Cody Lee

Cody Lee, iDownloadBlog.com’s longest-serving Editor, joined the site in 2008. He specializes in uncovering the best deals on Apple products, apps, and accessories. With years of experience in technology journalism, Cody helps readers save money while staying informed about the latest trends and updates in the Apple ecosystem. Cody’s history with smartphones goes almost as far back as he does. As the son of a Nokia employee, he was exposed early on to handsets like the N91 and the Communicator. He has since been involved in nearly every aspect of the mobile phone industry. While going to college, he worked at a Nokia factory, building handsets, and later moved on to a sales position at a major wireless carrier.

New report offers behind-the-scenes look at Apple-HBO deal

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 11, 2018

Alongside Tuesday's launch of HBO's new standalone streaming service, HBO Now, Fast Company published a wide-ranging interview with the network's chief executive Richard Plepler. The piece offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Now came about, and more interesting to us, how Apple got involved.

As Plepler tells it, HBO had been working on a streaming service for a few years, with plans to launch in 2016. But due to increasing competition from Netflix, and a looming takeover bid from media mogul Rubert Murdoch, they decided to speed up the timetable. So he gave his old friend Jimmy Iovine a call.

Instagram announces new ‘Fade’ and ‘Color’ tools

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Instagram on Tuesday announced that it would be adding two new options to the suite of tools in its photo editing app. Those tools are 'Fade' and 'Color,' and they will allow users to further tweak the appearance of their photos before sharing them on the social network.

More specifically, Color will bring about the ability to tint the highlights or shadows within photos with choices of yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, cyan and green. Fade, on the other hand, will enable users to bring a quiet tone to their photos by softening colors.

Twitter rolling out revamped ‘Quote Tweet’ feature with comments

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 11, 2018

Twitter on Monday announced that it would be rolling out a revamped Retweet feature to all of its platforms. The new feature allows users to easily add comments to Retweets, and properly embeds them instead of inserting them between quotation marks. It also lets you quickly undo a Retweet, should you change your mind.

The new Retweet is being rolled out to iPhone apps and on the web, and will later make its way to Android. For those wanting to check it out on the web, simply hover over the Retweet icon, and a pop-up box (like the one above) will appear, giving you the option to either perform a standard Retweet or add a comment.

Apple reportedly acquired search startup Ottocat in 2013 to improve App Store discovery

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

Apple has quietly acquired Ottocat, reports TechCrunch, a little-known startup with some interesting search tech. The deal went down a few years ago—sometime in 2013—but its impact is still being felt today. The site believes the company's tech is behind the App Store's fairly new 'Explore' section.

There's little evidence of the acquisition, except for a patent granted to Apple that lists Ottocat co-founder Edwin Cooper as an inventor. The patent is titled "System and Method for Divisive Textual Clustering by Label Selection Using Variant-Weighted TFIDF," and clearly incorporates Ottocat's tech.

Tim Cook tells employees they’ll get up to 50% off Apple Watch

Cody Lee ∙ April 6, 2015

Tim Cook sent out a memo to all Apple employees today, pumping them up for their retail Apple Watch kickoff on Friday. While the device will not officially available until the 24th of this month, customers will be able to submit pre-orders and try on the wearable beginning on the 10th.

In the memo, obtained by 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman, Cook tells employees that tens of millions of people have watched their Apple Watch keynotes and developers have submitted over 1000 new apps and updates with support for the device. He also announces special employee pricing.

Latest behind-the-scenes Foxconn report depicts improved worker conditions

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Ahead of its upcoming Code Asia conference, Foxconn granted tech publication Recode guided access to its manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China where it assembles iPads, Macs and other products. We've seen similar behind-the-scenes reports in the past, but today's piece offers a current look at employee conditions inside one of Foxconn's largest factories.

During their tour, Recode says that it observed both the remnants of past tragedies and several signs of improvements. For instance, there are still nets atop of buildings to help prevent suicide jumps, and many buildings are still covered in rust and grime. But Foxconn has added several college-like amenities such as a track, multiple swimming pools and an Internet Cafe.

Apple opens up early Watch access to more developers ahead of launch

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple has opened up early Apple Watch access to more developers ahead of its April 24 launch, reports the Financial Times. The company had previously allowed select, high profile developers to visit its Cupertino campus and use working versions of the device, but within the last two weeks it has expanded the offer to ~20 devs per day.

The program is huge for developers, allowing them to test their apps on a working device, rather than the Mac-based simulator Apple released last year. It's also very secretive, as entrants are asked to sign strict non-disclosure agreements, and forced to work in conference rooms draped with curtains and guarded by Apple security.

Apple takes you on ‘Guided Tours’ to teach you all about Apple Watch

Cody Lee ∙ April 3, 2015

Apple on Friday added a new 'Guided Tours' section to its Apple Watch website, offering an in-depth look at the device's headlining features ahead of its April 24 launch. The page plays host to walk-through videos, which teach prospective customers how to take advantage of the Watch's new interactions and technologies.

Apple to announce Q2 2015 earnings on April 27

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple just confirmed via its Investor Relations portal that it will be announcing the financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2015 on Monday, April 27. As usual, the company will be hosting a live conference call to discussing its earnings, beginning at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET.

While Q2 is typically an uneventful quarter for Apple this one should prove quite interesting. Industry watchers are anxious to see how it follows up its record-breaking holiday quarter, and the firm is sure to share initial thoughts and feedback regarding the just-launched Apple Watch.

Pangu Team talks money, discrimination and more in open letter

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

The Pangu Team, which has been responsible for multiple iOS 7 and iOS 8 jailbreaks, posted an open letter to its website on Friday. The letter is entitled "Jailbreak Should not Tolerate Regional Discrimination," and it talks about discrimination, rumors regarding Pangu, and more.

It appears much of the motivation behind the post comes from comments made by hacker Stefan Esser, better known as I0n1c. The team says during his talk at this year's Syscan conference, Esser made several comments that they felt were racist and "full of morbid imaginations."

New CNNgo channel launches on Apple TV, cable subscription required

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

CNN announced on Wednesday that its new CNNgo channel is now available on Apple TV. This marks the first Turner brand to launch on Apple's set-top box, and it features the largest collection of CNN’s on-demand content to date.

In addition to on-demand programming, the channel also offers access to Live TV and shows, such as the popular Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown and Anderson Cooper 360. Of course for these things you'll need cable credentials.

Apple reportedly doing away with antivirus apps in the App Store

Cody Lee ∙ March 19, 2015

Apple has decided to eliminate the category of anti-virus and anti-malware products from the App Store, according to security firm Intego. The company announced this week that Apple informed them of their decision after pulling their app 'VirusBarrier for iOS.'

"To be clear, this wasn’t an action directed specifically at Intego, we were one of several companies affected by Apple's decision," writes Intego's Jeff Erwin. Erwin adds that users will continue to get virus definition updates, but there will be no more updates to the app.