TheiLife.com is proud to formally announce that we will be liveblogging from the WWDC 2008 Keynote. This time around, we have refined our AJAX app from Macworld to be less server heavy so we can serve more users. The AJAX updater is still being tweaked, so it should be available by the end of the week. However, the SMS Updater is now live, so if you want to sign up to be updated with the latest urgent updates from the Keynote via SMS (expect about 10-20 messages), click here or the big shiny button below. Stay tuned for the latest information about WWDC here at theiLife.com.

This weekend, the new Willowbrook Mall Apple Store will be opening. That is- the Willowbrook Mall located in Houston, Texas.

Today Apple announced the grand opening date of the Willowbrook Mall for June 7th at 10AM. Located in Houston, Texas; the Willowbrook Mall is host to over 160 stores and services in over 1.53 million square feet of retail space. The latest store joins two other existing Apple Stores in Houston, the Memorial City Store and the Galleria Store. The Willowbrook store is located near Dillards and JC Penney. For directions, store schedule and more information, check out the stores website.

What is interesting about the location of this new Apple Store is that there is another Willowbrook Mall, located in New Jersey, with an Apple Store scheduled to open in it this fall. While details are still light, you can read more about the Wayne, New Jersey Apple Store also in Willowbrook Mall here.

If you are located near this new Apple Store, or know someone who is, theiLife is looking for someone to take pictures or video of the store and even liveblog from the grand opening. Please contact us if you are interested.

Today Apple has launched this years “Buy a Mac, Get a Free iPod” back to school promotion.

As rumored by both MacRumors and AppleInsider yesterday; Apple launched the promotion early this morning.

To qualify for the deal, students must purchase a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, or Mac Pro and either an iPod Touch or a 8GB iPod nano before September 15th 2008 to receive a rebate for the iPod. All products much be purchased from Apple either online, in an Apple Retail Store or at an Apple Authorized Campus Store. Any student accepted into or currently attending college and any employee of a public or private K-12 institution or higher education facility are eligible for the promotion.

Last year, the deal only offered a 200 dollar credit towards any new iPod (at the time, a free 4GB iPod nano), however this years deal offers a $300 discount which equates to an 8GB iPod Touch. Students can also opt for a 8GB iPod nano if they desire.

As reported by Morgan Stanley earlier this year, almost 40 percent of all college students are planning to purchase a Mac as their next computer. Apple currently holds a 15 percent market share in the student demographic.

The iLife staff notes that writers Matt Dodd, Matthew Rosenhein and Dan Spiers plan to purchase MacBook Pros under this new deal for college next year. Sidney San Martin and Matt Hamilton, both college students, already own Apple laptops and took advantage of last years deal.

It is already the second day of June and WWDC is fast approaching. TheiLife.com will be attending this year’s World Wide Developers’ Conference and providing pictures, videos and live coverage, as we did for Macworld 2008. Our ultimate goal is to run another AJAX-based liveblog from the Keynote on June 9th. However, because our hosting provider threatened to terminate us after the heavy load from Macworld, we need to make sure the new AJAX app will be able to handle a large number of users without seriously compromising the server. We have also hooked up with theDigitalLifestyle.tv to provide video updates throughout WWDC. We would, of course, love to hear from you — what do you think? Are you going to WWDC and would like to help provide coverage for theiLife? We want to hear from you — please contact us!

A recent iPhone commercial, touting the power of having the internet in your pocket. It has just been published to The Daily iLife podcast, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.

An iPhone advertisement about winning a bet by having the internet in your pocket.

When Apple posted the new 10.5.3 update earlier this week, investigators on the MacRumors forum have located a curious iPhone icon added with the update.

If you are running OS 10.5 Leopard and update to 10.5.3, this new iPhone icon is sitting in your system. Once you have updated, navigate to the Finder, click on the “Go” menu, click on “Go To Folder” (or Command+Shift+G) and paste in the following (or simply follow the path):

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/

Once you are in the Resources folder, you will see something that looks like this:

Locate the iPhone.icns file and double click it to open it. There should be 5 different iPhone icons, of varying sizes. You are looking for the file named ‘iPhone.icns-3’.

While this iPhone icon is clearly different from the current iPhone (and other iPhone icons in the folder); if you look at the model revealed on iPhoneclub.nl recently, the model and the icon bear a striking resemblance. Both iPhones exhibit the rumored bezel and body changes, which make the iPhone more curved in your hand, but appear to be square. The earpiece seems to be readjusted, which is part of the rumored sensor rearrangement and addition of forward facing camera. The two iPhones are shown side by side below. You can read the orginal iPhoneclub.nl post here.

