Digital cameras

Tiny, cheap cameras are everywhere these days, including built into the nearly ubiquitous cell phone. When a potential leaker anywhere stumbles across a prototype gadget -- at a factory, trade show or the desk of a colleague -- chances are high he will have a digital camera readily available. Pictures can be posted in minutes and circulated globally in hours. And photos tell so much: branding, logo, partnerships, look-and-feel, size and more.

Some of the best content on the big gadget blogs, such as Engadget and Gizmodo, feature low-quality "spy" photos of upcoming products "spotted in the wild" by anonymous characters exposed to the devices in unknowable, random circumstances. Many of these posts show the product from front, rear, side, top and bottom views. Sometimes even the internal electronics are exposed for all to see. These posts can appear out of nowhere months or even more than a year before the products ship.

Blogs

If the Internet is the glue that binds product information leaks with the curious public, then blogs are the superglue. If some interesting tidbit or photo is posted anywhere on the Internet, some gadget blogger will find it and link to it. A hot product leak that emerges on an obscure blog can spread like a virus, showing up on thousands of sites within a week, aided and abetted by social bookmarking services like Slashdot and Digg as well as message boards of every description.