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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Uh-oh, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was expected to appear on the Internet giant’s third-quarter earnings call, but she apparently “came down with something,” according to CFO Tim Morse.

BoomTown is sending over chicken soup right now, but let’s hope she gets her vaccinations tout de suite!

Thus, no sassy quotes or cursing, but a very earnest Morse, who sounded like he was once a Boy Scout.

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Last week, BoomTown paid an economically-minded visit to the Redwood City, Calif., offices of BillShrink, a Silicon Valley start-up aimed at helping consumers find cheaper prices on gas, cellphones and plans and credit cards via a Web-based comparison and alert system.

Launched about a year ago and armed with about $9 million in funding from Bessemer Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, it has aims of moving into a range of other money-saving arenas too.

But today, it got a major boost in its existing business by inking a deal to be part of a huge national advertising campaign by T-Mobile aimed at boosting price awareness among consumers, an apt message for these econalyptic times.

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As BoomTown did last year, I took to the much-less-crowded floor of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week with tech review kingpin Walt Mossberg and Mossberg Solution columnist Katherine Boehret to get their take on the scene.

Of interest to Walt was the Palm Pre launch and the Yahoo Connected TV initiative. For Katie, it was a $2,000 cellphone.

Here’s the video of their ruminations.

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Last night, Walt Mossberg and I hosted yet another annual “What’s Hot and What’s Not in Personal Technology” event for the Churchill Club.

It was a gadgetfest with BoomTown, Walt Mossberg, Gadgetoff’s Greg Harper and Twitter Co-Founder and CEO Evan Williams presenting the digital show-and-tell.

Here is a rather longish video of the event, which is well worth watching. (Yes, I am–along with my No. 1 son, Louie, and an animatronic Elvis–wearing a Yahoo hat.)

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While there are rumors that these wildly popular videos of a posse of cellphones popping popcorn by their rings or other unknown death rays are fixed, BoomTown actually does not care one iota, as the remote possibility that they are not is freaking me out.

Frankly, it would freak Orville Redenbacher out too.

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Was it just me or did you also get a bit of déjà vu upon reading a story today by the New York Times’s Laura M. Holson about yet another mash-up of a Hollywood talent agencies with Silicon Valley VCs.
That’s apparently what is happening with a new investment venture that includes the William Morris [...]

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More from the cartoon dudette and dude–Nitrozac and Snaggy–over at Geek Culture’s Joy of Tech, whose work will be appearing more regularly on this site, since we all could use a good laugh.
After Walt Mossberg’s “Free My Phone” call-to-arms earlier this week, will Apple’s Steve Jobs foist the wireless banner of liberty?
Click on the image [...]

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Look, we’re biased when it comes to Walt Mossberg.

But BoomTown was not moved in the least by the post that CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent (pictured here) wrote yesterday on the blog for the wireless industry association’s annual meeting, taking place in San Francisco now through tomorrow.
Titled “Largent to Mossberg…Wish You Were Here [...]

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The annual CTIA conference–CTIA reps the wireless industry–opens today in San Francisco, but the action started last night with some parties.
One was thrown by ContentNext Media, the online news site whose flagship paidContent.org writes all about online media, where I talked to Publisher and Editor Rafat Ali about big trends in cellphones.
He was spot on. [...]

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With thanks to engadget, we repost this portrait of our beloved leader at AllThingsD.com, Comrade Walt Mossberg.
Walt has long railed on the topic of the stifling of innovation by the U.S. cellphone carriers–especially to me over dinner when I am really tired–so it is nice to see it in a terrific piece you should not [...]

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MarketWatch’s Paul Lin talks to Palm CEO Ed Colligan about its new $99 Centro smart phone, unveiled yesterday.
I’m going to use my $100 rebate I get from the I-had-to-have-it-before-my-brother iPhone to get one! And I’ll even have a dollar left over for a refreshing can of soda.
Watch Colligan explain here:

Hopefully, the Centro will do [...]

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