While this icon may seem promising, it could just be a remnant or reject from the original iPhone icon. Apple is rumored to introduce a new iPhone model next month at its annual WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference); which starts on June 9th. Stick with theiLife for continuing coverage regarding the new iPhone, liveblogging from the Keynote and any other WWDC related announcements.

Sorry for the site related troubles, over the past few hours we were seeing outrageous amounts of traffic thanks to our coverage of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store temporarily closing yesterday. Thankfully the traffic has slowed and has given us (and our servers) time to recover. You can see our coverage on a number of high profile sites, listed below:

MacRumors
AppleInsider

The closing of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store on Thursday may mark the beginning of a new advertising campaign for an as of yet unknown product. Equipment being brought into the store as well as other reports indicates that film production company Anonymous Content will be producing the advertisement.

AppleInsider reports that director David Fincher, listed as a featured director on Anonymous’s website is tied to the project. Fincher is best known as the director of Fight Club, but is also a popular producer of commercials, including the Gears of War trailer, “Mad World”, and has done work for HP and AT&T. The only other times that the Fifth Avenue Apple Store has been closed were for major product launches, and the only advertisements filmed at Apple store were filmed at this location, for, fittingly enough, the iPhone.

The majority of Apple’s marketing campaigns, including the well received Get a Mac campaign, have been produced by TBWA\Media Arts Labs. However, Apple has in the past used other firms, or allowed third parties to advertise joint product launches using their own ad firms. Anonymous Content fits the bill for this kind of campaign, having produced commercials for a wide variety of corporations, the most relevant being AT&T and Intel. It is rumored that Apple is filming a commercial for the upcoming 3G iPhone. The reasoning behind filming at the Fifth Avenue retail store is still unknown, as an Apple Store could easily be replicated in a studio. The lighting equipment outside indicates that emphasis may be on the 32 foot cube outside the store. More details to come soon!

Reports are coming in the 5th Avenue Apple Store, located in New York City is being shut down. Rumor has it that Apple is filming a commercial for the new, unreleased iPhone inside the store. On the 5th Ave Retail Website, a message reads:

“Please note we will be temporarily closed Thursday, May 29 at 3:00 p.m. and will reopen Friday, May 30 at 9:00 a.m. During this time, please visit one of our other two Manhattan locations.”

The store is normally open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and has only closed on two occasions, for about three hours- the release of Mac OS X Leopard and the iPhone last June. TheiLife regular, Sidney San Martin is en-route to check out the scene, and should be reporting live within the hour- pictures, live blogging and a little investigative reporting to come. If you live in or near New York City, and would like to help contribute to the coverage, please feel free to contact us!

6:31 PM Sidney is off from work and en-route (via Subway) to the 5th Ave store.
7:30 PM Sidney is on the scene confirming that it is indeed commercial- there are booms and a Genie outside the store. He says that lighting is being setup to highlight the Cube and elevator.
7:37 PM Sidney has confirmed that there is filming going on in the store. Director chairs and people mingling around the tables. All computers have the Leopard aurora desktop background showing with no menubar or icons.
7:39 PM He can see into the Apple Store, and there are iPhone tables with cardboard around them. Most of the people are congregating around the iPhone tables. The cardboard is very eerie, very Apple, he notes.
7:52 PM The crew outside is discussing ways to get into the store, appears to be looking at a floorplan.
7:56 PM “I recognize the 5th Ave HR Manager standing outside the store. She is dressed well and clearly happy about this event.”
7:58 PM More lights are being setup around the outside of the Cube.
8:08 PM “Crews are all talking through radios. I wish I had a frequency scanner right now!”
8:11 PM The crews are hooking into the Fire Hydrant now. What the heck!?
8:33 PM BLACK CASES MARKED “Anonymous 5+4” entering store.
8:33 PM More black cases marked “Anonymous 4+3” entering store.
9:33 PM Sidney has to leave as his iPhone has died; the liveblog is over. The servers are being pounded from traffic from all over; including AppleInsider and MacRumors. Thanks to all who have visited!!
9:47 PM Almost the entire sidewalk is blocked off on 5th Ave, with the Apple employees pushing the line back as much as possible. Sidney has left for home.

Pictures after the jump! Read more…

This is the third part in a series of WWDC rumor articles, exploring the various case leaks for the new iPhone model- speculated to launch at WWDC 2008. Click here to check out the first and second articles about the rumored iPhone.

Click on the images to see a larger version.

Yesterday, the Apple rumor mill was abuzz with a story from iDealsChina Insider, an otherwise unknown website who posted leaked pictures of Griffins new case mold for the upcoming iPhone. The pictures, shown above, shows a larger opening for the supposed addition of a front facing camera, which supports the rumored claims of videoconferencing on the upcoming iPhone. The leaked photos are said to be of Griffins upcoming silicon Flex GRIP case.

More after the jump! Read more…