Get caught up on the latest technology and startup news from the past week. Here are the most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Nov. 24, 2019.
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Most popular stories on GeekWire
We’ve been wearing Amazon’s Allbirds lookalikes: Here’s how they compare to the real thing
Amazon’s 206 Collective Men’s Galen Wool Blend Sneakers look like Allbirds Wool Runners, for less than half the price. … Read More
Seattle raises fees for Uber and Lyft rides with new tax, passes minimum wage for drivers
The Seattle City Council unanimously passed legislation Monday that will establish a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers and raise per-ride taxes to pay for city programs. … Read More
Amazon’s Alexa can now order prescription refills and remind people to take their medicine
Amazon’s digital brain Alexa can now refill prescriptions via voice command and remind people to take their medicine, the latest new initiative in the company’s rapidly expanding healthcare push. … Read More
Blue Origin’s expansion plans rush ahead at its Seattle-area HQ — and in Los Angeles
KENT, Wash. — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is rapidly expanding on several fronts, ranging from its headquarters facility south of Seattle to a new beachhead in the Los Angeles area — within the orbit of its main competitor, Elon Musk’s SpaceX. … Read More
Slack makes the case against Microsoft Teams’ rapid growth to 20M users, further escalating rivalry
Rivals Microsoft and Slack are sparring yet again, this time over new growth figures that show Teams pulling well ahead of its top competitor. … Read More
Allbirds calls out Amazon for ‘strikingly similar’ sneaker, urges tech giant to steal approach to sustainability instead
Allbirds raced to a valuation of more than $1 billion on the popularity of its trendy wool shoes. … Read More
Microsoft and AT&T reveal the 1st major initiative to come out of their big cloud-5G partnership
Microsoft and AT&T today unveiled the first big plan as part of their multi-year cloud alliance: Combining AT&T’s burgeoning 5G network with Microsoft’s edge computing services to speed up Internet of Things devices’ processing power. … Read More
Microsoft sleighs ’em again in holiday ad as girl uses translation technology to speak to reindeer
It’s one thing to leave a note for Santa and hope for some sort of reply. … Read More
T-Mobile discloses breach exposing more than 1M customers’ personal information
Personal information of T-Mobile’s wireless customers, including names, addresses, phone numbers and more, was exposed in a recent breach. … Read More
Seattle startup gives employees an anonymous space for voicing workplace concerns
Seattle-based Inyore, a startup that lets employees anonymously share their concerns with employers, grew out of a disagreement between two friends. … Read More