Paintings take spotlight in Blue Origin’s latest suborbital trip

AWS vet joins rival Microsoft | New ‘murder hornet’ nest cut from tree ADVERTISEMENT [GeekWire]( SPONSOR MESSAGE: Grab your Sounders gear and join us for a Rooftop BBQ + Sounders Day.: [Register today!]( TODAY'S TOP STORIES Paintings, not people, are payload of note for Blue Origin: A little more than a month after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rode a New Shepard suborbital spaceship to the final frontier, a new mission lifted off on Thursday. But there were no humans riding along this time, as the reusable craft carried research payloads, as well as three portraits by Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo painted on the capsule’s main chute covers. [Read the story.]( AWS vet joins rival Microsoft: Charlie Bell, who left Amazon earlier this month after 23 years at the company, [has reportedly joined Microsoft as corporate vice president](. The hire is a coup for Microsoft’s Azure arm in its cloud computing battle with market leader Amazon Web Services. New ‘murder hornet’ nest cut from tree: Another Asian giant hornet nest, located last week with tiny tracking tech, [has been eradicated in Washington]( as the state’s Department of Agriculture tries to stay a step ahead of the invasive pests. The insects carved out the inside of an alder tree to create a nine-comb nest that housed 1,500 developing hornets. Microsoft to quadruple cybersecurity investments: The tech giant will spend $20 billion over a five-year period, [CEO Satya Nadella announced]( after he attended a White House meeting with President Joe Biden and other U.S. corporate leaders. Security technology is a growing business for the company, generating more than $10 billion in annual revenue. Can AI aid lawyers? Seattle legal tech startup Clearbrief [just landed more funding]( for its AI-powered software that gives legal professionals a way to automatically spot misrepresentations in litigation documents. Xinova to shut down: The Seattle company spun out of Intellectual Ventures in 2016 and operated a network of inventors, helping match ideas with companies that needed solutions. [Read more](. Halo Infinite launch date set: The highly-anticipated first-person shooter [will be available for purchase on Dec. 8](. Microsoft on Wednesday also unveiled a lineup of special-edition Xbox hardware meant to celebrate the video game franchise’s 20th anniversary. T-Mobile hacker unveiled: A 21-year-old American who moved to Turkey recently is behind the recent T-Mobile data breach, according to a report from [The Wall Street Journal](. The hacker used an unprotected router to expose millions of customer records. Thanks for reading, and have a great day. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com, and GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com. SPONSOR MESSAGE [GeekWire’s Summer Rooftop BBQ + Sounders Day Returns]( The party kicks off at 4:00 p.m. with a pre-game BBQ at First Mode in Pioneer Square, just footsteps away from Lumen Field. We can’t wait to get our favorite Geeks together to connect and enjoy the views! [Purchase tickets!]( LATEST HEADLINES [Diagnostics startup ID Genomics snags NIH grant to develop rapid test for COVID-19 variants]( [‘Murder hornet’ nest cut from tree in Washington state; 1,500 developing insects found inside]( [This legal writing startup is using AI to spot misrepresentations in litigation docs]( [Paintings, not people, take the spotlight in Blue Origin’s latest suborbital space trip]( [Cloud wars: Former Amazon Web Services leader Charlie Bell reportedly joins rival Microsoft]( SPONSORED: GEEK REAL ESTATE [Infinity]( [Amazon announces open beta for ‘New World’ in early September]( [Microsoft to quadruple cybersecurity investments, spending $20B over five years]( [Microsoft sets release date for ‘Halo Infinite,’ plus special-edition hardware to celebrate anniversary]( [Invention network company Xinova to shut down, 5 years after spinning out of Intellectual Ventures]( GEEKWORK: TODAY'S TECH JOBS - [Chewy, Inc.: Software Engineer III]( - [Chewy, Inc.: Software Engineer II]( - [Chewy, Inc.: Senior Data Scientist]( - [INRIX: Senior Software Developer – Calculation Services]( - [Chewy, Inc.: Senior Director, Software Engineering]( - [Chewy, Inc.: Software Engineer II]( - [INRIX: Director, Enterprise Sales]( - [Chewy, Inc.: Head of Forecasting]( - [AI2- Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence: Technical Product Manager]( - [INRIX: Senior Software Developer – Mobility Analytics (Java)]( [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. You are receiving this email because you opted to receive emails from GeekWire LLC.  Our mailing address is: GeekWire LLC 123 NW 36th St, Suite 203 Seattle, WA 98107  [change email frequency or address]( | [unsubscribe](