Last week, BGR posted a Steve Jobs email exchange in which the CEO told an irate iPhone user to “calm down.” Apple said the messages were fake, but BGR is standing by his story, offering the email headers as proof.
https://gizmodo.com/steve-jobs-to-angry-iphone-4-user-calm-down-relax-5577316
The exchange was an unusual one to begin with—Jobs has been brief in the other emails we’ve seen, but it read a little differently in response to this particular customer, incensed by issues with the iPhone 4 antenna. Shortly after they were posted, a Fortune story cited a “top Apple spokesperson” who “emphatically” denied that Steve Jobs wrote any of the emails.
But in a new post, Boy Genius Report claims that the messages did indeed come from Steve Jobs’ personal account, whether the CEO wrote them or not (except for the erroneously attributed “Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it,” which was written by the angry iPhone guy). BGR posted the full email headers as proof.
BGR is a reliable source with a good track record, and we believe that the headers are, as he says, undoctered. But it’s also hard to believe that Apple would lie about Jobs writing the emails, or that they’d insinuate that even if they did come from his personal account, they weren’t written by Jobs himself. Then again, Apple’s PR team wasn’t exactly truthful about the CEO’s health condition when that was first reported, either.
It seems unlikely that Apple will respond to BGR’s claim, and I imagine we’ll be left to decide for ourselves where exactly the emails came from. Check out the headers below and let us know what you think. [BGR]
Update: A reader writes:
I just looked at the email header BGR published in support of their
claim of authenticity in regards to the leaked Jobs emails. For what
it’s worth, I used to work for Apple a few years back, and I recognize
one of the mail forwarding servers in the header from an email I was
once cc’d on.
My job role had it that I was occasionally cc’d on threads that Steve
had been on before. So I can confirm for sure that the server names in
the header are legit. Whether they are copypasta from previous,
authentic leaks is, again, up to anyone’s imagination
The full email headers:
Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs118020far;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:24 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.142.119.26 with SMTP id r26mr9657517wfc.257.1277872043323;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id h16si9548774rvn.123.2010.06.29.21.27.22;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.22;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) [email protected]
Received: from relay14.apple.com (relay14.apple.com [17.128.113.52])
by mail-out3.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 676679AB7A09
for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT)
X-AuditID: 11807134-b7b53ae000005755-28-4c2ac7aa0aef
Received: from elliott.apple.com (elliott.apple.com [17.151.62.13])
by relay14.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 35.55.22357.AA7CA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT)
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”Boundary_(ID_8h2LEWuwqrtbxFRQqYCapQ)”
Received: from [17.248.4.101] (wave-dhcp101.apple.com [17.248.4.101])
by elliott.apple.com
(Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit))
with ESMTPSA id <[email protected]> for
[email protected]; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: No Fix
References: <[email protected]>
From: Steve Jobs
X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (8A293)
In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
Message-id: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:26:39 -0700
To: Jason Burford
X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs117138far;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:27 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.142.3.19 with SMTP id 19mr9139757wfc.200.1277869526323;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:26 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
Received: from mail-out4.apple.com (mail-out4.apple.com [17.254.13.23])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id e9si10331229rva.8.2010.06.29.20.45.25;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:26 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.23;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) [email protected]
Received: from relay16.apple.com (relay16.apple.com [17.128.113.55])
by mail-out4.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 695D3A161FF5
for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:25 -0700 (PDT)
X-AuditID: 11807137-b7b43ae000004f8e-fe-4c2abdd50f50
Received: from earhart.apple.com (aldrin.apple.com [17.150.10.19])
by relay16.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 12.A8.20366.5DDBA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:25 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:21 -0700
From: Steve Jobs
Subject: Re: No Fix
In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
To: Jason Burford
Message-id: <[email protected]>
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081)
Content-type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”Boundary_(ID_Fye2Er1bSzctPHA4XIDCAA)”
References: <[email protected]>
X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs118020far;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:24 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.142.119.26 with SMTP id r26mr9657517wfc.257.1277872043323;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id h16si9548774rvn.123.2010.06.29.21.27.22;
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.22;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) [email protected]
Received: from relay14.apple.com (relay14.apple.com [17.128.113.52])
by mail-out3.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 676679AB7A09
for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT)
X-AuditID: 11807134-b7b53ae000005755-28-4c2ac7aa0aef
Received: from elliott.apple.com (elliott.apple.com [17.151.62.13])
by relay14.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 35.55.22357.AA7CA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT)
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”Boundary_(ID_8h2LEWuwqrtbxFRQqYCapQ)”
Received: from [17.248.4.101] (wave-dhcp101.apple.com [17.248.4.101])
by elliott.apple.com
(Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit))
with ESMTPSA id <[email protected]> for
[email protected]; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: No Fix
References: <[email protected]>
From: Steve Jobs
X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (8A293)
In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
Message-id: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:26:39 -0700
To: Jason Burford
X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
