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.

This just in, new version of iTunes

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

If you are still reading this article even after the not so interesting headline, you get mad respect. Anyways, in almost virus protection software fashion, Apple has released another iTunes update: iTunes 8.0.1.

Apple lists the new features, well actually they're all bug fixes at the download site.

iTunes 8.0.1 supposedly improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

Seamlessly plays the current song when creating a new Genius playlist. Improves syncing spoken menus to iPod nano. Addresses an issue of deleting HD TV episodes when downloading. Improves checking for updates from the App Store Improves accessibility with VoiceOver. Addresses problems syncing Genius results to iPod.

Certainly nothing enough to make me rock the boat between 8.0 and my pwned 2.1 iPhone (who just recently started getting along). But for those of you who are interested in having cutting edge Apple software, let me know how it works...(or if anything stops working).

As usually, you can download the latest iTunes version from our iPhone Downloads page.

P.S. I generally let the DevTeam tell me when to update ;op not Apple.

iPhone Custom Ringtones, Easy AND Free?

Cody Lee ∙ October 2, 2008

[digg-me]This is one of those little Internet gems that I wouldn't have discovered if I didn't walk in on a friend of mine browsing a site called myxer.com a few weeks ago. Now before I go any further in my story, those of you who are already aware of the site or don't care to expand your custom ringtone library, I encourage you to stop reading, and check out another great article on the blog. But to those of you who are still intrigued, prepare to become emotionally, mentally, and technologically aroused.

Ok, so I sit down to check out what he's got going on, and he is getting free ringtones of all the latest hits (and even a lot of movie and tv show audio) sent to his cell phone. Of course this is like every other free ringtone/background site, I'm thinking, so when he asks "You think this will work with your iPhone?" I blurt out "no," so fast I almost seem to interrupt him. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous of all the cool free stuff he was getting for his moto Razor.

Then later that night something magical (that's right, I said magical) happened. In browsing the myxer.com website, I came across a link that said, click here for iPhone download. Upon further investigation, I found you can actually download any ringtone on the site, in .m4r format, so you can then SSH them into your ringtone folder, or just drag and drop in iTunes and sync up.

The entire process is extremely quick, and the library of ringtones is enormous. Having tried other custom ringtone options through Cydia apps and such, I must say this is the most streamline and easy to use.

The only thing I would suggest you look out for is iTunes won't recognize any file (even .m4r) that is over 30 seconds long. Also be advised the backgrounds I tested didn't look very good, and the games aren't compatible at all. But the fact that I can now jam out to Lil Wayne's "Man I miss my dogs," when my old high school buddies call, is enough to make me, well, write a short article on a small time web blog. Have a good evening.

The house that Apple built

Cody Lee ∙ October 1, 2008

[digg-me]For the last couple years, Apple's iTunes Store has taken center stage as the Internet's most used online music store. After the rise and fall of such "illegal" online music sources such as Napster and other P2P networks, Apple decided to give the rough, uncharted market of online music purchasing a shot.

You see, Napster and other peer to peer file sharing networks either charged no fee, or a low monthly fee, and none of that money made it back to the music labels, publishers, and producers. But in its usual pioneering way (see the Apple II, iPod, iPhone, etc...) Apple came up with a solution that would please the record companies, and the consumers who sought cheaper alternatives to buying music other than their local record store.

Enter The Apple iTunes Store! All songs were available for download at $0.99 from a library big enough to make CD Warehouse jealous. And from then on, it was an unstoppable monster, gaining momentum when the video iPod was released and agreements were made with movie and television production studios, giving users the option to download their favorite TV shows, and movies as well.

Then came application and game downloads for your iPod and iPhones, another revolutionary online method of distribution, and made Apple and a lot of small time developers fairly wealthy (well, wealthier in Apple's case). Nothing seemed like it could stop the download colossus until the National Music Publishers Association started kicking up dust around Washington asking that its record companies and producers receive more royalties than it's current $0.09 a track from Apple's iTunes profit.

Apparently they made enough noise for the Copyright Royalty Board to hear them, and the three judge panel is expected to make a ruling very soon. Now, what does that mean to all of us outside of the industry politics? There are a few possible scenarios if the board votes in favor of the NMPA.

The $0.99 standard price tag on mp3s would have to be raised to keep up Apple's profitablity while giving the Music Publishers a raise in the royalties. Or secondly, and hopefully this could only happen in another demension, Apple would shut down iTunes, explained fairly well in this comment by Eddie Cue in today's CNN Money article by writer Devin Leonard:

If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the ... royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss - which is no alternative at all, Cue wrote. Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.

Once again, only time can tell what will be decided, or if Apple really has the gall to upset millions of iTunes users in shutting down the Internet's largest online media download store. How would that effect their iPod/iPhone sales? What would the rest of us do to quench our thirst for cheap media downloads? Start using Amazon's music service? Rhapsody? [shudders] Maybe Apple needs to just start its own record label and hire the top talent in the industry and cut out the middle man. Then they'd probably have an anti trust lawsuit on their hands. Oh the tangled webs we weave...

Red Rover, Red Rover, Let SlingBox Come Over

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Well, before I explain what the title means, let's introduce the SlingBox to the part of our audience whose eyebrows are raised in a "What the heck is that?" manner. The Sling Box was introduced in 2004, and is a digital box you connect to your cable box, dish receiver, or DVR and allows you to grab either live or recorded video from that source, anywhere in the world that you can connect to the Internet.

