Anonymous quotes from unknown sources say whatever you want them to say

> Last year, Ruben Caballero, a senior engineer and antenna expert, informed Apple’s management the device’s design may cause reception problems, said the person, who is not authorized to speak on Apple’s behalf and asked not to be identified. A carrier partner also raised concerns about the antenna before the device’s June 24 release, according to another person familiar with the situation. So now we’re just making $hit up. A person “not authorized to speak on Apple’s behalf” who “asked not to be identified.” Trustworthy source there. That could be Steve Ballmer, for all we know.

Whatever happened to getting three sources to confirm a story? Doesn’t anyone do that anymore?

I could call the New York Times tomorrow, claim that Steve Jobs told a janitor at Apple’s Campus that the iPhone 4 causes cancer two months ago, and the story would get published at this point.

Good thing Apple is holding its press conference tomorrow. I think that was an interesting choice. It means that Apple feels it needs to demonstrate or explain something, because otherwise a simple press release of a software fix or hardware revision would do the trick. They want to set the record straight and turn the press around, which means bringing reliable members of the press to their home turf to show them what’s true and what isn’t.

I expect not so much an apology as more RDF magic from Steve and some highly respected engineers.

I still don’t expect any free bumper cases, either. That just doesn’t seem to fit Apple’s style at all, and it’s really short-sighted. It’s an admission of guilt, which Apple is not really known for. Plus, it kills future sales by failing to remove the perception that the phone is somehow flawed. The goal is to convince people that the iPhone 4 is a good phone, not that it’s a good phone that needs to be encased in rubber in order to work.

My guess is that Apple spends a lot more time tomorrow trying to show the phone isn’t flawed than admitting that it is. But who knows? I’m not going to try and pretend that I understand how to control the media better than they do. All I know is that Apple has weathered many similar storms in the past without much damage to its overall reputation.