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
ITC Staff Side With Nokia Regarding Apple's Patent Claims
Nokia and Apple, which have been involved in a patent dispute for over a year that has seen both parties file lawsuits and U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) complaints against each other, are finally headed to a courtroom after ITC staff issued a memo supporting Nokia in its defense against Apple's claims, Bloomberg reports. "The evidence will not establish a violation" of Apple patent...
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Apple to Extend iTunes Song Previews to 90 Seconds in U.S.
According to Symphonic Distribution, Apple has informed music labels that it is preparing to extend the length of iTunes Store song previews in the United States to 90 seconds for songs that are at least 2 minutes and 30 seconds long. Shorter songs will continue to offer the current 30-second samples. We are pleased to let you know that we are preparing to increase the length of music previews...
Apple Discontinues 'Personal Shopping' Service in Retail Stores
Old (left) and new (right) options for retail store reservations
ifoAppleStore reports that Apple has quietly discontinued its "Personal Shopping" service that had enabled customers to make appointments at Apple retail stores for one-on-one assistance with testing out and purchasing Apple products. All references to the service have been erased from the company's Web site, and the Personal...
Steve Jobs: Support for iTunes Extras and iTunes LP 'Coming' to New Apple TV
One of the features missing on the new Apple TV launched in September has been support for iTunes Extras and iTunes LPs, two sets of enhanced content available on select iTunes Store purchases. When you purchase an album with iTunes LP, you receive the songs from the album, plus special features such as lyrics, photos, videos, credits, and more. When you buy a film with iTunes Extras, you'll...
iPhone 4 Availability Now at 'Within 24 Hours' in U.S.
Availability of the iPhone 4 continues to improve in the United States, with the company's online store now offering shipping estimates of "within 24 hours" for new orders. After spending much of the summer with three-week shipping estimates, supplies of the iPhone 4 began to increase in early October with a move to 5-7 business day shipping estimates. Estimates improved once again to 1-3...
New MacBook Airs Experiencing Logic Board Issues?
Over the weekend, Cult of Mac noted that there appears to be a rising number of complaints from users of the new MacBook Air regarding kernel panics, video distortion and other issues that could be related to defective logic boards. Apple Discussion forum user, DanRyb, basically stated that his 11-inch model would randomly display "weird colors in vertical lines" extending across the entire screen ...
Best Buy Mobile to Carry iPad Beginning November 7th
Following on yesterday's news that Target will begin carrying the iPhone on November 7th, Bloomberg reports that Best Buy will expand distribution of the iPad to its standalone Best Buy Mobile stores on that same day. Best Buy, which began selling the iPad in its regular stores in April, is expanding distribution of the touch-screen device as it opens more mobile stores before the holidays.
The ...
Sophos Launches Free Anti-Virus Software for Mac OS X
Sophos today announced the release of free Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition software, a version of their paid software typically targeting business users. That means your home Macs can be protected automatically in-the-background with the latest anti-virus protection, checking every program you run, every file you download, every USB stick you insert, completely free. Is there a catch you're...
Skyfire to Bring Flash Video to iOS Devices
Fortune's Michael Copeland talks to Skyfire CEO Jeff Glueck
CNNMoney.com reports that a new iOS application from Skyfire that converts Flash-based video to HTML5 has been approved by Apple and will go live in the App Store on Thursday. The app, which will be priced at $2.99, activates a function that allows Flash video content in the browser to be sent to Skyfire's servers, converted to...
Apple Grabs 95% of Tablet Market as Competitors Ramp Up
Bloomberg reports on new data from research firm Strategy Analytics showing that Apple held a 95% share of the tablet market in the third quarter of 2010, leaving only 2.3% for Google's nascent Android platform. Global tablet sales rose 26 percent from the previous period to 4.4 million units, with Apple selling 4.19 million iPads, the company said in a statement. Android's share of the market...
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 ...
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...
