Evan Blass,[1][2] once known solely by his pen name @evleaks,[3][4][5] is an American
blogger, editor, and phone leaker. He gained international notoriety for a series of numerous smartphone and tablet leaks on
Twitter,[6] spanning the period July 2012 through August 2014, that made him a trusted source for many technology journalists.[7] Blass announced his retirement from leaking devices in a tweet on August 3, 2014,[8] although he soon returned to leaking under his pen name.
Career
From 2005–2008, Blass held several positions at
AOL-owned technology site
Engadget, including senior editor,[9] before departing to write briefly for the now defunct technology publication Obsessable.[10] From 2010–2012, Blass was managing editor of mobile technology site Pocketnow.[9]
Blass was diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis in 2004, and in November 2013 was the subject of a report on The Verge documenting a controversial
Walgreens policy pertaining to the dispensation of narcotic painkillers.[11]
On November 23, 2015, Blass started writing for
VentureBeat.[12]
@evleaks Twitter account
The account was started in July 2012,[13] or August 2012.[14]
For nearly a year, Blass maintained the @evleaks account anonymously[15] —while some of his colleagues knew of his identity, he purposely kept it hidden from the public at large. In June 2013, Blass fully revealed himself in an interview with Android Police,[16] citing the inevitability of being unmasked as the reason for his decision.
From May 2014 until his retirement, Blass attempted to monetize his leaks by publishing them on his own website,
evleaks.at, deriving revenue through advertising sales.[38][39][40] Immediately following his retirement announcement, however, Blass conducted an interview with The Next Web[41] in which he recounted the problems he faced in trying to monetize a stream of Twitter leaks. Dozens of publications covered Blass's retirement,[42] most notably the weekly
BBC technology show
Click[7] and an accompanying
BBC Online feature.[21]
Following his self-professed retirement, Blass has continued to leak phones, including the
Moto X (2014)[43] (at the time assumed to be called the "Moto X+1"),
Nexus 6,[44] and
Droid Turbo,[45] all from Motorola.[46] He later also leaked the LG G Pad X, Microsoft Lumia 735[47] and Samsung Galaxy S6 Active.[48]
Wired magazine included Blass in its 2013 "101 Signals" list of "the best reporters, writers, and thinkers on the Internet."[49]The Times of India profiled Blass (as @evleaks) in its May 11, 2013 edition.[50]
In early 2016, Blass continued to leak accurate details of then-unreleased flagship smartphones Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, LG G5, HTC 10 and Huawei P9 through tweets and VentureBeat articles. He continued to leak throughout the rest of the year, 2017 and 2018.
^Palazuelos, Félix (24 August 2014).
"La historia de Evleaks". Hipertextual (in European Spanish).
Archived from the original on 19 July 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
^Brandão, Mário Rui André, João Ribeiro, Rita Pinto, Marco (28 March 2017).
"@evleaks, o "estraga-surpresas" da tecnologia". Shifter (in European Portuguese).
Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
^T., Florin (2015-05-13).
"PhoneArena". Meet the LG G Pad X and Microsoft Lumia 735 (both for Verizon).
Archived from the original on 2015-05-15. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
^T., Florin (2015-05-13).
"PhoneArena". New Samsung Galaxy S6 Active renders show the phone's camouflage versions.
Archived from the original on 2015-05-15. Retrieved 2015-05-13.