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.

iWatch components said to be going into production this month

Cody Lee ∙ June 5, 2014

Cantor Fitzgerald's Brian White reports that several components for the so-called iWatch are going into mass production this month. The analyst believes that Apple is planning to unveil the long-rumored smartwatch in September, perhaps alongside the iPhone 6.

White bases his report on his recent tour of Computex, Asia's largest technology show, where wearables were by far the most talked-about products. There, sources from supply chain companies told him iWatch component production would soon begin ramping up...

Bloomberg: T-Mobile and Sprint close to finalizing buyout deal

Cody Lee ∙ June 4, 2014

Bloomberg is reporting this afternoon that Sprint and T-Mobile are getting very close to reaching a deal for acquisition. The outlet says that the purchase, if agreed upon, will be made in about 50% stock and 50% cash, but there's no word yet on price.

Sprint has been rumored to be interested in T-Mobile for months now. The carrier, which was recently taken over by Japan's SoftBank, has been impressed with the 'uncarrier' movement, and a buyout will make it more of a threat to AT&T and Verizon...

Evidence of Retina iMac found in OS X Yosemite beta

Cody Lee ∙ June 4, 2014

Folks wanting an iMac with Retina display will be happy to hear that some evidence has surfaced in favor of the mythical machine. The recently-released OS X Yosemite developer preview includes a new file that defines display scaling resolution options for an iMac.

The native resolution of the computer is not mentioned, but the file includes a series of scaling resolution options that max out at 6400 x 3600 pixels, or 3200 x 1800 as a Retina display. It's likely the display will scale down to a lower resolution like the MacBook Pro...

Amazon announces June 18 launch event for new device

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Amazon has just announced that it will be hosting a 'launch event' on June 18. The company doesn't offer up a whole lot of details, other than founder Jeff Bezos will be on hand, and a new device will be shown off.

In addition to sending out invitations, and tweeting about the event, Amazon has also posted a cryptic video of people trying out the device. They don't say way it is, or show it, but it sounds like the rumored smartphone...

Early signs look good for iOS 8 jailbreak

Cody Lee ∙ June 4, 2014

Since Apple introduced iOS 8 on Monday, and released a beta version to developers, one of the top questions we've been asked here at iDB is: can it be jailbroken? As it stands now, there is no jailbreak for the current iOS 7.1.1 firmware.

At the time of this writing, I hadn't heard of anyone successfully jailbreaking their device on iOS 8, but early efforts do sound promising. Well-known hacker i0n1c says that the first beta 'doesn't fix anything,' and should be jailbreakable...

Apple introduces MFi specifications for Lightning cable headphones

Cody Lee ∙ June 4, 2014

According to a report tonight from 9to5Mac, Apple has quietly introduced a new specification for accessory manufacturers in its MFi program. The spec allows them to create headphones that connect to devices using a Lightning cable instead of 3.5mm.

The change will allow for a new breed of headphones that are capable of handling lossless stereo 48 kHz digital audio output, and have access to headphone remote controls. And Apple plans to activate support in newer iOS devices in a future update...

Yahoo replaced by The Weather Channel for weather data in iOS 8

Cody Lee ∙ June 3, 2014

Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo was in talks with Apple over increasing its presence on the iPhone. The company wanted more of its content pre-loaded onto Apple's devices, and was after the default search spot in Safari.

But its quest to expand its reach in iOS isn't going so well. Apple released the first beta of iOS 8 to developers yesterday, and it's been discovered that the Weather app, which used to pull info from Yahoo, now uses data from The Weather Channel...

OS X Yosemite adds HTML5 video support for Netflix

Cody Lee ∙ June 3, 2014

During the OS X Yosemite portion of its WWDC keynote yesterday, Apple announced a handful of improvements for Safari. Among them was HTML5 video support for Netflix, which according to Apple, will add an extra two hours of video watching on a single battery charge.

Netflix confirmed the news today, saying that its engineers have been "working closely with Apple" to allow Safari to use the Premium Video Extensions. This enables browsers play streaming videos without the need for overweight plug-in programs like Microsoft's Silverlight...

Survey shows Beats deal is increasing Apple’s ‘cool’ among students

Cody Lee ∙ Updated August 30, 2017

Apple didn't make much mention of its $3 billion Beats acquisition at WWDC yesterday, but it didn't really have to. Since the news broke in early May, the storyline has pretty much dominated much of the tech-related news cycle.

And it seems to be having a positive impact on Apple's image. According to a new survey by education technology company Chegg, which involved the polling of 10,000 students, the acquisition will make the iPad-maker more 'cool.'

Apple reportedly solves battery issue with 5.5-inch iPhone 6

Cody Lee ∙ Updated August 30, 2016

In the world of iPhone 6 rumors, the narrative thus far has been that Apple is working on two models: one with a 4.7-inch display and one with a 5.5-inch display. Both would feature similar specs, much like the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini.

Unfortunately, for those wanting the latter model, supply chain chatter has indicated that battery issues may push the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 launch into next year. But according to a new report, Apple has solved the issues and is back on track...

Apple updates its App Store guidelines to allow for virtual currency apps

Cody Lee ∙ June 3, 2014

Good news for iPhone and iPad users that are into cryptocurrencies. Following the unveiling of iOS 8 during Apple's WWDC keynote yesterday, the company has updated its App Store review guidelines with a new section dedicated specifically to virtual currencies.

It seems that after pulling the Bitcoin wallet app Blockchain, and other crypto wallet-related titles from the App Store, Apple has had a change of heart. It's now ready to accept applications that deal in the transmission of virtual currencies—at least to a limited degree...

A breakdown of all the major new features in iOS 8

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Apple just finished up with its huge WWDC keynote, and we're still sorting through the madness. The company introduced a number of new developer tools and two new platforms (HealthKit and HomeKit), as well as new versions of OS X and iOS.

We've covered a lot of the new iOS 8 features individually, but given the sheer amount of things announced today, we thought it'd be helpful to create a roundup of everything you need to know about the update, which will publicly launch this fall...