Think of all the doors that could open up. You could watch those movie channels you pay so much for, half way around the world from your house, from your laptop. Well then, mobile TV hit mainstream through networks like Verizon and Sprint, and Sling was there to take advantage of it, on the Windows platform at least.

For palm and Motorola Q users, this was great news. You could watch any channel or recorded show that was available on your home TV, anywhere your mobile phone got a signal, or Wifi service (wifi video was significantly clearer and smoother).

Well, with its large, crisp screen, and unparalleled media capabilities, the iPhone seemed like the perfect platform for Sling Box's mobile client.

After making a small splash in June with the release of a video showing off a beta version of a Sling Media Player client running on the iPhone, we have yet to hear any more news about an official release date.

But by doing a quick google search of iPhone SlingBox related news, I came across a job listing on SlingBox's website.

Senior Engineer, SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone Client Application Developer

Job Title: Senior Engineer, SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone Client Application Developer Location: North America - Foster City, CA Department: Engineering Group Reports To: Director, Client Applications

Sling Media is looking for top-notch iPhone Developers to join our high-performance team and help create the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone application...

So it appears that they are still hoping to penetrate this now massive market, and rightly so. It is in my opinion that a release for the iPhone could mean BIG things for this already BIG company. I think the missing piece of the puzzle has been data speeds when not on a Wifi network, and I think that AT&T's new 3G network could easily stand up to that challenge.

Only time will tell if the cool gadget Gods will smile down on Apple and SlingBox and give the rest of us a reason to whip out our iPhones even more than we already do (I don't know if that's possible).

The one deal breaker for most people might be the expensive digital box you must buy to hook to your source (or sources). But the fact that they just released an HD version of their SlingBox (yes, it will broadcast over the internet to your laptop/mobile device in High Definition!), and are not currently charging any monthly fees for their services may justify the initial box buying price. I myself, can't wait to show up my friends and their Verizon touch screens and their weak 10 channel selections, while I'm watching a Hi Quality stream of the ER episode I DVR'd last night. I'm pretty sure I'd get the "What the heck is that" look on their faces.

To jailbreak or not to jailbreak…

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 15, 2021

... that seems to be the question. And no, to your dismay I may not have the answer. But I have put together this small guide that will hopefully help you find the answer on your path to iPhone glory and satisfaction.

Let's start by discussing some reasons against jailbreaking, just so you're not, not doing it for the wrong reason, make sense? Good, here we go.

It's illegal.

Well, it is illegal. By jailbreaking your iPhone, you are actually infringing Apple's Copyrights on the iPhone firmware. Although the iPhone is yours, you are legally not supposed to touch any of the software. Besides, by installing non-Apple-approved software, you are violating both Apple and AT&T's TOS (Terms Of Service). The reality is, it's about as "illegal" as downloading music off of Lime Wire or Bear share, which means the chances are greater for a snow storm in July, in Jamaica, than you getting caught, even further more in any kind of legal trouble for jailbreaking your iPhone.

What about messing my phone up or 'bricking' it?

It is in my experience that 'bricking' the iPhone is a term of the past. Used only in preliminary jailbreaking days when all of this territory was new and unexplored. I myself have seen several errors, an all black screen, an all white screen, and a busy icon for half an hour while trying to jailbreak my phone. I believe a quick restore either through iTunes or the holding down home+power reset process on the phone will take care of many problems you may incur.

Hacking an iPhone sounds complicated, I'm not that computer savvy.

Surely this one is up for debate. But I think most of us will agree that the process has become fairly simple. In fact, the premier jailbreaking program out right now QuickPwn (how to use QuickPwn guide here), has an easy to use GUI (graphical user interface), and takes literally 5 minutes. Leaps and bounds above the old command line hacking days. Completing this process not only opens up to free "App Stores" (Cydia and installer 4.0), but also can turn your phone into an easy to use portable hard drive, and give you the ability to install "cracked" apps. Cracked apps are applications in the Apple App Store that people have cracked and made available for download for free online.

Depending on your firmware of your iPhone (on your iPhone, go to 'settings', then 'general', and finally 'about', your firmware is listed next to 'version'), you can Google the words "jailbreak my iPhone", and find 1000's of hits and tons of guides on how to do it. Maybe even try including your firmware in your google search to help narrow it down.

If the list above didn't extinguish your fears of jailbreaking, then maybe it isn't right for you. However, I love it, so if the features I use on my jailbroken phone listed below sound cool, you might lean toward the 'to jailbreak' scenario.

I can share files, information, and media between my phone without connecting any chords I have hidden files, notes, and folders that you can only access from my laptop I can try out any application I want for free, before I spend money at the Apple App Store (comes in handy for programs like Jaddu that are $24.99) I can install 3rd party applications from Cydia and Installer (free) that aren't available anywhere else My $400.00 iPhone, now feels, like its worth $400.00

So to Jailbreak or not to Jailbreak can be answered with these little tips.

Jailbreak if:

You want to explore more options with your iPhone You want to try some applications before you pay those hefty price tags You want more games and cool software

Don't Jailbreak if:

Your completely computer illiterate Just think it's cool your iPhone is a touch screen phone.