Craziest Apple leak ever?

Apple leaker Jon Prosser appears to be in deep doo-doo.

Author

Leander Kahney
July 18, 2025

This is a craaaaaaazy story — one of the craziest I’ve heard in 30 years of the Apple news business!

Apple claims leaker Jon Prosser, who runs the popular Front Page Tech YouTube channel, stole trade secrets regarding iOS 26.

Prosser is a serial leaker who had a great record of Apple scoops a while ago but has been less prominent recently — until earlier this year when he ran several exclusives about the design of iOS 26.

Prosser’s predictions turned out to be pretty accurate, and now we might know why.

Apple just filed a lawsuit against Prosser, claiming he conspired with an accomplice to steal information from an Apple engineer who was running the unreleased operating system on a test iPhone.

Money was involved, Apple claims, and a great deal of subterfuge. Prosser denies the claims and says he looks forward to speaking to Apple about the incident.

The whole story is bananas from start to finish — and we have the full details of every twist and turn here.

As someone who’s been in the Apple news business for more than 30 years, it’s never good to see a fellow reporter get sued by Cupertino, whether they are a rival or not.

We’ve covered several of Prosser’s leaks, profiled him, and he’s appeared a couple of times on Cult of Mac’s podcast.

We’re friendly rivals of the guy, and wish him the best.

But if Apple’s claims are true, the situation appears — and I stress the word appears, because it’s not been adjudicated — to violate the kind of good reporting practices that protect journalists from prosecution like this.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how this plays out.

Also in today’s newsletter:

  • AirTags are great, but this third-party Find My tracker is better in several ways, from having a built-in keychain loop to a very loud alarm. See our hands-on review.

  • Talking of our podcast, check our new-look CultCast, available here on YouTube (or anywhere you get audio podcasts — just search for CultCast). We’re experimenting with the format, trying to include more reviews and how-tos along with Apple news. Please smash that subscribe button — and tell your friends, too!

  • Cloud-based storage comes with a bunch of advantages, and this 1TB deal offers some of the cheapest storage available.

  • If you have an Apple Cash balance and want to buy something with it, here’s how to conjure up a virtual card number to pay for purchases.

  • Check out Cult of Mac writer David Snow’s recently upgraded work-from-home setup, where he claims the world record for input devices.

— Leander Kahney, EIC.

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One more thing ...

❝

I don’t think I run roughshod over people, but if something sucks, I tell people to their face. It’s my job to be honest. I know what I’m talking about, and I usually turn out to be right. That’s the culture I tried to create. We are brutally honest with each other, and anyone can tell me they think I am full of shit and I can tell them the same. And we’ve had some rip-roaring arguments, where we are yelling at each other, and it’s some of the best times I’ve ever had. I feel totally comfortable saying, “Ron, that store looks like shit” in front of everyone else. Or I might say, “God, we really fucked up the engineering on this” in front of the person that’s responsible. That’s the ante for being in the room: You’ve got to be able to be super-honest. Maybe there’s a better way, a gentlemen’s club where we all wear ties and speak in this Brahmin language and velvet code words, but I don’t know that way, because I am middle class from California.

— Steve Jobs, 2011.

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