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
Fourth-Generation iPod Shuffle Unboxing and Comparison Photos
iLounge has received a new fourth-generation iPod shuffle and posted a photo gallery documenting the unboxing as well as showing a comparison to the similar second-generation iPod shuffle and other iPod models.
After moving navigation buttons to the headphone cord in the third-generation model, Apple has gone back to its earlier button design, although it has still been able to...
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Apple Replaces Batteries of 5,500 First-Generation iPod Nanos in Japan
CrunchGear notes that Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry has issued a report revealing that Apple last month replaced a total of 5,527 batteries for first-generation iPod nano devices in response to increased publicity generated by the government agency's pressure on Apple to expand its battery replacement efforts. The ministry also says in the 3 weeks in August after Apple issued...
Apple Spent Nearly $1 Million on Google Search Advertising in June
Ad Age reports that it has obtained an internal Google document detailing expenditures made by other companies during the month of June for advertising in its search results. According to the data, Apple spent nearly $1 million in June on advertising through Google.
While the amount appears to be a significant sum at first glance, a number of companies committed more resources to Google...
Fourth-Generation iPod Touch Orders Begin Shipping
As noted by TiPb and several posters in our forums, Apple has begun issuing shipping notices for fourth-generation iPod touch orders.
Apple announced new iPod touch, nano, and shuffle models at last Wednesday's media event, noting that all models would launch sometime this week. Some users receiving shipping notifications are seeing delivery dates of this Friday, September 10th, while...
Total iPod Touch Sales Estimated at Over 45 Million
According to market research firm Asymco, Apple's iPod touch has been estimated to have sold more than 45 million units over its lifetime, or nearly 38% of the 120 million iOS devices cited by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the company's media event last week as having been sold. We know that there were 59.6 million iPhones sold through June (from SEC filings)
We also know that 3.2 million iPads...
Informal Testing Suggests Minor Performance Increase for iPhone 3G on iOS 4.1
Late last week, Lifehacker posted a video comparison of the performance of iOS 4.0 and iOS 4.1 on an iPhone 3G. The video demonstrates the results, but here they are in all their glory:
- Messages: iOS 4.1 Wins (By a Little)
- Maps: iOS 4.1 Wins (By a Lot)
- Photos: iOS 4.1 Wins (Just Barely)
- Safari: iOS 4.1 Wins (Just Barely)
While the speed advantages ranged from marginal to...
iLife '11 Pages Appear on Amazon's Site
A report from TUAW has been gaining some attention today for its revelation of an entry on Amazon's site for an iLife '11 Family Pack priced at $99. The entry was apparently originally noticed late last month by a poster on Macworld's forum who also spotted the single-user version priced at $79. Both entries are listed as shipping in 2-4 weeks and claim that they were first posted on July...
Apple Announces One Million Ping Users in First Two Days
Apple today announced that over one million users have joined Ping, the company's new social networking feature focused on music and built into iTunes 10. According to Apple, one-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 in its first 48 hours of availability have joined Ping. "One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president...
Steve Jobs Defends New iTunes 10 Icon Against Criticism
With the release of iTunes 10 on Wednesday, Apple has revamped the application's icon for the first time in many years, doing away with the traditional design of music notes on top of a CD. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the change at Wednesday's media event, noting that with iTunes likely to surpass physical CD sales sometime next year, it was time to remove the CD from the icon. The icon...
Apple Adds Showtimes to Movie Trailer Site
Macworld reports that Apple has added listings of showtimes to its movie trailer site, offering a slick HTML5 interface that utilizes geo-location to find theaters in your area. When you visit the page, your Web browser will ask to use your current location, after which it will display a small Google Map highlighting nearby theaters (you can also enter your own ZIP code or city and state)....
Apple Removes Custom Ringtone Creation in iTunes 10
Apple's former custom ringtone editor, no longer present in iTunes 10
As noted by Mac|Life, iTunes 10 appears to be lacking the ability to create ringtones from songs purchased from the iTunes Store. The feature had allowed users to select iTunes-purchased songs from their libraries, trim them down to desired ringtone lengths, and purchase the resulting custom ringtones for $0.99 each. After...
Apple Reportedly Looking to Push Monthly iPad Production to 3 Million
According to a new research note from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, Apple's manufacturing partners are now pushing out two million iPads per month, with Apple urging them to boost production to three million per month for the fourth quarter of this year. Says Huberty, "Apple recently indicated to its suppliers a desire to move to 3 million per month in C4Q10. This implies a run rate of 36...
iOS Passes Linux to Become Third-Most Popular Internet Browsing Platform
As noted by Computerworld, Internet research firm Net Applications has calculated that Apple's iOS has passed Linux to become the third-most popular Internet platform, surpassing Linux to trail only Windows and Mac OS X. According to Net Applications, the milestone came in July, when the release of the iPhone 4 apparently created a surge for iOS past 1% market share while Linux dropped below...
Apple-Facebook Controversy Over Ping Rooted in API Usage, Feature May Return
Earlier today, we reported on confusion surrounding the brief appearance of Facebook Connect functionality in iTunes 10's "Ping" social networking feature that initially appeared to allow users to find friends by checking their Facebook contacts. The feature quickly disappeared from Ping without explanation from Apple.
All Things Digital now follows up with a report claiming that the...
Apple Confirms No Software Update for Original Apple TV
Included in a nice overview of Apple's new iPods and Apple TV from Ars Technica is confirmation that users of Apple's earlier Apple TV models will not be receiving a software upgrade to enable Netflix streaming and other software features of the revamped model. Users of the older models will, however, continue to be able to purchase content, as opposed to the rental-only model for the new...
Apple Seeds Mac OS X 10.6.5 Build 10H535 to Developers
Apple continues its trend of weekly releases of Mac OS X 10.6.5 developer builds today by pushing Build 10H535 to registered developers. The release marks an increment of four builds since last week's release.
According to those familiar with the new build, Apple continues to ask developers to focus their testing on the same six areas as in the previous build: 3D Graphics, iCal, Mail,...
Spammers Already Taking Aim at Apple's Ping
It's been less than 24 hours since Apple released iTunes 10 and its integrated social networking functionality, Ping, but spammers and scammers are already starting to spread their messages via the service. The first major instance appears to be a "free iPhone" scam that has seen multiple accounts posting replies to entries from a number of the most popular music artists currently using Ping.
...
Fourth-Generation iPod Touch Teardown Photos Posted by FCC
Engadget notes that Apple's new iPod touch introduced yesterday has appeared on the website of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Along with other standard information on radiation emissions required by the FCC for approval, the documents contain a series of internal and external photos of the device, which will not be making its way into the hands of consumers until next week. He...
Confusion Over Facebook's Brief Appearance in Ping for iTunes
Screenshot from Follow Music and People with Ping video tutorial
With yesterday's release of iTunes 10, Apple also deployed a new music-focused social network feature known as Ping. When it initially launched yesterday, users creating their profiles were presented with an option to use Facebook Connect to find friends who had already created their own Ping profiles. It is unclear, however,...
Apple Rebrands 'iPhone Dev Center' as 'iOS Dev Center'
In an unsurprising move, Apple has rebranded its developer program and portal for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch as the iOS Dev Center. The change from its previous "iPhone Dev Center" name follows a similar shift in the name of the devices' operating system made back in June.
Apple notes in a brief news posting that the iOS Developer Program offers the exact same benefits and resources...
