MacDailyNews Take: We were waiting for this to happen. It was only a matter of time. Email is not even close to being the best way for Steve Jobs to communicate with customers.
Elmer-DeWitt reports, “The conversation was published Thursday by The Boy Genius Report and linked to by more than three dozen other sites.”
“Asked on the record whether Steve Jobs was the author of any of these statements, a top Apple spokesman emphatically denied it,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “Separately, AppleInsider is reporting that a similar exchange was shopped to them two days earlier by a Virginia man who offered to sell it to them for an unspecified amount of money.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, as we’ve already done in the original article, even though we questioned whether the email was really from Steve Jobs and based our Take on the assumption that it was, we publicly apologize to Apple CEO Steve Jobs while imploring him to please stop using email to communicate with customers and instead use an official Apple blog so everyone can trust that we are actually reading his words.
NewType,
Pardon moi, but WTF are you talking about? MDN is not “reinforcing this myth that the iPhone 4 users can’t make phone calls.”
Explain this, please:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/25838/
Now this:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/25793/
Then explain this:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/25825/
Take note of the use of quotes and who is saying what, it might help you formulate rational thoughts in the future.
MDN, nice try at a half hearted apology. Not good enough.
And while you’re at it, please stop echoing Gizmodo’s call for free bumpers. iPhone 4 customers do NOT need free bumpers. My iPhone 4 is awesome!
If people are not happy with their phone, return it for a full refund. There are PLENTY of people who would love to buy those “refurbished” phones.
@Journo
The uproar was not over MDN’s reporting. It was over MDN’s “roll over and play dead” acceptance of a report from a source which is at the very least suspect … Sometimes reliable and sourced, other times seemingly more conjecture. This in spite of remarks which would surprise anyone who has seen Steve Jobs over the years and the careful ways he crafts his personal communications, whether they be in emails or keynotes.
It was MDN’s acceptance at face value of BGR AND their venomous attack of SJ and AAPL in the wake of that report that was irresponsible and inappropriate.
The only question remaining… Has Rupert Murdoch acquired MDN?
Yeah, MDN has been been reading from the Android propaganda reports lately. I don’t doubt there is some antenna issue but it has to be extremely minor. I have had mine since launch along with three other friends who all have the experience that iPhone 4 is *better* at receiving, holding, and call quality than any previous iPhone. Further, not *one* advance reviewer noticed? None of the hundreds of people who were on the floor of the Moscone after the keynote trying it out hands-on noticed it? I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, I’m saying it’s wildly trumped-up and MDN is, sadly, playing right along.
One other thing. Steve Jobs can email customers if he wants to. He does this as a way to have one-on-one contact with his customers. A blog is not the same thing. At all.
His emails are meant for the recipient, and not for the web at large. Accept that. Lately MDN has Had a real attitude problem. Get over yourself, MDN.
MDN you f^ked up! You feed into that story with idiotic reactionary comments about Steve Jobs. Lighten up and trust that nothing is perfect but consider the fact that Apple is a massive company now and can fix almost any problem with it’s Billions and Billions in cash. Don’t be afraid MDN that Apple will stop caring about us.
@breeze re ATT’s network:
EXACTLY! I’ve been saying this for days. Why is no one considering the huge additional load on their network? Not only all those 3G iPads but a boatload of new phones too. The four folks I know here in the UK have had zero problems network-wise; indeed they’ve experienced better reception in marginal areas than they got with their 3GS devices. So far, all the reports I’ve read here talk about problems in the US. I’ve heard squat about problems in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
It really is about time that Apple used more carriers, even to the point of deploying a CDMA version to placate Verizon customers. We have six carriers in the UK selling iPhones and we have huge backhaul capacity to boot, as does much of Europe.
I think what you US folks are seeing is a combination of problems: a huge increase in devices saturating an already overloaded network, a misleading display of the apparent signal strength (cf. the many reports of fewer bars yet with a better ability to hold the call even with this apparent marginal signal level) and problems with the proximity sensor, which I’ve seen first hand and has been responsible for the call dropping through the accidental contact with the screen.
What’s been really funny is the report that Apple are hiring antenna engineers and watching this news conflated by the blogosphere as being indicative of problems with the 4’s antenna – utter bullshit! The logical conclusion is that they are required to work on forthcoming products. Do people seriously believe that Apple don’t already have highly qualified antenna engineers working for them?
I performed an empirical test yesterday: I borrowed a friend’s 4 (no easy task I can assure you) and took in to my local pub, a converted 17th century coaching house built with thick stone walls notorious for lousy reception and guess what? My old Nokia 1800 struggled to get one bar and hold a call for any decent length of time (no change there!) while the 4 worked like a champ even with an apparent marginal signal.
And it didn’t take a genius to see that those alleged emails from Steve were obviously fake; the entire tenor was just plain wrong. Seems there’s a lot of capital to be made trying to have a pop at Apple now that they’ve become so successful. I thought the whole point of the American Way was to become successful. Unfortunately once you are, every second rate bugger and ambulance chaser sees you as fair game to sue for the most frivolous of reasons.
