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
Apple Releases 'iPad is Electric' Commercial
Apple yesterday released a new iPad commercial entitled "iPad is Electric", airing the ad on primetime television and posting it to the company's iPad site and YouTube page.
The new commercial offers the same soundtrack as several earlier ads and follows the same of theme of displaying a series of quick shots of the iPad's capabilities interspersed with corresponding single-word descriptions ...
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Target to Carry iPhone Beginning November 7th
Retail store chain Target today announced that it will begin carrying the iPhone as of November 7th in its 846 stores that offer Target Mobile centers. Target will carry both the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS, and will offer quick, on-the-spot activation. "At Target we continue to offer our guests the best in electronics so we're happy to add iPhone to our Target Mobile offerings," said Mark...
Apple Pays '7-Figure Settlement' in 'iAds' Trademark Lawsuit?
Snippet of Web posting mentioning '7-figure settlement' for 'iAds' trademark
CNET reports that Apple appears to have settled a trademark lawsuit over the term 'iAds', reportedly paying a firm in excess of $1 million for the rights to the name it has used for its mobile advertising platform for the past several months. The revelation comes in an apparent slip from Consor Intellectual Asset...
iPhone 5 to Support NFC-Based Portable 'Remote' Computing?
Apple's interest in Near Field Communication (NFC), the short-range wireless technology that supports such services as "tap and go" credit card payments, has been well-established, but a new report claims that Apple maybe be planning to include the technology in the fifth-generation iPhone to allow Mac users to essentially keep a portable version of their Mac on their iPhone and wirelessly...
Apple Investigating Issue With Monster Headphones [Updated]
Apple is reportedly investigating an issue with a number of Monster-branded headphones designed to use Apple's Remote and Mic technology. According to photo screenshots of an internal Apple service bulletin, headphones included on the extensive list do not meet Apple's technical specifications and can cause iPods and iPhones to play and pause erratically. Several Monster headphone models using...
Genius Recommendations Return in Renamed 'iTunes Sidebar'
With the release of iTunes 10.0.1 in late September, Apple unveiled the Ping Sidebar, offering users the ability to experience deeper integration between their music libraries and Apple's music-focused social network launched in iTunes 10. The new functionality did, however, do away with the earlier "Genius Sidebar" that had offered users song recommendations based on items in their own...
Apple Tops U.S. Smartphone Vendors, Trails Android Consortium
A new report from research firm Canalys shows Apple taking the lead among U.S. smartphone vendors in the third quarter of 2010, with its 5.5 million units representing 26.2% of the market and enabling it to surpass Research in Motion and its 5.1 million units.
Apple was unable, however, to top the consortium of vendors known as the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) that has embraced Google's...
iOS 4.1 Daylight Saving Time Bug Strikes Europe
Several weeks ago, we noted that users in New Zealand and Australia had discovered a bug in iOS 4.1 that caused recurring alarms to go off an hour early after those countries switched to daylight saving time beginning in late September.
At the time, Apple representatives in Australia reported that the bug would be addressed in an upcoming software update, which many users had hoped would be a...
Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.5 Build 10H568 to Developers
Apple is continuing its rapid-fire releases of Mac OS X 10.6.5 builds to the developer community, pushing out Build 10H568 as we head into the Halloween weekend. According to those familiar with the new build, this latest version continues to contain no documented known issues and Apple requests that developers focus their testing on the same set of areas as in the last several builds: 3D...
Ratings and Reviews Disappear From iTunes App Store [Updated]
Several readers have pointed out that app ratings and reviews are currently missing from App Store listings as viewed through iTunes. The reason for the change is unknown, but reports of it have been trickling in over the past fifteen hours and Apple has apparently yet to acknowledge the issue.
The issue appears to be a bug rather than an intentional change to the App Store, as ratings and...
Apple Patent Application Discloses Process for Creating Scratch-Resistant Stainless Steel
An Apple patent application published yesterday has been gaining some attention for its discussion of a system for creating a nitride layer on the surface of stainless steel components to assist in providing durability and scratch resistance while allowing the natural color and texture of the stainless steel to remain visible.
Cross section of nitrided stainless steel
Apple notes that the...
Adobe Shows Off Flash-to-HTML5 Converter
Adobe's John Nack points to a demo of a new tool from the company that would allow developers to easily convert their Flash projects to a combination of HTML5 and related non-Flash technologies. The tool, demoed at Adobe's MAX 2010 conference earlier this week, is not yet promised for a public release, but it is clear that the company is looking at ways to help developers offer their content in...
Apple Turns to Ingram Micro for Corporate iPad Distribution
Reuters reports that technology distributor Ingram Micro is seeing strong sales of the iPad as Apple loosens the reins to allow business-to-business distribution specialists to offer the device. Greg Spierkel, chief executive of Ingram Micro, said Apple has preferred to sell the iPad to retailers but that the company is increasingly letting his firm sell it to businesses.
"What it's telling us...
iPhone Snags 60% of Japanese Smartphone Market
MobileCrunch reports on a new report from Japanese research firm MMRI claiming that Apple held a 60% share of the Japanese smartphone market for the period of April through September, easily outdistancing second-place Sony Ericsson's 20.6% share. According to MMRI, a total of 2.23 million smartphones (Android/Windows Mobile/Blackberry/iOS/Palm) were sold in Japan between April and September this ...
'Fortune' Adds Its Voice to Verizon iPhone Confirmations
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times made headlines as the first flagship news publications to confirm that a Verizon iPhone is set to launch early next year.
In a lengthy profile of Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg published today, Fortune adds its voice to the chorus of confirmations and takes a look at the relationship between Apple and Verizon. The next step, the...
OmniVision to Provide Front and Rear Cameras for Second-Generation iPad?
Barron's reports on a new research note from research firm Detweiler Fenton claiming that OmniVision Technologies has won the contract to supply image sensors for both a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera and front-facing VGA camera for the second-generation iPad. The report claims that the revamped iPad will debut in the first quarter of 2011, likely relatively late in the quarter. The research...
Apple Becomes Fourth-Largest Mobile Phone Vendor
Research firm IDC yesterday released results for global mobile phone unit sales in the third quarter of 2010, highlighting Apple's leap into the top five vendors to grab the fourth spot behind Nokia, Samsung, and LG, and ahead of Research in Motion. Apple leapt ahead of several vendors in 3Q10 including RIM, which it surpassed by 1.7-million units, and Sony Ericsson by 3.7-million units. The...
Apple Addresses Hyper-Threading Issue With Logic 9.1.3
Apple today released Logic Pro 9.1.3 and Logic Express 9.1.3 to address an issue with Hyper-Threading. This update delivers improved general stability and compatibility.
Issues addressed with 9.1.3 include:
- Resolves problems related to the support of Hyper-ThreadingUnder Logic 9.1.3's audio preferences, users can specify the number of audio rendering threads the software will open at any ...
Apple Releases Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.5
Apple today released Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.5, bringing fixes for several issues on the latest version of Apple's professional workstation. This update is recommended for all Mac Pro (Mid 2010) models and addresses the following issues:
- Resolves an issue that prevented the firmware password prompt from being displayed
- Resolves an issue that prevented the Boot Picker from being...
Apple Tops Microsoft in Third Quarter Revenue
Back in late May, Apple passed Microsoft to become the second-largest U.S. company as measured by market capitalization. Just a few months later, Apple has reached another milestone lined to its longtime rival: For the first time in nearly 15 years, Apple has brought in more quarterly revenue than Microsoft, as Apple's $20.34 billion quarter announced last week topped that of Microsoft, which...
