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
Chinese Vendors Already Taking Orders for 'iPhone 5' as New Physical Mockup Photos Surface
Reuters reports on the growing number of Chinese vendors that have already begun taking orders for the "iPhone 5", despite the fact that Apple has made no announcement about the next-generation iPhone's specs or availability.Sellers on Taobao, a unit of Alibaba Group, are accepting orders for the iPhone 5, in some cases asking for a deposit of 1,000 yuan ($160) for the new phone. One seller,...
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Apple's Share of U.S. PC Shipments Rises to 12% in 2Q 2012
Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary personal computer shipment data for the second quarter of 2012, offering up a picture of market performance during the quarter. While Apple experienced only small year-over-year unit growth of 4.3% in the United States, the company was the only one of the top five vendors to see year-over-year growth and the company once again outperformed the...
Tim Cook at Sun Valley Conference, 'Looking Forward' to Meetings with Media Executives
The New York Times reports on Apple CEO Tim Cook's presence at the annual Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, noting that he is easily earning the title of "Mr. Popular" due to Apple's rare presence at the event.The conference, full of media bigwigs, has also been buzzing about any blueprints Mr. Cook may be hiding in Apple’s magic hat. He has lined up several one-on-one meetings ...
Facebook Launches SDK 3.0 Beta for iOS, New Dev Center
Facebook today announced the launch of a significant update to its software development kit (SDK) for iOS developers, making it easier to include Facebook integration within apps. The release also sets the stage for direct Facebook integration in iOS 6.After iOS 6 launches to users, the SDK will automatically use the native Facebook Login in iOS 6 when available. Just enable Login with Facebook...
Tweetbot for Mac Launches as Public Alpha
Roughly three weeks after Tapbots' Mark Jardine teased the existence of a Mac version of the popular iOS Twitter client Tweetbot, the application has now launched to the public. But rather than coming as a final release, Tapbots notes in a blog post that it is initially arriving as a public alpha.We’ve decided to release it as a public alpha to a) motivate us to finish faster, and b) get...
Amazon Launches Game Center Competitor for Kindle Fire, Testing 4-5 Inch Smartphone Displays
Amazon today announced the launch of its new "GameCircle" feature for the Kindle Fire tablet, a set of tools similar to Apple's Game Center that will allow users to chart achievements, compete with others via leaderboards, and sync game progress across devices via the cloud.GameCircle will make achievements, leaderboards and sync APIs accessible, simple and quick for you to integrate, and will...
OS X Mountain Lion Officially Drops Support for Some Older 64-Bit Macs
With Apple having seeded the golden master build of OS X Mountain Lion to developers earlier this week, the company has locked in which Macs will support the forthcoming version of the operating system. While the machine requirements have been known for some time, the seeding of the final public release is a good time to remind users which machines will support Mountain Lion.Your Mac must be one ...
Apple Issues Statement on EPEAT Registry Withdrawal
Late last week, we noted that Apple had pulled all of its qualifying Mac products from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry for environmental ratings.
The move, which is said to have been related to Apple's design decisions that will disqualify its new and upcoming products from the registry, has the potential to impact Apple's presence in governmental and...
Purported Physical Model of 'iPad Mini' Surfaces
Just after posting photos of a purported metal engineering sample of the next-generation iPhone's massing, Gotta Be Mobile has now posted photos of a similar physical model of the "iPad mini".
The model appears to be a case maker's mold that shows the basic shape of the device, so it is unknown whether it accurately reflects the device's form factor. While case designs have proven accurate...
New Photos of Next-Generation iPhone 'Engineering Sample' Massing
Gotta Be Mobile posts a pair of photos of what it calls an "engineering sample" of the next-generation iPhone. While it isn't entirely clear just what the sample represents, it seems to be solid chunk of aluminum machined into the form factor of the rumored device.
Assuming that the sample is genuine and related to the iPhone development and production process, it supports previous photos...
Why Apple's 7.85-Inch 'iPad Mini' Isn't a 7-Inch Tablet
With rumors of an "iPad mini" launch in the coming months ramping up, there has been much discussion about just how usable such a device would be running at the 1024x768 resolution of pre-Retina iPad models. In particular, some commenters have pointed to Steve Jobs' October 2010 discussion of the 7-inch tablets from competitors that were just then hitting the market, where he outlined Apple's...
13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro Shows Up in Benchmarks
Amid continued rumors that Apple intends to release a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro in the coming months, a Geekbench 2 benchmark submitted late last month as a "MacBookPro10,2" appears to represent the machine in question.
In comparison, the new non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro carries the model identifier "MacBookPro9,2", while the 15-inch non-Retina model is "MacBookPro9,1" and the corresponding ...
Revamped iPod Nano to Include Oblong Body with Home Button?
Japanese blog Mac Otakara reports that Apple will be redesigning the iPod nano later this year with a new form factor that more closely resembles an iPod touch. According to the report, the iPod nano will apparently sport a rectangular screen and a home button similar to that found on iOS devices.
Given that the screen size on this redesigned iPod nano would appear to be substantially...
Google and FTC Near Deal for Record $22.5 Million Fine over Safari Privacy Circumvention
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission are nearing a deal that would see Google paying a record $22.5 million fine over its tactics to circumvent privacy settings in Safari on iOS to track users' behavior.The fine is expected to be the largest penalty ever levied on a single company by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. It offers the latest sign of the...
Apple's 13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro to Launch 'Before October'?
Just before last month's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo correctly predicted that Apple's MacBook Pro with Retina display would appear alongside the standard MacBook Pro instead of as a direct replacement, also accurately claiming that only the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro would be making an appearance while a 13-inch model remained in the works.
At...
San Francisco to Block Most Municipal Mac Purchases Following Apple's EPEAT Withdrawal
Following last week's news that Apple had pulled all 39 of its qualifying Macs from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry, it was suggested that Apple would lose business with federal, state, and local governments in the United States. Many agencies require that most or all computer purchases be limited to products listed on the EPEAT registry.
As noted by The...
Apple Wins Patent for NFC-Enabled 'iTravel' Transportation Ticketing App
With Apple announcing its new Passbook digital wallet app for iOS 6 last month, speculation regarding the inclusion of near field communications (NFC) and mobile payment capabilities for future iOS devices has begun to increase. The speculation comes amid rumors of iPhone prototypes with NFC, although Apple has been said to be intentionally moving slowly on the mobile payment front.
Now...
Apple to Launch Third-Generation iPad in China on July 20
Apple today announced that the third-generation iPad will launch in China on Friday, July 20. The announcement comes a little over a week after Apple settled a trademark dispute over the "iPad" name in China for $60 million.In China the new iPad will be available through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), select Apple Authorized Resellers and by reservation from Apple retail stores....
Microsoft to Acquire Multi-Touch Pioneer Perceptive Pixel
Microsoft today announced that it intends to acquire Perceptive Pixel, a company founded by multi-touch pioneer Jeff Han and currently focused on large-screen touch displays such as those used by CNN and other television networks to allow anchors to present live, interactive data on set.
We've featured Han's work a number of times over the years both before and after the launch of the iPhone ...
Evidence of Apple Maps for OS X Shows Up in iOS 6 Beta
Technically Personal reports on some interesting code found in iOS 6 suggesting that Apple's new mapping solution may be making its way to OS X in some form. The evidence, discovered by developer Cody Cooper, arrives by way of references to several older Intel graphics solutions for which map features such as shading are disabled.In this XML file, there is a reference to a set of Intel based...
