In what seems like a never ending quest to perfection, I’ve gone through a great deal of time trying to refine the site. As anyone who has been in the situation might know, in this ultra competitive market, it is near impossible to come anywhere near the well established and professional bloggers. This an area that The iLife has never tried to touch, but rather fill in the gaps left in between.

Since I’ve been in college for almost six months, I’ve obviously lost a great deal of free time that I once had to dedicate to the site. It has made me question what I want to do with the site and think about new directions to take The iLife while maintaining a successful academic and social life. So from here on out, I’m suspending all previous journeys we’ve been undertaking for a new approach- truly great and original content.

I wouldn’t ever want to think about the work any of the writers here at The iLife have done as unoriginal, but in order to really drive the traffic and expand ourselves we need to take up a new, stronger direction. This means much more personal blogging, a slightly adjusted writing style and other smaller changes in the back end. So stay tuned- for real this time. We’ll be back in full force very soon.

A quick rundown on the current status of The iLife and where we are going in the future.

As you may have already noticed, things around The iLife have been at a lull for the past few months. That isn’t because we are abandoning the site. The iLife is still here and will be going for a long time. If you don’t believe me, I recently paid our hosting bill ;). The simple fact is that I am a freshman in college now, as are the three other primary writers for The iLife and college keeps us all very busy. But over the past few weeks, I’ve realized that the site has been grinding to a halt- which isn’t cool.

That is why I am extending, once again, an open invitation to anyone who would like to get out there as a blogger. Even through these months of little posting, we have seen steadily increasing daily traffic. We don’t care how old you are or what platform you use. If you love technology or want to try out blogging, we would like to have you on board! If you have a problem coming up with content or editing your work, there are editors available to help go through your content, and a number of people who can give you tons of ideas of stuff to write about.

But with that said, we aren’t passing the torch on to others. I for one, will start blogging and podcasting with more regularity in the coming days. There are some new writers who are waiting in the wings to make their big debut (hint hint) as well as others who have promised to come back as with some new content. We are all working The iLife back into our hectic schedules for you- because without the growing community we serve, we couldn’t exist.

So if you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions OR would like to start writing for us, please contact us or simply email WEBMASTER at THEILIFE dawt COM. We can’t wait to meet some new people and get feedback!

With theiLife now officially one year old, it is time to conclude the celebration and move onto year two.

It’s almost hard for me to believe. What started as an idea, forming into an idea supported by a few friends, to a domain name and from there- I can’t even begin to explain how it took off. Last years highlights include attending the 2008 Macworld, WWDC, iPhone 3G launch and various Apple store openings which all really defined the sites culture. We are also expanding in ways beyond just Apple, and are actively trying to bring as many people who appreciate technology to blog. Due to the fact I am now in college along with a number of iLife writers, it makes it hard to keep the site up to speed, especially compared to the professional bloggers. But that is why this site isn’t for news. We are still committed to the site and you should start seeing some new changes coming soon.

With that said, it is time to announce winners of software! To all the users who commented and expressed their views on the site, we all greatly appreciate your continued interest in the site! Users who have commented on the two birthday articles were entered into a drawing and will be receiving emails with the software license they won. Thanks for your participation!

Like free stuff? Know how to write a comment on this blog? Read on for a chance to win a free license to 1Password!

In commemoration of theiLife.com’s first anniversary, developers from Agile Web Solutions have kindly provided us with one free license to their famed 1Password software to give away. For those of you who don’t know what 1Password is, you should check it out. If you browse the internet on your Mac I highly recommend you start using 1Password to save time and protect yourself from the dangers of the internet. Not only does it autofill forms and login windows but it can generate strong passwords and even sync this information securely across computers or to your iPhone or iPod touch! If you’d like to be entered to receive a free copy of 1Password, simply comment below! A big thanks again to Roustem of the 1Password team for allowing this to happen.

And, by the way, happy 250th post everyone!

TheiLife.com celebrates it’s first birthday today! Join us for the festivities!!

