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 Summit returns October 19th! We're assembling some of the top names in artificial intelligence for the half-day summit, taking place in downtown Seattle: [Get your tickets today!]( THIS WEEK'S TOP STORIES [Report: Departing Microsoft exec Panos Panay set to lead Amazon’s Alexa and Echo business]( Amazon is expected to name Panos Panay, the longtime Microsoft Windows and Devices leader, as the new executive in charge of the division that includes its Alexa voice assistant and Echo smart devices, Bloomberg News reports, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation. [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. [On the record: New vinyl Hi-Fi lounge in Seattle skips the algorithm and gets back to music basics]( The term “Seattle sound” often refers to the heyday of grunge music in the city. SPONSOR MESSAGE [If you like Washington wines, thank a Coug]( In vineyards and cellars, in head offices and tasting rooms, graduates and certificate holders from Washington State University’s Viticulture & Enology department are powering the state’s important wine industry. The perfect blend of art and science. Go Cougs Means Experiencing the Perfect Blend. [Learn more.]( [Amazon to hire 250k U.S. holiday workers, up 100k from last year, projecting strong shopping season]( Amazon says it will seek to hire 250,000 people for the holiday season, a significant increase from past years, citing projections for a strong holiday shopping season. [Should Amazon be ‘pumped’ to land Panos Panay? A closer look at longtime Microsoft devices leader]( Microsoft developed its first Surface tablet more than a decade ago under strict secrecy to give then-CEO Steve Ballmer the option to pull the plug shortly before it launched if the company’s PC partners objected. [Stoke Space puts its test rocket through a successful hop in central Washington state]( A four-year-old startup called Stoke Space has executed a successful up-and-down test of its "Hopper" developmental rocket vehicle. [Longtime Microsoft hardware leader Panos Panay is leaving the company after 19 years]( UPDATE: Report: Departing Microsoft exec Panos Panay set to lead Amazon’s Alexa and Echo business Panos Panay, the Microsoft chief product officer who oversees the Windows and Devices division, is leaving the company in a surprise departure. [Tech Moves: Seattle startup vet Joanna Lord lands new gig; Outreach exec resigns; Maveron hires CFO]( — Joanna Lord, a marketing exec who led teams at Seattle companies including Porch Group, Big Door, and Moz, is now chief marketing officer at Spring Health. [More layoffs at Outreach: Seattle sales software startup cuts 12% of staff]( Outreach laid off 12% of its staff this week, the latest round of layoffs at the Seattle-based startup. [‘It’s kind of like the ’90s are back’: Microsoft previews unified AI ‘Copilot’ initiative]( Microsoft executives appeared in New York City this morning to unveil a torrent of new AI features for Windows and other products, in addition to new Surface PCs. [Seattle-area game studio collective ProbablyMonsters lays off employees]( ProbablyMonsters, the Bellevue, Wash.-based studio collective that raised a $200 million Series A funding round in 2021, has laid off an undisclosed number of employees. [Amazon vets raise $12.5M for Griptape, a Seattle startup that helps companies build AI apps]( A pair of Amazon alum raised $12.5 million for a new startup that helps enterprises build and deploy secure artificial intelligence applications, preventing company data from slipping through the cracks. [Seattle startup MotherDuck raises $52.5M at a $400M valuation to fuel DuckDB analytics platform]( MotherDuck is fueling up to flap its wings a little harder. [TikTok plans major growth in Seattle area as it looks to take on Amazon with e-commerce feature]( TikTok is looking to aggressively grow its employee footprint in the Seattle area as the social media video app takes on Amazon for e-commerce shoppers, according to a report Thursday in The Information. [Tech Moves: Remitly exec to step down; Yoky Matsuoka named CEO of new Panasonic division]( — Kim Vu, vice president of environmental social governance at Seattle digital remittance giant Remitly, will step down from her role at the end of the third quarter. GEEKWORK: TODAY'S TECH JOBS - [GeekWork: Senior Backend Engineer]( - [Submittable: Staff Front End Software Engineer – Employee Engagement]( - [Submittable: Senior Site Reliability Engineer]( - [Submittable: Senior Software Engineer (Backend) – Employee Engagement]( - [Submittable: Senior Product Pricing Strategist]( - [Submittable: Senior Software Engineering Manager]( - [NTTA- North Texas Tollway Authority: Sr ETL & Data Modeling Developer]( - [Submittable: Senior Software Engineer (Back End) – Data]( - [Submittable: Senior Machine Learning Scientist]( - [INRIX: Lead Software Engineer]( [FIND MORE JOBS ON GEEKWORK]( [HIRING? 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