Someone posing as Apple head honcho Steve Jobs on Twitter has managed to fool a major UK newspaper into reporting that the iPhone 4 would be recalled after posting a Tweet which said "We may have to recall the new iPhone. This, I did not expect". The Daily Mail website ran a story with a headline which proclaimed "Apple iPhone 4 may be recalled, says Steve Jobs" which was pulled soon after. Of course, this being the Internet there can be no hiding from such mistakes, especially when Daily Mail content is syndicated far and wide.
I was able to locate plenty of copies of the article by Richard Ashmore which that is was "a hugely embarrassing move for Apple" although truth be told it was actually much more embarrassing for the Daily Mail I would imagine. What a shame that a "spokesperson for Apple was not immediately available to comment" to the story, or Mr Ashmore would have probably have been pointed in the direction of the bio for that ' ceoSteveJobs ' account on Twitter which clearly states: "Of course this is a parody account".
Or maybe the journalist should have looked at some of the other ceoSteveJobs Tweets before coming to the conclusion that it must the real deal. Would the CEO of one of the biggest companies on the planet actually post such things as "FaceTime video calls are the future of AppleCare support" or "To prevent signal problems with the new iPhone, avoid touching the phone at all times" for example? The answer, Mr Ashcroft, is no he would not.
Mind you, when the real Steve Jobs has responded to problems some users are having with signal reception on the iPhone 4 with "Just avoid holding it that way" maybe those other fake Tweets are not so out of character after all...
