Note: this picture is from last year but the stage looks 99.9% the same :)

It's a rather grey day here in San Diego but DEMO is (as usual) a perfectly oiled machine that spins into buzz action exactly in time at 8.30 AM. Another good thing this time the Wifi is superb - not dragged down by the amount of laptops here.

More interesting the company presentations this morning.

Dash Navigation - www.dash.net

Dash is a car navigation system that does not come OEM yet. The USP of Dash lies in the meta information in sucks in besides the core navigation.

Some nice features - people can send you directions directly through the web (no typing needed). Dash uses road sensor to route you through the best route. Also Dash systems speak to each other and tell each otehr how traffic is flowing.

Dash also takes care of related info it pulls from Yahoo Local.

Nice - but there is a lot of competition that is not giving away market share so easily.

Tribeca Labs - www.tribecalabs.com

Tribeca Labs makes a photo improvements software that also backs up your pictures in Swiss data servers (the aptly named Swiss Picture Bank). Looks good and simple but we had these kinds of programs earlier haven't we?

Pluggd - www.pluggd.com

Pluggd makes the promises to find the pearls within podcasts - i.e. making podcasts searchable. Pluggd shows you graphically where a certain keyword is used within the podcast. Pluggd tries to make sure to find the conversation not just the word within a podcast.

Still the issue is that there is a an equivalent of the hyperlinks missing in podcasts - but maybe the video objects are here to help.

Good stuff but a little bit too insular maybe?

Presto Services - www.presto.com

Presto helps the 'late adapters' how the Internet works. It's a HP printer and a router that just plugs into power and telephone lines.

Presto simplifies Email, Newsletters and Photo printing for those of us who would rather prefer that the Internet is less complicated.

If you live far away from your mom and can't make it home that often - try this. $149 once and 9.99 is what you have to shell out for the service.

RingCube - www.mojopac.com

Mojopac makes a bold claim - to change the world of Mobile Devices.

Mojopac basically makes Windows XP boot from a USB device that has all the customization you need. So you can switch over from one PC to the next without lossing the customization.

But hey guys have you heard of the OS in your browser yet - no need for a PC anymore :)

Anyway a good presentation and an interesting device.

Listen to the first session of company presentations as a podcast - Download MP3 33MB