After the continued success of the iPod in 2005, the Apple community was running wild with the concept of the iPod ‘Halo Effect’. The iPod ‘Halo Effect’ was an idea that with Apple’s success in the iPod product line, Windows users would be more inclined to buy other Apple products- mainly their computers. From Macworld to Piper Jaffray and Morgan Stanley, everyone was abuzz with the idea, some even tried to predict numbers.

As time passed, we began to stop hearing about the iPod ‘Halo Effect’ that is, by that name. Since 2005, Apple has surpassed the 100 million iPods sold and has seen significant increase in sales, seeing its worldwide market share rise to 3.2. Apple is predicted and on track to set a record high Holiday Season sales of both iPods and Macs. So what is behind this recent surge? The iPod ‘Halo Effect’?!

The answer is actually Windows Vista. Almost 6 years in the making, Windows Vista is keeping PC users from upgrading from XP. Criticized by some for its compatibility issues, bloated code and demanding system requirements, Vista has been met with loads of negative press by the PC community. Meanwhile, within this time, Mac users have seen 5 upgrades to OS X and the switch to Intel processors.

Recently Apple released its latest iteration of OS X this October with Leopard. Mac OS X Leopard has brought significant improvements to OS X, and has been met with both strong praises and sales, selling 20% more copies in one month than Tiger did. This coupled with competitive Laptop and Desktop hardware offerings has compelled some to make the switch.

Keep tuned for Part II.

We are proud to officially announce our new podcast, generically dubbed (for the moment) “TheiLife Podcast”. You may have already seen Episode #1, “The Introduction”, yesterday, but I promise there will be more coming later this week.

We have also opened a podcast page, located here (and in the nav bar above). It is similar to our videos page, but no categories and only contains our Podcasts. We also have moved from ThickBox to LightWindow for our lightboxing needs! Wahoo!

We had to change our old lightbox because sometime over the weekend (while Sidney was working on our code’s w3c compliance), our old lightbox decided to act up on us! It stopped loading content in all browsers except Safari! Sidney spent most of the day trying to fix that fricking lightbox. So, out with the old, in with the new — everything is just about back to normal now (and a little prettier, to boot)! Just don’t try and use it with Internet Explorer. Don’t worry though, we will fix it… how evil do you think we are?! (seriously, though, it’s a known bug in either LightWindow or Internet Explorer, depending on whom you ask).

Sorry for the lack of content today, besides the fact it was a slow news day, we had a lot of bug squashing and code tidying to do! As usual, though, feel free to report issues with the site to [email protected] or in the story comments.

Back

We have spent an extensive amount of time over the past few days recording video podcasts. Keep on the lookout for some heading your way throughout the coming weeks! Below, enjoy a video introduction to the site and content to come.

An unnoticed issue in our recording system caused corruption of the audio coming in from the mixer. We fell back to in-camera audio (which doesn’t sound all that bad), but note that we do actually have a quite nice sound setup.

With less than one month to go (and counting), we are beginning to sketch out our plans for event coverage (particularly the Keynote) online. As of today, I can say we are definitely offering two services for staying informed — an AJAX web application that will update with text and pictures as they’re uploaded, and an SMS updater.

The SMS updater (yet to be named) will allow you to sign up to be text messaged with the most urgent announcements from the Keynote. To sign up, you’ll simply enter your phone number, select your carrier, and verify that it’s your number by entering the verification code sent to you. There are no fees or catches — just standard text messaging rates.

The AJAX application (also yet to be named) primarily allows you to get live text updates via a web browser, no refreshes needed. But next to the text updates, photos will appear as they are uploaded. All, of course, with a slick and shiny implementation. Look for some screenshots coming your way soon.

Of course, this is the first preview of our Macworld plans, so expect more coming your way soon. We hope to have everything up and running at least a week before the Keynote. Of course, we always appreciate comments and emails from our readers, so feel free to pass on any ideas!

To contact one of theiLife staff members:

Matt Dodd, Administrator – matt[at]theilife[dot]com

Sidney San Martin, Administrator – sidney[at]theilife[dot]com

Matthew Hamilton, Writer – matth[at]theilife[dot]com

Matthew Rosenhien, Writer – mattr[at]theilife[dot]com

Dan Spiers, Writer – dans[at]theilife[dot]com

General Inquiries – webmaster[at]theilife.com

We read every one of your emails, so feel free to email us with any questions, comments, concerns, bugs or news tips- we will take them all! If you want to contact us on AIM, feel free to Instant Message us at “theilife” (no quotes).

Apple has just posted a new Christmas-spirited Get a Mac commercial on their hompage, just in time for the holidays. Check it out in the Videos section or subscribe in iTunes to our Daily iLife Podcast for a daily Mac video. Happy holidays!!

Since its induction on April 28th, 2003, the iTunes Store has been the internet’s most popular digital content source (that is, legal source). Yearly selling over 3 billion songs, not to mention millions of television shows, music videos, and movies, the iTunes Store easily holds the lion’s share of the market and has set the standard for digital media stores today.
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Today, my brother showed me the back of Sports Illustrated, and there was a cool iPod Touch Advertisement.

I’ve put together a quick video showing off the loot we pulled together at the Apple Store opening. Made mostly late at night, so it came out a bit strange, but feel free to comment.