Today’s featured stories Amazon is staffing up in these HQ2 finalist cities as second headquarters decision nears ‘Alexa, start Halo’: Microsoft adds Alexa and Cortana voice commands for Xbox One Watch: Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson airs it out as Alaska Airlines puts his face on a plane Subscribe to GeekWire on YouTube. [Editor’s Note: TLDR is GeekWire’s tech news rundown show, hosted by Starla Sampaco. Watch today’s update above, subscribe to GeekWire on YouTube, and check back weekday afternoons for more.]
Long before the Super Bowl championship and the four Pro Bowl selections and the Rookie of the Year award, there was clearly something special about Russell Wilson’s mindset. Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider noticed it eight years ago, when he watched Wilson lead his college team to a conference championship. Later that evening, at a Marriott hotel bar in Indianapolis, Schneider approached Wilson’s brother, Harry. He told the elder Wilson that he liked the quarterback’s leadership skills, pointing out his ability to “tilt a room.” “If Russell comes into a room and you were to tilt it, all the… Read More
For any Mariners fans hoping to watch today’s game against Texas, your only option is Facebook. That’s because of a deal Major League Baseball inked in March to stream 25 games on Facebook Watch, the new video platform created by the social media giant last year. It’s part of an experiment that allows MLB to test new ways to air live baseball as more and more sports content is streamed online. It’s also part of Facebook’s push to get more sports video content on its site as it competes with other tech giants — Amazon and its deal with the… Read More
The premium YouTube TV video service has struck a multi-year deal with Seattle Sounders FC to become the exclusive live streaming provider for the soccer club starting this year. The deal makes Sounders FC the only MLS club to offer a streaming option in combination with traditional over-the-air broadcast games. The deal, announced today, is the second Major League Soccer deal for the Google-owned streaming service, following an agreement between YouTube TV and the expansion team Los Angeles FC a month ago. The MLS deals are part of a broader competition among major streaming providers and technology companies, including Amazon, Twitter,… Read More
OK, the Sonics aren’t coming back (just yet), but Seattle moved a step closer to giving hockey geeks (raise your hand — are you out there?) a reason to celebrate on Thursday when the NHL announced how it feels about an expansion franchise in the city. According to various reports — and tweets from Pierre LeBrun, a hockey guru for Canada’s The Sports Network — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said during the league’s Board of Governors meetings in Florida Thursday that the process for expansion in Seattle has begun. And it’s not cheap. Bettman announces that the NHL Board of… Read More
