Seattle-based mobile analytics and marketing company Tune hired Bhavana Mathur from Apptio to be its new vice president of product management. Mathur was the senior director of product management at Bellevue, Wash., based Apptio. Mathur has also worked on product management at travel company Expedia and insurance software company Vertafore. Prior to that, she held engineering positions at software firms Informatica and SuccessFactors. “Bhavana is an exceptional product leader with a track record of creating innovative ideas and turning them into category defining products,” said Tune chief technical officer Dan Koch in a press release. “I’m thrilled to have her on the team and am confident her bold thinking and technical leadership will enable us to deliver leading measurement and partner management technologies to our global customers.” Tune, which is number 14 on our Pacific Northwest startup index GeekWire 200, has been going under a … [Read more...] about Tech Moves: Tune hires VP of product management as director of product leaves for Rover, and more
Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Just Keep Showing Up in AOSP
Back in October of last year, we revealed what we believed to be three possible codenames for Google’s 2018 line of Pixel phones. A trusted source of ours said that “crosshatch,” “blueline,” and “albacore” were all devices in testing at that time. We initially shared the names because crosshatch had made a surprise appearance. Then blueline followed up a few weeks ago, though albacore never has surfaced. Now that both crosshatch and blueline have been spotted, Google hasn’t held back in referencing them in AOSP commits. If you look back, basically from June 1 on, the work being put into the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL has only picked up. You can find crosshatch mentions here and blueline mentions here. There’s a new “Pixel 3” mention here too. In most cases, blueline and crosshatch are mentioned together, but here and there we see them joined by last year’s Pixel 2 (walleye) and Pixel 2 XL (taimen), as well as the … [Read more...] about Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Just Keep Showing Up in AOSP
Blue Origin reaches a big milestone, lands rocket booster and crew capsule
Blue Origin is inching ever closer to sending folks into space. With tickets slated to cost somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000, it’s safe to say that folks are getting antsy for their opportunity to blast off. Earlier this week, Jeff Bezos’ space endeavor completed its most important test yet in the form of a live separation of its crew capsule from its rocket booster. Everything went according to plan and because the crew set off its escape motor at just the right time, the capsule was sent further into space than ever before. With this most recent trial green light, the rocket company is closer than ever to its goal of becoming fully operational by the end of 2018. The launch marked the ninth such occasion for Blue Origin and the third for the New Shepard rocket. Like SpaceX’s spacecraft and boosters, both of Blue Origin’s major components are meant to be reused. In total, the launch lasted around 150 seconds, after which the engine was shut off. The … [Read more...] about Blue Origin reaches a big milestone, lands rocket booster and crew capsule
Doctor Who’s new era will be a more inclusive one, cast says at Comic-Con
Though change is built into the basic premise of the long-running BBC show Doctor Who, the series might be getting one of its most substantial overhauls to date.In a Thursday press conference and subsequent panel at San Diego Comic-Con International, fans got a glimpse of a Doctor for the modern day -- a Doctor for everyone. The panel included the show's new Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and companions (Mandip Gill and Tosin Cole), as well as showrunner Chris Chibnall and executive producer Matt Strevens.It would be easy to pin the show's facelift entirely on the fact that for the first time in its 55-year history, the Doctor is a woman. Jodie Whittaker gets the Tardis keys and the topic of gender is, granted, hard to dodge.The first thing out of Whittaker's mouth at the press conference preceding the Hall H panel was that it's actually somewhat liberating being the first woman Doctor. There's room for learning all around, though. A little girl dressed as Whittaker's Doctor who blogs about … [Read more...] about Doctor Who’s new era will be a more inclusive one, cast says at Comic-Con
SyFy’s Nightflyers brings intergalactic murder in new trailer
If you want the same kind of dread and violence of Game of Thrones, but this time in space, you're in for a bloody, scream-filled treat.Nightflyers, a space thriller based on author George R.R. Martin's 1980 novella, is headed to SyFy Network as a TV series, and fans got to see a full-length trailer on Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con International. The new trailer shows more of the mysterious deaths on board the spaceship named Nightflyer. Its crew members -- who are the Nightflyers -- are in danger of becoming extinct after they set out into space to make contact with alien life. But is there a murderer on board or is the ship itself killing them off one by one?The series stars Gretchen Mol, Eoin Macken, David Ajala, Sam Strike, Maya Eshet, Angus Sampson, Jodie Turner-Smith and Brían F. O'Byrne. Martin described it as "Psycho in space." In this new behind-the-scenes footage, which also debuted Thursday, we see Martin talking more about his creepy creation. "If … [Read more...] about SyFy’s Nightflyers brings intergalactic murder in new trailer
