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.

MLB installing thousands of iBeacons in ballparks for next season

According to a new report, Major League Baseball will begin rolling out thousands of iBeacons in ballparks around the country next week. The organization is looking to outfit 20 parks with around 100 iBeacons each by Opening Day, in March.

If you've been keeping tabs on Apple's iBeacon project, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The MLB was one of the first names attached to the geolocation technology—it demonstrated the tech last fall, and promised a widespread rollout...

Apple seeds fourth OS X 10.9.2 beta to developers

Apple has seeded the fourth OS X 10.9.2 beta to registered Mac developers this evening. The release comes just one week after the third beta, suggesting Apple is honing in on a final version.

The new build is available to registered Mac developers through the Software Update tab in the Mac App Store, or as a full download via the Mac section of Apple’s online developer portal…

Zynga acquires Clumsy Ninja developer NaturalMotion for $527 million

Zynga has reached a deal to acquire NaturalMotion, the UK-based gaming company behind Clumsy Ninja and other titles, for half a billion dollars. The announcement came this afternoon, alongside the sad news that Zynga would be laying off 15% of its work force.

The deal is interesting for a few reasons. The first is the price tag: $527 million in cash and Zynga stock. That makes this the company's largest acquisition to date—more than twice its OMGPOP buyout. And two, it signals a change of direction for the game-maker...

Job listings suggest Apple’s working on new iPod product

During the latest Apple earnings call, CEO Tim Cook commented that his team has known for a while that the iPod is a declining business. Sales for the nearly 15-year-old product line have essentially been on the decline since 2008.

As you can imagine, this coupled with the fact that the iPod line hasn't received any major updates since 2012, has led to speculation that the mp3 player is on its way out. But a few recently-discovered Apple job listings suggest otherwise...

WordPress app updated with exclusive iOS 7 support, new design and more

Wordpress has posted an update for its iOS client today, bringing the app to version 3.9. The update should please users of the blogging service, as it brings about a number of improvements including a new, simpler user interface and exclusive iOS 7 support.

The new UI can be seen all around the app, from the enhanced login screen and notifications, to the streamlined tab menu. The editing for posts and pages has also been redesigned, and you'll notice comments, alerts and Reader have all received some TLC...

Nintendo confirms it’s working on mobile ‘service’ apps

It's been an interesting week regarding Nintendo news and its plans for the mobile market. With the company expected to report its second straight year of profit loss, and its hardware sales tanking, pundits are hoping to see it enter the mobile space.

Earlier this week, a report from Japan's Nikkei claimed that Nintendo was working on 'mini games' for mobile devices. The company has since denied the rumor, but during a strategy briefing earlier today, it confirmed it is working on mobile apps...

Sunrise Calendar receives security update following backlash

One of our favorite calendar apps, Sunrise Calendar, received a minor but important update today. The app has been reworked to no longer send your Apple credentials—for those who use iCloud Calendar—to their third-party servers.

The update follows a spell of user backlash, spearheaded by a handful of prominent iOS developers who criticized the app for requiring users to offer up their Apple IDs and passwords and then sending them to non-Apple servers...

Springtomize 3 updated with several bug fixes, improvements and new features

On the latest episode of Let's Talk Jailbreak, we discussed our love/hate relationship with the new Springtomize 3 jailbreak tweak. We love all of the customizable options it provides, but we hate a lot of the tiny bugs that came with it.

Well, I'm happy to report that Filippo Bigarella has posted a big update for Springtomize 3 and it appears to squash a lot of these bugs. It also offers other improvements, as well as new features, including no more required re-spring...

Apple pushing to open Arizona sapphire plant to start producing ‘critical’ component

By now, most of you have probably heard that Apple has teamed up with manufacturing partner GT Advanced Technologies to open up a plant in Mesa, Arizona for producing sapphire. The plant is nearly ready to open, and Apple has already begun hiring engineers.

Up until now, though, little has been known about what kind of parts this sapphire factory would be producing. But some new documents just surfaced that may help fill in the blanks. Apparently, Apple is going to use the plant to produce a new 'critical' component...

Google selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.9 billion

Well this is an interesting turn of events. It appears that Google has decided to sell its Motorola Mobility arm to electronics giant Lenovo for $2.91 billion. The deal is said to include the entire Motorola division and some 10,000 of its 17,000 patents.

If the deal gets approved, Google would be selling Motorola for far less than the $12.5 billion it paid for it back in 2011. It looks like it's holding on to some of Motorola's IP though, and retaining licenses to its other patents, so it wouldn't be a total loss...

Bug in iCloud web portal hints at future Bookmarks support

It's been discovered today that an error on Apple's iCloud web portal displays a "Coming Soon" message for iCloud Bookmarks, suggesting that the feature may soon be available on the website. This would allow users to remotely access their bookmarks using virtually any browser.

The page, which you can see in the screenshot above, appears briefly when visiting this URL from your computer. It was originally accessed by installing the Chrome extension for the iCloud Control Panel for Windows on a PC, and so far, no one is quite sure what to make of it...

Good deal: 75% off this pocket-sized USB battery pack

One of the most popular tech gifts and/or stock stuffers, this past holiday season was the portable USB charger. I know I included one in my Holiday gift guide, simply because they're small enough to take with you when you're on the go and very convenient.

But for those of you who didn't score a new portable USB charger this Christmas, you may be interested to know that Stack Social is running a deal on the Keychain Power Bank. For a limited time, you can grab the 2600mAh battery pack for less than $15...