We saw a new leaker appear on the scene several months back, tweeting about a range of rumors connected to upcoming Apple products and software releases. Recently, the account shared what it said were details about new features coming to iOS 17, the Apple Watch, the iPhone, and more.
However, on Wednesday morning, the account, which tweeted under the Twitter handle “@Analyst941,”went dark. The leaker posted that Apple had identified their inside source and fired her due to the company’s “multi-step sting” operation.
The leaker debuted last fall sharing what turned out to be accurate details about what was then the upcoming iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island feature. At the time, the iPhone 14 Pro had been rumored to feature two separate cutouts, one shaped like a pill (which ended up being Dynamic Island) and another that was shaped like a hole punch @Analyst941’s claim was the first to claim that Apple planned to visually merge those two cutouts via software.
What followed was a few months of silence, then we saw the leaker post again, first via the MacRumors forums, then via a Twitter account.
The source began regularly making posts about details on upcoming Apple releases. Apple has traditionally been quite successful at plugging leaks about new software releases, although there have been some exceptions over the years. Hardware release leaks have been more plentiful over the years as many come from Apple’s supply chain. However, software updates are a bit easier to keep undercover, as the process is fully controlled internally by Apple.
Last week, we saw @Analyst941 tweet that Apple was working to finally bring Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to the iPad, claiming the release of Final Cut Pro would take place in 2024, with Logic Pro coming to the iPad in 2025.
Just a few days later, Apple officially announced the May 23 launch of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad. The leaks about the two apps were, according to the leaker, part of a “multi-step” sting operation that Apple conducted to identify their source.
@Analyst941 hadmade public posts on Twitter that their inside source at Apple was a sibling that had worked on Apple’s software teams, working directly with Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering. Revealing that bit of details about the source was enough to get them fired.
Analyst941 said in a post on MacRumors Forums on Wednesday, Analyst941 wrote a “farewell message.” The leaker said Apple planted the 2024 and 2025 timelines with a single employee (revealed to be Analyst941’s sister) inside the firm. When the 2024 and 2025 dates were tweeted by Analyst941’s account on Twitter Apple knew that had identified the leaker account’s source.
Analyst941’s sister was reportedly fired from Apple once the leaks were traced back to her. The pair are now worried that Apple will take legal action against them:
I don’t want to share too many details right now because of the legality of things — but a multi-step sting has gotten my sister fired from Apple, and unfortunately I am afraid next is legal action being taken against both of us, separately.
The breaking point was multiple, if not almost all who knew about FCP/Logic iPad development was given a unique combination of release dates — unfortunately the combination I shared on Twitter matched the combination given to my sister as the FCP+Logic timeframe, along with other small factors.
(Via 9to5Mac)