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 pushes out iOS 6 beta 2 to developers [updated]

Cody Lee ∙ June 25, 2012

Apple has started pushing out iOS 6 beta 2 to developers this morning. It doesn't appear to be available on the company's dev site yet, but we are seeing it hit our devices via OTA.

We're installing the update now and will let you know if we spot any changes in the new software. One minor difference we've noticed already, is that the gears in the icon (shown above) now spin during installation.

Update: added full change log and a video of the spinning gears animation

Update 2: iOS 6 beta 2 is now available for download in the dev center...

T-Mobile to purchase AWS spectrum from Verizon

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

T-Mobile's AT&T deal might not have gone through, but that doesn't mean the carrier is ready to just roll over and die. It's actually been very busy this year, building up its network.

The company has already started showing off its new iPhone-friendly HSPA+ technology. And today it's announced plans to purchase a large amount of AWS spectrum from Verizon...

Facebook app updated with new ‘Find Friends Nearby’ feature

Cody Lee ∙ Updated November 20, 2017

Facebook's iOS team has been extremely busy over the past couple of months. They've created two standalone applications, App Center and then there's that whole iOS 6 integration thing.

This weekend, the team launched a new feature for the social network's mobile app called Find Friends Nearby. The addition allows you to automatically add nearby people, as friends...

Fake Activator app pops up in the App Store

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

There appears to be a new trend developing in the App Store: create a crappy application, name it after a popular jailbreak app, and hope folks mistakenly buy it for $0.99.

Last week we saw a fake Cydia app make its way into Apple's digital download hub. And now we've come across a similar Activator impostor...

The New York Times profiles Apple’s retail business

Cody Lee ∙ June 23, 2012

The New York Times published a lengthy report today regarding Apple's retail operations. The article covers a few aspects of the business, but most of it focuses on the employees.

Following the tone of its previous piece on Apple's supply chain, The Times paints a bleak picture of Apple's retail employees, describing them as overworked and underpaid...

Judge dismisses entire Apple vs. Motorola case

Cody Lee ∙ June 23, 2012

Apple and Motorola have been in and out of courtrooms around the globe for the past two years. Motorola's one of the many Android device partners that Apple is in an ongoing legal dispute with.

Here in the US, the two companies were squaring off in a federal court over claims that Motorola was illegally using 4 of Apple's patents. I say "were" because, the entire case has just been dismissed...

Let the iOS maps war begin

Cody Lee ∙ June 23, 2012

One of the headlining stories of iOS 6 is the fact that Apple has taken over the Maps application. Not only did it rebuild the app from the ground up, but it also stopped using Google's mapping data.

From what we've heard, this was a long time coming. According to an ex-Google employee, the two companies have been battling for years over what Apple wanted to do with the Maps application.

So now that Apple has total control of it, the Maps war is over, right?

Watch part 2 of the Dream Team’s HITB talk

Cody Lee ∙ June 23, 2012

Yesterday, we showed you part one of the Dream Team's talk at this year's Hack In The Box conference. The section covered the exploits that were used in Corona, and other A4 jailbreak details.

Part two of the talk went live today, and in our opinion it's much more interesting. In it, the Team discusses the A5 jailbreak, and throws in a nice little 'one more thing' announcement at the end...

Judge sets Apple e-book price fixing trial for 2013

Cody Lee ∙ June 23, 2012

Earlier this year, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five major book publishers for allegedly conspiring to raise e-book prices.

Three of the five publishers have decided to settle with the DoJ. But Apple, however, maintains its innocence. And it'll get a chance to prove that in court, come next June...

Prepaid iPhone 4 and 4S now available on Cricket

Cody Lee ∙ June 23, 2012

As expected, Apple's smartphone went on sale at Cricket Wireless this weekend. The carrier is the first to offer a prepaid, no-contract iPhone here in the US.

The company says that the launch is generating quite the buzz, with customers lining up outside of several of its retail stores to buy the handset...

iOS Promo launches major jailbreak tweak giveaway

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 10, 2018

We love free stuff here at iDB, and we know you do too. That's why we had to make sure and tell you about iOS Promo's new monster jailbreak tweak giveaway.

The giveaway, for those who haven't heard about it yet, runs from now through July 5th. And it includes a number of some of Cydia's most popular packages...