User:EvanBlass/sandbox

Evan Nelson Blass (born March 13, 1978), once known solely by his pen name @evleaks, is an American writer, editor, and former phone leaker. He gained international notoriety for a series of hundreds of highly accurate smartphone and tablet leaks on Twitter, spanning the period July 2012 through August 2014. Blass announced his retirement from leaking devices, in a Tweet on Twitter, on August 3, 2014.

Early life, education, and early career
Blass was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, majoring in Political Science. Prior to founding @evleaks, Blass held several positions at the AOL-owned technology site Engadget including senior editor—during which time he trained both Joshua Topolsky and Nilay Patel, the first two editors-in-chief of The Verge—and also spent several years as the managing editor of the online smartphone publication Pocketnow. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2004.

@evleaks
For nearly a year, Blass maintained the @evleaks account anonymously—while some of his colleagues knew of his identity, he purposely kept it hidden from the public at large. Blass vaguely hinted at his true identity in a Tweet on June 27, 2013, and soon afterward, fully revealed himself in an interview with Android Police, citing the inevitability of being unmasked as the reason for his decision.

As @evleaks, Blass was responsible for posting images and information pertaining to unannounced, and thus unreleased, cellphones, tablets, some accessories and applications, a few laptops, and a single webOS-powered TV, from nearly every mobile device maker and US wireless carrier, often weeks or even months, before their launches. He was particularly adept at obtaining information and pictures about Taiwanese manufacturer HTC Corporation and one-time Finnish handset maker Nokia, reporting on nearly every device those two companies planned during his two-year stint of activity. Additionally, he leaked material about the Moto X, Moto E, Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx, and Droid Mini, from Motorola; the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, G2, and G3    from LG; Sony's Xperia Z, Z1S, Z2 tablet, and Z3;  and the first two Padfones,  plus the Padfone mini, from Asus.

Wired magazine included Blass in its 2013 "101 Signals" list of "the best reporters, writers, and thinkers on the Internet." Times of India profiled Blass (as @evleaks) in its May 11, 2013 edition. In November, 2013, The Verge documented Blass' difficulty in obtaining prescription medication, in an article about a controversial Walgreens policy pertaining to the dispensation of narcotic painkillers. In June 2014, he had a well-publicized spat, on Twitter, with William Shatner, after the Star Trek actor seemed to belittle Blass' colleague for having earned a Verified badge. Dozens of publications covered the occasion of his retirement, and Blass did an exit interview with The Next Web, wherein he recounted the problems he faced in trying to monetize a stream of Twitter leaks.

Immediately following his announcement, Blass was profiled on the weekly BBC technology show Click, and was the subject of a BBC online feature.