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.

Eric Slivka's Articles

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'Angry Birds Space' Hits 10 Million Downloads

Monday March 26, 2012 6:08 am PDT by
Just days after the launch of Angry Birds Space, Rovio today announced via Twitter that the application has already seen ten million downloads. The game is topping Apple's paid and top-grossing charts for the App Store in countries around the world.10 million Angry Birds Space downloads in less than 3 days! Thanks to our fans, stay tuned for more!Even on the Mac platform, Angry Birds Space ranks ...
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Apple Releases Software Installer Update 1.0 for Mac OS X 10.6.8

Monday March 19, 2012 6:42 pm PDT by
Apple today released Apple Software Installer Update 1.0, a small update intended to address an issue that could prevent Apple software from installing under Mac OS X 10.6.8.About Apple Software Installer Update 1.0 This update addresses an issue that may prevent certain Apple software from installing. This update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X 10.6.8.Apple does not, however,...
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Teardown of New Apple TV Reveals Same 8 GB Flash Storage, Bump to 512 MB RAM

Saturday March 17, 2012 9:02 pm PDT by
Following the release of the third-generation Apple TV late last week, one forum member at XBMC.org has performed a teardown of the device, revealing a number of details about its internals. As Apple notes on the tech specs page for the new Apple TV, the device utilizes a unique single-core A5 system-on-a-chip, an upgrade from the A4 package found in the previous generation but lacking the...
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Apple Seeds First Developer Beta of OS X 10.7.4

Friday March 16, 2012 8:13 pm PDT by
Alongside today's release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview 2, Apple also seeded the first pre-release version of OS X 10.7.4 to developers for testing. The release arrives as Build 11E27. Apple has reportedly asked developers to focus their testing efforts on Address Book, Graphics, iCal, Mail and Printing in the new build, which also contains one documented known issue related...
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OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview 2 Seeded to Developers

Friday March 16, 2012 1:15 pm PDT by
Apple today seeded the second preview version of OS X Mountain Lion to developers, building upon the initial developer version released one month ago. As noted by The Next Web, Apple has also posted an extensive list of known issues alerting developers to various bugs and missing features that have yet to be addressed. OS X Mountain Lion is Apple's next major operating system version and...
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A5X Chip Floorplan Reveals Significant Space Required for Quad-Core Graphics

Friday March 16, 2012 1:09 pm PDT by
Earlier today, we pointed to some teardown tidbits from Chipworks regarding the new iPad, including the observation that the A5X system-on-a-chip is being manufactured by Samsung and is using the same 45-nm process used for the A5 package in earlier devices. Also noted was a significant increase of about 36% in the area of the A5X compared to the A5. UBM TechInsights has now started...
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Third-Generation iPad Jailbroken on Launch Day

Friday March 16, 2012 11:08 am PDT by
As noted by Slash Gear, iOS jailbreak specialist MuscleNerd has apparently already jailbroken the new iPad that launched today, Tweeting a couple of screenshots showing the jailbroken device with Cydia installed. MuscleNerd notes that this is simply the first step in the process of releasing a public tool for jailbreaking the new device, but it seems that progress should come relatively...
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'This American Life' Retracts Show on Foxconn Working Conditions over Fabricated Claims

Friday March 16, 2012 10:44 am PDT by
Back in January, popular radio show This American Life aired an episode dedicated to working conditions at Foxconn's factories in China, drawing heavily from Mike Daisey's theater monologue entitled "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs". In the monologue, which has been a notable part of the push to address working conditions at Apple's suppliers, Daisey relates tales from his visit to China...
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New Verizon iPad Runs on AT&T 3G Networks with AT&T Micro-SIM

Friday March 16, 2012 8:51 am PDT by
One of the major selling features of the new Verizon iPad Wi-Fi + 4G LTE is its compatibility with GSM networks for international roaming purposes. But what hasn't been clear is whether users could insert an AT&T micro-SIM card into a Verizon iPad and receive data connectivity. Given that the Verizon iPad supports the same GSM frequency bands for non-LTE networks as the version sold for AT&T,...
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Slimmer 13-Inch and 15-Inch MacBook Pros Reportedly in Production

Friday March 16, 2012 6:30 am PDT by
Claims of redesigned MacBook Pro models continue to surface ahead of the official launch of Intel's Ivy Bridge chips, and Digitimes now reports that slimmer versions of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro are currently in production. Notably, the report claims that the MacBook Pro line will remain distinct from the MacBook Air line, with the new MacBook Pro models losing their optical drives but ...
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Walmart to Offer New iPad Beginning at 12:01 AM Local Time

