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
iTunes U Surpasses 100 Million Downloads
CNET briefly noted late last week that Apple's iTunes U channel [iTunes Store] offering education content through the iTunes Store has surpassed 100 million downloads. According to Apple, one of the most popular areas of iTunes U has been that of the United Kingdom-based Open University (iTunes link), whose learning categories include Arts and Humanities, Business and Management, Childhood and...
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iPhone Developer Tapulous Captures Sales of Nearly $1 Million Per Month
Reuters reports on iPhone developer Tapulous, the team behind the popular Tap Tap Revenge applications, noting that the small company is reportedly bringing in nearly $1 million per month in revenue. The success of Tapulous, which boasts only 20 employees, illustrates the ability of small development firms dedicated to the iPhone to carve out profitable niches for themselves in the App Store. Tapu...
Reports of Psystar's Demise Appear Premature
Yesterday, we reported on a story quoting a Psystar attorney claiming that the unauthorized Mac clone manufacturer was in the process of winding down its business in the wake of a permanent injunction issued against it by a federal court judge earlier this month.
A new report from Computerworld, however, suggests that the company is not yet finished. However, Camara told Computerworld by e-mail ...
Verizon Claims Network Ready for iPhone Should Apple Choose to Strike Deal
A BusinessWeek report from last night has received significant attention today for its focus on Verizon's claimed readiness should the company and Apple strike a deal to bring the iPhone to the largest U.S. wireless carrier next year. Verizon Wireless has even made upgrades that would make its network more capable of handling extra traffic that would be generated by the iPhone, Verizon Wireless...
Psystar Winding Down Business as Web Site Goes Dark
Dow Jones Newswires reports that unauthorized Mac clone maker Psystar has begun the process of winding down its business ahead of a December 31st deadline set by a federal court judge in granting Apple a permanent injunction preventing Psystar from selling hardware with Mac OS X preinstalled or enabling others to infringe on Apple's copyrights. The Doral, Fla.-based computer maker, which made...
'Dragon Search' Comes to the iPhone
Dragon Search [App Store, Free], the follow-up to the highly-publicized Dragon Dictation iPhone application released last week, has appeared in the App Store. Dragon Search utilizes voice recognition technology to allow users to search by voice numerous sources, including Google, Yahoo!, or Bing (depending on the user's search engine preferences), YouTube, Twitter, iTunes, and Wikipedia.
...
Apple Releases Xsan 2.2.1, Mail Services Updates
Apple yesterday released several updates for Xsan, the company's enterprise-class storage area network (SAN) solution, bringing the software to Version 2.2.1. The updates target only the FileSystem portion of Xsan and include the following fixes: - Improves filesystem reliability
- Improves the cvfsck filesystem repair utility
- Resolves an issue that could cause QuickTime media to report...
International Performance Seen Driving iPhone and iPod Touch Growth
AdMob has released its November 2009 Mobile Metrics Report, offering a featured look at the iPhone and iPod touch's international growth during 2009 as seen by data collected through its ad network. The data shows that, while the U.S. has seen strong growth with a doubling of the number of iPhone and iPod touch devices appearing on AdMob's network, international growth has been even more...
iPhone Claims 46% of Japanese Smartphone Market
MobileCrunch details a research report [Google translation] released last week by Japanese market research firm Impress R&D showing that the iPhone commands 46.1% of the smartphone market there. For this year, Impress sees the 3G commanding 24.6% in this segment, while the 3GS contributes another 21.5%. The 3G was introduced in Japan in summer 2008 (the 3GS followed earlier this year). Sources in...
