Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/

360-Degree Centr Video Camera Gives a Thumb’s-Eye View of the World

Since we didn’t evolve with eyes on the backs or the sides of our heads, it’s no surprise that Bill Banta and his team had trouble anticipating all of the problems they would run into with their 360-degree video camera. The former Apple procurement manager—who was in charge of more than $500 million in annual … Continue reading “360-Degree Centr Video Camera Gives a Thumb’s-Eye View of the World”

Soft Spots: Five Places Where Silicon Valley’s Bubble Could Pop

The main premise of J.J. Abrams’ Fringe—unquestionably one of the three best sci-fi shows made for television in this century, alongside Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who—is that there’s a second, nearly identical universe coterminous with ours. The wall between the parallel worlds remains impenetrable until a grief-stricken scientist, Walter Bishop, figures out how to cross … Continue reading “Soft Spots: Five Places Where Silicon Valley’s Bubble Could Pop”

New Napa Speakers: Kawasaki on Startups, Ashenfelter on Wine

McLuhan said that the medium is the message. Here at Xconomy, we agree, and we think it even goes for the venues we pick for our events. When we hold a big conference in a university lecture hall, the message we’re sending is: deep thoughts and nuanced arguments coming. If we gather at the campus … Continue reading “New Napa Speakers: Kawasaki on Startups, Ashenfelter on Wine”

Five Views of the Microsoft Research Silicon Valley TechFair

Microsoft, with a new CEO and a new corporate structure, is pushing hard to burnish its image as a source of innovation in business and consumer computing. Satya Nadella, Steve Ballmer’s replacement (and only the third CEO in the company’s 39-year history), continues to talk about Microsoft’s future as both a “mobile first” and a … Continue reading “Five Views of the Microsoft Research Silicon Valley TechFair”

Beauty Is Everywhere, Except On Your TV Screen. Time to Change That.

Your mother probably taught you to turn off the TV when you weren’t watching it. That made sense, back in the day: television sets used to consume a lot of juice. Today, they don’t. If you bought the largest, most electricity-guzzling flat-screen TV you could find and left it on all the time, you’d still … Continue reading “Beauty Is Everywhere, Except On Your TV Screen. Time to Change That.”

A Big Day for Xconomy: Introducing Elise Craig and Alex Lash

At a growing media startup like Xconomy, there’s no task more thrilling than welcoming new editors and writers on board. Today is especially exciting, because I’ve got not one but two additions to tell you about. First, I’m extremely pleased to announce that Elise Craig has joined us as the new Editor of Xconomy San … Continue reading “A Big Day for Xconomy: Introducing Elise Craig and Alex Lash”

Minerva’s Plan to Disrupt Universities: A Talk with CEO Ben Nelson

[Updated, see below] Traditional four-year universities have always had to compete for students. They’re vying not only against each other, but against community colleges, the military, online institutions like University of Phoenix, and, in an age of increasing economic pressure on the middle class, the work world. (Some 34 percent of U.S. high school graduates … Continue reading “Minerva’s Plan to Disrupt Universities: A Talk with CEO Ben Nelson”

Robo Madness 2014: The Story in Pictures

SRI International in Menlo Park was the birthplace of the da Vinci surgical robot, which made it a natural location for Robo Madness 2014, Xconomy’s third annual Silicon Valley robotics event. Held (as always) during National Robotics Week, the forum was a celebration and exploration of entrepreneurship and technology in robotics, here in the Bay Area … Continue reading “Robo Madness 2014: The Story in Pictures”

Overstreet, Winner in Startup Tax Battle, Gets $2M for AdverseEvents

When patients have bad reactions to prescription drugs, doctors can voluntarily submit reports about such “adverse events” to the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA gets at least 500,000 such reports a year, meaning it has lots of data that could be useful to pharmaceutical companies hoping to spot early warning signs of dangerous drugs—and … Continue reading “Overstreet, Winner in Startup Tax Battle, Gets $2M for AdverseEvents”

