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.

Tempo Smart Calendar updated with Mailbox support and other new features

In some ways, Mailbox and Tempo Smart Calendar are very similar. They're both sold as 'new takes' on old ideas and they both used waiting lists when they launched in the spring of this year. So it's fitting that the two are getting friendlier.

Tempo Smart Calendar received a significant update today, bringing the young app to version 1.08. And the new version brings about, among other things, the ability to index and search your Archived email folders in both Gmail and Mailbox...

Eric Schmidt: Apple and Google relationship improving

Last year, the war between Apple and Google reached epic proportions. Not only were the two squaring off in the mobile platform space, and in the courtroom, but Apple actually booted Google's YouTube and Maps apps off the pre-installed list in iOS.

But things are calming down between the two tech titans, according to Google's Eric Schmidt. The executive chairman had nothing but nice things to say about the iPad-maker, telling reporters at the Sun Valley retreat that he "has a lot of respect for Apple..."

Despite anti-iPad campaign, Microsoft forced to lower Surface price

In an effort to spur struggling slate sales, Microsoft launched a TV ad campaign aimed squarely at the iPad. The strategy, which has spawned four commercials since May, focuses on highlighting the flaws in Apple's popular tablet in comparison with the Surface.

But despite the agressive campaign, Microsoft still seems to be having trouble selling tablets. According to a new report, the Redmond company is planning to drop the price of all Surface RT models by $150 later this month—a move in response to lackluster sales...

Infinity Blade Dungeons game officially canceled

Last March, Epic Games president Mike Capps took the stage at Apple's iPad 3 event to show off Infinity Blade Dungeons, the studio's third iteration in the popular series. And true to its predecessors, the game looked stunning—especially on the iPad's new Retina display.

At first sight, Dungeons had the makings of a hit. But then came the disappointment. After several months of silence, Epic announced last fall that the game would be delayed until 2013. Then it was put on hold. And now it sounds like the whole thing's been scrubbed...

Apple investigating claims of illegal tin mining

Apple updated its supplier page late last night, saying that it has decided to head up a "fact-finding visit" to Bangka Island, Indonesia to address concerns on whether or not its suppliers are sourcing tin from unregulated and illegal mines.

Bangka Island is one of the world’s premier tin-producing regions. But the area has also been linked to illegal tin mines that are, among other things, responsible for the destruction of tropical forests, coral reefs and fishermen’s livelihoods...

Sprint introduces new unlimited plans with lifetime guarantee

It's been a busy week for the folks over at Sprint. Not only did the carrier rebrand itself as the Sprint Corporation, and complete its buyout deal with SoftBank, but today it announced two new rate plans that include unlimited talk, text and data.

While the unlimited data itself is notable—few carriers still offer this—the real highlight of the plans is the lifetime guarantee. That's right, in a world where the rules seem to change every other year, Sprint is promising unlimited everything, forever...

Pebble announces it’s surpassed 275,000 watch pre-orders

Folks still skeptical on whether or not there's a real market for smartwatches should checkout Pebble's latest blog post. The company says they've received over 190,000 smartwatch pre-orders since their Kickstarter project ended last year, giving them 275,000 total.

Even if you do that math at $99 a pop—which was just a limited time early bird special price—that amounts to over $27 million. Not bad for a year's work...

Beautiful calendar app Cal by Any.do lands on iOS

Tired of the stock Calendar app in iOS 6? Can't wait for iOS 7 to launch this fall to change things up? Well lucky for you, there are a number of Calendar alternatives available in the App Store: Tempo, Donna, Calendars+ and Fantastical, to name a few.

And today, we're adding a new one to the stack that has been causing quite a commotion in the tech world today. It's developed by Any.do—the same team behind the award-winning task list—and it's called Cal, a simple, beautiful calendar for iPhone...

SoundTracking app receives major update with hashtags, song requests and more

SoundTracking, the popular social network for sharing and discovering new music, has posted a significant update to its iOS app this morning. The update, which brings the client to version 3.3.0, includes a number of new features and improvements.

Among the app's new features is hashtag support—users can now add hashtags to their posts or comments to participate in a trending topic. And with song requests and dedications, users can now ask friends what they're listening to, and send them songs...

Microsoft reorganizes as Nokia unveils new 41MP phone

Seemingly taking a page from Apple's playbook, Microsoft announced a major reorganization this morning. It's calling the move 'One Microsoft,' as it looks to rally behind a single strategy as one company, instead of a collection of separate divisional strategies.

The company says that moving forward, it will continue to release new devices and services. And this new approach will allow it to innovate with greater speed, efficiency and capability in a "fast-changing world," while helping them execute better than ever...

More photos of alleged plastic iPhone shells surface

Continuing the recent flurry of alleged 'budget iPhone' shell leaks, a new set of high resolution photos of the purported part have surfaced online this morning. There's several photos actually, showing various different plastic iPhone casings in newer iPod-like colors.

For those who haven't been following the storyline, there have been a number of reports over the past several months that Apple's long-rumored, low-end iPhone is finally going to materialize this year. And the theory seems to be corroborated by several recent part leaks...

IFTTT brings its powerful automation service to the iPhone

IFTTT has been around for a while now—since 2010. The acronym stands for 'If This Then That,' which does a great job of summarizing what it does: allows users to create automation Recipes for various services using a Trigger (this) and an Action (that).

Services like Instagram and Dropbox are known as 'Channels,' and there are different Triggers and Actions associated with each. It's a cool idea, but the only way to set up these Recipes through IFTTT was via a web browser. That, however, changes today...