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Technology

Longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley is our Copilot on this week’s GeekWire Podcast

It was a big week for Microsoft, with the unveiling of the company’s latest Windows and AI features and new Surface devices at a special event in New York City. This was preceded, by only a few days, by the surprise resignation of Panos Panay, the chief product officer in charge of the company’s Windows and Devices division. Shortly after that announcement, Bloomberg News reported that Panay was set to join Amazon as the new leader of its Devices & Services division, a surprise twist that has yet to be confirmed as of publication time. To help sort it all… Read More

First Lady Jill Biden visits Seattle, stops at Fred Hutch to boost Cancer Moonshot program

First Lady Jill Biden visited Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center on Friday in Seattle, where she met with researchers and spoke about cancer prevention and the need to mitigate side effects and reduce recurrence. She also touched on what it’s like for families and individuals to navigate the complexities of cancer and the healthcare system. “It just feels like you’re walking under water,” said Biden during a listening session with Fred Hutch researchers and a breast cancer patient. President Biden’s son Beau Biden died from brain cancer in 2015. Jill Biden’s visit came after her Sept. 13 announcement with President Biden… Read More

Interview: UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt visits Amazon and Microsoft; talks AI, China, economy

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the United Kingdom’s chief financial minister, visited Seattle on Friday as part of a West Coast tour to promote the expansion of the UK’s tech sector, and lay the groundwork for an upcoming global artificial intelligence safety summit organized by the British government. He spoke with GeekWire following meetings in Seattle with tech and business leaders including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan, and Alphabet/Google CFO Ruth Porat. Continue reading for an edited transcript of the interview. GeekWire: How would you describe the substance of your meetings with Microsoft, Google, and… Read More

Construction software company Procore acquires Seattle mapping startup Unearth

Unearth Technologies, a Seattle startup that develops mapping software for the construction industry, announced Friday it was acquired by Procore Technologies, a publicly traded company based in Southern California. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2016, Unearth sells mobile software called OnePlace, which aims to bring together construction project data within comprehensive maps by using geographic information system (GIS) technology. Customers include contractors, utilities, and Fortune 500 companies. “Over the years, Unearth has helped our customers manage thousands of miles of buried utilities — we’ve seen our product deployed at dams, air bases, across swaths of rugged… Read More

Unity’s Marc Whitten shares apology note following backlash to controversial licensing policies

After more than a week of controversy, Unity Technologies posted an apology letter to its community and promised to undo or roll back many of the changes it had planned to make to the licensing agreements for its game engine Unity. San Francisco-based Unity is the most commonly used engine in modern video game production, particularly in the mobile and indie spaces. Roughly 70% of all currently and recently developed games used Unity’s tool set, including roughly 80% of mobile games. Unity, which has an office in Bellevue, Wash., last week announced that it planned to make several updates to… Read More

Shift AI Podcast: Riding the wave of AI startup innovation with Pioneer Square Labs’ T.A. McCann

“I think any pitch that doesn’t have AI in it is just not going to get a look unless the team is incredible… but it’d be unlikely that an incredible team wouldn’t be at least thinking about leveraging the newest, coolest technology. It’s just that important.” That’s one of the observations from T.A. McCann, managing director at Seattle-based Pioneer Square Labs, on this episode of Shift AI, a show that explores what it takes to thrive and adapt to the changing workplace in the digital age of remote work and AI. We discuss TA’s background and experience building fast-growing venture backed… Read More

Where’s Astro? Amazon addresses home robot’s absence from annual devices event

Amazon’s Astro home robot was introduced at the company’s fall Devices & Services event two years ago. Last year, Astro’s name was mentioned no less than 25 times during the annual event. This year: zero mentions. Combined with the earlier departure of Amazon’s VP of consumer robotics, Ken Washington, the absence of the 17-inch tall Alexa-enabled robot earlier this week left us wondering if Astro (or at least the project) was still alive. “As we mentioned when we announced Astro, this will be a long journey,” an Amazon spokesperson said in response to GeekWire’s inquiry earlier this week. The statement… Read More

Amazon to add commercial breaks to Prime Video shows and movies

Amazon is ready to interrupt Prime Video programming to bring commercial breaks to its streaming shows and movies, the company announced Friday. Amazon joins a growing list of streamers giving in to the need for revenue beyond subscriptions in order to compete for content. “We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers,” the company said in a blog post about its plans, which will start early next year. Ads will be introduced in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada at first, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in 2024. The… Read More