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.

These Videos Took First Place in the 2011 Original iPhone Film Festival

Last Summer we told you about  the Original iPhone Film Festival. The contest only had two rules of entry: the contestants must shoot their entire video with an iOS device, and the clip could not exceed 4 and 1/2 minutes.

Well it took a little while, but the winners of the Film Festival have finally been chosen. Continue reading to see the four videos that took home first place in their respective categories...

Judge Interprets Key Realtime API Patent in Apple’s Favor

Apple has spent an estimated $100 million dollars on its so-called "war on Android." And so far it doesn't have much to show for it. Even its recent ITC court victory over HTC doesn't look like it will have much of an impact on anything.

But that could all change thanks to a recent interpretation of Apple's '263 patent by a high-ranking US judge. The patent covers realtime API — a key component in Android that would be extremely difficult to work around if a manufacturer was found guilty of infringing on it...

Check Out This Awesome iPhone-Compatible iWatch Concept

Digital wrist-wear has come a long way since calculator watches. Now there are products like the I'm Watch and multiple wearable cases that turn the iPod Shuffle into a high-tech ticker.

But if none of the current offerings are doing it for you, maybe this one will. The iWatch 2 is an iOS-compatible wristwatch that has enough features to make James Bond himself jealous...

Make Your Dock Icons Do Tricks With IconBounce

There are some jailbreak utilities that are considered to be more or less essential. In fact, Sebastien wrote a post this morning detailing his top 10 must-have tweaks. Then there are others that don't really serve much of a purpose.

IconBounce definitely falls in the latter category. It's a simple utility that makes the dock icons on your iOS 4 or iOS 5 device do summersaults, flips, and other tricks without the need to mess with a bunch of settings...

xMessages: Add Contact Pictures to Your Messages App

If you're looking for a jailbreak tweak that embeds your contact photos into your native Messages app, there's a couple of options. There's Copic, which adds photos to multiple applications, as well as other apps like ChatPic.

Today we'll add another one to the pile with xMessages. The utility, which recently appeared in Cydia, takes the images from your contact list and applies them to your messaging threads in the default Messages app...

More Evidence That Microsoft is Bringing Xbox LIVE Games to iOS

A few weeks ago we told you about an interesting job listing that hinted that Microsoft was looking to bring its Xbox LIVE gaming portal to iOS. The listing called for a developer to help the company port its LIVE gaming client to Apple's platform.

Microsoft kickstarted the project back in December of last year when it introduced an official Xbox LIVE application for the iPhone. But according to a recent Forbes report, that was only the beginning...

How Apple “Acquired” the iPhone Trademark From Cisco

Adam Lashinsky's new book Inside Apple, which was released earlier this week, is full of juicy stories from Apple's past. Pieces of the book have been popping up on the web over the past two weeks.

The latest excerpt we've come across, courtesy of our friends over at Cult of Mac, provides some insight on the details surrounding Apple's "acquisition" of the iPhone trademark from Cisco Systems...

Customize Your Notification Banners With Vexillum

The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 5, brought a number of new features and improvements. One of the most welcomed changes was the revamped notifications system with unobtrusive banner alerts.

But as usual, the jailbreaking community takes this feature a step farther. A new tweak has just surfaced in Cydia called Vexillum that allows you to customize both the background and font colors of your notification banners...

T-Mobile Working on Improving Support for Unlocked iPhones

You gotta feel for T-Mobile — it's had a rough couple of months. Not only has the company's AT&T merger deal fallen through the cracks, but it continues to be excluded from iPhone partnership.

When Sprint picked up the iPhone last October, T-Mobile became the only major carrier in the US to not officially offer Apple's popular handset. But that hasn't stopped it from supporting the device...

How to Interpret the Serial Number of Your iPhone

Have you ever wondered what the letters stand for in an iPhone's serial number? Whether you answered yes or no, the truth is that the code actually contains some pretty interesting information about the handset.

The folks over at OSXDaily have just published a legend of sorts that breaks down what each set of letters in an iPhone's serial number mean. You can tell what size the device's hard drive is, and even when it was made...

Steam iPhone Client Now Available in the App Store

Folks who use Steam, the popular game distribution platform for the Mac and PC, will be happy to hear that there is now an official iPhone client available in the App Store.

Dubbed Steam Mobile, the app will allow users to perform a number of tasks that were previously reserved for the desktop client, including chatting with other Steam members and browsing through Steam's Game Catalog...