPhones during the quarter. The period marked the carrier's first full quarter of availability for the iPhone, and it compares to the 2.2 million iPhones activated during the launch quarter.
Verizon's 2.3 million...
Apple Updates Standalone Keyboards for OS X Lion
As noted by Italian site iSpazio [Google translation], Apple has quietly tweaked its standalone Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad for OS X Lion.
One minor change is a slight adjustment to the icon displayed on the F3 key to remove the frame around the collection of windows. The F3 key had been used to activate Exposé, but with that feature now being folded into the broader Mission Control ...
Apple Planning to Introduce White iPod Touch Later This Year?
Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has in the past provided some accurate claims primarily regarding Apple's notebook lines, now reports to AppleInsider that Apple may be planning to introduce a white iPod touch later this year. The forthcoming fifth-generation iPod touch is said to otherwise be nearly identical to the current version.Looking into the current third calendar quarter,...
Lodsys Takes On Gaming Heavyweights Including Rovio, EA, and Atari in Patent Dispute
Patent holding firm Lodsys, which has received tremendous publicity for targeting iOS and Android app developers in a patent dispute over the developers' use of in-app purchasing and upgrade links within their apps, has amended the list of defendants in its lawsuit on the manner to include a number of high-profile gaming firms.
As detailed by FOSS Patents, Lodsys has now included Angry Birds ...
Adobe Retracts Claim Suggesting Lion May Lack Support for Flash Hardware Acceleration
Earlier today, Adobe made waves with a statement in a tech note outlining issues with Adobe products running on OS X Lion by claiming that Lion may have dropped support for hardware acceleration of Flash Player content.
Adobe has now issued a correction retracting that statement and noting that OS X Lion does in fact offer the same level of hardware acceleration as found in Mac OS X Snow...
New Mac Mini Benchmarks Show Significant Performance Gains
Just like early reports on the new MacBook Air released yesterday, the new Mac mini is also showing significant improvements in raw performance over its predecessor machines. Mac mini web hosting company Macminicolo.net has obtained both standard and server models of the new line and put them through some preliminary benchmarking using Geekbench.
The testing reveals significant performance...
Apple Releases Apple Server Diagnostics Version 3X109
Apple today released Apple Server Diagnostics 3X109, a new version of the company's software that will allow owners running OS X Lion Server components on Mid 2010 Mac Pro and Mid 2011 Mac mini server configurations to test their machines for hardware issues.Apple Server Diagnostics tests your server for hardware issues. Apple Server Diagnostics version 3X109 is compatible with Lion server on the ...
Teardown Confirms Apple Still Using Modular Solid-State Drive on New MacBook Air
Teardown and repair firm iFixit is well underway on a teardown of the new 13-inch MacBook Air, and while most of the computer's internals are nearly identical to that of its predecessor, a few items of note have been discovered.
- Apple is continuing to use a modular design for the MacBook Air's solid-state storage, meaning that it can be replaced or upgraded if necessary, although it is not ...
Apple Launches Business App Store for Volume iOS App Purchases
Last week, Apple announced that it would be debuting a new volume purchasing program to allow businesses to purchase iOS in volume and distribute them within their organizations.
As noted by The Loop and in a brief announcement on Apple's site, the program has now gone live.Businesses in the United States can now enroll in the Volume Purchase Program and purchase your apps in volume for...
Apple Shipping Up to 500,000 New MacBook Airs Per Month, Could Hit 15 Million Notebooks in 2011
DigiTimes reports that Apple is off to an aggressive start with its new MacBook Air models, having already pushed out 400,000-500,000 units in June and continuing with strong production through at least the end of August. Sources within Apple's supply chain also indicate that Apple is shooting for total notebook shipments of 13-14 million in 2011, with the possibility of hitting 15 million units....
AT&T iPhone Activations Flat Quarter-to-Quarter at 3.6 Million
AT&T today announced financial results for the second quarter of 2011, revealing that its iPhone activations remained flat compared to the previous quarter by coming in at 3.6 million. Activations were up from 3.2 million in the year-ago quarter.
According to the report, 24% of iPhone activations during the quarter were by customers new to AT&T, a figure just slightly higher than last quarter ...
Adobe Suggests Disabled Hardware Acceleration for Flash Player in OS X Lion [Update]
TUAW reports that Adobe has posted a list of known issues for its products running on OS X Lion. The list is unfortunately extensive, but the company's discussion of Flash Player issues stands out for the revelation that OS X Lion may have disabled hardware acceleration.Flash Player may cause higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video. Possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration.Ot...
Apple Contributing $2.6 Billion Toward Nortel Patent Purchase
Earlier this month, an Apple-led consortium beat out Google in an auction of thousands of patents from bankrupt Nortel, bidding $4.5 billion for the entire package of patents. As noted by @SammyWalrusIV (via Business Insider), Apple 10-Q quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Apple's contribution to that effort totaled $2.6 billion.On June 27,...
Apple Tops Nokia to Become World's Top Smartphone Vendor
As noted by the Financial Times, Apple has officially passed Nokia to become the world's top smartphone vendor. Apple's rapid growth paired with a sharp drop in shipments for Nokia allowed Apple to turn a 5.5 million unit deficit during the first quarter into a 3.6 million unit lead in the second quarter.Shipments of Nokia smartphones declined by 34 per cent to 16.7m units, compared with the...