Guy Kawasaki Aims to Democratize Design Through Aussie Startup Canva

Guy Kawasaki was once chief evangelist at Apple, the firm that redefined personal computing in the 1980s and 1990s and went on to become the world’s most valuable company. More recently, he went to work for Google, helping to promote the company’s Motorola hardware division (which has since been sold to Lenovo). So what’s the … Continue reading “Guy Kawasaki Aims to Democratize Design Through Aussie Startup Canva”

Meet the Robots You’ll Hear About at Robo Madness on Thursday

If you’ve already bought your ticket for Xconomy’s Robo Madness half-day forum this Thursday, April 10, then you’ll enjoy a little appetizer, in the form of this slide show highlighting six of the participating organizations: iRobot, represented by chief technology officer Paolo Pirjanian The Open Source Robotics Foundation, represented by CEO Brian Gerkey Origami Robotics, represented … Continue reading “Meet the Robots You’ll Hear About at Robo Madness on Thursday”

A Letter to the Year 2061 (If We Make It That Far)

Dear Citizens of 2061, If you’re reading this, congratulations. You’ve survived the first half of the 21st century, and you’ve evidently still got computers, libraries, virtual-reality visors, or some kind of communications system that enabled you to dig up these old scribbles. I have some questions for you. I know you can’t really write back, … Continue reading “A Letter to the Year 2061 (If We Make It That Far)”

Will Robots Rule the World? Find Out at Robo Madness Next Thursday

An influential 1998 paper by Robin Hanson, an economics professor at George Mason University, asked what might happen to jobs and wages in a future with “mature machine intelligence”—computers and robots clever enough to take over most human jobs. The outlook is a little scary. Hanson calculated that a world where machines could truly substitute … Continue reading “Will Robots Rule the World? Find Out at Robo Madness Next Thursday”

Sugary Foods Are Killing Us. The Internet, Not So Much.

When I’m jittery from too much caffeine, I don’t blame it on Starbucks. It’s not entirely Hershey’s fault that I have an unhealthy love of chocolate. And if, in a moment of idleness, I click on a headline like 35 Foods From Your Childhood That Are Extinct Now, I don’t blame BuzzFeed for wasting three … Continue reading “Sugary Foods Are Killing Us. The Internet, Not So Much.”

Y Combinator’s Winter 2014 Class: Be Impressed, Don’t Say “Invest”

At yesterday’s Y Combinator Demo Day, startups gave their final pitches to an audience of several hundred flamingos. There were lots of venture flamingos, as always, and quite a few angel flamingos. In fact, the whole day was designed to give the entrepreneurs finishing their 12-week term at Y Combinator a chance to meet flamingos … Continue reading “Y Combinator’s Winter 2014 Class: Be Impressed, Don’t Say “Invest””

The Missing Middle Class: Jobs in the Second Machine Age

Technological change is not a tide that lifts all boats in our economy. The truth is that it’s more like a tsunami. It threatens to overturn all the boats and drown their occupants, sparing only the lucky few who have already reached safety in the hills. That’s the kind of admission you won’t often see … Continue reading “The Missing Middle Class: Jobs in the Second Machine Age”

One Laptop Per Child CEO: “We Have Achieved Our Goals”

When MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte announced to the world in 2005 that his new One Laptop Per Child initiative would produce $100 laptops for students in poor nations, the resulting hullabaloo—a mixture of shock, skepticism, and enthusiasm—went on for several years. It was impossible to build a useful computer for that price, cynics … Continue reading “One Laptop Per Child CEO: “We Have Achieved Our Goals””

Zumper Aims to Take the Pain Out of Renting, If Not the High Prices

Here in San Francisco, there’s never been a crazier time to try to rent an apartment. As fortune-seekers rush to the region to get in on the continuing tech boom, demand is far outstripping supply. That means more prospective renters are competing for each unit, landlords and brokers have more applications to sort through, and … Continue reading “Zumper Aims to Take the Pain Out of Renting, If Not the High Prices”

