Category: amazon

Astranis raises $90 million for its next-gen satellite broadband internet service

YC-backed Astranis has raised $90 million of new combined debt and equity funding in a Series B round led Venrock, with a sizeable contribution by existing investor (and lead of their 2018 round) Andreessen Horowitz. The funding will be used to help the company launch its first commercial satellites, which…

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Orbital debris startup Astroscale chosen by JAXA for its first space junk removal mission

Japanese orbital debris removal technology startup Astroscale is going to be working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on the agency’s first mission to remove some of the junk that currently exists on orbit. They’ve been selected by the age y to participate in its Commercial Removal of Debris…

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The engineers behind Google’s Bookbot have launched a delivery robot startup

The engineers behind Google’s short-lived Bookbot — a robot created within the company’s Area 120 incubator for experimental products — have launched their own startup to bring the sidewalk delivery bot back to life. The secretive startup called Cartken was formed in fall 2019 after Google shuttered an internal program…

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Nearly 70% of U.S. smart speaker owners use Amazon Echo devices

Amazon’s dominant position in the U.S. smart speaker market will continue through this year and the next, with rivals like Google and Apple only making slight dents in Amazon Echo market share, according to a report published today by eMarketer. The analyst firm estimates Amazon will easily hold onto its…

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Amazon wants to depose president and secretary of Defense as part of JEDI protest

Today, AWS made public its Motion to Supplement the Record in its protest of the JEDI contract decision. As part of that process, the company has announced it wants to depose President Trump and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. When Amazon announced at the end of last year that it…

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Sony latest phone maker to pull out of MWC over coronavirus outbreak

Japanese electronics firm Sony is the latest phone maker to announce it’s withdrawing from the Mobile World Congress (MWC) tradeshow — citing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. “As we place the utmost importance on the safety and wellbeing of our customers, partners, media and employees, we have taken the difficult…

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