Good thing Apple has garnered a thick skin over the years. If I were them, I’d be pretty pissed off to have all that effort in trying to make the very best products dissed by the illiterati.
=:~)
Vatdoro,
The emails then get published by blogs and news outlets. And then fake emails slip in like one did with Boy Genius.
Jobs understands the need for control better than most anyone. He won’t cede control of his message again.
WAY TO GO MDN!! continue to delete people’s post who actually criticize you
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m.w: Justice = as in anyone who doesn’t agree with mdn’s point of view will have mdn’s brand of justice = post deleted. DAMN here I thought dictatorships were bad but this takes the crown (obviously I jest with the dictator comparison).
@FactChecker
When MDN DEMANDS that Apple give out free bumpers, that is not based on facts. It is a mindless echo of Gizmodo’s attempt to EXTORT Apple at every turn. That’s how Gizmodo rolls. Rile up the masses with lies and self-righteous, holier-than-thou, we-know-better posts while claiming they are on the side of good and openness.
FACT: The iPhone 4’s antenna perform better in the real world than any other phone out there.
FACT: Attenuation in and of itself is not important. What’s important is whether the phone performs better or not, not a statistic like attenuation that is meaningless when taken in the isolation of extortionists like Gizmodo bloggers.
FACT: If iPhone 4 performs BETTER as a phone, what is the issue?
The only issue is the Android army willing to use lies and tricks to “prove” that Android phones are superior. iPhone and Mac blog these days are filled with so-called “long time” Mac and iPhone users who are supposedly abandoning Apple if Steve doesn’t kowtow to their extortions.
I love a CEO who takes time out of his/her busy day to personally respond to customers. Can crap like this happen, sure but Steve’s personal response to people should not stop because of it.
@breeze – excellent statement
@MDN – everyone gets a bit out of control once in a while. Take the time to reset. You can’t be funny all of the time. There are only so many Enderles and Thuridiots in this world (too many for my taste). Sometimes an article is just an article…
@MDN,
Enjoy your crow.
Lord knows I’m enjoying YOUR crow. It’s delicious.
MDN Magic Word: “quality” As in, “How about you restore some quality.”
NewType,
The use of the word “if” actually conveys meaning. And I quote:
“If the iPhone 4 requires a ‘case’ or rubber ‘bumper’ in order to operate properly, then Apple should provide one in every box free of charge.”
“If…“
MDN has always said “if.” Therefore, “if not,” then there is no “MDN DEMAND” for free bumpers.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/25755/
Thank you, MDN, for standing up for Apple customers as usual.
It was pretty obvious to me that Jobs never made those remarks, and if so, was dealing with an absolutely hysterical maniac.
It’s in the air, apparently, nowadays.
This is welcome news. But Apple needs to stop playing defense and get ahead of this issue.
Depends on the meaning of “if”.
Bill Clinton
You guys deserve your crows, enjoy them.
MDN, deleting comments is totally against free speech!!!!
I’m with HUNDREDs other here..
GOODBYE MDN! It’s time we all find a better Apple site than a undemocratic feed trolling site like this…
I’m with Andy on this…
this will be my last visit to MDN
has anyone got a better alternative to MDN?
here’s a couple good sites
http://www.appleinsider.com/
http://www.macnn.com/
http://www.macobserver.com/
anyone else got some other links?
MDN spoke their mind. They also flagged the email as a possible fake. I appreciate both.
Having said that, I think MDN is making a little too much out of the antenna issue. Pkay so Apple isn’t perfect. We know. But the iPhone 4 is still ten times the next smartphone.
How, pray tell, was anyone, MDN included, meant to know that this email wasn’t real. Hm? Maybe their take yesterday was a knee-jerk reaction, but it was a one that stood up for the consumer, and I respect that MDN isn’t prepared to overlook Apple’s foibles like many people here will do, and they will instead question them.
People here need to realise that Apple and Steve Jobs are not perfect. There is an issue of some description with the antenna. Maybe it’ll be fixed, maybe it won’t, but regardless, for the time being, there is a problem. God knows I love Apple as much as everybody here, but I personally agree with MDN’s stance on things, and their reaction to this situation. It’s worth noting that in their take, they on three occasions said “IF” this is Steve Jobs.
And I agree with MDN about the emails as well. It was cool at first, but as I said yesterday when news broke that it wasn’t real, and before MDN had updated their article, Steve should stop emailing, even if it’s just for the time being because more and more people will begin to exploit the fact that anything said by him gets plentiful news coverage.
Oh, and by the way @David Tobar: you proved yourself wrong with your own comment. Slander is a spoken malicious false statement. Libel is where it is written down, which MDN’s take was. You have yourself a nice day now.
@David Tobar
you keep using the word slander and I still don’t think you know what that means.
Slander is to denigrate someone and is spoken publicly.
Libel is to denigrate someone using the written word.
Sort of obvious isn’t it. Way to wordy for Steve. there is over 7 of them!
Plus would Steve ever say “It’s Just a Phone” …maybe while talking about a Palm or Kin.