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.

Ryan Petrich releases beta of new FlipControlCenter tweak

Earlier this week, Ryan Petrich showed off a couple of his jailbreak tweak projects he's been working on for iOS 7. One was Display Recorder, a utility that has been around for quite a while, and the other was a new tweak called FlipControlCenter.

For those that missed the clip, FlipControlCenter allows you to customize the Control Center in iOS 7 by adding new toggles to the menu, and rearranging them. And now you can try it yourself because Petrich has released a free beta of the tweak...

Day 3 of Apple’s 12 Days of Gifts: ‘Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2014’ iBook

We are now on day 3 of Apple’s 12 Days of Gifts event, meaning Apple has removed Tiny Thief and has posted a new free item for download. Today's gift is an iBook called "Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2014."

For those unfamiliar with Lonely Planet, it's one of the world’s leading travel guide publishers with guidebooks to almost every destination on the planet. And in this iBook, it highlights 10 of its favorite spots...

Jailbreak developer Elias Limneos teases upcoming Touch ID tweak

Jailbreak developer Elias Limneos—best known for his work on popular tweaks like SBRotator and CallBar—just answered the question a lot of folks have had on their minds since they found out a jailbreak was out for iOS 7 and the iPhone 5s: will there be Touch ID tweaks?

And the answer is yes. Limneos tweeted out a link to a new YouTube video this morning that teases an upcoming tweak for the iPhone 5s. Not much can be gleaned from the short clip, but it looks like it allows you to protect individual apps with Touch ID authentication...

Day 2 of Apple’s 12 Days of Gifts: free episode of ‘Once Upon a Time’ [updated]

We are now on day 2 of Apple's 12 Days of Gifts event, meaning Apple has removed the Justin Timberlake EP and has posted a new free item for download. Today's gift is an episode—the pilot episode—of ABC's hit television series: 'Once Upon a Time.'

For those who haven't seen it, it's an American fairy tale drama that takes place in the fictional town of Storybrooke, Maine, where the residents are actually fairy tale characters. It sounds odd, but it's currently the #1 non-sports show on Sunday nights.

Update: interestingly enough, it looks like Apple changed the free download item mid-day. It now shows the game Tiny Thief here in the US. Get it while you can!

Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission fines Apple $700k over iPhone pricing

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has been fined 20 million New Taiwan dollars, or roughly $670,000 USD, by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission for interfering with mobile service providers and handset distributors' pricing.

The Commission found Apple guilty of violating article 18 of the country's Fair Trade Act after discovering emails from the Cupertino company to Taiwan's three main service providers, telling them how much their iPhones should sell for...

Apple kicks off its ’12 Days of Gifts’ event with Justin Timberlake EP

Christmas may be over now, but that doesn't mean you have to be done getting presents. Apple has kicked off its '12 Days of Gifts' event this morning with a free gift for its faithful users, and will continue to give one each day for the next week and a half.

Today's gift is the iTunes Festival EP from music superstar Justin Timberlake. The album contains 4 live performances from Apple's annual music festival this year, and is free for all users in qualifying areas who have downloaded the 12 Days of Gifts app...

The evad3rs post 2nd letter to the jailbreak community

Following the release of their first update for evasi0n7, the evad3rs have published their second letter to the jailbreak community. The group posted the link to its Twitter account last night, saying that Taig has been removed and that it wanted to address some additional concerns.

The letter essentially covers 3 concerns regarding the app store that originally came bundled with the Chinese version of evasi0n7: privacy, piracy and money. The evad3rs say that Taig has been completely removed from their app, and that they haven't collected any money from them...

A look back at some of Apple’s old Christmas commercials

Apple's been causing a lot of commotion lately with its latest iPhone 5s commercial 'Misunderstood.' The ad, for those who haven't seen it, depicts a teenager with his head buried in his smartphone while the family participates in holiday activities, and has a delightful twist.

But Apple hasn't always been so sentimental around the holidays. In fact, it's been making Christmas-themed spots for over two decades now, and many of them tended to err on the side of humor. Don't believe me? Check out some of these Apple ads from the last 20 years...

Tim Cook said to be working on $4 billion iPad deal with Turkish president

Tim Cook is reportedly scheduled to travel to Turkey next year for the opening of Apple's first retail store in the country. The store is located in the city of Istanbul, in the Zorlu Center, and is expected to open on February 4, 2014.

But according to a new report, that won't be Cook's only order of business for the visit. The CEO is also believed to be meeting with President Abdullah Gül to discuss a potential education iPad deal worth between $3 and $4 billion...

Geohot says ‘nothing sketchy’ found in reversing evasi0n7 jailbreak

It's been an interesting couple of days in the jailbreak world. Not only did the evad3rs surprise everyone with an iOS 7 jailbreak early Sunday morning, but there was all this drama surrounding the release which included a new app store and the resurfacing of Geohot.

After a long break, Geohot's name popped back up this weekend with reports that he was working on his own jailbreak. He obviously didn't get a chance to release it, but he did manage to reverse the evad3r's evasi0n7 app and he says he didn't find anything sketchy...

Sega’s remastered Sonic games on sale for a limited time

Somewhere in the midsts of all of the iOS 7 jailbreak excitement, we forgot to mention that Sega has followed in the footsteps of other game publishers and developers and has placed a number of its popular iOS titles on sale for the holidays.

This includes Sonic, Sonic 2 and Sonic CD—games which have been recently remastered by the talented Christian Whitehead that now feature better graphics and faster frame rates than their originals—as well as a handful of other Sonic titles...

Apple’s ‘Rockstar Consortium’ considering Nortel patent sale

In 2011, Apple teamed up with a number of tech companies including Microsoft and BlackBerry to form what many called the 'Rockstar consortium' to purchase a collection of over 4,000 patents from Nortel, a communications company that went bankrupt in 2009.

Bloomberg is now reporting that the consortium is currently holding discussion regarding a potential sale of a portion of the patents—which it paid in upwards of $4.5 billion for—after several attempts to land large licensing deals from other companies have failed...