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.

Aluminum backing said to be the blame for iPhone 5 supply constraints

Cody Lee ∙ October 10, 2012

It's been almost three weeks since the iPhone 5 went on sale here in the US, and it's practically impossible to find the handset. Apple's website still shows shipping time estimates of 3-4 weeks, and both Verizon and AT&T show the phone won't be available until November.

On the surface, it seems that Apple is once again a victim of its own success: it simply can't make iPhones fast enough to meet demand. But apparently there's more to it than that. Word is that the phone's aluminum backing has been a major factor in the supply constraints...

How to stop Verizon and AT&T from sharing your user data with advertisers

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 29, 2017

New iPhone owners on the nation's largest LTE network might be interested to know that the carrier gives its customers 30 days to opt-out of participating in a user data sharing program with advertisers.

The program tracks smartphone users, recording things like location data (though it's anonymized), age, dining habits and other demographics, and shares them with advertisers for targeted marketing...

New study shows 40% of US teens own an iPhone

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2012

Despite Samsung's efforts to portray the iPhone as a device for older consumers, the iPhone is still extremely popular among teenagers. Piper Jaffray says that 40% of US teens now own the handset.

Gene Munster, an analyst with the firm, released a report today on his survey of US teenagers regarding what gadgets they're using. And judging from the results, Apple's iPhone and iPad are still on top...

Brazil approves iPhone 5 for sale, may see Portuguese support for Siri

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2012

In addition to this morning's story that the iPhone 5 will launch in India at the end of the month, another report has surfaced regarding international availability of Apple's latest handset.

The report claims that Brazil's telecommunications regulatory authority has just approved the iPhone 5 for sale in the country. And word is, Siri has learned how to speak Portuguese...

Lodsys: more than 150 developers have licensed our patents

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

A little over a year ago, a patent licensing company by the name of Lodsys started going after app developers with its claimed in-app purchasing patents, threatening legal action if they didn't agree to licensing deals.

The company went on to file infringement suits against a handful of developers, and eventually Apple got involved. And we haven't really heard anything since then, until today, when Lodsys published a new blog post...

Google and Samsung said to be working on 10-inch iPad contender

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2012

Nearly three years after breathing new life into the space, Apple has remained largely uncontested in the field of tablets. We've seen slates from RIM, the now defunct Palm, and countless Android manufacturers, and none of them have been able to take the iPad head-on.

But it looks like Google is looking to change that. According to a new report, the search giant is teaming up with Samsung to create a high-end, 10-inch tablet aimed squarely at Apple's iPad. And one of its headlining features is said to be a stunning 300 PPI display...

Check out this concept for a more useful iOS app switcher

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2012

Since Apple introduced multitasking in iOS 4, the app switcher has remained relatively the same. The jailbreak community, of course, has found dozens of uses for the pop-up app menu, but Apple, for the most part, has left it untouched.

With that in mind, you can understand why mockups that offer a new take on the app switcher create so much commotion. And such is the case with a concept that recently surfaced called "Rethinking the App Switcher for the iPhone 5..."

New iPod touch benchmarks surface as Apple posts user guide

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 28, 2017

Folks who pre-ordered, or are thinking about ordering, the new iPod touch might be interested to hear that some screenshots containing purported benchmarks for the device have surfaced.

If the images are legitimate, then they offer up a few new details about the fifth-gen iPod touch. For example, it appears it has an A5 chip with CPU speeds on par with last year's iPhone 4S...

Sega announces it’s bringing Crazy Taxi to iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 10, 2018

In a blog post yesterday, Sega announced that it was going to be bringing its popular Crazy Taxi game to iOS this month. The title, which was the first in the Crazy Taxi series, started out as an arcade game, and has since been ported to several different consoles.

In addition to the announcement, Sega also posted an [extremely] brief trailer that shows gameplay footage from the upcoming iOS version, along with the message "Relive the madness on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. October 2012." Video teaser after the break...

Pod2g, MuscleNerd and others to take part in HITB discussion panel

Cody Lee ∙ October 8, 2012

Hot on the heels of last week's JailbreakCon convention, another event is set to take place on October 11th featuring some prominent members of the jailbreaking community.

On October 11th, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, MuscleNerd, pod2g and other well-known hackers will take part in a discussion panel at this year's Hack in the Box conference...

How to change the direction of Panorama mode

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 7, 2016

One of the headlining new additions in iOS 6 (headlining, as in featured in its own TV ad) is the Panorama camera mode. Once activated, the feature allows you to easily take extra-wide panoramic photos.

By default, Panorama mode has you pan your iPhone from left to right as it captures the image. But did you know there's an easy way to change it so you can pan from right to left?

WSJ: Apple has ordered more than 10 million iPad minis

Cody Lee ∙ October 8, 2012

Though Apple has been mum about the iPad mini thus far, reports continue to drop that the smaller tablet is on the way. Last week, it was said that the slate was already in production. And today, more new information has surfaced.

Apparently, Apple's Asian component suppliers have received orders to build more than 10 million iPad minis for Q4 of this year...