Cool, but overhyped. If I'm reading the article correctly its just a bacterium that was built from scrap parts and that has had its genome paired down a bit. This is somewhat more impressive than building a working virus from off the shelf goods:
CIDRAP >> Scientists create functioning virus in 2 weeks
But its still just making a pre-existing type of organism out of man-made components, like building a lego model from an instruction booklet. Its not going to eat the world or cure cancer, it just shows science has the capability to assemble something off of a schematic. Someday scientists may be able to draw their own schematics instead of just following old ones or tweaking existing models, and once THAT happens then all the really cool scifi stuff becomes practical.