Voices

From Hype to Disaster: Segway's Timeline

British police said Monday that the owner of the company that makes the Segway was found dead after falling off a cliff…on a Segway. It’s a gruesome chapter in the history of an invention that was supposed to revolutionize the way we get around but that ended up going nowhere.

Kara Visits TEDMED (Featuring Synthetic Skin and Heart-Scanning iPhones!)

Can your cellphone check your blood sugar? What does a wireless BandAid do? Is my pill networked? Can a videogame cure cancer? Will a robot care for my mom? Can an iPhone save my life? And, of course, does synthetic skin feel gross? The answer to the last question is yes, but it is also pretty astonishing to touch, as noted in one of the many tech-heavy talks at TEDMED, the medical and health-care conference, which has returned after a five-year hiatus, to Hotel Coronado near San Diego.
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The "Billionaires' Dinner" at TED: Readjusted for the 2009 Econalyspe

Many years ago in the midst of the Web 1.0 boom, when working as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, BoomTown redubbed an annual dinner that book agent John Brockman threw at the TED conference. It was jokingly called the “Millionaires’ Dinner,” but I renamed it the “Billionaires’ Dinner.” That was due to the frothy fortunes that had been made at the time by the Internet pioneers, from Amazon to AOL to eBay. Get it?!? Well, despite the economic meltdown, there were still a lot of billionaires in attendance at Brockman’s most recent dinner last Thursday in Long Beach. But he recounted to me that the proceedings were a lot more focused on the serious times we are in, as was the whole digerati-packed conference held last week.

The Entire D6 Demo of DEKA Research's Bionic Arm (3 of 3)

We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May. Unfortunately, due to issues too complicated to go into, we have to post all the D6 interviews in several 15-minute parts (I know, I know). But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column. In the less contentious spirit of DEMOfall and TechCrunch50, two demo conferences taking place simultaneously this week, we’re happy to bring you all the demos we had onstage at the D6 conference. Here’s part three of three videos of the most popular demo, by well-known inventor Dean Kamen, who showed off his latest creation, the “Luke Arm” prosthesis.

The Entire D6 Demo of DEKA Research's Bionic Arm (2 of 3)

We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May. Unfortunately, due to issues too complicated to go into, we have to post all the D6 interviews in several 15-minute parts (I know, I know). But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column. In the less contentious spirit of DEMOfall and TechCrunch50, two demo conferences taking place simultaneously this week, we’re happy to bring you all the demos we had onstage at the D6 conference. Here’s part two of three videos of the most popular demo, with well-known inventor Dean Kamen, who showed off his latest creation, the “Luke Arm” prosthesis.

The Entire D6 Demo of DEKA Research's Bionic Arm (1 of 3)

We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May. Unfortunately, due to issues too complicated to go into, we have to post all the D6 interviews in several 15-minute parts (I know, I know). But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column. In the less contentious spirit of DEMOfall and TechCrunch50, two demo conferences taking place simultaneously this week, we’re happy to bring you all the demos we had onstage at the D6 conference. Here’s part one of three videos of the most popular demo, with well-known inventor Dean Kamen, who showed off his latest creation, the “Luke Arm” prosthesis.

D6 Conference Recap

Here are all of the highlights from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference, organized by day and speaker: Day One Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft You would have loved Windows 1.0. Walt. You would have LOVED it.” –Ballmer Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Windows 7 Demo Day Two Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com People loved their horses, too. But you don’t keep riding your horse to work just because you love it.” –Bezos on the difference between physical books and digital ones Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Bobby Kotick, Activision The social element has really transformed the gaming experience.” – Kotick on the impact of games like Guitar Hero Session post  |  Video Guitar Hero IV Demo with Tony Hawk and Paula Abdul Howard Stringer, Sony If we were any more successful, we’d be bankrupt.” –Stringer on the success of Sony’s LCD business Session post  |  Video Barry Diller, IAC Hollywood is a community that’s so inbred, it’s a wonder the children have any teeth.”   Session post  |  Video Michael Dell, Dell I could take him.” –Dell on his chances of success in a brawl with Apple CEO Steve Jobs Session post  |  Video Jerry Yang and Sue Decker, Yahoo I will never be a CEO again.” –Yang Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Jeff Bewkes, AOL AOL is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Web. We don’t get no respect.”   Session post  |  Video Nathan Myhrvold, Intellectual Ventures We invest in the creation of ideas… It’s like Baby Mama, with me as the mama.”   Session post  |  Video Demo: G.ho.st Web Operating System Lets users access their desktop from any computer with an Internet connection. Session post  |  Video Tom Glocer, Thomson Reuters We have one great advantage over bloggers: we write once, and sell many times to many different media outlets.” Session post  |  Video Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook I won’t ever stop until you’re either the biggest thing around, or you’re dead.” –Kara Swisher on her relentless coverage of Facebook Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation I want to meet Obama. I want to know if he’s going to walk the walk.”     Session post  |  Full Session Videos: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six Day Three Demo: evri An application that graphs the Web via grammatical information. Session post  |  Video Demo: 23andMe Web-based, direct-to-consumer genome services. Session post  |  Video Melinda Gates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation All lives are equal.” Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Demo: TransMedia’s Glide A mobile-operating system that cuts across all operating systems. Session post  |  Video Tom Rogers, TiVo The TV set and its primary position in the home isn’t going anywhere in the future.” Session post  |  Videos: One and Two Demo: Deka The “Luke Arm” prosthesis, a state-of-the-art bionic arm. Session post  |  Video Kevin Martin, FCC and Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless You’re the chairman of the FCC. How did you allow this to happen?” –Walt Mossberg grills Martin on the lousy broadband situation in the States Session post  |  Videos: One and Two
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Deka’s Bionic Arm: Demo

DEKA Research founder and Segway creator Dean Kamen comes to D6 to demonstrate his “Luke Arm” prosthesis. Named after the artificial limb worn by Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars,” the state-of-the-art bionic arm looks and feels to its user like his or her native arm.
DEKA Research Robotic Arm