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.

Teardown reveals Apple’s Lightning Digital AV Adapter contains tiny computer

This is kind of interesting. The folks over at Panic, the Oregon-based software company behind Mac apps like Coda and Transmit, were doing some digging around in Apple's Lightning Digital AV Adapter, and discovered it contains a tiny computer.

Now, we know Apple has a penchant for embedding authentication chips and such in its cables, as a way of controlling third party iOS accessories. But this is completely different. The Adapter has a built-in ARM SoC, 256MB of RAM and runs an OS...

AT&T attacks T-Mobile in newspaper ad ahead of expected service changes

Back in January, T-Mobile (USA) CEO John Leger called AT&T's network "crap" during the carrier's CES keynote, rhetorically asking the audience "Does anyone use AT&T in New York City? Is anyone satisfied with their service?"

AT&T didn't take too kindly to Leger's comments, and now, 2 months later, it has fired back with a new print ad that started hitting The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and several other major publications yesterday...

Apple executives required to hold 3x base salary in AAPL stock

If you wanted to make sure that your business' executive team was deeply committed to making it thrive, it'd probably be a good idea to make sure they held a lot of company stock. That way, their livelihoods directly depended on its success.

And that's exactly the way it works at Apple. The company has amended its corporate bylaws to require that executive officers hold three times their annual (base) salary in AAPL stock, and it's even higher for Tim Cook and his board of directors...

AutoResponder 2 for iOS is out, 50% off for a limited time

If you've been jailbreaking for a while, chances are you've heard of AutoResponder. The tweak allows you to set up an auto-reply for your text messages, sending a pre-generated reply to anyone who messages you.

Well good news for folks who love the tweak, and even better news for those that want to try it. It was updated this week, released as AutoResponder 2, with support for iOS 6. And for a limited time, it's 50% off...

Planetbeing releases Signal 2, a Cydia app that maps out nearby cell towers

Planetbeing, known best for his work on the new evasi0n jailbreak, is also a developer of apps and tweaks. He helped write the popular IntelliScreenX tweak, and has an app called Signal, among other things.

And this afternoon, an update for Signal—aptly-named Signal 2—popped up in Cydia. Planetbeing announced its arrival on Twitter, saying that the new version now works with both CDMA and GSM devices.

So what does it do?

Conditions weather app also takes creative approach in dealing with pirates

Yesterday, we told you about Tapbots' entertaining way it deals with folks who pirate its popular Tweetbot app. If you download the Twitter client without paying for it, it will auto-insert an embarrassing phrase into its Tweet sheet.

But the guys on the Tapbots team aren't the only ones having fun with pirates. Jake Marsh, creator of the new Conditions weather app, also takes a creative approach in dealing with people who steal his work. Check it out...

Galaxy S III named Best Smartphone of 2012 at Mobile World Congress

The world of smartphones can essentially be divided into two camps: iPhone and Android. Sure there are some BlackBerry and Windows Phone users out there, but Apple and Google handsets make up most of the market.

And as in any situation where there are two dominant players, each platform has their own army of loyal fans. And I'm sure both sides have plenty to say about Samsung's Galaxy S III being named the Best Smartphone of 2012...

$330 polycarbonate iPhone said to arrive next year with 4.5-inch display

It's been a while since we've heard any talk regarding the rumored budget iPhone. Speculation involving Apple's secret iWatch project, and next-gen iPad models have all but taken over the rumor mill in recent weeks.

But that changes today, with a new report from Japanese blog Macotakara. The site, which has proven to have accurate sources, says that the cheaper iPhone exists, has a polycarbonate body, and will arrive in 2014...

Cricket seeing much weaker than expected iPhone sales

Leap Wireless, the US telecommunications company that owns and operates the regional carrier Cricket, just submitted a rather alarming filing with the the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It seems that Cricket is only on pace to sell through half of its first-year commitment with Apple, which goes to June, leaving it on the hook for some $100 million in remaining iPhone purchases...

Pandora introduces 40-hour monthly limit on mobile listening due to rising royalty costs

Popular internet radio service Pandora announced today that it is implementing a new 40-hour-per-month limit on mobile listening. The announcement was made this afternoon via the company's blog, by founder Tim Westergren.

For most folks, this won't mean anything. Westergren says that Pandora's average users spend approximately 20 hours per month listening to Pandora across all devices. But for the 4% or so that go over, you'll have to start paying up...

TinyUmbrella updated with support for iOS 6.1.2

In light of Apple releasing iOS 6.1.2 last week, notcom has seeded a new version of his TinyUmbrella app. The popular SHSH blob-saving tool now supports all versions of iOS, excluding 6.1.3, which is still in beta.

That beta, though, is already causing waves in the jailbreak community. Evidence has been found in the firmware that Apple is patching evasi0n's exploits, which makes this TinyUmbrella extremely important...

New document shows extent of the government’s ability to search your iPhone

A new document, submitted to court in connection with a drug investigation, has been discovered that provides a rare look at the amount of data the government can pull from a seized iPhone using advanced forensic tools.

Of course, we all know that phone searches are a common law enforcement tool. But up until now, we've mostly been in the dark regarding what information the government can grab with this invasive search technique...