US to alert public to foreign operations targeting Americans
The US Justice Department said Thursday it plans to inform Americans of foreign operations attempting to undermine US democracy under a new policy that aims to combat hacking and disinformation campaigns like those conducted by Russia during the 2016 presidential election.The government's plan is to notify US companies, private organizations and individuals when a hacking threat by foreign actors is detected, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado."Exposing schemes to the public is an important way to neutralize them," Rosenstein said in prepared remarks. "The American people have a right to know if foreign governments are targeting them with propaganda."The new policy underscores the challenges faced as the US tries to avoid a repeat of the 2016 election, in which Russian actors used social media to sow seeds of discord among Americans during the election. The US has charged Russians with using stolen identities to pose as Americans on … [Read more...] about US to alert public to foreign operations targeting Americans
Facial recognition helped identify suspects in the Novichok poisoning case
UK authorities used facial recognition technology to identify two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter earlier this year, CNN reported on Thursday.Police discovered two "fresh identities" on surveillance camera footage who are believed to be involved in the Novichok poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March, the network reported, citing an unnamed source. The footage, taken at UK airports and Salisbury, was analyzed by facial recognition software, the source said. The pair weren't known to be spies and were traveling under aliases, the source said. It isn't clear if they are Russian. Facial recognition remains controversial technology, but has helped police identify suspects before. Maryland police used the technology to identify the name of a suspect captured after he shot journalists at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis in June. Five people were killed in the shooting.The Salisbury, Wiltshire, Police … [Read more...] about Facial recognition helped identify suspects in the Novichok poisoning case
June 2018’s top 10 Minecraft Marketplace creations: Enter the Summer Sale
The Minecraft Marketplace is about to get the followup on a serious 1-2 punch that could boost creator’s revenues and downloads through the end of July. The Minecraft Team at Microsoft launched the first Minecraft Summer Sale today. As part of this event, most of the content on the Marketplace is getting a steep discount. While the Summer Sale may get fans downloading more content this month, last month it was the Nintendo Switch that helped fuel sales. The Minecraft Marketplace had 396,511 downloads in June, which is up from 285,816 in April. With the Marketplace hitting Switch for the first time beginning June 26, it’s likely that Nintendo’s platform contributed significantly to that total. You can see past results by tracking the Minecraft Marketplace sales charts here. But now that Switch is integrated into the Minecraft platform, developers can focus on making their content and the Summer Sale. Some, like Gamemode One founder Sean David, thinks discounts are … [Read more...] about June 2018’s top 10 Minecraft Marketplace creations: Enter the Summer Sale
Amazon Prime Day traffic led to crashed servers and over an hour of outages
Monday, July 16th marked Amazon’s annual Prime Day sale, offering discounts on products site-wide. However, Amazon’s sites across the globe were immediately plagued by issues when the Prime Day sales went live at 3pm ET. Users were unable to browse products properly, with links getting stuck in an endless loop that lead back to the home page. Now, a new report has shed some light on what exactly went wrong on Amazon’s end on Prime Day. According to internal Amazon documents obtained by CNBC, Amazon was unable to keep up with the global surge in traffic, resulting in widespread server crashes. Further complications, external experts told CNBC, likely came from a failure in Amazon’s auto-scaling feature, which automatically detects traffic fluctuations and adjusts server capacity accordingly. These experts say a lack of auto-scaling functionality presumably forced the e-commerce giant to add servers manually to keep up with demand. … [Read more...] about Amazon Prime Day traffic led to crashed servers and over an hour of outages
Ridesharing apps have until September 2019 to apply to enter B.C.’s taxi market
British Columbia’s ruling NDP government is paving the way for ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft to operate in the province. According to a July 19th, 2018 media release, ridesharing operators have until September 2019 to submit applications to the province’s Passenger Transportation Board for permission to operate in the province. In addition to opening the province to ridesharing services, the B.C. government is also working on increasing the number of taxis on the road. “People need to be able to get around safely and reliably,” said Claire Trevena, minister of transportation and infrastructure, in the same July 19th media release. “That’s why we’re putting more taxis on the streets, and laying the groundwork for new services to enter the market.” Suggestions from a February 2018 B.C.’s government has been working towards legalizing ridesharing in the province since it won the most recent general election. However, as of … [Read more...] about Ridesharing apps have until September 2019 to apply to enter B.C.’s taxi market