"Hello, how are YOU," is about all you can say when you know a face but can't put a name to it. For those of us above a certain age it is a well-recognised Senior Moment. The human brain is a wonderful thing and, most of your life, it manages to link up names with faces in a relatively seamless way. But as you get older, the processors cool and your internal Spotlight doesn't work as it once did.
With this in mind I approve of Apple's acquisition of Swedish face-recognition software company, Polar Rose. I know next to nothing about face recognition, except when lack of it causes an embarrassing moment. Still, I have watched Apple's efforts in iPhoto with interest and the new company's expertise can only help.
Can we look forward to being able to point our iPhone at an old friend while struggling for a name and have the tricky situation resolved before we've opened our mouths? Maybe the phone can speak the name in a disembodied way after you've prompted it with "hello, how are you" followed by a pregnant pause. For once, this new trend may be more popular with the senior end of the community than with the young bloods.