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!

[audio:https://theilife.com/media/audcast/6-backinaction_low.mp3|titles=Episode 5.1: Back in Action]
Download MP3 (31MB)

The iLife Podcast – Epoisode #5.1: Back in Action

We are back!! Sidney and I finally got back together this weekend and recorded a podcast. We hope to actually continually record on a regular basis.

You can click here to subscribe now in iTunes, or visit us in the iTunes Store.

Show notes coming soon.

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!

This afternoon, Apple will be hosting a conference call detailing its Q4 financial results.

Today, at 5:00 PM EST / 2:00 PM PST, Apple will hold a conference call discussion the results of their quarter four earnings. Apple’s fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008 covers sales from June 29th through September 27th. Apple has set a standard of breaking it’s conservative estimates, and even with the sinking financial market, is expected to break them today. We highly recommend you tune into the call later today and listen to the results first hand!

Apple Q4 Financial Results

Writer Geoffery Kaicher explores the latest notebook offerings from Apple.

Last week, Apple released their new MacBook’s and MacBook Pro’s. Both notebooks feature a number of new innovations including aluminum cases, faster processors, better graphics cards and an all glass multi-touch pad that has no dedicated button. Along with the MacBook and MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air was given a small speed bump. The MacBook Air now has a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor upgradable to 1.86 GHz. It was also given a new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card.

The MacBook went through the most drastic change going from the plastic white or black case to a new aluminum case with a black, glass screen which resembles the screen from the iMac. The aluminum case comes from a single block of aluminum machined to perfection. Even the sleep indicator was taken in to account being carved by a CNC to thin the metal before a laser make small perforations to allow the LED Light to shine through.

While the MacBook and MacBook Pro look similar with the exception of screen size, slightly different port configuration and the tags on the bottom of the screen, their tech specs make them seem like there is no relation. The MacBook comes in one size, 13.3″, but has two options of processor power. With the new computer, you are given the option of a 2.0 or 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The 2.0 GHz comes with the option of upgrading to a 250GB HD, 320GB HD or a 128GB SSDfrom a 160GB HDD wheres as the 2.4 GHZ comes standard with a 250GB HD with the option to upgrade. Both options come with 2GB (Two 1GB SO-DIMMS) of SDRAM but can support up to 4GB. The new graphics support is a NVIDIA 9400M graphics processor 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM. As usual it still comes with an iSight, Bluetooth, and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

The MacBook Pro, as usual, is similar same, but faster. The redesigned Pro again only comes in one size, 15.4″ (17″ apparently will follow eventually) with two processor speeds. The options are a 2.4 GHz or 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo upgradable to 2.8GHz. The 2.4 GHz model comes standard with 2GB of SDRAM, 250GB HD, and a NVIDIA 9400M 256 MB or 9600M 256MB. The 2.53 GHz model comes with 4GB of SDRAM, 320GB HD, and a NVIDIA 9400M 512MB or 9600M 512MB. Both can hold up to 4GB of SDRAM and have an option of a 128GB SSD. And as before, they both still come with an iSight, Bluetooth, and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

The new models have been given a complete makeover both internally and externally. While the MacBook has been given the biggest makeover going from the plastic casing, both have been given a refined look. But in case you decide you don’t like the new laptops, Apple still offers the old 17″ MacBook Pro model and 13″ MacBook model.

Editors note: Commenting on this article does not make you eligible for theiLife birthday celebration raffle.

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!

Apple is expected to release updated versions of it’s MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop models. Stick to this page for live coverage from this event starting at 10AM PST (1PM EST).

Tuesday beginning at 10AM Pacific in the Cupertino campus, Apple is expected to release the latest revisions of MacBook and MacBook Pro’s. Rumors have been flying around since the start of this year about a new aluminum MacBook and a redesigned MacBook Pro. Originally rumored to take place in September, but later pushed until October, Apple issued members of the press invites last week.

Since then, there have been a number of breaks in secrecy including a number of case shots and an Apple Support document. It is almost certain that Apple will be introducing new MacBook and MacBook Pro’s at this event. Stay on this page for live coverage throughout the event- as well a pictures gallery after the jump. Apple Town Hall has been the venue for the introduction of the latest generation iMac and Mac mini.

