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.

Apple engineer offers detailed look at development of original iPhone software

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

The Wall Street Journal published an interesting interview with Apple senior software engineer Greg Christie yesterday, in which Christie offers a detailed look at some of the events that led up to the original iPhone. Apparently the Cupertino company gave him permission to discuss the development process of the handset.

Admittedly, a lot of the things mentioned we've heard before—from book excerpts, court testimonies, etc.—but Christie does provide a few new details. For instance, he says at one point Jobs gave him and his team two weeks to come up with something or he would be reassigning the 'iPhone software' project to another group...

Apple looking to add more diversity to emoji character set

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 26, 2018

According to Apple’s VP of worldwide communications Katie Cotton, the company is looking to expand its emoji character set to include emojis that are non-caucasian. The spokeswoman recently provided a statement to MTV Act about the lack of diversity in the 400+ set.

In the statement, Cotton points out that there's a universal lack of diversity in emojis, as the characters are based on the Unicode standard. But apparently Apple is working with the Unicode Consortium to update the standard by adding new, multicultural emoji characters...

Winocm shows off iPad triple-booting iOS 5.1, 6.1.3 and 7.0.6

Cody Lee ∙ March 25, 2014

This is pretty interesting. Hacker winocm has posted a new video of his iPad triple-booting into multiple versions of iOS. The clip shows his hacked tablet booting up and running in iOS 5.1, and then its ability to quickly switch to iOS 6.1.3 and iOS 7.0.6.

Winocm has made quite the name for himself around the jailbreak community as both a hacker and a tinkerer. Last week he posted a video of his jailbroken (untethered) iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1, and don't forget he helped iH8sn0w create p0sixspwn...

HTC launches new ‘One (M8)’ flagship handset

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Following Samsung's unveiling of the Galaxy S5 last month, HTC today introduced its new flagship smartphone: the HTC One (M8). The handset is the direct descendent of the critically-successful HTC One, and it encapsulates the company's latest effort to boost flagging device sales.

The new One is both bigger and faster than its predecessor. While it keeps the same gorgeous all-metal body, the display has been bumped from 4.7 to 5-inches, and the quad-core processor runs at 2.3GHz. It also sports 2GB RAM, an UltraPixel camera, a 2600mAh battery and more...

Apple updates iTunes Movie Trailers with notifications, AirDrop support and more

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 9, 2018

Apple has posted an update for its iTunes Movie Trailers iOS client this afternoon, bringing the app to version 1.4. The app is universal, supporting both the iPhone and iPad, and provides mobile access to trailers reviews and more for new and upcoming films.

Today's update brings about a handful of useful features including the option to be notified when a movie you have marked as a favorite debuts in theaters or pops up in the iTunes Store. You can also now read critic reviews in-app, and share links via AirDrop...

Apple surpasses the 500 million iPhone mark

Cody Lee ∙ March 25, 2014

We're now less than a week away from the end of Apple's current quarter (January-March), and the company is expected to have sold around 38 million iPhones during the three month period. If true, the Cupertino firm has ventured into elite territory.

According to a Forbes report, Apple had sold around 472 million iPhones heading into its Q2 2014. And if its iPhone sales for the quarter come anywhere close to projections, it will mean that the company has [quietly] passed the 500 million iPhone mark...

Winocm shows off untethered iOS 7.1 jailbreak on iPhone 4

Cody Lee ∙ March 20, 2014

Well known hacker and future Apple employee winocm posted a video demonstrating an untethered jailbreak of iOS 7.1 earlier today. The video, which he posted to YouTube, shows off what appears to be an untethered jailbreak on a Verizon iPhone 4.

In a brief tweet, winocm sent out a link to the video with the caption 'iOS 7.1 untethered boot.' Now, details regarding the clip are very scarce right now, but the fact it exists is fueling hope for folks on newer firmware wanting to jailbreak their devices...

Medium launches read-only iPhone app

Cody Lee ∙ March 20, 2014

After somewhat of a brief delay, Medium's app finally landed in the App Store today. It's for the iPhone only, and has a focus on reading and recommending stories. In fact, that's about all it's capable of doing right now, as there's no way to write using the app.

"It’s a simple app because every week, thousands of people come to Medium to write," says Medium's founder Ev Williams in a blog post. "They share their stories, their ideas, their dreams and visions. That’s the hard part. We’re just helping amplify their voices."

Christian Bale reportedly front-runner for Steve Jobs role in Sony’s biopic

Cody Lee ∙ March 20, 2014

Academy Award-winner Christian Bale is said to be the front-runner for the Steve Jobs role in Sony's upcoming biopic about the Apple founder. And if you're a fan of the Cupertino company, or just a fan of good movies in general, this is exciting news.

Bale is highly regarded in Hollywood for his ability to play a wide range of characters—he's done everything from a sociopathic serial killer to the cape crusader—and his commitment to the art. He once dropped 60 pounds in just a few months for a role...

Amazon said to be launching smartphone with 6 cameras soon

Cody Lee ∙ March 20, 2014

With Amazon set to unveil its set-top box next month, the e-commerce giant is approaching full-on Apple competitor. It has the tablets, and the ecosystem, all it needs is a smartphone. And according to a new report, that could be arriving soon as well.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a solid reputation for accurately predicting tech company product plans, says Amazon is preparing to launch its long-awaited handset within the next 3 months. And get this: apparently it'll have 6 cameras...

Starbucks 3.0 is out with new iOS 7 design, shake-to-pay and tipping

Cody Lee ∙ March 20, 2014

That big Starbucks app update we told you about last week has arrived in the App Store today. The update, which brings the client to version 3.o, includes the long-awaited redesign for iOS 7 as well as a handful of major new features and improvements.

On the new features side, we have shake-to-pay, which will allow you to bring up your barcode with the flick of a wrist to pay for your Starbucks order. There's also a new digital tipping function that lets you tip your barista, and a new Dashboard view...