GeekWire

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Amazon is formally protesting a decision by the U.S. Department of Defense to award its $10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract to Microsoft, suggesting that the Pentagon succumbed  to political pressure from President Donald Trump.  Plus, Microsoft takes its Dreamers immigration lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court, what it's like to have Cortana read y...

LAS VEGAS -- Nearly 20,000 people are here this week to learn about the latest from Seattle-based Tableau Software, whose technologies turn large amounts of data into visualizations, or vizzes, interactive graphics and charts for interpreting and telling the underlying stories. They also heard from Tableau's new parent company, Salesforce, whose co-CEO Marc Benioff joined Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky...

Not only was Amazon's effort to back pro-business candidates for the Seattle City Council not effective, but its $1.45 million in contributions seems to have backfired on the company, energizing its opponents and leading to a new City Council that's collectively more to the left of the political spectrum than before. It's the latest in a series of political and policy missteps and missed opportuni...

A lot has changed in the world, the tech industry, and Microsoft since Satya Nadella published his book, "Hit Refresh," two years ago. One of the changes: Microsoft reclaimed the title of world's most valuable company in 2018, two decades since it last held that status. But the company didn't celebrate the milestone. "Success is important, but you have to remember that your success has to have com...

Artificial intelligence might sound like a futuristic concept, and it may be true that we're years or decades away from a generalized form of AI that can match or exceed the capabilities of the human brain across a wide range of topics. But the implications of machine learning, facial recognition and other early forms of the technology are already playing out for companies, governmental agencies a...

Amazon took a million-dollar gamble this week, betting a last-minute cash infusion will help elect a new Seattle City Council despite the inevitable backlash to the contribution. It's a risky move that has already emboldened Amazon's biggest critics in Seattle government. Whether the bet will pay off at the polls remains to be seen. Also on this episode:  Andrew Yang’s Bing ding creates...

The Federal Trade Commission is  ramping up its investigations into Big Tech, and one of the agency’s toughest enforcers visited Amazon’s backyard to discuss the state of competition in the industry with GeekWire's Monica Nickelsburg this week. FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra spoke at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle on Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview that covered antitrust law, t...

Our GeekWire Summit just wrapped up, and one of our sessions in particular made national news: our conversation on stage with Jay Carney , the former White House press secretary who is now Amazon’s senior vice president of public affairs. We talked about a wide range of issues, including antitrust and competitive concerns, and what it’s like to work for Jeff Bezos. We also asked for Ca...

Microsoft is back in the smartphone business with the unveiling of its new Surface Duo dual-screen folding device this week . It's a fascinating story all on its own, as the company finally goes public with a concept it has been experimenting with behind-the-scenes for much of the past decade. Surprise twist: It runs Android. But combined with the larger Surface Neo dual-screen tablet/notebook, th...

Amazon announced a series of new Echo and Alexa products and initiatives this week -- from smart glasses to wireless earbuds to a new neighborhood wireless initiative --  extending the reach of its devices and services well beyond the home, while attempting to address consumer concerns about privacy at the same time.   Here's our coverage from the week. Why Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sees new...

A new skyscraper in Seattle will bear the name Qualtrics Tower, after the technology company that will occupy more than a dozen floors in the building, with plans to quadruple its employee count in the region to more than 2000 people in the next several years. So what is Qualtrics, anyway? It’s an experience management company, with co-headquarters in Seattle and Provo Utah, that was acquire...

The climate crisis surged to the top of the tech industry's agenda this week, encouraged by a groundswell of activity from workers at Amazon, Microsoft, Google and other big tech companies, as part of global efforts to bring attention to the issue. It's the latest example of rising activism inside the tech industry, as a new generation of workers pushes employers to speak out and take action on po...

From package delivery to ride-hailing, companies including Amazon and Uber are facing new scrutiny over their use of contract workers to power the services they provide to consumers. California is poised to enact a law that would force Uber and Lyft to treat drivers like employees as part of a broader push around the country to ensure app-based workers have broader labor protections. Meanwhile, th...

In “ Tools & Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age ,” Microsoft President Brad Smith and his co-author Carol Ann Browne tell the inside story of some of the biggest developments in tech and the world over the past decade -- including Microsoft’s reaction to the Snowden revelations, its battle with Russian hackers in the leadup to the 2016 elections and its rol...

Amazon ousted Apple this year as the most loved brand among millennials, people age 19 through 39, according to a new stud y. What does this say about the future of the world? OK, that might be taking it too far, but some of our resident millennials offer their take on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast. And in news for slightly older generations, the startup HopSkipRide made its debut in Seattl...

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared in Seattle on Sunday, a few blocks from Amazon's headquarters, and given the Democratic presidential candidate's call to break up the online retail giant as part of a larger crackdown on big tech companies, we were anticipating fireworks. It didn't happen. In fact, as we reported earlier this week , Warren didn't specifically mention Amazon in her public remarks...

New wireless Bluetooth headphones from Seattle startup Human are getting mixed reviews based on their appearance, and their initial starting price of $399 (which the company quickly dropped to a promotional price of $259). But their unique design, which completely envelops both ears, reflects a vision of the future in which technology will be melded to our bodies, and potentially to our minds.&nbs...

Microsoft's partnership with Samsung promises smooth integration between Windows and the Galaxy Note10, and that was enough to convince GeekWire's Todd Bishop to dump his iPhone X in favor of the consumer electronics giant's new flagship device. But which of the two Note10 variations should he get? And what can he expect as he switches from on major smartphone platform to another? Tech reviewer An...

Amazon, Uber, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many other big companies have something in common. They're all platforms, providing underlying technologies that others use to build or facilitate their own businesses. But there are different types of platforms, with different motivations, and understanding the differences is key for anyone looking to build, compete against, regulate or do business wi...

We're back! It's the return of our weekly news roundup, with Todd Bishop, John Cook and Monica Nickelsburg. First, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's surprise appearance at Samsung's latest Galaxy smartphone unveiling signals good things ahead for Windows users. We go inside the shutdown of ReachNow, BMW's car-sharing service that operated in Portland and Seattle, and discuss the unusual ways that some...

Despite the restrictions it imposes on Facebook's business, the Federal Trade Commission's settlement with the social media giant is viewed as insufficient by some critics. So what can we do as Facebook users? What impact is Facebook having on us in the meantime? And what can the tech industry learn from the whole thing? That's our topic on this episode of the GeekWire podcast, featuring highlight...

It was tough week for Amazon on the regulatory front. It started Tuesday with an antitrust hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Although Apple, Facebook, and Google also sent representatives, Amazon fielded the most pointed questions. A few hours later, the European Union launched a formal investigation into the company, focusing on how it treats third-party sellers in the Amazon mar...

To understand the future of space, it helps to start with the past. On this special edition of the GeekWire Podcast, marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, we’ll hear from Alan Boyle, GeekWire's aerospace and science editor, and listen in on his conversations with three unsung heroes of the Apollo era: NASA flight directors Gerry Griffin and Milton Windler, and flight co...

Would you have guessed that nearly 25 percent of the Seattle region's top tech startups are led by CEOs with backgrounds at Microsoft? That was the surprising result of our analysis of the GeekWire 200 , our index of the top privately held tech companies in the Pacific Northwest. And fundings for the region's startups bucked the national trend, as reflected in data from our new startup deal tracke...

"You've got all of this opportunity for places where you can interface with the physical world. I think it's just where business opportunity is going to live." That was one of the takeaways from Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott's talk at the recent GeekWire Cloud Summit. On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we're presenting highlights from his conversation with GeekWire's Todd Bishop. The Mic...