“Tuned in” explains the difference between Apple Newton’s failure and iPod’s success. Apple wasn’t tuned in when it created Newton, but when it promoted “1000 songs in your pocket,” Apple solved several problems: giving people a way to carry their songs in something small, making it easy to get songs from computer to iPod and creating a product that is easy to use.

Not all stories in Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs come from big and innovative companies like Apple. In fact, we learn about a tuned in magician (one-person business), niche camera (not a well-known brand), StubHub and a company’s newsletter.

Many companies fail to ask prospects what problems they need solving. Instead, they create a problem and a solution that they think people need. An excellent example comes from Magnavox. Did the company think people needed more features on their TV sets?

No. Instead, Magnavox interviewed customers to find out what problems they had with their TVs. Sometimes customers don’t know that answer and it’s up to the tuned in company to help them figure it out. Through this process, Magnavox stumbled on a problem we all have (including my own household) — we lose our remotes on a regular basis (as hard as I try to teach my kids to put things back, they conveniently forget to do it).

So what does the company do? Added a button on its TV sets to locate the remote. Now I wish I knew about this before I bought my last TV. And this feature should become a standard for ALL TV-related products that come with a remote.

Some employees think talking to friends and family helps them tune in. But really, it doesn’t. They can’t always be the dream customer for a company’s products and services. Here’s where knowing customers enters the picture. When a company knows its customers well enough, it knows where to find them and interview them to tune in.

The book could use more examples especially of one-person or very small business stories like the magician who found his niche. The start of the book captivates, but then it drags by the middle as it falls in the trap of what some business books tend to do and starts spending too much time on its framework. The examples draws the reader in more than anything else.

For the most part, the Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs is a fast and breezy read offering valuable insight into the six-step process for tuning in by using real-life examples.

• Title: Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs
• Authors: Craig Stull, Phil Myers, David Meerman Scott
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISBN: 047026036X / 13: 978-0470260364
• Date: 2008
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 224
• Cover Price: USD: $27.95 / Amazon Price: $16.77

For freelancers and solopreneurs, making a mistake on a task compares to a corporate employee receiving bad performance review. Facing mistakes — no matter how small — as a freelancer comes harder than those made as a corporate employee — and I’ve worked on the other side. The other side includes working for the U.S. government for three years and for corporations for all but the last 2 1/2 years.

Maybe it’s my perfectionist (not as bad as it used to be, however — busier personal and professional lives will do that) nature coupled with wanting to provide the best services for clients. But freelancers know clients can drop a contractor in a jiff and over the smaller things while a company has to jump through more hoops to fire an employee over bigger issues. Corporate employees also usually receive a warning, counseling, regular reviews, or whatever the company’s policies dictate.

We (especially me) have to remember we’re human not machines. We tire, we forget, we slip, we fall. I believe that how a person handles the mistake speaks louder than the mistake.

1. Apologize: I avoid making excuses. They don’t mean a thing. The mistake happened. Apologize. Move on and work so it doesn’t happen again.
2. Rectify the situation: Get a refund, fix the error for no extra charge, add a discount on the invoice.
3. Go the extra mile next time.
4. Request feedback: After I’ve worked with a new client for a reasonable time, I request a check up. I care about providing high quality services and improving.

Here are two cases where I blundered and how I handled them.

The case of the complicated PR service
I submitted a press release for a client through a service. I had done it before without a problem. The client e-mailed me and asked why I added an extra, which added charges. What extra charges??

In reviewing the receipt, I saw what happened and it was an honest mistake because of the way the site sets up its form. OK, this sounds like I’m blaming the form, but it’s confusing and I thought I filled it out correctly. Anyway, the site makes it hard to tell what you’re getting and doesn’t bother providing a page with the totals before confirming the order. Had I seen the extra charge, I would’ve looked closer and fixed it before confirming.

Rather than pouting and praying the client doesn’t drop me, I contacted the site’s representative and had the extra charges removed. I also asked for documentation that wasn’t available online. Now when I use the site, I remember the experience (and feel my heart thump a few extra beats during the tricky process) to avoid extra charges.

The case of the forgotten information
A client asked me to contact editors and provided specific details for one editor. I didn’t start with that editor, so by the time I e-mailed the editor… I forgot about the special instructions. Eep!

E-mailing the editor again was out of the question as I didn’t want to turn off the editor from contacting him more times than necessary. Since I couldn’t rectify the situation the way I would’ve liked, I included a discount on my invoice to that client and apologized without making excuses.

Got a story of dealing with a mistake? We’d like to hear it — remember, you don’t have to use your real name.

When I first started doing casual game reviews, praising or picking apart a game came easy. Now, when writing game reviews, I feel like I’ve said it all before. The top 10 game journalism cliches captures the challenges game reviewers face. Here is the list along with my comments.

1. Top ten lists: I rarely do this. When I do, the top ten list article comes out at the end of the year. Sites like Mashable often write “## best sites for [enter a topic].” I prefer “## sites for [enter a topic]” because it’s easy to miss deserving candidates.

2. The historical open: This approach gives the writer a nice way to segue into the review. But during these times of information overload, I try to open a review with what it is along with a subtle hint of whether it’s great or blah. What do you want to know when you read a review? For me, I want reviews to tell me what the game, book, or product is about and whether it’s any good.

3. Headlines with a “?” at the end: I don’t have to worry about headlines since all the places I review for just list the game title as in “Diner Dash PC Game Review.” We could argue for and against this method, but it tells you exactly what it is.

4. 7/10 reviews: This would be 4/5 for some of us where ratings use the five point scale instead of 10, but 7/10 appears frequently in working with one client. The local newspaper started adding comments next to the rating such as “two out of five stars (good).” So, two to five stars are positive while one and zero (never happens) stars is negative. That’s no bell curve. It’s as if the newspaper is trying to be gentle and prevent readers from automatically thinking “two stars… don’t go there!” Reviews should be about serving the reader and potential customer, not making nice with the business. Kids today often get a trophy every time they play a sport regardless how their team played. Getting a trophy should make us proud because we earned it not because we signed up and played. How are we going to motivate ourselves to improve?

5. Realistic graphics: No comments on this one.

6. Quirky: Is it good or bad? Exactly the problem.

7. Fans of X will enjoy it: Guilty. I use this line when I don’t have a clever way to end the review.

8. Only time will tell: Pointless. Just give the details now.

9. Reviews broken up into standardized sections: This refers to “graphics,” “sound,” “gameplay,” etc. None of the places I review for use this. They provide a rating. One uses “pros” and “cons,” which gives you a snapshot of what’s good and bad about the game. I think that’s beneficial. Web writing rules apply here — if the review is long, use bold headers every few paragraphs. I rarely do this, though — it just doesn’t work as well for reviews.

10. “Fun.” I try to avoid this like the plague. Considering its synonyms (enjoy, amusing, cool, entertaining, pleasurable) often don’t work well, reviewers sometimes can’t help but use “fun.”

My biggest problem is describing different things such as the graphics and sound. You can only say the same thing so many ways. One thing about reviewing… it offers writers a wonderful way to put their creativity to work. [Link: Gamewire]

I’m buried with the final preparations for a big family event happening all weekend. I’ll write about it at another time. In the meantime, I posted a review of Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children, a follow up to the popular Virtual Villagers.

The only recent I mentioned this here is because some of you only get the feed for the blog and not the features, so maybe you’ll find something of interest over there where the “longer posts” are that are too long for an average blog entry.

Book review of Seth Godin’s newest book, Free Prize Inside, is posted. Man, he is good. The book has not even reached shelves and look how well it ranks in Amazon from pre-orders.