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
Adobe Flash Player 10.3 Officially Debuts With New Privacy Controls
Just over two months ago, Adobe released a beta version of Flash Player 10.3, which notably included new privacy controls and integration within System Preferences on the Mac OS X platform. Also included was an automatic update notification system for Mac OS X.
As announced by Adobe yesterday, Flash Player 10.3 has now officially launched and is available for download.New features in Flash...
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Lodsys Threatens to Sue App Store Developers Over In-App Purchases and Upgrade Links
Yesterday, we received word from Rob Gloess of Computer LogicX, the company behind the Mix & Mash and Mix & Mash LITE applications for iOS, that he had received legal documents threatening a patent lawsuit over the use of an "upgrade" button in the lite version of his application linking users to the App Store where they could purchase the full version.Our app, Mix & Mash, has the common model of ...
Apple Patent Application Suggests Camera-Equipped iPod Nano With Situation-Aware Screen Savers
Patently Apple reports on an interesting new patent application from Apple describing the use of environmental sensors to generate screen saver content for mobile devices such as the iPod nano. As an example, the device could sense such environmental characteristics as motion, sound, temperature, or even camera input, using that information to provide the users with screen saver content...
Manipulation of Apple's Stock Price Evident in the Options Market?
Apple's stock price drop in the closing minutes of trading on April 29th
Fortune reports on an interesting phenomenon being observed in Apple's stock price related to the weekly options market, the trading of rights to purchase stock at a given price at the end of a specified period. According to the report, Apple's stock is consistently seeing suspicious price changes on Fridays as those...
Apple Digs at Microsoft With Bellevue Store Relocation
Apple's new store in red, Microsoft's store on lower level shadowed in yellow
Last November, Microsoft opened a new 5,000 square-foot retail store in the Bellevue Square mall in the state of Washington near its corporate headquarters, moving in just a few doors down from Apple's slightly smaller store in the mall.
As reported by ifoAppleStore, however, Apple has apparently decided to use its...
'Dramatic' Growth in Digital Music Sales Due to The Beatles on iTunes?
Media research firm Nielsen yesterday revealed that overall music sales in the United States are up 1.6% year-over-year so far in 2011, driven in large part by a 12.4% surge in digital music sales that appears to coincide with the debut of The Beatles on iTunes last November.While physical albums saw a decline in year-over-year sales from the same period in 2010, digital album and track...
Apple Restricts Hard Drive Replacements on New iMacs
Hard drive from Early 2011 iMac (Source: iFixit)
As noted by Other World Computing, Apple has implemented a new temperature sensor system on its latest iMac models that significantly hampers the ability of users to replace their original hard drives in the case of failure or a desire to upgrade. Without the custom 7-pin hard drive cable and proprietary firmware included on stock hard drives in...
Apple's iAd Program Reaches 100 Campaigns
As reported by The Loop, Apple has reached a milestone in its iAd mobile advertising push, with its 100th ad campaign having rolled out with content from real estate company Coldwell Banker.The campaign began in late March and so far, the results are glowing. [Coldwell Banker chief marketing office Michael] Fischer said the iAd garnered and average of 11 pages viewed per visit; average user...
Apple Releases iPhoto 9.1.3
Apple yesterday released iPhoto 9.1.3, a minor update addressing an issue with merged events transferred to iOS devices.This update fixes a problem that could cause some events merged in iPhoto to be split back into multiple events on iOS devices after being synced.
This update is recommended for all users of iPhoto '11.The update weighs in at 106.29 MB and requires Mac OS X 10.6.6. The...
Shortages of Components and Labor Affecting iPhone and iPad Production?
In a pair of reports today, DigiTimes claims that Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn is experiencing shortages of both labor and component supplies required for iPhone and iPad production, with Apple also being among the companies still scrambling to secure component supplies in the face of increasing supply chain tightness resulting from the Japanese earthquake that has seen suppliers...