AT&T Downplays Talk of Tiered Pricing for iPhone Data Plans
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, who received significant attention for his comments last week suggesting that the company is looking at tiered pricing for data plans to rein in high-use customers, appears to now be downplaying that suggestion, according to a Wall Street Journal report (subscription required). A senior AT&T Inc. executive dismissed speculation that the telecommunications...
iPhone Finally Surpasses Windows Mobile in U.S. Smartphone Usage
FierceDeveloper reports on data from research firm comScore showing that Apple's iPhone has finally surpassed Windows Mobile in share of the U.S. smartphone market usage. The data is based on monthly user surveys averaged on a quarterly basis, and thus reflects actual handsets in use rather than sales of new devices.
According to comScore's data, approximately 36 million Americans are...
Apple Rolls Out iTunes Movie Bundles
The iPhone blog notes that Apple has launched movie bundles in the iTunes Store, offering consumers the opportunity to purchase a limited number of themed movie multi-pack downloads at discount pricing.
For example, the Godfather I & II bundle [iTunes Store] is offered at $14.99, while the films are available individually for $9.99 each. Some bundles carry even steeper discounts, with the Di...
VideoLAN Considering Options for VLC as Mac Developers Disappear
A notice posted earlier this month in the forums of VideoLAN, the open-source team behind the popular VLC media player, reveals that a lack of Mac volunteer developers for the software has forced the project organizers to consider new plans for the Mac version of VLC going forward. The forum post, which has since been replaced with a static page, explains that the lack of manpower on the Mac...
Apple Releases '12 Days of Christmas' iPhone Ad
Apple today launched a new holiday-themed iPhone commercial entitled "12 Days of Christmas". The ad reworks the standard Christmas carol of the same name to feature twelve iPhone applications related in some way to the holiday season.
- 12 cookies cooking: The Betty Crocker Mobile Cookbook [App Store, Free]
- 11 cards a' sending: Postman [App Store, $2.99]
- 10 gifts for giving: My...
Prominent Analysts See iPhone With 'Two or Three-Year Lead' on Mobile Internet Market
Fortune reports on a newly-published research effort from Morgan Stanley which analyzes the mobile Internet industry and in the process points to the iPhone's tremendous early growth and Apple's leadership position in the industry. Based on past performance, according to Morgan Stanley, Apple is in the "pole position" in the race to dominate mobile Internet computing, which is supposed to be for...
'Pastebot' Brings Elegant Copy-and-Paste to the iPhone
Tapbots, the development team behind the popular Weightbot and Convertbot iPhone applications, has released its third application, Pastebot [App Store, $1.99]. Pastebot is an elegant and powerful copy-and-paste tool that offers tools for image and text manipulation, as well as syncing with local Macs via a free preference pane download. - Save, organize, and edit text & image clippings with ease.
...
Apple Updates 'MobileMe iDisk' iPhone App
Earlier today, Apple issued a minor update to its MobileMe iDisk [App Store, Free] application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The update brings several improvements, including autocompletion of e-mail addresses, image save and copy, and faster downloads, as well as a new application icon. What's New in Version 1.1
- Autocomplete email addresses when choosing recipients for a shared file
-...
Federal Trade Commission Files Suit Against Intel For 'Anticompetitive Tactics'
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced that it has filed suit against Intel, claiming that the company has "illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly." The complaint focuses not only on Intel's actions in the CPU market to shut out competitors such as AMD, but also on newer, similar actions in the graphics chip...
Microsoft Brings Bing to the iPhone
Microsoft yesterday announced the introduction of Bing [App Store, Free], an iPhone application offering direct access to the company's new search engine.
Aside from traditional topic searches, the application offers image search, movie times, maps and directions, business listings, and news search. Bing also utilizes geolocation to automatically provide movie listings in the user's area...
AT&T Unimpressed With 'Operation Chokehold' Proposal to Strain Cellular Network
Earlier this week, Newsweek's Dan Lyons as part of his popular "Fake Steve Jobs" blog proposed "Operation Chokehold", a plan for AT&T iPhone users to simultaneously use their devices to place high demand on the carrier's network at a specified time this coming Friday. The proposal comes in response to AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega's comments last week regarding poor network performance in...
