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
Lodsys Patent Invalidation Efforts: Apple Barred? $15,000 Bounty for Crowdsourced Research
Lodsys, the patent holding company currently taking on App Store developers over their use of in app purchasing and upgrade buttons, is under increasing attack as it continues to push forward with its own actions while its targets have begun to fight back. Last week, we noted that the first legal challenge had been brought seeking to invalidate Lodsys' patents, and three other companies,...
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Apple Holding New Mac Hardware Updates Until OS X Lion Launches?
AppleInsider reports that it has received word that Apple is holding back on releasing updated Mac models in order to wait for work on OS X Lion to be completed. Apple is reportedly "so pumped up" about Lion that it wants to ship the new machines with Lion preinstalled rather than forcing users to upgrade on their own once the new operating system is released next month.For instance, new...
Apple Patent Application Addresses Advanced 'Find My iPhone' Features and Customizability
Patently Apple reports that another newly-published patent application from Apple reveals a hint at what could be the future of the company's "Find My iPhone" functionality. The proposed enhancements offer a device's owner a great deal more control over how it can be used once it is lost or stolen, as well as providing the device with smarter capabilities for detecting unauthorized usage. Among ...
Apple to Upgrade Fifth Avenue Store Plaza, Temporarily Remove Iconic Glass Cube
ifoAppleStore reports that Apple has begun work on a $6.6 million project to revamp the plaza at its flagship Fifth Avenue retail store in Manhattan, home of the iconic glass cube entrance leading to the underground retail space. As part of the project, Apple will be temporarily removing the glass cube to install new pavers on the plaza.
Workers reportedly appeared on site last night and...
Google Sync for iOS Updated With New Email Search, Calendar Events, 'Send Mail As'
Google today announced that it has updated its Google Sync service to iOS, bringing several enhancements to the company's integrated syncing for mail, contacts and calendars when set up as a Microsoft Exchange account. The new features included searching of full email history, calendar event management, and support for "send mail as" options for users with multiple accounts.Google Sync keeps...
WWDC 2012 Already Scheduled for June 10th-15th?
The 2011 edition of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) just wrapped up a few days ago, but some attendees may already be looking forward to next year in hopes of penciling in dates so that they are ready to go when tickets go on sale and potentially sell out within hours. So those planning on attending WWDC 2012 may want to take renewed note of a multi-year calendar from the San...
Three People Sent to Prison in China Over iPad 2 Leaks
The Wall Street Journal reports that three people have been sent to prison in China over their roles in facilitating leaks of information on the iPad 2 prior to its release.The court announced the decision Tuesday in statements on its official account at Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service in China. It said that Xiao Chengsong, general manager of Shenzhen MacTop Electronics Co.,...
Microsoft Issues Updates for Office 2011, 2008, and 2004
Microsoft yesterday released several updates for users of its Office for Mac productivity suites, bringing security and stability improvements to Office 2011, 2008, and 2004, as well as a pair of ancillary updates.
- Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 14.1.2 Update (108.9 MB): Improvements include security fixes and several stability and reliability improvements for Outlook and Word.
- Microsoft...
Facebook Prepping New Photo Sharing App for iPhone [Updated]
TechCrunch reports that it has receiving detailed information on a forthcoming iPhone application from Facebook that will focus on photo sharing, building on top of the company's massive existing platform to apparently pull together aspects of many other popular photo apps in what appears from the leaked documents to be an "awesome" offering.But again, the app looks amazing. We've heard that...
Inside Apple's Retail Store Operation
In the wake of yesterday's announcement regarding Apple retail chief Ron Johnson's pending departure to take the CEO position at department store chain J.C. Penney, The Wall Street Journal publishes an extensive look at the company's retail store operations and philosophy, relying on internal training materials and interviews with former employees to gain a sense of what Apple is doing...
