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 Debuts App Store Subscriptions
Apple today announced the debut of subscriptions for the App Store, opening the door for developers offering a wide range of content, including magazines, newspapers, music, and video, to use the same recurring billing mechanism introduced earlier this month with The Daily. Subscriptions purchased from within the App Store will be sold using the same App Store billing system that has been used to...
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Apple Testing Three iPhone 5 Prototypes, One With Slide-Out Keyboard?
Keyboard Buddy Case for iPhone 4
Taiwanese site Apple.pro reports (via AppleInsider) that Apple has been testing three separate prototypes for the fifth-generation iPhone, including one with a slide-out keyboard. There are three iPhone5 prototype
one is a sliding cover which
Is the introduction of the keyboard after the side coverOther prototypes are said to be similar to the iPhone 4 except ...
Free Access to 'The Daily' Extended to February 28th as Wait for iOS 4.3 Continues
As noted by Macerkopf.de [Google translation], free access to the new iPad news publication The Daily has been extended beyond the original two-week trial period, pushing the free access window out to February 28th. The change comes as we continue to await the public release of iOS 4.3, which will bring support for the in-app recurring subscriptions to be used by The Daily.
With its February...
Apple Set to Become Samsung's Biggest Customer With $7.8 Billion in Contracts
Dow Jones Newswires briefly reports on an article from the Korea Economic Daily claiming that Apple is set to sign contracts that would see Samsung providing $7.8 billion in parts for Apple's mobile devices this year, making Apple the Korean company's largest customer. The paper also said that Samsung will supply Apple with liquid crystal displays, mobile application processors and NAND flash...
MobileMe Revamp to Focus on Streaming Data From Individual Machines, Not Cloud?
The Loop's Jim Dalrymple offers his thoughts on the rumored forthcoming MobileMe overhaul, sharing his belief that rather than utilizing a true "cloud-based" strategy in which Apple hosts all of a user's data on its own servers and sends it to devices as needed, MobileMe will instead become the "brains" of a service that taps the user's own home computer for hosting the content. Is Apple going to...
Smaller iPhone to Eliminate Storage, Rely on Cloud-Based Content?
Following up on recent reports of a smaller, cheaper iPhone, Cult of Mac claims that Apple will cut costs on the smaller iPhone in large part by drastically slashing the on-board memory of the device and relying on cloud-based content delivery. Apple decided to lose some of the memory, which is by far the most expensive component of the iPhone (up to one-quarter of the devices cost, according to ...
MacBook Pro Refresh Seeing Only Minor Delays Due to Intel Problems?
Much has been made of Intel's issues with a design error on its new Cougar Point chip used with its Sandy Bridge processors and whether the company's need to produce revised hardware will delay a highly-anticipated refresh of Apple's MacBook Pro lineup.
But a new report from AppleInsider suggests that any delays appear to be minor, on the order of two weeks for machines already in production. ...
Verizon iPhone Already Representing 3% of U.S. iPhone Traffic as AT&T Hands Out 1000 Free Minutes
While lines for the public launch of the Verizon iPhone were generally short yesterday, the device had already been making its way into customers' hands through a pre-order program for existing Verizon customers, and many have been wondering just how strong sales of the new device have been.
Mobile ad firm Chitika today announced that it has put together a live tracker showing the relative...
Apple Acquiring iOS Developer to Revamp Notification System?
Cult of Mac reports that Apple is planning to revamp its system for providing notifications within iOS, looking to address one of the areas of perceived weakness compared to other platforms such as Android and webOS. Apple's pop-up notification system for new text messages, voicemails and the like has often been criticized as one of the weakest parts of the iOS. Notifications are intrusive,...
Sony Hoping to Pull Music From iTunes Store If 'Music Unlimited' Service Succeeds
According to The Age, Sony is looking to its new "Music Unlimited" streaming service not only as an opportunity to grab a piece of the digital music pie but also in hopes of one day being able to pull its music from Apple's iTunes Store entirely. If Music Unlimited becomes popular it will provide a credible alternative to iTunes for music publishers, including Sony Music Entertainment, which...