From Cosimo to Cosmos: The Medici Effect in Culture and Technology

Deep inside the Palazzo Vecchio, the tall stone fortress that has served as the seat of government power in Florence since the 14th century, there’s a room called the Sala delle Carte Geografiche, the Hall of Maps. The cabinets lining the walls, which once held scientific instruments and other precious items, are decorated with 53 … Continue reading “From Cosimo to Cosmos: The Medici Effect in Culture and Technology”

Here’s the Full Agenda for Xconomy’s Robo Madness Bash on April 10

When Google is buying robotics companies left and right and Jeff Bezos is promising to send you Amazon packages via drone aircraft, you know that change is speeding up in the robotics industry. And we’ve got a great way to help you get a handle on it. Robo Madness, Xconomy’s signature annual technology event in … Continue reading “Here’s the Full Agenda for Xconomy’s Robo Madness Bash on April 10”

Growing Beyond Mobile Games, Kiip Wants to Own Your Daily Moments

The world of mobile games was not enough for Kiip. In 2012, when I last checked in with the San Francisco startup, it focused on helping developers of smartphone games earn extra money by building brand-based “reward moments” into their games. For example, successfully moving up a level in a game like Get Set Games’ … Continue reading “Growing Beyond Mobile Games, Kiip Wants to Own Your Daily Moments”

Bob Doyle and the Magic of Merlin, the First Mobile Game

If you sat down to make a list of the key turning points in the history of mobile computing, you’d definitely have to include 2007, the year Apple released the iPhone. Its glowing touchscreen became a personalized portal to our friends, to the Web, and to hundreds of thousands of games and other specialized apps. … Continue reading “Bob Doyle and the Magic of Merlin, the First Mobile Game”

With Suitable, Park Your Meat Body at Home and Beam In to Work

When you’re a technology reporter, every startup you visit tries to convince you that you’re seeing a glimpse of the future. When I toured Suitable Technologies a few weeks ago, I knew I really was. Suitable builds a remote presence device called Beam. It’s basically an LCD screen, a Webcam, a microphone array, and some … Continue reading “With Suitable, Park Your Meat Body at Home and Beam In to Work”

WhatsApp, $19 Billion, and the Unreal Economy of Silicon Valley

Facebook announced Wednesday that it will acquire mobile messaging provider WhatsApp, a five-year-old startup in Santa Clara, CA, for $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in stock, and another $3 billion in restricted stock units. So, $19 billion when all’s said and done. The deal is eyebrow-raising on any number of levels. What made WhatsApp … Continue reading “WhatsApp, $19 Billion, and the Unreal Economy of Silicon Valley”

Intel Survey: Americans Skeptical, Yet Hopeful, About Smart Cities

Intel thinks it’s only a matter of time before cars, streets, highways, buildings—in short, most parts of the urban infrastructure—get a brain upgrade. And naturally, it expects that Intel chips will be powering much of the new smarts. But the Santa Clara, CA-based semiconductor giant knows that public fears about sensor networks and large-scale data … Continue reading “Intel Survey: Americans Skeptical, Yet Hopeful, About Smart Cities”

Aaron Marcus, Bard of User-Centered Design, Battles “High-Order Crap”

Aaron Marcus, watching from his perch on Euclid Street in the Berkeley hills above San Francisco Bay, has seen the business world’s infatuation with design rise and recede, rise and recede. Ten or 20 years ago, if you’d traveled to San Francisco or Silicon Valley in search of help designing a consumer product or a … Continue reading “Aaron Marcus, Bard of User-Centered Design, Battles “High-Order Crap””

15 Places to Turn for Technology News That Really Matters

Nobody on their deathbed says they wish they’d spent more time reading tech blogs. Don’t get me wrong: It’s great that consumers and entrepreneurs have so many places today to get news about the world of Internet startups, mobile devices, software, and venture investing. Back in 1998-2001, the last time things were this crazy in … Continue reading “15 Places to Turn for Technology News That Really Matters”

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Samantha? The Lessons of “Her”

