Baidu and Huawei announce broad partnership | Bitcoin’s wild ride | Washington state leads nation in personal income growth

Read the latest tech headlines from GeekWire [View this email in your browser](. [83c70c80-cefc-43e4-9cc7-74e048a5ee95.png]( December 22, 2017 [Top Stories]( [Find a Job]( [GeekWire Events]( [GeekWire 200]( [Become a Member]( Love GeekWire? Join the club! [Support independent journalism, enjoy exclusive benefits and access to GeekWire’s signature events]( Today's top stories [Birkenstock CEO goes after Amazon over fake footwear, calls e-commerce giant ‘an accomplice’]( By Kurt Schlosser A year after walking away from its relationship with Amazon in the U.S., the German shoemaker Birkenstock is again targeting the e-commerce giant for what it believes is a failure to deal with counterfeit versions of its iconic footwear for sale on its site. [Bitcoin’s wild ride continues, as major consumer bitcoin exchange halts trading amid Friday plunge]( By Tom Krazit After a massive surge in the value of bitcoin in 2017, a little bit of panic set in Friday after the value of the cryptocurrency plunged and one of the leading bitcoin exchanges was forced offline ahead of the holiday weekend. Sponsored Post [The Rise of the Experience Design Engineer™]( At [Level 11]( we embody the rise of the Experience Design Engineer™(XDE™). We employ design thinking to invent new brand experiences. Our focus on the practice of Digital Transformation has led us to our Experience Design Engineering™ methodology. Using out XDE™ methodology, we fundamentally change the way consumers engage, experience, and interact with your brand across every touchpoint in your connected ecosystem—physical, digital, in-store, online, mobile, wearable, Internet of Things—across the lifecycle of your customers. Provide your customers the experience they expect—Be Disruptive™ and learn how to achieve Digital Transformation by connecting with Level 11. Email us at info@level11.com [Amazon scoops up wire-free connected camera maker Blink to bolster smart home offerings]( By Nat Levy Amazon has acquired Blink, a startup based in Andover, Mass. [Tech Moves: Amazon merges Fresh and Prime Now leadership; Apple poaches more Amazon Studios leaders]( By Clare McGrane Amazon has consolidated its Fresh, Prime Now and Restaurant delivery services under one executive: Stephenie Landry. Home of the Week - Sponsored Post [The Calabria by JayMarc: An Entertainer’s Paradise in Bellevue]( You will be delighted to find room for everyone in this new, luxury JayMarc home! The Calabria sets a new standard for living, surpassing your every need. This light and bright home will welcome you in with 10-foot ceiling and walls of windows. The chef’s kitchen is center stage with a huge island,… [Chinese tech giants Baidu and Huawei team up for wide-ranging partnership in AI, AR and more]( By Nat Levy Two Chinese tech giants with offices in the Seattle area are teaming up. [Washington state leads the nation in personal income growth]( By Monica Nickelsburg Personal income increased by 1 percent in Washington state between the second and third quarters of 2017, faster than any other state in the country. [Behind-the-scenes with Amazon’s NFL streaming tech; Google inks deal with NCAA; and more sports tech news]( By Taylor Soper [Love sports and technology? Sign up for our sports tech newsletter to receive this rundown from GeekWire’s Taylor Soper via email every week.] TAYLOR’S TAKE ON THE WEEK IN SPORTS TECH: As NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in September, the way we watch pro sports on TV has barely changed over the past 30 years. [A warm feeling for tech hubs: Payscale maps the hottest counties in U.S. for employee pay]( By Kurt Schlosser It might be chilly in Seattle this week, but a new interactive “heat map” from the folks at Payscale shows just how hot the region was in 2017 when it came to employee pay compared to the rest of the country. [Science year in review: Neutron star smashup is the gift that keeps on giving]( By Alan Boyle For the second year in a row, Science is hailing a discovery sparked by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory as the Breakthrough of the Year. [After 16 years, Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt is stepping down as executive chairman]( By Tom Krazit Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced Thursday afternoon that Eric Schmidt, who has played an outsized role in Google’s transformation from grad school science project to one of the most powerful companies in the world, will be stepping back from his executive chairman role. [Experts explain why machine learning will make some jobs easier – and kill off others]( By Alan Boyle Two experts on AI explain why the rapid rise of machine learning will have different effects on different segments of the job market. [Washington AG expands $100M lawsuit against Comcast: ‘The extent of their deception is shocking’]( By Taylor Soper Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has amended his lawsuit against Comcast after finding that the cable giant deceived customers more than he expected. [Walmart reportedly developing Amazon Go rival and text message shopping service]( By Nat Levy Walmart is reportedly working on several new high tech initiatives, as it continues to battle Amazon in both the physical and digital retail arenas. [Startup Spotlight: EvoEco uses digital, interactive bins to solve the riddle of where to toss your trash]( By Lisa Stiffler If you’ve dined in an enviro-minded city, you’ve undoubtedly stood before a row of trash and recycle cans, befuddled about whether your coffee cup should be composted or if the lid is recyclable. [Read more of today's news on GeekWire >]( [] Today's top jobs - - [AnswerDash: Marketing Manager]( - [Expedia Inc.: Data Scientist]( - [Seattle Sounders FC: Manager, Corporate Partnership Sales]( - [Expedia Inc.: Security Compliance Engineer II]( - [OfferUp: Sr. Software Development Engineer – Backend]( - [OfferUp: Security Software Engineer]( - [OfferUp: Software Development Engineer – Android]( - [Aha!: Sr. Rails and Front End Developer [React]]( - [OfferUp: Software Development Engineer – Front End Web]( - [OfferUp: Site Reliability Engineer – Data Systems]( [Hiring? 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