By NOEL MURPHY
SELF-STYLED teen tech insider Sonny Dickson says he’s taking a break from exposing new Apple products before they hit the market.
The Bellarine Peninsula secondary student has revealed the iPad Mini 2, iPad 5, iPhone 5C, iPhone 5S, a biometric fingerprint scanner, batteries, training videos and more on his blog, reportedly infuriating Apple.
His blog has drawn up to one million views a month with detailed inside technology and prototypes he claims to glean from factory workers and sources in China.
But Mr Dickson has gone quiet in the past month or so, with his last post in mid-October.
“I may or may not come back next year to do stuff with Apple,” he told the Independent this week.
“I’m moving forward into cars like Audi and Lexus, something new.”
The teenage blogger claimed to earn up to $2000 a month from traffic to his website and has posted to Instagram images of fashion goods and gadgets he buys.
“I don’t really like talking about how much and what I make but all my money goes to buying Vuitton items and nice things,” he said.
“I’m not really working with Apple, not until next year maybe. I mean, like, I’m buying a 2014 Audi A4.”
Mr Dickson’s website cites him as “the go-to source for Apple news thanks to his many sources and developer skills allowing him to find hidden information in the codes of beta software left behind by unknowing engineers”.
The site states it is written and edited by a journalism student and solicits tips on prototypes or “insider info”.
Mr Dickson said his leaks had drawn the daily attention of Apple – and up to 100 times a month – but claimed the tech giant had not pursued him legally.
“No one has tried to sue me or even tell me that they want to sue me,” he said.