Warning: Extensive plot spoilers. Like any effective science fiction movie, Spike Jonze’s Her has sparked a lot of important conversation and criticism, about everything from user-interface design to misogyny in filmmaking. But the reviews I’ve read all seem to miss one key point. Considered as a product, not a person (and we’ll get back to … Continue reading “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Samantha? The Lessons of “Her””

Viggle, Wetpaint’s Acquirer, Buys Dijit to Build TV Loyalty Program

Life is tough these days for the TV networks. They still make money by supplying advertisers with eyeballs, just like they always did. They still bring in eyeballs by paying producers for shows, which are more expensive than ever. But as eyeball bait, TV shows just aren’t as effective as they used to be. Gone … Continue reading “Viggle, Wetpaint’s Acquirer, Buys Dijit to Build TV Loyalty Program”

Robo Madness, Xconomy’s 3rd Annual Robotics Bash, Coming April 10

Consider a few of the big news headlines in the field of robotics in the last 12 months: —NASA’s Curiosity rover celebrated its first year on Mars, and its first kilometer traveled, and found evidence of ancient freshwater lakes on the red planet. Meanwhile, Voyager 1 left the solar system, and a Chinese rover soft-landed … Continue reading “Robo Madness, Xconomy’s 3rd Annual Robotics Bash, Coming April 10”

From Madden NFL to Emotional Intelligence: Trip Hawkins’ Journey

Trip Hawkins says the idea behind his new educational video game company If You Can came to him fully formed, and totally by surprise. “For me, the way entrepreneurship has always worked is I will see a picture, and it will be a complete picture, and what that picture tells me is so compelling that … Continue reading “From Madden NFL to Emotional Intelligence: Trip Hawkins’ Journey”

Hockney’s iPad: How Technology Illuminates the Way We See

The best painters don’t just make pretty, eye-catching pictures. They make us think about what it means to see. On the canvas, they must reduce the three dimensions of the living world to two—but if they’re good at it, they add a different kind of depth in the process. David Hockney is very, very good … Continue reading “Hockney’s iPad: How Technology Illuminates the Way We See”

Nancy Pelosi Meets New Breed of Maker-Entrepreneurs at TechShop

The new wave of maker spaces around the country, and the startups they’re spawning, could help keep more U.S. jobs from shifting overseas, in the view of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. Entrepreneurs in San Francisco agree. But they want Pelosi’s help to make sure government regulations around issues … Continue reading “Nancy Pelosi Meets New Breed of Maker-Entrepreneurs at TechShop”

Lisa Suennen Leaves Psilos Group for “New Adventure” in Healthtech

Lisa Suennen, one of the leading venture investors in the San Francisco Bay Area life sciences and digital health scene, says she’s leaving Psilos Group, the life sciences-focused venture firm where she’s long been a managing member, to work as an independent consultant. Suennen co-founded the New York- and Santa Fe, NM-based firm with her … Continue reading “Lisa Suennen Leaves Psilos Group for “New Adventure” in Healthtech”

Google Gets a Nest, But Is It Flying Too High?

Somebody needs to say it: Google is getting too big. When one organization controls so much of the infrastructure of the digital economy, it’s not good for consumers. And when it has such an outsized influence on the resources flowing to inventors, programmers, and entrepreneurs, it’s not good for innovation. Like almost everyone else I … Continue reading “Google Gets a Nest, But Is It Flying Too High?”

Daytona with Robots & Railguns: Hands-On with Anki Drive

Back in November, I profiled Anki, the San Francisco startup developing AI-driven robots for consumers. Their first product is Anki Drive, a $200 racing game where iPhone-equipped players can take command of agile little cars that zip around on a vinyl racetrack. The object isn’t to win a race, but to gain points by disabling … Continue reading “Daytona with Robots & Railguns: Hands-On with Anki Drive”

SF’s Mission Bay Is the New Digital Health Hub, Says Rock Health

It’s been a big week for Rock Health, the San Francisco-based startup accelerator and seed fund for digital health companies. On Sunday, just as the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference was about to get underway, Rock Health co-hosted the health IT sector’s largest annual awards ceremony, the “Top 50 in Digital Health.” (The awards are … Continue reading “SF’s Mission Bay Is the New Digital Health Hub, Says Rock Health”

