A few days ago, BoyGenius posted what it thought was an authentic email exchange between Steve Jobs and an iPhone 4 user, who was upset about the antenna issues and the reported actions Apple reps were supposed to take (see below). We didn’t immediately run it here on TiP because… well, parts of the communication seemed a little fishy to us. Turns out, we were right to hold off. BGR wound up revising the final comments in it — namely, a quote that was supposedly from Jobs saying, “It is just a phone. Not worth it.”

BGR wound up editing to re-attribute the comment to “Tom,” the customer. But that didn’t stop Apple Inc. from calling out the whole conversation as a lie, and other sites from calling into question the website’s standing as a tech reporting outlet.

The same day the post went live, AppleInsider posted an article about the source and how he shopped the story around looking for payment. And, in its conclusion, it made a note about tech rumor sites and their slipshod reporting methods. BGR, clearly irritated over this, posted a lengthy follow-up article that included the email headers, as well as a lengthy justification of its side of the story and why it still believes the tip is real. (Basically, the site got some IT guys to validate the headers.)

So now, there appears to be some bad blood between the two tech sites, and some lingering questions about the original email communication: Is Apple splitting hairs, saying this didn’t come from Jobs? Technically, a PR rep, executive assistant or some other staffer could be responding from the CEO’s email account, and the company could still say Jobs had nothing to do with it. Or did a tech-savvy end user take it upon himself to go through the trouble of faking this, just to get a point across in the media?

Maybe the biggest question of all is: Who cares? True or not, this little melodrama makes no difference to the end users who are suffering glitches. This was just a silly situation that got blown way out of proportion, and the fact that this became a fairly big news items attests to that. So c’mon people: Get a grip. There’s enough real news out there without putting a spotlight on this silly non issue.

So that’s my opinion. What’s yours? Were the emails real or fake? And do you care, either way? The thread that started this whole stink follows, so take a look if you’re curious.

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First email:

[Apple engineer name redacted],

When we spoke, you would not tell me that there is a fix for this phone?

A friend just sent me this: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/29/leaked-apples-internal-iphone-4-antenna-troubleshooting-procedures/

I assume there is no fix then. If this is legit, I have lost all respect for apple and just want to go back to Verizon and get a nice Android phone. And don’t tell me they have the same issues, all our co-workers with Androids are just mocking us right now…. “Hey, I am going to go in the basement and continue my call. You can use my office on the 2nd floor so you can get a signal”. You are going to kill your brand over one product. Apple is coming off arrogant and rude. If there is no fix just tell people so they can return their phones. We have work to do. I have bought just about every apple product made in the last 20 years and this is the 1st time I am ashamed to be a MAC fan.

This is just sickening,

[Tom]

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Steve Jobs:

No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down.

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Tom’s response:

I am really insulted… “Calm down”…. “rumors”… What arrogance. This is will be marked as the begging of the end of Apple. Seriously, DO THE RIGHT THING. I just had dinner with 3 people who had iPhone 4s we all cant make calls without dropping. There is no rumors it is reality.

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Steve Jobs:

You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength.

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Tom:

Stop with jackass comments. I have has every iphone made. They all had a bad signal but this is the so much worse X3. The whole country is is in a “low signal strength” in reality… all but apple campus and your house it seems? AT&T maps are a joke. I am in “excellent” to “good” coverage and on my iPhone 1, Iphone 3G, and my iPhone 3Gs, I could at least make a telephone call. After all, it is a phone. Iphone 4…. 5 bars….. touch the phone… ZERO bars call drops.

Steve. IT DOES NOT WORK! Geezzz I hope this this is not really you. Are we on a different MHz? I have yet to see an iPhone [4] work in Richmond when you hold it in your hand. It is not “isolated”. I was a big fan. But I am done.

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Jobs:

You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it.

Sent from my iPhone

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Tom’s reply [updated]:

Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.