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.

T-Mobile ending ‘no money down’ promotion for iPhone 4S,5

If you were planning to pickup an iPhone 4S or 5 on T-Mobile anytime soon, you better act fast. According to a new report, the carrier is ending its popular '$0 down' promotion on the two handsets that it just started in late July.

The deal, which is said to be ending tomorrow for the aforementioned models, allowed new T-Mobile subscribers to purchase an iPhone with no downpayment, and monthly payments of around $25 until the phone was paid for...

President Obama outlines four government surveillance reform initiatives

Following a series of meetings with tech executives a government leaders this week, President Obama held a press conference this morning to describe his plan to assuage concerns among Americans and foreigners regarding the legality of US surveillance activities.

During his speech, the President said that the surveillance programs in use by government agencies right now are "operating in a way that prevents abuse." But the question for his administration, he posed, is how does it make "American people more comfortable?"

So he outlined the following four initiatives...

Apple wins ITC ban on Samsung products

Apple picked up another major victory in its ongoing patent battle with Samsung this afternoon. The International Trade Commission has just handed down a decision in the company's case against Samsung, finding the Korean tech giant guilty of infringement.

The final ruling on the complaint, which Apple first lodged in July 2011, finds several Samsung products guilty of infringing on two of Apple's patents. An import ban has been ordered on those products, and will take effect at the end of the 60-day Presidential review period...

Best Buy offering iPhone discounts, double trade-in value this weekend

The only thing better than scoring a cool gadget is scoring a cool gadget at a discount. So of course we just had to pass along this information regarding some hot deals that Best Buy will be running this weekend for smartphones and tablets.

As noted by CNET, starting today, the electronics retailer will be offering double the trade-in value on mobile devices for folks purchasing a smartphone from one of the 3 major carriers. Additionally, it's also taking $100 off select iPhone models...

New photos of iPad 5 front panel surface, again show thinner bezels

Back in January of this year, iLounge's Jeremy Horwitz claimed to have seen a physical model of the fifth generation iPad. He said it was "a lot smaller than one would guess was possible" with "virtually no left or right bezels."

Since then, all of the reports and part leaks we've seen have corroborated Horwitz' description. We've seen rear shells of the tablet—more than once—and a few cases, and today we have new pictures of a black front panel...

President Obama meets with Tim Cook and other tech execs to talk surveillance

According to a report from Politico, President Barack Obama met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and a number of other tech executives yesterday for a closed-door discussion on government surveillance. The site says this was the second meeting of its kind this week.

Cook was joined by the likes of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google's chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf, and Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn, to talk about various surveillance strategies and tother topics such as the recent NSA PRISM program scandal...

Gorgeous Rise Alarm Clock goes free as App Store’s App of the Week

Folks unhappy with Apple's stock alarm clock feature may want to check out the beautiful Rise Alarm Clock app by Kellen Styler. Not only is it one of the best-looking third-party alarm clock apps out there, but it's also free for a limited time.

Apple has named Rise its App of the Week, something it does every week for paid apps it believes deserve to be featured in front of millions of eyeballs. And after downloading the app for myself, it's not surprising that they picked this one...

T-Mobile sold 900K iPhones, 600K Galaxy S4s last quarter

Last night, T-Mobile announced its financials for its second quarter, and the numbers were fantastic. The carrier added more than 1 million new subscribers, and sold over 4 million smartphones during the 3-month period.

In the press release, the company wouldn't say how many of those 4 million phones were iPhones, only that the handset made up about 29% of their sales. During the conference call, though, it was much more forthcoming...

Apple’s Board of Directors reportedly pressuring Tim Cook to innovate

Looking at headlines produced by the Apple rumor mill over the past several months, there's no way you could accuse it of not innovating. We've seen reports that the company is working on everything from an advanced smart watch, to a cloud-based DVR, and everything in between.

But looking at the shelves in Apple's retail stores tells a different story. The Mac-maker hasn't released a new version of its iPhone or iPad—its two best-sellers—in nearly a year, and it hasn't introduced an all-new product since 2010. And apparently, Apple's Board is getting concerned...

New KeyMe app allows you to store, share and duplicate physical keys

We've all been there, right? You get home from a long day of work or school, walk up to your front door, reach in your pockets and—you can't find your keys. After some quick backtracking, you realize that they're inside, on the kitchen counter, and you're locked out. What do you do?

Well unless you have a spare hidden in a fake rock or under the doormat, the first step is calling anyone who has or might have a house key. But if that doesn't work, and breaking a window isn't an option, the next step is a $200 call to your local locksmith. That is, unless you have KeyMe...

Rdio update brings Pandora-style personalized radio stations

Adaptive Internet radio is all the rage these days for streaming music service subscribers. At least, that's what you'd think looking at the top players. The feature, which was popularized by Pandora, can be found in Apple's iTunes Radio, Spotify, and now Rdio.

Rdio updated its apps today with a number of improvements, including enhanced Stations, tweaked UI, and more importantly, a new feature called 'You FM' that allows you to listen to personalized radio stations based on your favorite and pertinent tracks...

Apple rolls out Movies in the Cloud to Japan, Italy and more

Apple has rolled out movie support for its iTunes in the Cloud service to a number of new countries this morning. The list features Japan and seven additional European countries including Italy, Lithuania, Austria and Spain.

For those unfamiliar with the service, it allows you to stream and re-download previously purchased iTunes content on all of your registered iOS devices. It's available for all content, but today's rollout is restricted to movies...