Nokia and Microsoft Team Up in Smartphone Battle
Making official what has been widely expected for days, Nokia and Microsoft have announced that the two companies are teaming up in the smartphone market, with Nokia embracing Windows Phone as its "primary smartphone strategy" while contributing its own expertise to further development of the platform. While the specific details of the deal are being worked out, here's a quick summary of what we ...
Apple Doubling Production of Certain 'Hot-Selling' Notebook Models?
In a brief report on declining shipments in Taiwan's notebook manufacturing segment, DigiTimes claims that Apple and Samsung are the only major notebook companies increasing production over the year ago quarter, with the notebook industry as a whole reportedly targeting flat production compared with the year-ago quarter and down 5-10% from last quarter.
Apple is seen as one of the biggest...
Apple Seeds Mac OS X 10.6.7 Build 10J855 to Developers
As noted by AppleInsider, Apple has seeded a fourth beta version of Mac OS X 10.6.7 to developers for testing purposes. The new version, termed Build 10J855, comes just over a week after the previous seed and reportedly carries no documented known issues.
Apple continues to ask developers to focus their testing on Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB, and Graphics Drivers, while the update...
Apple Planning Smaller iPhone Priced at $200 Without Contract
Bloomberg reports that Apple is planning to develop new models of the iPhone, including one that would be both smaller and cheaper than that current model, to aid the company in its battle against Android in the smartphone market. Apple Inc. is working on new versions of the iPhone that are aimed at slowing the advance of competing handsets based on Google Inc.'s Android software, according to...
Apple Reduces Build Cost of CDMA iPhone With Design Tweaks
Research firm IHS iSuppli today announced that it has completed its full teardown of the CDMA iPhone that launched on Verizon this week, estimating that the device carries a bill of materials cost of about $171.35, or approximately 9% less than the original iPhone 4. Despite having nearly the same functionality and a similar bill of materials (BOM) as the previous model, the new code division...
LG VL600 Becomes Verizon's Second Mac-Compatible 4G Modem
Last week, we noted that Verizon had released updated software finally bringing Mac OS X compatibility to the Pantech UML290, one of the carrier's two 4G (LTE) modems available for customer purchase.
Just over a week later, Verizon has now delivered a new version of its VZAccess Manager to add compatibility for its other 4G USB modem, the LG VL600.
Like the Pantech UML290, the LG VL600...
Apple's iAd Program Struggling to Fill Slots and Renew Advertisers?
Last week, we noted that Apple and Campbell's had commissioned a study that demonstrated that Apple's iAd mobile advertising platform offers advertisers more bang for their buck and greater brand recognition than traditional advertising channels such as television.
Apple may have felt it needed that data in order to entice advertisers to join the program, as a new report from TechCrunch...
Researchers Demonstrate Vulnerability Allowing Theft of iPhone Passwords
IDG News Service reports that German researchers have demonstrated how a knowledgeable thief could bypass the iPhone's passcode locking to upload a script capable of revealing entries from the device's password keychain system, potentially giving the hacker access to sensitive passwords stored on the device. In a video that demonstrates the attack, the researchers first jailbreak the phone using ...
Verizon iPhone Launches to Short Lines, Cold Temperatures
Last night, we noted that lines were beginning to form for the Verizon iPhone, which went on sale this morning at Apple and Verizon retail stores, as well as Best Buy and select Wal-Mart stores. But in the light of morning, lines are short in many locations, particularly at Apple stores.
Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan (Source: CNET)
With much of the country seeing frigid...
Skype for iPhone Adds Support for Video Calling to Select TVs
As noted by The Next Web, Skype has issued an update to its iOS application, adding video calling compatibility with a broader array of devices, most notably Skype for TV. If the idea of making a video call from some far-flung corner of the world back to a family TV sounds appealing to you, you'll need a TV that specifically supports Skype. A number of Panasonic and Samsung sets will do the job, ...
