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 Releases iOS 6.1.4 for iPhone 5 With New Speakerphone Audio Profile
Apple today released a minor iOS 6.1.4 update, bringing an updated audio profile for speakerphone. The new version, which arrives as Build 10B350, appears to only be for the iPhone 5. The update did not involve a beta testing period for developers and follows the release of iOS 6.1.3 in...
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Intel Shares Details on New 'Iris' Integrated Graphics for Haswell Chips
As noted by The Verge, Intel late yesterday released details on its next-generation integrated graphics offerings arriving as part of the company's Haswell processor lineup. The new graphics options consist of three primary levels: an Intel HD Graphics 5000 to be packaged as part of 15-watt chips destined for ultrabooks, an Intel "Iris" Graphics 5100 to be paired with 28-watt mid-range chips...
Adobe Shows Off Lightroom-Style Photo Editing for iPad
CNET reports on a sneak peek from Adobe product manager Tom Hogarty showing off the company's concept for Lightroom-style photo editing on the iPad. The app would rely on cloud-based connections to serve as a companion app to the full Lightroom software, but offer a number of higher-end features for on-the-go photo editing. He wouldn't promise when the app would ship or what exactly it would...
Apple Adds New 256 GB and 512 GB Flash Storage Options to iMac
Apple has added new storage options to its iMac lineup, allowing users to choose either a 256 GB or 512 GB flash storage drive as part of the order customization process. The new options are available as $300 and $600 surcharges respectively to replace the 1 TB traditional hard drive that is standard across all iMac models. Previously, the 21.5-inch iMac had not been available with dedicated ...
Apple's Share of Worldwide Tablet Shipments Falls Below 40% in 1Q 2013
Research firm IDC today announced its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2013, finding that Apple's share of the market continues to slide as competitors begin to gain footholds in the market, although the firm notes that Apple did exceed expectations. Apple held a 39.6% share of the market for quarter, compared to 43.6% in the previous quarter and a...
New Apple ID Phishing Effort Compromises Over 100 Sites
As highlighted by The Next Web, security firm Trend Micro yesterday outlined a new phishing scam that has seen the perpetrators compromise over 100 sites in their attempts to gain access to users' Apple ID accounts. While Apple IDs are relatively popular targets for phishing scams, Trend Micro's analysis offers some interesting detail on the approaches used by the criminals.We’ve identified a...
Apple Risking iOS 7 Delays With Jony Ive's Design Overhaul
Over the past several months, rumors of Jony Ive's influence on iOS 7 as part of his new role overseeing user interface design in addition to hardware have surfaced, indicating that Ive is pushing to adopt a "flatter" design that will modernize the look of iOS. In a lengthy report, Bloomberg now notes that this major effort to remake iOS puts Apple at risk of delaying the launch of iOS 7....
Apple Talking With Investors About $15-16 Billion Bond Offering
Following up on yesterday's initial filing from Apple addressing the company's efforts to issue a bond offering to raise cash in support of its stock buyback program, the company today filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining its general plans, which include six different chunks of debt with staggered maturities. The Wall Street Journal has more on Apple's...
Apple Looking to Boost In-Car Integration of Maps and Siri in iOS 7
Building on yesterday's report describing a "very, very flat" design for iOS 7, 9to5Mac reports that Apple is also looking to make significant improvements to vehicle integration with the next-generation mobile operating system. In particular, Apple is looking at ways to integrate Maps and Siri with the built-in displays increasingly found in cars.According to people familiar with the plans,...
Belkin Officially Begins Shipping Thunderbolt Express Dock
More than a year and a half after it showed off its first concept for a Thunderbolt docking station, Belkin today officially began ">shipping its Thunderbolt Express Dock. The $299.99 dock offers users a single-cable connection for a docking station supporting a FireWire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, three USB 3.0 ports, audio in/out, and Thunderbolt passthrough.Designed to be an easy and...
'Google Search' for iOS Updated With Google Now
Last month, Google briefly leaked a video showing that its information aggregation tool Google Now would be coming to iOS. Several weeks later, Google chairman Eric Schmidt was asked about Google Now for iOS, and he noted that "you'll need to discuss that with Apple", although it was later confirmed that Google had not submitted a version of Google Now to the iOS App Store. Roughly a month...
OS X 10.9 to Bring Enhancements to Finder, Safari, Multiple Monitor Support, and Multitasking
9to5Mac shares some details on Apple's upcoming OS X 10.9 operating system, noting that the update will focus in large part on "power-user" features while also incorporating a few more concepts from the company's iOS operating system. Among the enhancements said to be included in OS X 10.9, codenamed "Cabernet": - New tabbed browsing and tags in Finder - Redesigned backend for Safari to...
Apple Considering Lower-Priced iPad Mini at $199-$249?
Along with his recent research note addressing Apple's notebook launch plans, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also published a note examining Apple's iPad prospects. In particular, Kuo looks to the iPad mini as the future of the company's iPad portfolio, but with Apple's efforts to bring a Retina display to the device said to be pushing a launch back to the fourth quarter of this year, ...
Notebook Refresh to Be Highlight of WWDC, Non-Retina MacBook Pro to Continue?
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a new report forecasting that the product highlight of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which kicks off on June 10, will be the introduction of new models of the company's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines based on Intel's latest Haswell processors. The projection is in line with previous reports from Kuo and other sources, as well as r...
Apple Again Solicits Cupertino Neighbors for Feedback on 'Campus 2' Project
Earlier this week, Apple filed another revised plan for its "Campus 2" project in Cupertino, a new headquarters for the company focused on a massive ring-shaped building and designed to house 13,000 employees. In line with that revised plan, Apple has once again solicited residents of Cupertino for feedback on the project now that additional details on environmental sustainability and...
Apple's Share of Smartphone Market Slips as Smartphones Outsell Feature Phones for First Time
Research firm IDC yesterday released its estimates on worldwide mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2013, showing Apple losing some ground in the smartphone market with only 6.6% year-over-year growth compared to 41.6% growth for the entire market. Still, Apple maintained a firm grasp on the number two spot behind Samsung, as challengers LG, Huawei, and ZTE were unable to reach the 5%...
Charity Auction Bids for Coffee With Tim Cook Pass $500,000
With a flurry of activity today, bidding on the charity auction for a coffee meeting with Tim Cook at Apple's headquarters has passed $500,000, nearly doubling the previous record for a CharityBuzz "experience" auction set last year when a bidder paid $255,000 to spend a day with Bill Clinton. The bid list seems to be a combination of serious bidders and those likely simply seeking...
Apple Adds 'Learn More About In-App Purchases' Feature to iPad App Store
As noted by AppAdvice, Apple yesterday added a new "Learn More About In-App Purchases" feature to the iPad version of the App Store, marking yet another step in the company's efforts to make users aware that some free and paid apps may offer the ability to purchase additional content from within the apps. The document includes four sections, addressing what In-App Purchases are, types of...
Apple Backtracks on Planned Changes to VPN On Demand Behavior on iOS Devices
Earlier this month, we reported that Apple had announced upcoming changes to the behavior of VPN On Demand for devices running iOS 6.1 or later. The changes, which were planned to be deployed in a software update later this month, were necessitated by a $368 million judgment against Apple in a patent lawsuit brought by VirnetX. Virtual private networking (VPN), which is most commonly used by...
Tickets for WWDC 2013 Sell Out in Two Minutes
After going on sale at 10:00 AM Pacific Time today, tickets for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco have already sold out in two minutes. WWDC has sold out increasingly quickly in recent years, and this year in particular saw a massive rush of developers ready to purchase at the launch time due to Apple having announced the on-sale time a day in advance....
