Communication (clearly communicate the process and set expectations)

Accountability (take responsibility for fixing the problem or getting an answer)

Responsiveness (don’t make the customer wait for your communication or a solution)

Empathy (acknowledge the impact that the situation has on the customer)

Solution (at the end of the day, make sure to solve the issue or answer the question)

In short, what Apple and AT&T have accomplished with their heavy-handed, Soviet information-control style is not to bury these useful apps. Instead, Apple/AT&T have elevated them to martyr status—and, in effect, thrown down a worldwide challenge to programmers everywhere.

"Get around THIS," they're saying.

But guess what? It won't take long. They've put a rock in the river, but the water will just find a way around it.

Already, Google says it is readying a replacement for the Google Voice app that will offer exactly the same features as the rejected app—except that it will take the form of a specialized, iPhone-shaped Web page. For all intents and purposes, it will behave exactly the same as the app would have; you can even install it as an icon on your Home screen.

What's Apple going to do now? Start blocking access to individual Web sites?

No question about it: the next chapter has yet to be written. But I think you're going to like it.

You bet.

Brand New tells us the real story of the Coca-Cola logo. Also see: http://thinkingalaud.posterous.com/be-consistent

The primary problem with newspaper companies isn’t their revenue. It’s the size and scope of their operations. Again I say: mammals and dinosaurs. Simon, along with everyone else who thinks online subscription fees can save the newspaper industry, is effectively arguing that the world will change to support newspapers. The truth is that newspapers much change to adapt to the world. Just because the extinction of newspapers would be a tragic loss doesn’t mean it won’t happen.