Thursday March 15, 2012 1:31 pm PDT by
As noted by Insanely Great Mac, Walmart has issued a statement announcing that it will be offering a "limited supply" of the new iPad beginning at 12:01 AM local time at its 24-hour stores in the United States. Walmart's sales will start eight hours before Apple's own retail stores open for business Friday morning.If you want to be the first person amongst your friends and colleagues to have the ...
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Kindle for iOS Updated with Retina iPad Support, New Library Design

Thursday March 15, 2012 10:50 am PDT by
One issue noted in several of the early reviews of the new iPad was the fact that Amazon's Kindle app for iOS [App Store] had not been updated to support the Retina display on the new iPad. While iOS is capable of scaling up most text to display at the crisp resolution of the new display, some apps such as Kindle package their own fixed fonts and are thus not compatible with Apple's upscaling. ...
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Charge Time on New iPad Significantly Increased with Larger Battery

Thursday March 15, 2012 9:00 am PDT by
One interesting note on the new iPad revealed in TechCrunch's review is the observation that charging time has increased significantly over previous models. While the increase is not necessarily a surprise given the significant 70% boost in battery capacity from 25 watt-hours in the iPad 2 to 42.5 watt-hours in the new iPad, it is an issue that many users may not have considered.It appears that...
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Teardown of New iPad Reveals Samsung Retina Display, Qualcomm MDM9600 Wireless Chip

Thursday March 15, 2012 8:40 am PDT by
Earlier today, we noted that iFixit was on hand for an early midnight launch of the new iPad at a Telstra retail store in Melbourne, Australia, and the teardown experts are now beginning the process of opening up the device to examine its internals. A number of the parts appeared in leaks leading up to the device's introduction, but the teardown offers the first confirmation of details on...
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FaceTime Video Calls Still Limited to Wi-Fi as LTE iPad Rolls Out

Thursday March 15, 2012 8:29 am PDT by
The Verge confirms in its testing with a review unit of the new iPad with 4G LTE that FaceTime video calling remains limited to Wi-Fi networks despite the fact that LTE offers greater bandwidth than many Wi-Fi networks.We've just confirmed that although the new iPad has incredibly fast download and upload speeds over LTE, FaceTime video chat still won't work directly on the 4G network. As you can ...
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Apple Retail Stores Begin Prepping for iPad Launch as First Third-Party Retailers Open

Thursday March 15, 2012 6:26 am PDT by
With Apple's official launch of the iPad in Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong just hours away, it seems that some of the company's retail stores are beginning their preparations. At Apple's Fukuoka Tenjin store in Japan, which closed for the night a little over an hour ago, employees are currently hard at work removing iPad 2 units from display in order to replace them with demo models...
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Some U.S. Pre-Orders of New Apple TV Arriving a Day Early

Thursday March 15, 2012 6:07 am PDT by
While shipping notices for pre-orders of the iPad began going out over the weekend, those notices have been accompanied by "future delivery requested" notes indicating that Apple is working with delivery companies to coordinate the launch for this Friday, March 16. But the new 1080p-capable Apple TV set-top box is also set to debut at that same time, and at least some U.S. pre-order customers...
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Apple Releases Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.10

Wednesday March 14, 2012 1:23 pm PDT by
Apple today released Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.10, bringing RAW image support to Aperture and iPhoto for a number of new cameras.This update adds RAW image compatibility for the following cameras to Aperture 3 and iPhoto '11: - Canon PowerShot G1 X - Nikon D4 - Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GX1 - Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ35 - Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ38 - Samsung NX200 - Sony Alpha NEX-7 ...
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Another New iPad Surfaces in Hong Kong with Sample Video and Graphics Benchmarks

Wednesday March 14, 2012 11:55 am PDT by
Following yesterday's unboxing video of the new iPad in Vietnam, which has also resulted in benchmarks and sample photos and screenshots from the device surfacing, Hong Kong's PCM Online reports (via Engadget) that it too has gained early access to the new iPad. Still photo comparison from new iPad and iPad 2 PCM's device is a white 16 GB 4G model, and the report includes a number of photos ...
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New iPads Begin Showing Up in Third-Party Retailers' Stockrooms Ahead of Friday's Launch

Wednesday March 14, 2012 10:43 am PDT by
With just two days to go until the launch of the new iPad, third-party retailer partners are apparently beginning to receive their stocks of the device. Engadget shares a photo of what is claimed to be several boxes of the new iPad that have arrived at a Best Buy location in the United States. Meanwhile, another report claims that at least one PC World location in the United Kingdom has...