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 reportedly targeting fall launch for new 12-inch iPad

Cody Lee ∙ Updated December 26, 2016

The 12-inch iPad is real, in the opinion of Evercore's Patrick Wang, and it's going to hit the market sometime this fall. The analyst published a research note yesterday claiming that his supply chain sources have confirmed the existence of the larger tablet.

According to Wang's sources, Apple is looking to launch the 12-inch iPad in the second half of this year. The "hybrid" device will be targeted at enterprise users and likely feature a new (possibly quad-core) A8 processor, increased storage and other upgrades...

BlackBerry going after Ryan Seacrest’s ‘Typo’ keyboard for patent infringement

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Last month, we told you about an interesting new accessory coming out this year for the iPhone called the 'Typo.' It's a case with a built-in Bluetooth keyboard that bills itself as the perfect solution for the folks who still carry both an iPhone and a BlackBerry.

Well, as you can imagine, this hasn't sat well with BlackBerry. And today the Canadian handset-maker announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Typo, co-founded by TV personality Ryan Seacrest, for "blatantly" copying its iconic QWERTY keyboard design...

Day 9 of Apple’s 12 Days of Gifts: Kings of Leon EP

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 20, 2018

We are now on day 9 of the big 12 Days of Gifts event, meaning Apple has removed the Diary of a Wimpy iBook and has posted a new free item for download. Today’s gift is an EP (or extended play) from the American rock band Kings of Leon.

The band is widely popular in the UK, and more recently the US, taking home 3 Grammy Awards in 2010 thanks to hits like 'Use Somebody.' And today's free EP includes some of those hits, which it played at Apple's iTunes Festival this year...

CES Scavenger Hunt to utilize Apple’s new iBeacon tech

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

The Consumer Electronics Association has announced that next week's CES will feature a promotional scavenger hunt featuring Apple's new iBeacon technology. The group issued a press release last night explaining how it's utilizing the tech.

Attendees will use the CES Mobile apps to explore various areas of the conference, and collect badges for each iBeacon they encounter. And the first 3 to collect all of the badges will be rewarded with prizes such as tablets and other gadgets...

TetherMe jailbreak tweak updated with iOS 7, ARM64 support

Cody Lee ∙ January 2, 2014

Good news this afternoon for jailbreakers: another popular tweak has been updated to support iOS 7 and A7 processors. That tweak is called TetherMe, and it allows you to—you guessed it—tether your cellular iOS device to a non-cellular device.

Though it's not mentioned nearly as often as MyWi, its functions are very similar and it's much less expensive. Users can choose to share their iPhone's Internet access with other devices over USB, Bluetooth, or via your standard Wi-Fi hotspot...

Apple says new Mac Pro uses 68% less energy than previous generation

Cody Lee ∙ January 2, 2014

We all know that Apple's new Mac Pro is smaller than its predecessor, and in most instances more powerful, but did you know that it's also far more green as well? The Cupertino company released an Environmental Report today on its latest desktop saying just that.

According to the report, the new Mac Pro uses less than half of the allowed energy limit under Energy Star requirements, thanks to its various power-efficient components. And it also requires 68% less power than the previous-generation Mac Pro while in idle mode...

Readdle’s ‘Scanner Pro’ goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Cody Lee ∙ January 2, 2014

Apple has named Readdle's popular 'Scanner Pro' its App of the Week for this week. This means that through next Thursday, you’ll be able to pick up the application for both your iPhone and iPad, for free—a sizable savings of $7.

For those unfamiliar with the app, Scanner Pro essentially turns your iOS device into a portable scanner. It can scan documents, receipts, notes, photos, and more, and then upload them to Dropbox, Evernote, and other web services...

TweetDeck for Mac updated with Direct Message photos and more

Cody Lee ∙ January 2, 2014

Fans of the popular Twitter client TweetDeck will happy to hear that they've posted a new version of their Mac app today. The update, which brings the app to version 3.5.5 includes a handful of new features and bug fixes.

With version 3.5.5, users are now able to take advantage of Twitter's new Direct Message photo service, which allows you to send and receive photos via DM. The update also adds some custom Timeline options, and more...

Filippo Bigarella gives status update on Springtomize 3

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Now that we're able to jailbreak our iOS 7 devices, and MobileSubstrate has been fixed, the next question on everyone's mind is when will the major tweaks start getting updated? A few, like iFile already have, but we're still waiting on a lot of them.

The good news is, we just received a status update on Filippo Bigarella's upcoming Springtomize tweak. The developer says that he's completely rewriting the popular utility for its third iteration, and at this point he believes he's over halfway done...

Day 8 of Apple’s 12 Days of Gifts: ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ iBook

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 20, 2018

We are now on day 8 of the big 12 Days of Gifts event, meaning Apple has removed Rayman Jungle Run and has posted a new free item for download. Today’s gift is the iBook: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.

For those unfamiliar with Diary of a Wimpy Kid, it started out as a web comic in the early 2000's and has since branched out into a wildly popular franchise with books, movies and more. This is book #1 in the series...

p0sixspwn updated with fixes for iMessage, LTE and Apple TV 2 support

Cody Lee ∙ December 31, 2013

For those that missed it this morning, p0sixspwn was updated to fix a few major bugs from the previous release. The untethered jailbreak, released for devices on iOS 6.1.3-6.1.5 by winocm and iH8Sn0w, should no longer create issues with iMessage or LTE.

Interestingly enough, the update also adds support for the Apple TV 2 (still no Apple TV 3). So while I don't think you can use it to directly jailbreak the set-top box, it shouldn't be too long before a utility like Seas0nPass takes advantage of the new capability...

Apple denies knowledge of NSA’s iPhone program

Cody Lee ∙ December 31, 2013

Yesterday, a trove of secret documents was released regarding the NSA and its ongoing spying on citizens both abroad and here in the US. One of the programs mentioned, called DROPOUTJEEP, is particularly scary as it can give the Agency complete control of any iPhone.

These are some pretty serious allegations made against the NSA and maybe more-so Apple, who either has several unknown security holes in its mobile OS or is consciously giving the NSA access. Well the company just responded to these claims, and it appears to be the former...