Fortune, rolling off sister TIME‘s announcement of ‘Can Google Solve Death?’ [TTA 19 Sep], provides more background on how Calico, Google‘s new company which will focus on aging and associated diseases, came to be. It is the brainchild of Google Ventures’ managing partner Bill Maris who was once in biotech, and saw that this area was missing the root cause of much disease–that we all keep on getting older and experience cellular failure. “Now that the entire genome had been coded, Maris wondered if it was possible to actually study the genetic causes of aging and then create drugs to address them (a question that was heavily influenced by talks with futurist and Googler Ray Kurzweil).” He initially attracted major non-Googly investors, (more…)
Google ‘moonshots’ aging (and death) with Calico
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/360_cover_0930.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Calico is the new Google-ism for a new and apparently separate company which will focus on health and wellbeing, concentrating on aging and associated diseases. Announced yesterday, it will be headed by Arthur D. Levinson, Chairman of both Genentech and Apple, who plans to remain in both day jobs. It’s way outside of Google’s main business model, but in sync with the (failed) Google Health PHR, the potential of Glass in medicine and their relationship with Cornell NYC Tech, which until 2017 is in substantial space in Google’s sprawling downtown Manhattan building; one of the latter’s tech entrepreneurship hubs is ‘healthier life’. Google is also willing to spend floods of money on this without any ROI in the foreseeable future–even the driverless car has a far closer horizon to reality. Other than the release, pretty much copied on Gizmag, Google is Mum. TIME’s cover story next week is only partly available without subscription but the cover (left above) is priceless. Along with it is an interesting bit of speculation on Mr. Levinson’s potential conflicts of interests in this third for him venture which are of perennial interest to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The 2014 smartwatch rush, deluge redux
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/fworkswithnote-v1.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]In the breathless coverage (watch that pulse and respiration!) surrounding the Galaxy Gear, Samsung’s entry into the smartwatch/wearable computing race yesterday at Berlin IFA, this Editor sensed a certain air of…deflation. The consensus so far is that it is a solid first try for Samsung that does not fulfill the hype. The design limitations are obvious: function (scrolling screens likened to Windows Phone for time, notifications, voice memos, S Voice commands, photo gallery, music player, a pedometer and a few more), chunkiness (73.8 grams, 3″ diagonal), a tiny weirdly positioned camera.
In the 70 apps it will initially have is where it intersects with health. (more…)
The Internet.org initiative and the real meaning for health tech
Internet.org — Every one of us. Everywhere. Connected.
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Much has been made of the Internet.org alliance (release). The mission is to bring internet access to the two-thirds of the world who supposedly have none. It is led, very clearly, by Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. Judging from both the website and the release, partners Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia (handset sale to Microsoft, see below), Opera (browser), Qualcomm and Samsung, no minor players, clearly take a secondary role. The reason given is that internet access is growing at only 9 percent/year. Immediately the D3H tea-leaf readers were all over one seemingly offhand remark made by Mr. Zuckerberg to CNN (Eye emphasis):“Here, we use Facebook to share news and catch up with our friends but there they are going to use it to decide what kind of government they want, get access to healthcare for the first time ever, connect with family hundreds of miles away they haven’t seen for decades. Getting access to the internet is a really big deal. I think we are going to be able to do it”
Really? The Gimlet Eye thought that mobile phone connectivity and simple apps on inexpensive phones were already spreading healthcare, banking and simple communications to people all over the world. Gosh, was the Eye blind on this?
Looking inside the Gift Horse’s Mouth, and examining cui bono, what may be really behind this seemingly altruistic effort could be…only business. (more…)
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