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's Services Suffering Another Outage as iCloud Sign-In and iTunes Store Go Down
Users of Apple's online services may be experiencing yet another outage today, with the company's system status page showing issues with both iCloud account sign-in and the iTunes Store over the past several hours. Apple's status page does not reveal the percentage of users experiencing issues, noting only that "some" users are affected, but we have received a number of reports about the services ...
Read Full Article • 120 comments
AppShopper Returns to the App Store With 'AppShopper Social' for iOS
Back in September 2010, our sister site AppShopper launched a dedicated iOS app offering users easy access to app-tracking features such as updates and price changes. But after two years on the App Store, Apple removed AppShopper in late 2012, citing a rule against apps that could be confused with Apple's own App Store app.Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a...
More Claims of 'Delays' for iPhone 5S Over Fingerprint Sensor Issues
Earlier this month, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that various production issues will likely result in launches of Apple's iPhone 5S, lower-cost iPhone, and second-generation iPad mini coming somewhat later than many observers have been expecting. In particular, Kuo claimed that issues with color coatings for the fingerprint sensor said to be included on the iPhone 5S are likely to ...
Apple Returns 5-8 Million Defective iPhones to Foxconn?
According to reports over the weekend from China Business [Google translation] and China Times [Google translation], Apple last month returned at least five million and perhaps as many as eight million iPhones to manufacturing partner Foxconn due to defects in either appearance or operation.
The reports indicate that it will cost Foxconn roughly 200 yuan ($32) per device to correct the issues...
New Photos Show Inside of iPad 5 Rear Shell, iPhone 5S SIM Tray
Case company Tactus, which last week shared a photo of what was claimed to be the polycarbonate rear shell of Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone, has now posted a new photo allegedly showing the inside of the fifth-generation iPad's rear shell.
The photo is of fairly low resolution, but is consistent with the first photos of the shell that leaked in late January. At a minimum, the photo...
Anonymized Siri Voice Clips Stored by Apple for Up to Two Years
Yesterday, Wired reported that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was raising questions about Apple's privacy policies regarding Siri, citing vague statements indicating that older "disassociated" voice clips would be kept for a "period of time" even if a user deactivated Siri on his or her device.“It’s not clear what ‘disassociated’ means. It’s not clear what ‘period of...
iPhone Activations Rise 25% at Verizon, Account for 55% of New Smartphones
Verizon today became the first major U.S. carrier to report financial results for the first quarter of 2013, and with Apple's earnings not being released until next week, Verizon's numbers offer the first look at how Apple's quarter might turn out.
Verizon reported activations of 7.2 million smartphones during the quarter, and TechCrunch notes that on the company's conference call the carrier...
Apple Shuts Down Push Notifications From AppGratis
Over the past ten days, we've been tracking the story of AppGratis, the app discovery service that saw its app pulled from the App Store by Apple as part of the first phase of a broader crackdown on apps that could be confused with the App Store itself or which might be used to game the App Store rankings.
Following the removal of AppGratis from the App Store, CEO Simon Dawlat claimed that the ...
Twitter Launches New Music App for iOS and Web
Following rumors of a new music app for iOS from Twitter last month, the company today announced the public release of the new service. The app, which is available as a free App Store download and rolling out on the web, integrates a number of existing services to give users each access to their Rdio and Spotify subscriptions, as well as previews of iTunes Store content.The songs on Twitter...
Lower-Cost iPhone's Plastic Rear Shell Reportedly Surfaces
Earlier this week, case manufacturer Tactus was one of several sources to share photos of cases reportedly designed for the fifth-generation iPad, once again showing that the device is expected to be smaller than the existing iPad and take design cues from the iPad mini.
Today, the company shares a photo of what is said to be the rear shell of Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone. In line with...
Apple Halting Mac Component Orders Due to Overestimated Demand?
Digitimes reports that Apple has essentially halted all component orders for its Mac product lines, apparently working through significant inventories of components delivered during an aggressive ramp-up late last year that may have proven overly aggressive.The suppliers originally expected to finish digesting their Mac inventories in April, but are now stranded waiting for further instructions...
Apple Predicted to Tap Taiwanese Supply Chain for iPhone 5S Fingerprint Sensor
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has been one of the most vocal sources claiming that Apple will be including a fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S, indicating that Apple's 2012 acquisition of AuthenTec is ready to bear fruit for the company as a differentiating feature for the next iPhone.
In a new research report, Kuo outlines his belief that in order to limit rival Samsung's...
iPad 5 Estimated to Be 15% Thinner, 25% Lighter Than Current iPad
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has on a number of occasions offered accurate information on Apple's product plans, recently published a new research note outlining his expectations for Apple's fifth-generation iPad. Kuo expects mass production and shipments of the new iPad to ramp up in the August-September timeframe, with the device registering roughly 15% thinner and 25% lighter than...
Apple Retail Roundup: New Stores Coming in Germany, Netherlands, UK
A number of tidbits related to Apple's retail store initiative have surfaced in recent days, with Apple apparently making progress on several new stores in Germany and the Netherlands as it opens a new store in the United Kingdom this weekend.
iFun.de reports [Google translation] that workers have begun removing scaffolding and barriers outside of Apple's first Berlin store. The site reported...
Google Play Catching iOS App Store in Download Volume, but iOS Still Dominating Revenue
App Annie today released its latest data on mobile app downloads, finding that continued momentum for Android has allowed the Google Play marketplace to nearly match Apple's App Store in download volume. But while Google Play is making great strides in generating revenue for developers from these downloads, the App Store remains far out in front, indicating that iOS device users in general remain ...
Apple Releases Safari and Java Updates With Plug-In and Security Improvements
Apple today released a series of updates for both Safari and Java, addressing continued issues with Java security.
The Safari updates arrive as version 6.0.4 for OS X Mountain Lion and Lion and version 5.1.9 for OS X Snow Leopard. The updates, which can be obtained through the Software Update mechanism in OS X, add new site-specific options for enabling the Java plug-in.Safari 6.0.4 and 5.1.9...
Mailbox Removes Reservation System After Server Boost
Just a day after rolling out an updated app with several new features and enhancements, the team behind popular Gmail management app Mailbox has announced that it has removed the reservation system that had previously left some interested users waiting up to several weeks to gain access to the service.Good news! Mailbox is now available without having to wait in line. After 10 weeks of...
Lodsys Publishes May 2011 Legal Response to Apple's Challenge
Over the past two years, a number of app developers have been contacted by patent holding firm Lodsys, demanding licenses for and in some cases filing suit over patents related to in-app purchasing and other functionalities. Earlier this month, Lodsys gained renewed attention when it began a new round of lawsuits targeting a number of developers large and small, including Disney and Gameloft....
More 'iPad 5' Cases Surface Showing Smaller and Thinner Design
With both front and rear casing parts and several case designs for the fifth-generation iPad having surfaced over the past several months, we are starting to get a very good idea of how Apple is drawing on design cues from the iPad mini to design a thinner and narrower full-size iPad.
Building on this concept of an iPad mini-inspired design, several more cases have appeared today offering a...
Apple Hiring Chip Engineers for 'Orlando Design Center'
As noted by AppleInsider, over the past month Apple has posted listings for eight jobs related primarily to hardware engineering in Orlando, Florida. The listings come as Apple is also hiring at its "Melbourne Design Center" that is apparently part of its acquisition of fingerprint sensor firm AuthenTec, but these new positions located roughly an hour away from Melbourne appear to be part of a...
