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. 8, 2020.
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Most popular stories on GeekWire
Ex-Microsoft engineer gets 9 years in prison after using digital currency scheme to buy $1.6M lakefront home, $160K Tesla
An ex-Microsoft engineer was sentenced to nine years in prison for 18 federal felonies after he stole more than $10 million worth of digital currency from his ex-employer and used the funds to finance purchases including a $1.6 million lakefront home and $160,000 Tesla vehicle. … Read More
Wyze releasing a $199 ‘Robot Vacuum’ to clean up on competitors in the evolving smart home
Wyze Labs’ vision of a smarter home, full of its cameras and other products, is also going to be a cleaner place. … Read More
Smart camera founder gets Wyze to car prowler and uses his own tech to catch criminal in action
When Dave Crosby, one of the co-founders of Seattle-based Wyze Labs, was the victim of a robbery this summer, he turned to his own company’s technology for help in solving the crime. … Read More
‘Simply put, people want to move’: Zillow and Redfin rebound as U.S. housing market surges again
The U.S. housing market is making a comeback — and that’s good news for online real estate giants Zillow Group and Redfin. … Read More
Science-fiction master Ted Chiang explores the rights and wrongs of AI
What rights does a robot have? If our machines become intelligent in the science-fiction way, that’s likely to become a complicated question — and the humans who nurture those robots just might take their side. … Read More
Series X launch is ‘largest in Xbox history’ as Microsoft tries to meet demand
Microsoft this week had its largest Xbox launch ever. … Read More
Pfizer’s promising COVID-19 vaccine is good news for Moderna’s trials, Fauci says
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on Monday announced promising results from its COVID-19 vaccine trials, showing that it was more than 90% effective in preventing the disease. … Read More
How Tom Alberg bet on Seattle and Amazon, shaping the region’s tech industry and building a legacy of understated influence
It was the mid 1990s, and Tom Alberg had a decision to make. … Read More
Tech Moves: Foursquare CEO David Shim resigns; Halo Infinite leader steps down; and more
— David Shim, founder of Seattle startup Placed, is stepping down as CEO of Foursquare after about a year in the role. … Read More
Amid ‘alarming rise’ of COVID-19, Fred Hutch tightens restrictions, and Inslee makes new appeal
Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has its finger on the pulse of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the home of top researchers in the field of infectious disease — which makes its decision to return to stricter restrictions on its own campus a possible sign of things to come for the broader region. … Read More