An Australian teenager who has built an online following by leaking pictures of upcoming Apple Inc products has done it again, showing off the purported fingerprint scanner of the latest iPhone ahead of its expected launch next week.
Sonny Dickson, who lives with his parents in suburban Melbourne, attracted attention in August after he released detailed pictures and videos of the new grey and champagne casing on the upcoming iPhone.
On Thursday, Dickson leaked what he says are the first detailed pictures of the new model’s new “home” button with its rumored biometric fingerprint scanner.
“While the design differences have yet to be technically assessed, they could have a whole lot to do with the rumored biometric fingerprint scanner that numerous pundits and analysts have predicted. In fact, we’d count on it,” Dickson said on his website, http://sonnydickson.com/
Dickson told Reuters he has five to 10 sources in China who buy Apple prototype parts directly from factory-line workers, which are then sold from $250 to $500.
“I’ve been doing this for many years, so I know what looks fake and what’s not,” said Dickson, a high school graduate with a penchant for luxury accessories such as watches that pepper his photos on the online Instagram service.
“I trust what they say to me – but I also back up the story with other people to make sure what I’m posting is legit.”
Spending 12 hours a day maintaining his website, Dickson said his blog views spiked to a million hits last month, making him A$2,000 ($1,850) from web traffic in August.
“Most of the traffic is from the U.S. – I’ve had 590 hits from Apple and about 53 from U.S. Homeland Security in August,” said Dickson, noting he had tracked IP addresses from Washington D.C. and Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.
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