Passcode-Collecting App Pulled From App Store [Updated]
Earlier this week, iOS developer Daniel Amitay published a report examining trends in passcodes chosen by users of his Big Brother Camera Security application. Amitay had anonymously collected over 200,000 passcodes used on his app and offered the data up as a proxy for actual iPhone passcode usage data based on the similarity of the input system style and functionality.
Amitay now reports...
Apple Releases AirPort Utility 5.5.3 for Mac and Windows
Apple today released AirPort Utility 5.5.3 for both Mac (10.8 MB) and Windows (10.1 MB). The updates to Apple's software for managing the AirPort Express Base Station, the AirPort Extreme Base Station, and Time Capsule primarily address an issue that may cause the application to crash during setup.This update contains bug fixes including the following:
Resolves an issue that caused the...
Final Cut Pro X and Third-Party Thunderbolt Peripherals Coming Next Week?
Japanese blog Mac Otakara reports that Apple is apparently set to launch its new Final Cut Pro X offerings next week, to be accompanied by the release of a number of new Thunderbolt-equipped accessories from third-party vendors.
Apple demoed Final Cut Pro X back in mid-April, announcing that the professional video production software would launch on the Mac App Store in June priced at $299. ...
Apple Retail Chief Ron Johnson Departing to Lead J.C. Penney [Updated]
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson is leaving the company to take the position of president at department store chain J.C. Penney, a move that will put Johnson in position to become CEO at the company within the next few months.J.C. Penney Co. is tapping Ron Johnson, head of Apple Inc.'s iconic retail stores, as its new president and...
Apple Calls Samsung's Request to See iPhone 5 and iPad 3 an 'Attempt to Harass'
Late last month, Samsung attempted to escalate its patent dispute with Apple by requesting to see Apple's next-generation iPhone and iPad models, ostensibly to help it defend itself against Apple's charges of copying and other infringement. The request was made after Apple requested and was granted access to unreleased Samsung hardware, although that hardware had already been extensively...
Apple's Back to School Promo Launching Wednesday With $100 iTunes Gift Cards?
Following a couple of missed rumored launch dates, a report surfaced over the weekend indicating that Apple will finally be launching its annual Back to School promotion this Wednesday. A new report from 9 to 5 Mac corroborates that claim and adds a new wrinkle -- instead of a free iPod as in years past, Apple will be offering $100 iTunes gift cards to education customers purchasing new Macs.In...
Ten Most Common iPhone Passcodes Revealed
iOS developer Daniel Amitay today took an interesting look (via The Next Web) at iPhone passcode trends as revealed by usage of his popular Big Brother Camera Security application.In my last update to Big Brother Camera Security (Free), I added some code to record common user passcodes (completely anonymous, of course). Because Big Brother's passcode setup screen and lock screen are nearly...
Mac OS X 10.6.8 Build 10K537 Seeded to Developers
Apple today seeded Mac developers with a new version of Mac OS X 10.6.8, termed Build 10K537. The new build, which continues to weigh in at about 1 GB as a combo update and is approaching 500 MB as a delta update, is the first to be pushed out to developers in over three weeks as Apple's team has undoubtedly been focused on WWDC.
Apple's documentation requests that developers focus their...
OS X Lion to Drop 'Rosetta' Support for PowerPC Applications
Soon after Apple released the first developer preview version of OS X Lion back in late February, we noted that Apple appeared to have dropped support for Rosetta, the system that allowed Intel-based Macs to run applications written for earlier PowerPC-based systems.
Apple of course made the transition to Intel-based processors five years ago, and Rosetta is an optional install under Snow...
HP Preparing to Take on Apple With TouchPad, Potential Cloud-Based Media Service
HP finally appears set to make its splash into the tablet market, announcing late last week that its webOS-based TouchPad will go on sale July 1st and match the iPad's price points of $499.99 for a 16 GB model and $599.99 for a 32 GB model. The pairing of HP and Palm has been seen as one of the most interesting contenders in the tablet market, although none of Apple's other primary competitors...
