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.

Resizable simulator in Xcode 6 hints at new iPhone screen sizes

Cody Lee ∙ June 2, 2014

Let the digging commence! Apple just released iOS 8 and Xcode 6 betas a few moments ago, and folks have already begun to search them for clues to future products. And those efforts have just yielded some results by the way of a new feature in Xcode Simulator.

As noted by Chicago Sun-Times tech columnist Andy Ihnatko, Xcode includes 'resizable iPhone and iPad simulators.' This seems to reaffirm the rumors that have been floating around for the past 6 months that Apple is working on an iPhone with a larger display...

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Apple introduces new iCloud storage tiers

Cody Lee ∙ June 2, 2014

In addition to all of the other big announcements Apple made during its WWDC keynote today, the company unveiled some significant iCloud changes. The service now has a Dropbox-like front end called iCloud Drive that allows you to access your files across all of your devices.

And that's not all. Apple also announced some much needed new storage tiers for iCloud that will allow you to store more things in the cloud, for cheaper. Unfortunately, the free tier stays the same at 5GB, but users can now get 20GB of iCloud storage for just $0.99 per month...

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Public OS X Yosemite beta only open to first one million applicants

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Non-developers wanting to try out the new OS X 10.10 Yosemite before it launches this fall will be happy to know that Apple is opening up the beta to the public via its AppleSeed Seeding program. That's the good news, that bad news is that only the first 1 million applicants will get access.

If you haven't already, hurry over to Apple's AppleSeed registration page and enter your iTunes credentials to sign up. As you can imagine, Apple's servers are getting slammed right now, so the pages are loading very slowly. But if you wait for them to speed up, you might just miss out!

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Apple posts ‘Apps We Can’t Live Without’ video from WWDC

Cody Lee ∙ June 2, 2014

Apple opened up this morning's WWDC keynote with a video about developers and the apps they make for Apple's devices. Unsurprisingly, the clip was well-done and paid tribute to the strong app ecosystem developers have helped build for Mac and iOS.

For those that missed the presentation, Apple just posted the clip to its YouTube channel. It's called 'Apps We Can't Live Without,' and it highlights a number of apps that are being used in various fields and professions. And we've got it for you after the fold...

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iOS 8 adds always-on ‘Hey, Siri’ feature, Shazam integration

Cody Lee ∙ June 2, 2014

Adding to the long list of new features in iOS 8 is a handful of Siri improvements. The digital assistant didn't get a ton of stage time, but iOS/OS X chief Craig Federighi did take a moment to run down some of its new capabilities.

In iOS 8, Siri will be able to handle dictation—where you talk, it types—in 22 new languages (not sure which ones yet, but will obviously be available on Apple.com soon), and will feature Shazam ID technology for identifying songs...

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Apple introduces ‘HomeKit’ smart home platform

Cody Lee ∙ June 2, 2014

As expected, Apple has announced a new platform for smart home accessories called HomeKit. The new API, which will launch with iOS 8, will make it easier for smart accessories to allow their devices to be controlled by iPhones, as well as Siri.

This will allow users to control HomeKit-certified smart appliances, such as garage doors, lights and security cameras, by simply speaking a command. Imagine saying 'get ready for bed,' and watching all of your [smart] doors lock and lights turn off...

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iOS 8 brings widgets to Notification Center

Cody Lee ∙ June 2, 2014

Moving along with Apple's iOS 8 portion of its WWDC keynote, Craig Federighi just introduced widgets. Like the stock widgets we've seen before, iOS 8's widgets will appear in the Notification Center and offer quick information for apps at a glance...

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Apple unveils new ‘Health’ app for iOS 8

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

As several reports predicted, Apple is getting into the Healthcare industry with iOS 8 by introducing a new app called 'Health.' Health provides an easy-to-access hub where iPhone owners can store and monitor important fitness and health-related metrics.

As explained by Craig Federighi, this is a huge improvement over the current situation, where this kind of information is spread across multiple apps and services. And of course, Apple also introduced HealthKit for developers, which means 3rd-party integration...

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OS X Yosemite developer preview will be available today

Cody Lee ∙ June 2, 2014

Folks excited to checkout all of the new features in OS X Yosemite will be happy to hear that a developer preview will be available today, for free [obviously]. It sounds like it's going to be available for all registered developers at first, and eventually hit Apple's recently launched public beta program. As usual, we'll let you know as soon as the download is available.

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Apple introduces ‘MailDrop’ for sending large files via email

Cody Lee ∙ June 2, 2014

Continuing on with its rundown of OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Apple's Craig Federighi just introduced MailDrop. The new feature addresses a "fundamental problem with email" by allowing users to send large files over email, via iCloud.

As it sits now, users get the error 'Cannot send message using the server Mail' when they go to send larger hi-resolution images or HD video via the Mail app in OS X. But MailDrop fixes this by allowing you to send files via iCloud...

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Tim Cook kicks off WWDC keynote with usual run of Apple stats

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 6, 2014

The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here. After months of rumors, reports and speculation, Apple's WWDC keynote has finally begun and we are now moments away from finding out what the future looks like for the company's OS X and iOS platforms.

As usual, CEO Tim Cook has taken the stage to kick things off with a barrage of figures and other updates regarding Apple’s performance over the past year. And as usual we've collected some of the more interesting stats and listed them for you right after the break...

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