Person talking to Jobs over faulty iPhone 4 reception reportedly shopped conversation around to the tech media

Jul 2, 2010 07:14 GMT  ·  By

An alleged email conversation with Apple’s CEO has been labeled as fake by the Mac maker’s PR unit, although the original source continues to “believe this exchange to be 100% legitimate.” The conversation reportedly occurred between a person named “Tom” by the Boy Genius Report, an Apple engineer, and Steve Jobs himself.

Tom reportedly emailed the Apple engineer and Steve Jobs directly. The email thread is broken down by the rumor site which claims to have verified the email headers and information, concluding the conversation is legit. Notable alleged comments from Mr. Jobs include:

"No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down." "You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength." "You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it."

Fortune picked up on the story and contacted Apple PR to clarify whether this was an actual conversation between the company’s CEO and this alleged Tom. According to the paper, “a top Apple spokesman emphatically denied it”.

The person quarreling with Apple over the iPhone 4 reception issues may have been identified by AppleInsider as Jason Burford of Burford Advertising. Burford is apparently the author of a YouTube video demonstrating signal-drop issues when holding the iPhone 4 in a certain manner. The advertising man reportedly contacted AppleInsider earlier this week, offering to sell his alleged conversation.

Burford Advertising is described as a small family run firm that creates video commercials for local businesses. AppleInsider claims that Burford wrote to the site "email exchange from jobs. 'Calm down' 'rumors.' for sale. Will send headers for proof." Asked to provide more information about his alleged conversation with Apple’s head, Burford replied, "I do not wish to share all of it because I kinda went off on him and it is embarrassing."