GeekWire's Most-Read Stories of the Week

Catch up on the top tech stories from this past week. Here are the headlines that people have been reading on GeekWire. ADVERTISEMENT [GeekWire]( SPONSOR MESSAGE: The GeekWire Awards return May 20, 2021: [Celebrate the Pacific Northwest's leading innovators, entrepreneurs and technologists at one of the most-anticipated tech events. Register today!]( THIS WEEK'S TOP STORIES [Washington state governor expected to sign new bill ending prohibition on municipal broadband]( Washington municipalities will be able to offer direct-to-consumer broadband service across the state later this year under legislation Gov. [Isilon founder lifts the hood on farming startup Carbon Robotics and its weed zapping machine]( Carbon Robotics, a Seattle company led by Isilon Systems co-founder Paul Mikesell, is unveiling its self-driving robot that uses artificial intelligence to identify weeds growing in fields of vegetables, then zaps them with precision thermal bursts from lasers. [Tech Moves: Ex-Amazon leader Jeff Wilke joins Scale AI as advisor to CEO; Skilljar and Auth0 hire execs; T-Mobile board shuffle]( — Jeff Wilke, the former CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer, has joined Scale AI as advisor to the CEO. SPONSOR MESSAGE [The GeekWire Awards return May 20, 2021!]( GeekWire’s annual celebration of the Pacific Northwest technology community is coming up on Thursday, May 20th via live stream. [Register today!]( [Microsoft unveils Surface Laptop 4 and Surface Headphones 2+ with a Microsoft Teams button]( New Microsoft devices: The tech giant unveiled several new products Tuesday, including the Surface Laptop 4, the company’s “most powerful laptop.” Surface Laptop 4: The device retains much of the traditional Surface Laptop look and design, with improved performance and battery life. [‘It’s time’: Jeff Bezos hails Blue Origin’s fiery rehearsal for crewed suborbital spaceflight]( For the first time, living, breathing humans practiced all the steps leading up to a launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital spaceship. [Read Jeff Bezos’ shareholders letter: Amazon founder focuses on employee welfare, comments on union vote]( The news: Jeff Bezos penned his final shareholders letter as Amazon’s CEO and used the annual tradition to comment on the company’s treatment of employees. SPONSORED: GEEK REAL ESTATE [Exquisite Home with Spectacular Vistas in Issaquah]( [Update: Microsoft will acquire Nuance Communications for $19.7B]( UPDATE: Microsoft on Monday confirmed it will buy Nuance for $19.7 billion. [Uber vets raise $12.5M for real estate property management startup Doorstead]( New funding: Doorstead, a San Francisco real estate property management startup founded by former Uber employees, raised a $12.5 million Series A round led by Seattle firm Madrona Venture Group. [Why Microsoft’s $19.7B deal to acquire Nuance is a ‘perfect fit’ and ‘trophy’ for Redmond tech giant]( Microsoft’s giant purchase: The tech giant announced its second-largest acquisition ever on Monday: a pending $19.7 billion deal to swoop up Boston-area company Nuance Communications, a longtime leader in artificial intelligence-fueled speech technology. [Here’s why Jeff Bezos quoted a 1986 book about human evolution in his shareholders letter]( The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins’ bestselling 1986 book that skewers the notion of intelligent design while celebrating the rational science of evolution, got its star turn today in Jeff Bezos’ final shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon. [Amazon sets 2021 diversity goals and releases new workforce data on gender and race]( The news: Amazon released new data on the racial and gender makeup of its workforce and outlined plans to increase the number of Black and women employees at the company. [Amazon expanding ‘upskill’ training for software developer roles to workers outside of company]( Amazon announced Tuesday that it is expanding one of its so-called “upskilling” programs to people outside of the company who are interested in acquiring training for roles in software engineering. [NASA awards $2.9B to SpaceX for Starship lunar lander; Blue Origin team is left out]( NASA awards $2.9 billion to SpaceX for the development of Starship as a lunar landing system for astronauts, leaving out Dynetics and a team led by Blue Origin. [Rock fans dig deep for Mudhoney and vote to name Seattle tunnel machine after longtime band]( Move aside, earth beneath Seattle. Here comes some hard rock. [Seattle podcast monetization startup Glow, a spinout of PSL, acquired by hosting platform Libsyn]( Podcast monetization startup Glow, a spinout of Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs, has been acquired by Libsyn, a podcast hosting network. GEEKWORK: TODAY'S TECH JOBS - [Symetra: Software Developer]( - [Icertis: Director, Integrated Marketing]( - [INRIX: VP- Enterprise Sales]( - [Bonanza.com: Senior Rails Developer]( - [Omnidian: Senior Software Engineer]( - [Symetra: Sr. Software Developer]( - [INRIX: Head of Product – Location Intelligence]( - [Horry-Georgetown Technical College: Banner Developer]( - [INRIX: Legal Contracts Manager]( - [INRIX: Chief Accounting Officer]( [FIND MORE JOBS ON GEEKWORK]( [HIRING? BUY A FEATURED LISTING TO APPEAR HERE]( [About GeekWire]( [Contact Us]( [Advertise]( Copyright © 2021 GeekWire LLC, All rights reserved. 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