“We’re very focused on delivering upon the AI capabilities of a device—in fact everything that we’re announcing has an NPU in it—but what we’ve learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is they’re not buying based on AI,” Terwilliger says bluntly. “In fact I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome.”
🔗 Dell’s CES 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I’ve had in maybe 5 years
Once again I’m logging in from Ibiza. I wouldn’t say I’ve gone native, but I’ve been here long enough to get it. This is not fierce, grind-it-out, Silicon Valley society; even Austin Texas, that wellspring of slackerdom, has a harsher work-ethic. This little Mediterranean island with some genuine Lotus-eater aspects to it – the island of the Lotus Eaters was supposed to be Djerba over in Tunisia.
According to the Odyssey, you sail there, you partake of the Lotus, you go kinda blotto and everything’s groovy. You’re not supposed to succumb to this sweet and easy life, of course. Captain Odysseus makes everybody get back on the boat and recommence rowing for Ithaca. A few hundred Greek verses later, every blue-collar guy is dead and only Captain Odysseus is left to manage his narrative.
Maybe staying in Lotus Land wasn’t such a bad idea for the working man…
Software Defined Talk’s 2025 Year in Review - This week, we review our 2025 predictions, discuss the big stories, and speculate on 2026. Plus, Coté dives deep into the EU broth market.
Check out the traditional podcast version if you prefer that over video.
I liked Jana’s book The Octopus Organization, and there were so many more questions I had.
Garbage Chairs of Amsterdam, snowpocalypse edition