ZyngaVille Has New Resident: Digital Health Startup Practice Fusion

From all outward signs, Practice Fusion is one of the fastest-growing technology startups in San Francisco, and Zynga is one of the fastest-shrinking. Now the two companies’ shifting fortunes are taking concrete form. Practice Fusion, which has 300 employees and recently raised $85 million in Series D funding, announced plans today to take over office … Continue reading “ZyngaVille Has New Resident: Digital Health Startup Practice Fusion”

Rock Health Honors “Top 50” Digital Health Entrepreneurs

Who are the entrepreneurs pushing hardest for technology advances that will connect patients with better healthcare? They’re people like Sean Duffy, who’s using the Web to help people make behavioral changes that could head off Type 2 diabetes at his startup Omada Health, and Joanne Rohde, whose company Axial Exchange is building systems that help … Continue reading “Rock Health Honors “Top 50” Digital Health Entrepreneurs”

How I Learned to Stay Organized with Evernote, Post-its & Foamcore

I like to think I’m a fairly organized person. I have to be. I’ve got stories to edit and events to plan. I write 5,000 to 10,000 words a week. Some 200 to 300 new e-mail messages hit my inbox every day, all requiring some kind of action. And I have a lot of cool … Continue reading “How I Learned to Stay Organized with Evernote, Post-its & Foamcore”

Could a Little Startup Called Diffbot Be the Next Google?

In tech journalism, it’s inadvisable to call any company “the next Google.” It’s almost always breathless hype or marked naïveté. After all, people have been predicting the search giant’s demise for nearly as long as the company has existed. I wrote a Technology Review cover story called “Search Beyond Google” nearly 10 years ago. But … Continue reading “Could a Little Startup Called Diffbot Be the Next Google?”

Versal Steers Away from the YouTube Model in Online Education

Ask educators and entrepreneurs today how technology is changing the way students learn, and they’ll point first to MOOCs, or massive online open courses, the new teaching approach being developed by companies like Udacity and Coursera and non-profit ventures like edX. But how new are MOOCs, really? If you look beyond the delivery mechanism—the Internet—the … Continue reading “Versal Steers Away from the YouTube Model in Online Education”

New Online Services Put You Back in Command of Your 401(k)

If you’re still in search of a New Year’s resolution, here’s one you’re free to borrow from me: Become a more active and self-reliant manager of your retirement investment accounts, using some of the affordable new tools available online. This week I’ve been exploring two of the leading services, Jemstep and Personal Capital. After just … Continue reading “New Online Services Put You Back in Command of Your 401(k)”

The Top Stories of 2013 at Xconomy San Francisco and Xperience

As the clock ticks down on 2013, I thought it might be fun to look back at the most popular stories of the year in the two sections I edit: Xconomy San Francisco and Xperience, our new consumer section. The links below are ranked by page views. Many of these stories, you’ll notice, are slide … Continue reading “The Top Stories of 2013 at Xconomy San Francisco and Xperience”

News, Social Networking Meet in Prismatic’s “Interest Network”

Over the last 20 years, three new technologies have come together to reshape the way information enters our lives. First, of course, there was the Web, starting around 1993. Then came social networking, starting around 2003. And finally—hugely amplifying the effects of the first two—came broadband-capable smartphones and tablets, starting in 2007. Any one of … Continue reading “News, Social Networking Meet in Prismatic’s “Interest Network””

At Unbounded Robotics, Smart Compromises Bring Down Costs

When is one arm better than two? When you’re trying to build a mobile-manipulator robot that somebody can actually afford to buy. One of the problems that kept PR2, a humanoid robot developed by Menlo Park, CA-based Willow Garage, from succeeding commercially was its $400,000 price tag. And one of the things that made PR2 … Continue reading “At Unbounded Robotics, Smart Compromises Bring Down Costs”