11:09AM EST The servers have been locked down and prepared for tomorrows event. T-minus 13 hours and counting. More coming soon!
1:02PM EST The event has begun. Steve Jobs has taken the stage.
1:03PM EST Tim Cook takes over to cover the state of the Mac.
1:06PM EST Talks about the Mac success over the past few years.
1:10PM EST Steve Jobs returns to the stage.
1:15PM Jon Ive takes the stage to talk about the new notebook manufacturing process. Brick?
1:16PM EST Started with a large piece of aluminum and work it down allows for stronger and lighter notebooks.
1:18PM EST Used it for the MacBook Air. Now applying it to the new Apple laptops. Jobs is again taking the stage.
1:19PM EST Apple is using new NVIDIA cards in their laptops. 9400M.
1:21PM EST Multi-touch glass trackpads. No button. 4 software gestures.
1:25PM EST New MacBook Pros that look exactly like the leaks seen last night.
1:32PM EST MacBook Pro specs: Magsafe, Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire 800, two USB ports, a Mini Display Port, Audio In/Out analog and optical digital, ExpressCard 34. Both 9400 and 9600GT. SSD option.
1:39PM EST New MacBook Air update. Now shipping with a 9400 integrated graphics card. 128SSD option. Mini display port.
1:42PM EST The current MacBook price has been dropped to $999. New model is shipping with an all aluminum case, LED backlit display and starts at $1299.
2:07PM EST That’s all. Sorry for the lacking liveblog, there were some server issues.

Photo gallery after the jump! Read more…

New Apple laptops are on are their way!

Thursday, Apple sent out invitations to the media for the rumored October 14th event. This event is expected to contain the release of new MacBook’s. Rumors have been flying around for about 2 months that the new MacBook’s will have aluminum casing similar to the MacBook Pro’s and earlier PowerBook cousins.

The event is to be held at 10:00 in Cupertino at Apple Town Hall. Apple Town Hall has been used for other special events such as the introduction of Aluminum iMac’s in July of last year.

Invitations were set to different media personnel with a picture of the supposed new MacBook’s with what appears to be aluminum casing, and a caption saying “The spotlight turns to notebooks.”

Stay tuned to The iLife for more information on the event.

Love the cloud? Always accessing your Calendars or Contacts from several places? Tired of having to connect your iPhone or iPod Touch to your computer to sync your contacts or calendar? Updated: NuevaSync has added new features! Learn more about them here.

Well, now you don’t have to. The easiest solution to this problem would be to hook up an exchange server to your iPhone so that it stays in sync, but unless you’re an enterprise user, you probably don’t have access to one. It’s not worth setting one up and, if you’re a Google user, you want your info synced there, not your work place. That is no longer a problem, thanks to a free service called Nuevasync. Nuevasync creates an exchange account running only the mobile protocol, and can sync your contacts and calendar with Google.

I originally found out about Nuevasync from a Lifehacker article offering Nuevasync as a Mobile Me alternative. I use Nuevasync with my iPod Touch, so no matter where I am or how I want to look at my data, I have access to it. It also makes it easier to enter a lot of data onto your calendar, and lets you easily import from web sources. Just add it to your Google Calendar and in about 5 seconds, it will show up on your iPhone (as long as you have service or Wi-Fi). This is especially helpful if you use shared calendars in a group setting, such as a family calendar or a group project calendar, by using Nuevasync you will always know that you have the most up to date version. The only catch is that currently, Nuevasync can only sync calendars that you have edit permissions for (there is a tool to help you figure out which ones those are, the link is after the jump) and they get merged all in to one calendar on your iPhone (they stay separated on Google Calendar).

Nuevasync was started in November 2007. Amazingly its creators David Boreham and Thomas Lackey never expected the high volume of users Nuevasync receives now. The original Nuevasync was designed as a Windows Mobile sync solution using Google Calendar and Plaxo (an online address book and social networking service) as data sources, but now Google Contacts as well as the other two are supported. Once Apple announced that they would be introducing Exchange server support with the 2.0 firmware upgrade, they got a beta copy of the firmware and began testing using an iPod Touch. They only expected a few iPhone users to be trying the service. Two days after the launch of the iPhone upgrade, Nuevasync’s servers were heavily hit, their user count had doubled. After that, Nuevasync began to drastically scale their code to support the new workload. Because of this, most of the planed new features had to be delayed. The two most requested new features are the ability to select which Google calendars are synced (including public calendar syncing) and for multiple calendar support. Both of these features are currently in development and is expected to be ready for testing within the next fe
w weeks. After that, the next feature to be released will be push email support from Gmail.

Probably the biggest reason people don’t currently use Nuevasync is that when you add an exchange server, all of your calendar and contact data on your iPhone gets erased, but the easiest way to avoid this is to sync your iPhone with Google via iTunes. I’ll walk you through the entire process to show you how you can have over the air syncing, without losing any of your data. Take a look after the Jump!

Read more…