I’d meant to write something else here this week: a post about the high distraction factor of a presidential election season. But I got distracted. (Shouldn’t I have seen that coming?)

9/7/2012: Rob’s Podcast: Comparing Notes With PCWorld’s Melissa Perenson, CEA Digital Dialogue

This was possibly the most snakebit podcast ever–after a long series of schedule conflicts, my first attempt was thwarted by bad Skype reception, the second one involved two or three false starts, and then it got held up somewhere at CEA. Anyway: In it, you can hear me talk about a variety of tech-industry issues–for instance, Windows 8’s interface, the future of the digital camera and upcoming tablets–with Melissa Perenson, a writer for PCWorld, TechHive and other sites.

9/7/2012: Gmail Two-Step Verification: Mission Possible, Discovery News

I waited until I’d spent a month with Google’s version of two-factor authentication to write about it. Verdict: a major upgrade in security that makes me feel smarter, but it increases the risk involved in losing one’s smartphone.

I didn’t realize until after I’d filed this that I had left out my usual disclosure about taking a speaking fee from Google last year. Should I have stuffed somewhere into the post?

9/8/2012: September 8, 2012 — Rob Pegoraro and Avram Piltch, Tech Night Owl Live

Gene Steinberg interviewed me and Laptop magazine’s Avram Piltch about what we saw at IFA in Berlin, tech patents, tablets and more for his Tech Night Owl podcast. (I was last on Gene’s show in January.)

9/9/2012: New depth in flat-panel fight: plasma, LCD, LED, OLED, USA Today

While I was at IFA, I shared a cab with a couple who asked if they should get a plasma or an LCD TV. The plasma-or-LCD question has been around for a while, but I realized I could use their query to address the difference between LCDs and LEDs (the subject of an earlier CEA post) and mention yet another flat-panel technology, super-thin but frighteningly expensive OLED screens. The piece also offers a tip about using “DLNA” sharing to link phones and connected TVs that may be news to many readers–I didn’t realize my TV supported this standard until a good year and a half after I’d bought it.