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.

AT&T says iPad Air activations up 200% over last year’s launch

While Apple hasn't announced specific figures for the iPad Air's launch weekend yet, most indications are that the tablet is performing well. Supplies began weakening over the weekend, and carriers are seeing healthy sales.

In fact, AT&T just issued a press release this afternoon saying its iPad activations increased more than 200% over the past three days compared to last year’s launch weekend. The reason? Customers are excited for the new Air...

Despite smaller battery, iPad Air still lasts 24-hours as LTE hotspot

As noted by iFixit in its recent teardown, the iPad Air's battery is noticeably smaller than its predecessor (32.9 Whr vs. 43 Whr). But thanks to the efficiency of the A7 chip and other internal mods, it still gets great battery life.

In addition to Apple's usual claim of 10-hours of web-browsing, moving-watching, etc, a weekend test by the folks over at AnandTech shows that the newly-released tablet can still last for more than 24 hours as an LTE hotspot...

Tim Cook urges Congress to approve Employment Nondiscrimination Act in open letter

In a rare occurrence, Tim Cook has spoken out in support of the pending Employment Nondiscrimination Act. The CEO penned an open letter, which ran in the Opinion section of The Wall Street Journal last night, urging Congress to approve the END Act.

The legislation would prohibit a number of civilian, non-religious companies in the US from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. And in his letter, Cook explains that a safe welcoming work environment is good for business...

Henri Lamiraux, Apple’s VP of iOS engineering, has left the company

Henri Lamiraux, Apple's top VP of engineering for the iOS platform has left the company after 23 years. Lamiraux started as a Mac software engineer in the early 90's, and joined Scott Forstall's iPhone OS team in 2005.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Henri's reason for leaving is simply 'retirement.' But his talents will surely be missed, as he was in charge of a number of important aspects in iOS such as developing the stock applications...

Netflix begins testing 4K videos, plans to launch in 2014

During a recent quarterly earnings call, Netflix's Reed Hastings spoke about his ambitious plans for the company's future. The CEO hopes the streaming service will be "one of the big suppliers" of 4K (or Ultra HD) video by next year.

And this weekend it began testing the waters. GigaOM noticed that Netflix recently added a handful of 4K HD videos to its catalog. It's mostly test footage—people riding bicycles, etc.—but it gives you a good idea of what to expect...

Flipboard gets iOS 7 makeover, new text settings, and more in 2.1 update

Flipboard fans will be happy to hear that the app finally got its proper iOS 7 update, bringing the client to version 2.1. The update brings about a 'fresh, modern look and feel,' in-line with Apple's recent firmware release, and several other improvements.

Among them are speed and performance enhancements across all devices, meaning the app should feel noticeably faster on your iPhone and iPad. There's also a new feature that allows you to change text size, on-screen alerts for new feed items, and more...

Boost Mobile to begin selling iPhone 5s and 5c on November 8 at $100 off retail

Back in October, Sprint prepaid subsidiary Boost Mobile announced that it would begin offering the iPhone 5s and 5c on November 8. And with the launch date drawing closer, the carrier has issued a press release with further details.

This will be the first time that Boost has offered the popular smartphone, and it's celebrating the occasion by taking $100 of each of the handsets. So you can get an iPhone 5c, sans contract, for as low as $449, and a 5s as low as $549...

iPad Air shipping times begin to slip

It's been just 24 hours since the iPad Air launched, and already supplies are starting to weaken. Space gray seems to be the most popular color, as shipping estimates for 16GB and 128GB models have slipped to 5-10 days in several countries.

Even here in the US, shipping times have begun to slip. The T-Mobile variant of the space gray 128GB Air is showing that it ships in 5-10 days, and ship dates for nearly all other models of the tablet have gone from November 4 to November 6...

And so it begins: first ads begin showing up on Instagram

Instagram officially launched its advertising platform today, putting an end to its 3+ year-long ad-free streak. A 'sponsored post' from upscale fashion brand Michael Kors has begun appearing in user timelines.

But it's not like we didn't know this was coming. The launch comes just a week after the social network offered up a preview of what ads were going to look like on Instagram, and after months of several warnings...

Mavericks detects motion via light sensor to prevent system sleep

Concerned Mac users took to Twitter this morning following the revelation of a chunk of code found in OS X Mavericks update that resets idle time when the computer detects motion. They feared this meant the iSight camera is 'always watching.'

But as it turns out, that's not the case at all. The code, which was first spotted by Moshen Chen of Radiantlabs, actually makes clever use of the light sensor positioned to the left of the iSight camera by interpreting "changes in light" as movement...

iFixit gives iPad Air the teardown treatment

The iPad Air launched online and in retail stores around the globe this morning, and like clockwork, the folks over at iFixit have already ripped it apart. The teardown gives us a closeup look at the components inside the tablet.

And this is particularly interesting this year, as Apple has completely redesigned the 5th gen iPad to be thinner, lighter and more powerful than its predecessor. You'll find photos of its A7 chip, 5mp camera and more after the fold...