About Todd Bishop

Todd Bishop is co-founder of GeekWire, covering subjects including the Internet, video games, mobile technology and tech giants such as Amazon.com, Apple, Microsoft and Google. Reach him at [email protected]

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Amazon annual meeting on tap in Seattle this morning

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Amazon.com is holding its annual meeting of shareholders this morning in Seattle, and it looks like the company will avoid the labor protests and related drama that surrounded the event last year, as the meeting concluded with police leading protesters out of the room. The annual meeting is an opportunity for CEO Jeff Bezos to speak directly… Read More…

Journalists, look out: Tableau Public projects will soon be even more public

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Tableau Software charges for its premium software and technologies to visualize data in interactive charts, with security protections for confidential information. The company’s free Tableau Public service is different. As its name implies, Tableau Public is designed to be used with public data. It’s popular among journalists, bloggers and others. Tableau cautions Tableau Public users that the… Read More…

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen collaborates with Heart, Joe Walsh and other rock stars on new album

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Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder, Jimi Hendrix aficionado and avid guitar player, is coming out with a new album in August — and he has some pretty impressive collaborators helping him out. Chrissie Hynde, Joe Walsh, and Anne and Nancy Wilson of Heart are among the big names who perform with Allen and latest his band,… Read More…

Amazon to pay royalties for fan fiction in new ‘Kindle Worlds’ program

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Ready to write some fan fic? Amazon may have some money for you. The company says it will license rights to popular books, games, movies and other content to let independent authors write their own stories based on those worlds, and receive royalties from sales of their fan fiction through the company’s Kindle Store. The… Read More…

Amazon increases its tuition assistance for hourly workers

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Amazon.com says it will boost the amount of tuition assistance available to its hourly employees who pursue associate degrees or vocational certificates. The company will now pay up to $3,000 a year (totaling up to $12,000 over four years), which is an increase from $2,000 a year (or up to $8,000 total) when the program… Read More…

Xbox One: How Microsoft is trying to change the game

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It was great that Microsoft included several former Xbox bigwigs — Robbie Bach, J Allard, and Ed Fries — in the opening video montage at the Xbox One unveiling today. Seeing them was a reminder of just how much has changed since the game-centric early days of Microsoft’s console business. In fact, the Xbox is… Read More…

Xbox One: Watch the new Kinect detect a heart rate from across the room

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Microsoft has significantly upgraded the sensing capabilities of the second-generation Kinect sensor that will ship with the newly announced Xbox One game console. One example: The Kinect can detect a user’s heart rate optically. See the video above for a demonstration of the capability during a tour of the Microsoft Xbox campus today. The idea… Read More…

Official word: Xbox One requires Internet connection, but not ‘always on’

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Remember all that controversy over the reports of a required “always on” Internet connection in the new Xbox? First, reports surfaced that Microsoft would require a persistent Internet connection, then the word was that it wouldn’t. Here’s the official word from a newly published FAQ from Microsoft. Does Xbox One require an “always on” Internet… Read More…

Xbox One: Here is the official video from Microsoft

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Microsoft unveiled the new “Xbox One” console in Redmond today, with highlights including souped-up hardware, live TV integration, Skype functionality, an upgraded (and bundled) Kinect sensor, a “snap view” for multitasking, and an operating system that bridges the worlds of Xbox and Windows. The company also announced partnerships with the NFL and EA Sports, and… Read More…

Sorry, but Xbox 360 games won’t play on Xbox One

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Microsoft executives are on stage right now here in Redmond giving the rundown on the major technological changes in the new Xbox One console, unveiled by the company today. In fact, the changes are big enough that Xbox One won’t be backward compatible with Xbox 360 games, company executives are acknowledging to reporters. That means that Xbox… Read More…