Apple Issues New 4.2.2 (iOS 4.3) Update for Apple TV
Apple today issued a new software update for the second-generation Apple TV, moving the software version to 4.2.2 as reported by the device. Apple's servers, however, register the update as a new build of iOS 4.3 carrying a build number of 8F305.
There is no word yet on changes included in the update, as Apple has yet to publish documentation on the new version.
Update: Apple's notes on...
Google Announces 'Chromebook' Laptops, No Word on Chrome-Based Tablets
On the second day of its I/O conference, Google has announced the June 15th launch of Chromebooks, small web-only notebooks running the company's browser-based Chrome OS. These are not typical notebooks. With a Chromebook you won't wait minutes for your computer to boot and browser to start. You'll be reading your email in seconds. Thanks to automatic updates the software on your Chromebook will ...
'iFlow Reader' iOS eBook Store Shutting Down
BeamItDown Software, the company behind the popular iFlow Reader eBook application and store for iPhone and iPad, has announced that it will be closing down as of May 31st, citing Apple's recent enforcement of policies forcing content providers to offer content via Apple's in app purchasing mechanism at the same prices offered elsewhere. With that mechanism resulting in Apple taking a 30% of...
Music Labels Hoping Apple Can Force Amazon and Google Into Cloud Licensing
With Amazon and now Google having rolled out cloud-based music hosting services without the consent of music labels, CNET reports that the labels are reportedly now looking for Apple to become the driving force to bring those companies back to the negotiating table for broader licensing deals. Since neither company was either able or willing to obtain licenses from the four major labels, neither ...
Apple Pulls iAds From Kid-Focused Apps as Advertisers Target Efforts
MacStories reports on the experience of one App Store developer who recently saw the iAd fill rate for his Dex application for iOS drop to zero, discovering that Apple has essentially disabled iAds for kids-focused apps such as Dex in response to advertisers seeking to target their ads at other demographic segments. The developer reports: Last Thursday I had a particularly awful iAd fill rate...
Intel's Z68 Chipset and SSD Caching Reviewed
Last week, we noted that Apple's new iMac models utilize Intel's latest Z68 chipset, a component that Intel had yet to even publicly introduce at the time of the iMac's debut. The chipset has been highly anticipated for its ability to support SSD caching, a software technology that pairs a small solid state drive (SSD) with a conventional hard drive to significantly improve performance in a...
Apple Testifies on Mobile Privacy, Location Cache Encryption Coming to iOS
As noted last week, Apple vice president Bud Tribble today participated in a U.S. Senate panel discussion of mobile privacy, particularly as it relates to location tracking. Tribble's appearance alongside Google's Alan Davidson and other experts and privacy advocates was supplemented with a new formal letter (PDF) from Apple to concerned legislators reiterating and expanding upon comments made s...
Clipless Next-Generation iPod Nano With 1.3-Megapixel Rear Camera?
In early April, Taiwanese site Apple.pro posted a photo of what was claimed to be the rear case for the next-generation iPod nano, appearing to reveal that the device will add a rear-facing camera to its recently-reduced form factor.
Claimed next-generation iPod nano case (left) vs. current generation (right)
While the previous shot showed that rear case from the front, thus showing the...
Google Launches 'Music Beta' Cloud Service
As expected, Google today announced its new Music Beta service, offering users the ability to upload their music libraries to Google's servers for cloud-based hosting that allows users to access content from any device. The offering competes against Amazon's Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services, as well as Apple's expected MobileMe revamp.
Music Beta is currently available via invitation...
YouTube Takes on iTunes Store With Streaming Movie Rentals
YouTube yesterday announced the launch of streaming movie rentals, taking on Apple's iTunes Store offerings that have grown to include a variety of streaming and downloadable rental options as well as digital purchases. YouTube's new rental service, which comes at "industry standard pricing" typically in the range of $2.99-$3.99, builds upon free movie offerings the site has offered for...
