Total CES PR pitches received this week: 39 (not counting e-mails from the Consumer Electronics Association itself). 

12/2/2013: Cut the cord to save money on cable, WTOP

The news station’s Brennan Haselton interviewed me about my experience dumping satellite TV and replacing it with over-the-air and Internet-delivered programming for a series that ran earlier this week.

12/5/2013: Spotify Tries A Little Transparency, Disruptive Competition Project

I thought Spotify’s uncloaking of its average royalty rates (and the related launch of a couple of new initiatives that can help musicians make more money through the service) were worth a compliment or two, and so did my friends at the Future of Music Coalition.

12/6/2013: Another Wireless Carrier Starts to Hang Up On Subsidized Phone Prices, Disruptive Competition Project

My optimistic streak continued in this post noting AT&T’s welcome decision to follow T-Mobile’s lead in decoupling hardware pricing from service charges, even if it hasn’t gone as far as the carrier it once expected to buy.

12/6/2013: #TabletChat Top Tablet Purchase Considerations Twitter Chat, IDG Mobility

This chat (led by my friend Ron Miller) drew a vastly larger audience than all of the other IDG Twitter chats I’ve helped host. I could have picked a better time to try to finish lunch, that’s for sure.

12/8/2013: Missing that tune? Tips for saving stranded music, USA Today

Yes, you’ve read this column before: I covered how to get music off an iPod for the Post in 2004, 2007 and in 2010. But a Post pal asked me the same question two weeks ago–and I had an every-three-years precedent to keep. Look for version 5.0 of this piece sometime in 2016.

On Sulia, I complimented HealthCare.gov for finally working as advertised, prototyped Friday’s post about AT&T, revisited some of 2010’s Apple rumors based on patent filings, noted how many Verizon and AT&T subscribers were willing to enter their usernames and passwords at the Sprint reseller Ting’s site, and criticized car2go for a poorly-conveyed announcement about a small increase to its prices.