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 now offering refurbished 16GB iPad minis for $299

Folks thinking about buying an iPad mini, but just can't get over the tablet's exorbitant $330+ price tag, will be happy to hear that you can now get one for less than $300 from Apple's web store.

The company began offering a handful of refurbished iPad mini models, alongside fourth-gen iPads, earlier this month. And they've just added black and white 16GB Wi-Fi-only models to the mix...

Google+ updated with photo filters, new profile design and more

Google has rolled out a significant update for its iOS Google+ client today. The app, which is now in version 4.3, received a number of improvements, including new photo editing features and redesigned profiles.

The new photo editing features are probably the most welcomed addition, and come courtesy of Google's recently acquired Snapseed application. You can now add filters to, crop and rotate, your photos on the fly...

Teach your Lock screen a few new tricks with Grabber Enhancer

In iOS 5.1, Apple revamped the Lock screen Camera shortcut so that users could access the app with a single swipe. The icon, commonly referred to as the camera grabber, has been very popular with jailbreak developers.

We've seen a lot of tweaks involving the icon over the months, and today, we're adding another one to the list. Introducing Grabber Enhancer, a recently-released Cydia package that adds functionality to the camera grabber...

Apple acquires indoor GPS company WiFiSLAM for $20 million

Big news out of Cupertino this evening. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has acquired indoor mobile location positioning firm WiFiSLAM, in a deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million.

Apple has confirmed the acquisition of the company, which possesses proprietary technology that allows mobile apps to detect a smartphone user's location inside of buildings using preexisting ambient Wi-Fi signals...

Make notification banners stick around with Sticky Icky

Folks who dislike the fact that iOS automatically dismisses notification banners after just a few seconds will be happy to hear that there is a jailbreak tweak out that makes them much more permanent.

Sticky Icky, written by developer Aleksander Azizi, lives up to its name by pinning new notification banners to the top of your iOS device's screen, and keeping them there until you manually close them...

AnyReminder brings ‘Remind Me Later’ feature to Mail, Messages and more

In iOS 6, Apple introduced a handy new feature called Remind Me Later. It allows you, among other things, to set a time or location-based reminder when declining phone and FaceTime calls, so you don't forget to return them.

But what if you wanted to set similar reminders when declining messages or other notifications? Unfortunately, you can't. Apple has limited the feature to just the Phone app. Which is why, ladies and gentlemen, we jailbreak...

Apple fixes iForgot security hole that compromised Apple ID passwords

That was fast. Earlier today, Christian told you that a major security hole had been discovered involving Apple's iForgot page that allowed someone to reset your Apple ID password with just your birthdate and email address.

Unsurprisingly, Apple immediately took the password page down after getting word of the vulnerability. And after just a few hours of 'maintenance,' the page is back up and—we're happy to report—once again safe to use...

How to enable Apple two-step verification

Back in 2013, a Strategy Analytics report came out that showed iCloud as the top cloud media service in the US. People use it to store things like music and videos, but they also use it to store more personal stuff like contacts, photos and other data.

So you can see why users were relieved to hear that Apple beefed up its account security by adding a two-step verification option. And for those having trouble getting it setup, we've put together this easy-to-follow tutorial.

Apple adds ‘in-app purchase’ warning to freemium apps

Apple today has added a new 'Offers In-App Purchases' warning in the description of App Store apps that utilize the feature. The new disclosure can be seen in the App Store, located just beneath the Buy/Free button of pertinent applications.

The move comes amidst multiple reports of children running up monster iTunes bills, unbeknownst to their parents, via in-app purchases. Earlier this month, a young boy from the UK racked up $1,300 in charges buying virtual donuts...

Alleged iPhone 5S Home button and vibrator parts surface

Part leaks for Apple's next-generation smartphone, rumored to be the iPhone 5S, have thus far been hard to come by. Back in January a purported speaker assembly for future iPhones popped up, but that's been pretty much the gist of it.

Until today, that is. A Japanese electronics parts vendor claims to have gotten its hands on a couple of 5S components. The first is a Home button, which looks a bit different from its predecessor. And the second appears to be a vibrator...

Google said to be working on its own smartwatch

A year ago, the smartwatch space didn't really exist. I mean it did, but it consisted of just a handful of lackluster products from the likes of Sony and Motorola. But if rumors are true, it'll serve as the next battlefield for the 3 biggest names in tech.

Hot on the heels of reports that both Apple and Samsung are hard at work developing smartphone-connected wristwatches comes a new one from The Financial Times claiming that Google's Android unit is working on a smartwatch of its own...

Mailbox fills 1 million reservations, releases ‘shake to undo’ update

The folks at Mailbox have had a pretty good week. Not only were they acquired by Dropbox—to the tune of what some are reporting to be $100 million in cash and stock—last Friday, but they just filled their 1 millionth reservation.

To celebrate, the team has released the first update for the popular email client since it was released to the public back in February. The update brings the app to version 1.1, and includes a new 'shake to undo' feature, and more...