Crackdown raises red flags over ‘biggest leak in Apple’s history’

Macworld

There’s still more than two months to go until Apple unveils its flagship iPhones for the year, which made it all the more surprising when a respected leaker this week posted a video supposedly showing the iPhone 18 Pro undergoing a drop test. Leaks from the supply chain aren’t unknown ahead of an Apple launch, but they’re rarely this revelatory. Another leaker, Ice Universe, was so impressed that they shared the post and described it as “easily the biggest leak in Apple’s history.”

Now the leak itself is under some scrutiny, though it’s unclear whether it’s because of the doubtful origins of the account that originally shared it or the video itself.

The video does appear plausible, though we’re not embedding or linking to it because it’s believed to have come from a ransomware attack reported by Reuters on Monday. The report claimed that iPhone 18 Pro drop tests were part of the leaked files, and lo and behold, the video making the rounds on X and other social media outlets, shows an iPhone 18 Pro being dropped in what appears to be a laboratory setting.

However, the source of the video has also been called into question. Part of the reason why commentators paid attention to the video in the first place was due to the credentials of the account. Evan Blass, known as @evleaks, is a prolific leaker with lots of big scoops and an excellent track record of predictive accuracy. If the video came from Blass, the media reasoned, there was a fair chance it was legitimate.

However, Blass shut down his evleaks account in May due to health concerns and hasn’t posted anything about smartphones or anything else since then. After the so-called “drop test” video posted under the @evleaks account, Blass resurfaced to post on his personal account that he is not associated with the iPhone leak or the @evleaks account. As if to back this up, Twitter/X has since suspended the @evleaks account, and Ice Universe deleted their own tweet.

Twitter allows Premium+ users to “explore inactive handles” and “participate in rare handle drops,” so it’s likely the @evleaks account was simply handed off to someone else.

There’s some speculation that Apple is behind the scrubbing of the video, and Blass quipped that it “Looks like Apple may have done what Samsung never could…” when the account was suspended. So maybe this video is real; maybe it’s not. But the fact remains that there was an attack on one of Apple’s manufacturers, and iPhone 18 Pro documents were among the stolen files.

For all the real news and verifiable rumors as we head towards the big launch, along with our expert analysis of what you should believe and what you should take with a pinch of salt, bookmark our comprehensive iPhone 18 Pro superguide.