If you want to win consumer fans in technology, the first rule is to do no harm to yourself:

• If you’re Apple, your problem with the iPhone leak would have gone away long ago if you would have let. You reacted defensively, and went on the offense, all at once, propelling all kinds of rare negative mainstream press.
• If you’re Motorola, for God’s sake, stop harming your once-in-a-generation success, the Droid, with ridiculous robot commercials.
• If you’re Google, delete the “accidentally” collected personal Wi-Fi information immediately and publicly.
• If you’re AT&T, and have had the good fortune of carrying the iPhone exclusively for years, you better make sure your network quality is not on the minds of millions of new customers. Wireless networks are at their best when they’re not being discussed and written about.
• If you’re Facebook, stop endlessly changing your privacy policy. Enjoy your hundreds of millions of users and generate handsome revenue without angering the people who are the only reason you make any money to begin with.

Every one of these is common sense, which is something that’s not so common in consumer electronics — or, for that matter, in business in general.