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.

Reuters clarifies budget iPhone story: Apple won’t blindly pursue marketshare

Cody Lee ∙ January 11, 2013

And the plot continues to thicken. After two major news outlets ran stories earlier this week claiming that Apple was working on a less-expensive iPhone, Reuters reported that the company had no such plans, citing comments made to a Chinese newspaper by Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller.

But as most of you know, Reuters retracted the report earlier today. It was unclear at the time why it had chosen to remove the story, but it's attempting to clear things up this afternoon with a new report called "Apple won't blindly pursue market share" that helps shed some light on what happened...

Apple wins Technology and Engineering Emmy Award

Cody Lee ∙ January 11, 2013

Apple was presented with a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award last night during a special reception in Las Vegas. The annual event honors innovation in broadcast technology and recognizes companies and individuals whose breakthroughs have a significant effect on TV engineering...

Apple’s Chinese New Year Gift Guide now live

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 27, 2016

Apple is more focused on China now than it's ever been before. Tim Cook is actually in the country this week, meeting with high-level government officials and the chairman of the world's largest carrier, China Mobile.

The company also just published its new Chinese New Year Gift Guide. It features Apple's top picks for products and accessories, and can be seen in its China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia web stores...

Beats CEO spent years trying to convince Steve Jobs to do a music service

Cody Lee ∙ January 11, 2013

This is pretty interesting. Former chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M and Beats Audio CEO Jimmy Iovine recently sat down for an interview to discuss the popular headphone-maker's upcoming streaming music service, Project Daisy.

During the conversation, Iovine talked about his relationship with Apple, and more specifically Steve Jobs. And he said that he spent at least three years trying to convince the then-CEO to do a subscription-based streaming music service...

Streaming video service Watchever now available on Apple TV in Germany

Cody Lee ∙ January 11, 2013

Apple TV owners in Germany are in for a little surprise the next time they boot up their set top boxes. It appears that Apple has added a new app to the home screen for Watchever, a new video subscription service.

Similar to Netflix, Watchever gives users unlimited access to local, European and international movies and TV shows for €8.99 a month (or about $12 USD). And now, German users can access it on their ATVs...

Nearly 50% of Verizon’s data traffic travels over LTE

Cody Lee ∙ January 11, 2013

Although LTE may not be available in some corners around the world yet, it's certainly taken the US by storm. Three out of our four largest carriers have live LTE networks, and the fourth one, T-Mobile, will have one up shortly.

In fact, Verizon, who was first to market with LTE technology back in 2010, has its 4G network lit up in close to 500 markets. And the company says that it's now seeing nearly 50 percent of its data load travel over that network...

Infiniboard updated with Iconoclasm and OverBoard support

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 25, 2013

In what seems like the first bit of news from the jailbreak scene in quite a while, Chpwn announced today that an update for his popular Infiniboard tweak is now available in Cydia.

The utility, which allows you to add an unlimited amount of icons to each springboard page, now works with Sakurina's Iconoclasm and Ryan Petrich's OverBoard tweak...

The iPhone quick-draw system

Cody Lee ∙ January 10, 2013

What's your take on belt clip cell phone holsters? I used to sell cell phones, and I would cringe every time a customer would buy one. They'd say, "it's just so accessible." I even had one guy show me how much faster it was taking it out of the holster than it was his pocket. Ok.

But what if you want that kind of accessibility, without the fashion faux pas? Then you might be a candidate for this new iPhone quick-draw system. The contraption fits around your arm, and catapults your iPhone from under your sleeve to your hand in milliseconds...

Tim Cook meets with China Mobile head to talk ‘matters of cooperation’

Cody Lee ∙ January 10, 2013

Earlier this week, we passed along a report that Tim Cook was on a business trip in China. No one really knows the exact nature of the visit, but he has been meeting with high-level government officials, and dropping in on Apple retailers.

And according to a new report, he's also been talking with China Mobile's Xi Guohua. The CEO is said to have met with the chairman, who sits atop the world's largest carrier, in Beijing today to discuss "matters of cooperation."

Apple settles Retina image lawsuit with Swiss photographer

Cody Lee ∙ Updated December 20, 2017

With all of the reports we hear every week regarding Apple's new and ongoing lawsuits, it's nice to hear about one coming to an end. After a year of battling, the Cupertino company has settled a lawsuit regarding the alleged misuse of an eyeball image during one of its keynotes.

Apple used the photo, which was taken by Swiss photographer Sabine Liewald, to promote its new MacBook Pro with Retina display during its WWDC keynote last summer, as well as on its website, without the proper licensing. And thus, Liewald filed an infringement suit...

Privacy app Clueful returns to iOS in web form

Cody Lee ∙ January 10, 2013

Clueful, a privacy app by Bitdefender, garnered a lot of attention last summer when Apple pulled it from the App Store without giving much of an explanation. It was odd, because the app claimed that it just identified privacy threats.

Well here we are, 6 months later, and we have still yet to hear a reason behind the removal. But obviously Bitdefender still sees a market for the app, as the software company has just re-launched Clueful as a web-based application...

Six years ago today, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone

Cody Lee ∙ January 9, 2013

As I look around and I see all of the touchscreen smartphones and tablets on the market, I think, it's hard to believe that Apple started all of this 6 years ago. That's right, 6 years ago today, Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld '07 and unveiled the long-awaited iPhone.

Now, you can argue that there were smartphones before the iPhone, even touchscreen phones. But you can't say that Apple didn't change the mobile landscape forever that day in the Moscone Center. And as tribute, we've got videos of the keynote and more after the fold...