Today, October 19th marks one year to the day that theiLife.com domain was registered. In the time between October 19th, 2007 and October 28th, 2007 (the first post) was the first creation of blog. This year, to commemorate this time period, we will be giving away all kinds of great stuff to our readers. At the moment, we’re keeping the list of goodies secret, but do note by commenting, on any birthday labeled post, you will be automatically entered into our drawing. Only one entrance per person, however- yes, we will track your email and IP addresses.

So keep on the lookout and feel free to comment on any birthday article for great free stuff anytime starting now until October 28th, 2008!

Today, Friday June 27th, there is less than two weeks until the launch of Apple’s new 3G iPhone.

Things have been quiet here at theiLife.com for the past week- we have to apologize for that! Our writers have been busy doing various other things, from graduating to parties and vacations, the number of articles published this past week has been limited. Have no fear, things are returning to normal very soon. Particularly leading up to the launch of the 3G iPhone, where we will be teaming up with theDigitalLifestyle.tv to provide live video coverage and a liveblog from the line at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York City. We are still formulating our exact plans at this time, but when we have finalized them we will certainly let you know.

Since I missed my opportunity with the 100th post, I will take this occasion to reflect upon the development of theiLife.com.

I started theiLife.com on a whim back in October 2007. I was meaning to start a blog for some time, and during my senior year I finally had enough time to dedicate to the site. I always thought theiLife was going to be a more of a casual blog, where I would post maybe three or four times a week.

This changed one weekend when I called Sidney and asked if he would be interested in helping me code a dynamic video page for theiLife. Of course, he was willing to help out, so we created the videos section; where I uploaded my extensive collection of Apple Commercials. Suddenly I found myself on theiLife blogging more often.

In early December, when I first heard news that Apple was opening its latest flagship store in New York City, I invited Sidney to join me and help report for our theiLife. That weekend, after we posted all our content from the opening, the website got picked up by larger news sources. Finally we started driving real traffic, and from there things have been growing ever since.

It is amazing looking back over the past few months, on how much this website has changed my life, and what we have accomplished in such a little amount of time. I hope as the 200th post that we can all look forward to 200 in the near future. To all the readers and supporters, thank you! Remember, if you would like to contact myself or anyone on theiLife.com staff, check out our contact page.

Today was quite an exciting day. From being first in line and waiting outside for 19 hours to the actual keynote and proceeding events, it was a great way to kick of WWDC 2008. We saw over 34,000 unique hits slightly before, during and after the Keynote- which makes a total of about 50,000 unique visitors today. Our servers held up fine, the AJAX Liveblog was much improved from Macworld version and the SMS updater/Twitter integration preformed wonderfully (as did Twitter, more or less). Before we call it a night, Here is a summary of today, some in pictures, some in videos and some in text. Remember to stick with theiLife.com for continuing coverage of WWDC 2008 via our Liveblog and Twitter throughout this week! If you would like to request anything or meet up, please contact us!

Articles:
First in Line (Mac|Life)
Apple introduces 3G iPhone (theiLife)
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Preview (theiLife)
Apple Introduces MobileMe (theiLife)

Videos:
Entering the Keynote
Walking Around After the Keynote
Questions Following the Keynote
iJustine Keynote Sleepover (featuring Sidney in first place)

Pictures:
Sidney’s WWDC Flickr Set

Sidney has just relayed back a confirmation that he is indeed, first at line for the 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote line. Sidney began the line for the Keynote after registering and gaining permission from Apple to do so, of course. He attached the picture above of his waiting area, which is the same place we waited for the Macworld 2008 keynote, until the split the two lines up. To stay up-to-date with the latest information from theiLife and WWDC, follow our liveblog at live.theilife.com. You can additionally follow us on Twitter (theiLife) or sign up for urgent updates delivered to your cell phone here. Lots more photos and video to come.

More photos after the jump! Read more…

As the week is drawing to a close, and with WWDC starting on Monday, things are really coming down to the wire. Yesterday, the SMS Updater went live, and if you haven’t already, please sign yourself up! Today the liveblog is up at its final resting location. You can now access the liveblog at live.theilife.com. Bookmark this address now for our live coverage beginning on Monday! Remember to stay tuned for the latest updates here at theiLife.com!