Leaks, Renders, @Onleaks, @evleaks, leakleaks: A guide to navigating the hot mess that is mobile leaks.

Who can you trust? What is a grain of salt? Why would I take one?

This article has been brewing within me since the above render hit the web of the upcoming LG V20. You instantly could find it on half of the tech blogs in existence. Which is fine. You will always see the requisite disclaimers in all of the articles, “take this for what it is”, “no guarantee this is what we’ll see”, and on and on. It’s fun to have something to write about and leaks breakup a slow news cycle. Longtime readers of these news sites and blogs are used to leaks and know to take them with a healthy amount of skepticism, but to new readers, the world of leaks and leaking can be confusing.

So we are going to talk leaks, where they come from and how you navigate the good from the bad.

Where do leaks come from?

Leaks come from people inside the mobile companies we love, Samsung, Apple, HTC. These are people that share the information for a variety of reasons, often because they want the notoriety a leak brings. Sometimes a leak can happen by accident, when a careless mobile tester leaves an unreleased product in a bar for example. On occasion leaks happen because people are paid to share the info. There is no better way to build excitement about an upcoming product, or to make a quick buck, then to share a brief glimpse of it.

Sometimes leaks come from the supply chain and often for the same reasons. The separate companies tasked with actually building the phone, or the accessory manufacturers that build cases and screen protectors that are magically ready at launch. These employees have less personal involvement with the product, and are often guarded by less intense scrutiny when it comes to data management.

So leaks come from lots and lots of places. When you consider all of the companies involved with getting a phone to market, it is surprising that more leaks do not happen.

Who are the leakers?

Just about anyone can get “inside” info on a phone if they know where to look and know the right people. This is where the reader must be cautious. It takes a level of skill to identify credible information and to only share what the leaker views as credible. It sometimes takes hours of reasearch to identify a “credible leak” and even then the very best leakers are wrong once in awhile. It is important that when you are viewing leaked material that you know where it came from and if that person can be considered a credible source for information.

Luckily if you have a Twitter account you have access to the two very best leakers in the tech world. When you see leaks from these two individuals you can feel confident that what you have just read is as close to true as a leak can get, and if they aren’t sure a leak is 100% correct? They have a pretty good habit of letting you know. The first leaker you have probably heard of, Evan Blass, known by his Twitter handle @evleaks. Evan is the most famous leaker around because he has done an excellent job of reviewing the information that he is given and only sharing what he views as accurate. This “journalistic” approach to leaking had garnered international attention and the respect of the tech news world. At the height of Evan’s leaking career once he posted a leak almost every tech news outlet would be covering it. Unfortunately Evan retired from the leaking game two years ago, only occasionally sharing a leak here and there since then. He is currently a writer for venturbeat.com.

The other Twitter leaker established himself by filling in the void that Evan left upon his retirement. Steve Hemmerstoffer, editor and writer at nowhereelse.fr took up the mantle of @onleaks in March 2015 to share the leaks that he had picked up through contacts over his 10 year career. @Onleaks quickly took off with consistent and accurate leaks. Following Evan and @onleaks can feel like two very different experiences. While Evan’s leaks are few and far between nowadays, his leaks are often information based or pictures of the actual devices. @onleak’s work can feel overwhelming by the volume of information that you come across viewing his site. Information is shared from multiple sources on the @onleaks feed and can be based on information, photos of devices, “renders”, which are mock up images of phones based on phone designs, photos of device components, and photos of upcoming cases for upcoming devices. There is a lot. I had the opportunity to briefly discuss his work with him today and Steve shared a few pointers to navigating the info. @onleaks’ feed has information that comes from Steve’s personal Twitter account as well as his work feed. Sometimes you will even find content that is shared from others. The important thing to look for is the @onleaks water mark on photos. This signifies an exclusive leak from Steve and that he views it to be as legitimate as a leak can get.

Now we touch on the hot mess. It can be argued that these two men are the only legitimate leakers out there right now, and for the most part it’s a correct statement. While random people do bring real leaks, they are more one shot wonders, stumbling across info and showing it to whoever they can. No one else is bringing the professionalism that Evan and Steve bring to the table. What you get without the hard work and their eye for a “real” leak is people sharing bad information without knowing it. People that love the idea of being a leaker without having the skills necessary to spot a fake. What’s worse is that news outlets will sometimes still report on a bad leak, leaving the usual disclaimers in place of “take this with a grain of salt”. This makes all leaks less credible, even the ones from the people that work hard to provide nothing but the best.

Back to that V20 Render

So now we are back to where we started. We have an idea of where leaks come from and we have a picture of the people behind the leaks themselves and how that information gets out to the world. Now we take a look at what news organizations do when they get that info. With the V20 render we saw headlines from tech blogs that ranged from, “Take a look at these renders of LG’s upcoming V20”, 9to5google; “ V20 renders show LG isn’t giving up on modular phones quite yet”, The Next Web and “Leaked LG V20 renders show off modular chin and dual cameras” Android Police. All of these articles took the time to let you know what the leak was, where the leak came from and what they got from the leak. In this case the V20 render, leaked by @onleaks and based on CAD prints of the phone, shows LG abandoning the design language of the V10 and opting to pick up what appears to be many design elements from LG’s other flagship device of the year, the G5. This includes what appears to be rear duel cameras, and a mysterious button near the bottom of the phone that could be a release trigger for possible mods similar to the G5. (This writer thinks it will maintain a removable battery and abandon the modular concept). One thing V10 enthusiasts have despaired about over this render is the abandonment of the rugged rubber and steel frame that gave the V10 its signature look and feel. @onleaks did comment that the actual materials used to make the phone are not disclosed in the design documents, and that some assumptions were made when building the render. This leaves the door open for something more than just a larger G5. (But probably not)

So the tech news world take the leaks, and do their very best to translate what they see into the possible features and functionality of the upcoming device. If you read through the articles above you will see many similar comments with a few, more out there, guesses based on LG’s history.

So from start to end

So from the start you get an employee of a large tech firm or a smaller manufacturer sharing information about a future device. They either post it online or give it directly to an established leaker like @evleaks or @onleaks. The leaker must research the leak and determine whether or not it is accurate information or just a bored jerk. They then share that leak with their audiences. Their audience, often tech journalists and bloggers along with tech enthusiasts will review the leaks and come to conclusions about what the leaks will mean for the future devices, looking at design elements such as button placement, camera position, and the location of ports and sensors (or lack thereof).

Your job as the reader is to look at the leak you are being presented, recognize what type of information it is, who or where it comes from and decide for yourself whether or not you think it holds merit. You also need to be reading tech news blogs that will take the information and present thoughtful commentary about what the leak means, not wild speculation.

Thanks for reading. Follow @evleaks and @onleaks to get a great first hand look at leaks in action!