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.

How to Play Any Word You Want in Words With Friends

Words With Friends has undoubtedly become one of the most popular cross-platform mobile games over the last few years. The Scrabble-like title allows users to pair up with both friends and strangers to see who has the biggest vocabulary.

The game follows all of the typical word-game guidelines. Each player gets 7 lettered-tiles, and garners points for using them to make words on a playing board. Typically, only real "dictionary" words are playable. That is, unless you have this tweak...

Add a Touch of Cool to Your iPhone With a Clear Back Panel From iFixit

Are you tired of your iPhone looking like all of the other millions of handsets out there? These new transparent back panels from iFixit should do the trick. They add a touch of cool to your handset by giving you insight to your iPhone's insides.

Typically, these see-through panels go for over $50, but for a limited time iFixit has them on sale for just $29.99. And you won't just get the back plate, iFixit is including the tools to install the thing, a screen protector, and a wet bag...

Zagg Hosting Major Sale, 50% Off Everything!

It's Cyber Monday, a day brought about by online retailers to generate the type of sales that brick and mortar stores see on Black Friday. While you generally won't find the "door buster" discounts that surface over the holiday weekend, there are some decent deals.

We've come across one sale in particular that could potentially make your day, depending on what you're looking for. The folks over at Zagg.com, the makers of the InvisibleShield, the Zagg Sparq, and other accessories, have just taken 50% off their entire inventory...

How to Help the Chronic Dev Team Release the iOS 5 Untethered Jailbreak

Over the weekend we told you about the latest software release from the Chronic Dev Team, the Chronic-Dev Crash Reporter. The app is designed to stop iOS devices from automatically sending crash reports to Apple by re-routing them to a custom server.

The release comes in the wake of Apple recently patching a number of known exploits, which the Chronic Dev Team intended to use in an untethered iOS 5 jailbreak. Hackers have decided to fight fire with fire, and here's how you can help...

Beautiful Concept of an iPhone Camera

According to some excerpts from Steve Jobs' recently released biography, the ex-CEO wanted to "reinvent" three markets: television, text books, and photography. The first is still a rumor, the second is happening as we speak, and the third is still up for discussion.

Looking at the image upload data from Flickr shows that the top four most popular cameraphones are iPhones, and the most popular camera overall is the iPhone 4. So is this what Jobs was talking about? Or did he want to build an actual camera, like this one?

Ac1dSn0w Jailbreak Tool Contains Copyrighted Code [Updated]

Earlier today we reported on the recently released iOS 5 jailbreak tool called Ac1dSn0w. The Mac-only utility came from the Pwn Dev Team, who aren't as highly regarded as the Dev and Chronic Dev teams, but they're well-known.

With that in mind, we posted a tutorial, as we always do, on how to jailbreak your iOS 5 device using the new software. We've since learned that Ac1dSn0w contains Apple's copyrighted code, so therefore it's illegal to use...

Meet Romo, the iPhone-Powered Robot

We've seen multiple iOS-controlled helicopters and other robotic accessories over the last few months. Apparently, using your iDevice to remotely control a bite-sized vehicle is becoming quite popular.

But even though the RC market is getting crowded, there is still tons of room for innovative products. Romotive proves that with Romo, the first iPhone/iPod touch-powered (and controlled) robot... 

Siri Proxy Used to Control TV, Gives Us a Glimpse at the Future

Ever since Pete Lamonica, a.k.a plamoni, unveiled his Siri proxy project last week, we've been excited to see what developers would come up with. The project allows knowledgable programmers to "teach" Siri new commands using a public proxy server.

We've seen Siri control a Wi-Fi thermostat, and we've even seen her start a car, but all of that is child's play compared to what this user taught the digital assistant to do. Using the proxyand a Plex command line interface, he uses Siri to control his TV...

HTC Loses Money Thanks to Struggling Economy and Competition From Apple and Samsung

Out of all of the Android manufacturers, perhaps no other company has benefited from Google's mobile operating system more than HTC. The Taiwanese handset-maker created some of the world's first smartphones, and the company has really taken off since Android hit.

In fact, HTC has been nearly unstoppable since it launched the first Android handset back in 2008, experiencing a sales growth streak that spanned nearly two years. But in the face of stiff competition and an ailing economy, its streak has finally come to an end...

Chronic Dev Team Releases New Crash Recovery Software, Gives iOS 5 Jailbreak Update

We are now going on two months (five, if you were using developer betas) since Apple released iOS 5, and we still don't have a viable jailbreak. There have been tethered and semi-tethered solutions available, but not an untethered jailbreak tool.

The worst part is that we haven't known how close hackers have been to releasing anything, until tonight. The Chronic Dev Team has finally broken its silence regarding the untethered iOS 5 jailbreak, and has revealed a new plan for finding future iOS exploits...

WSJ Confirms Apple Has Tapped Sharp for iPad 3 Displays

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has tapped Sharp as a display supplier for its next generation tablet. We've heard the news before from analysts and their "supply checks," but this obviously lends some credibility to the story.

WSJ believes the move is in an effort, by Apple, to diversify component suppliers for its products. And given the company's ongoing court battle with another display supplier (Samsung), it makes sense that it would want to do so...

An Inside Look at Apple’s New In-Store Pickup Service

A few weeks ago, Apple updated its retail store app with multiple new features. The two that really stood out were the EasyPay self-checkout option and the new in-store pickup service.

The New York Times got a glimpse of the latter feature in action yesterday during the Black Friday sale at a SoCal Apple Store. Utilizing customer tracking software, the service is actually quite interesting...