I recently discovered that Google posts their lunchtime sessions online.  There are some very interesting talks on there, so check them out.  Make sure you check out the local maritime content from Dave Astels and Lev Goldfarb.  Small world indeed.

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Man, the web is aflutter with rumours and speculations about whether Google will unveil some kind of consumer device at CES on Friday.  Think they will announce a Google OS-powered system?  If they do, every web development team (including mine) is possibly going to need / want some.  I know I'll be watching Google News and a bunch of blogs shortly after 4pm Pacific on Friday...

The more interesting question is whether consumers need or want this type of device.  I say yes, even if they don't know it yet.  :)  Folks like my mother and my wife for the most part are using "expensive" laptops for search, web browsing, email (web-based in both cases), IM, and checking the weather forecast.  A low-cost device could reasonably serve those needs well.  Of course the device needs a display and as much as I love my Media Center PC, the 10-foot experience (TV) is bad for email and web browsing.  So the device needs its own display, which means it has to be laptop-style ($100 laptop?) or Mac Mini style (add a monitor, mouse, and keyboard).  Both options have potential.  The web / Internet is a sufficiently interesting place that a device with a "network-is-the-computer" philosophy could be popular.

I wait with bated breath...

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I'm not sure my Toshiba tablet PC is going to seem very sexy compared to suede-covered laptops and notebooks trimmed with leather, chrome, or wood.  I could see myself buying a leather-bound tablet PC - I used to have a leather-bound day planner...

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Have you seen Riya (http://www.riya.com/)?  If this stuff works as advertised it is going to be very, very cool.  You upload a training set of photos and provide the names of the people in your photos.  The software will then automatically annotate new photos with the names of the people in those photos!!!  Yeah, I know - cool.  Very cool.

Also very compelling is their software called Viggly that "looks at all the text contained in your pictures, and indexes it so that next time you go to L.A. up Beachwood Drive to take a snapshot, all the pictures of your trip will be automagically tagged as 'HOLLYWOOD'!"  Yeah, I know - cool.  Very cool.

Jordy - Have anything to add to this?  You experimented in the facial recognition business.  Why did you drop the idea?  What kind of really hard problems are the Riya folks going to run into?

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