Apple Vision Pro: Early adopters on why they just bought the $3,500 headset

Calling themselves early tech adopters or Apple fanatics or a mix of both, shoppers showed up early Friday morning at Seattle’s University Village to get their hands — and heads — on Apple’s much-hyped Vision Pro spatial computing headset. Remy Zee (above) drove down from Vancouver, B.C., expecting a packed scene. He arrived at 3:30 a.m. to be first in a line that never really materialized. Another early shopper, Zach Munroe, said of the new device: “This thing’s awesome and the future.” Read more reaction.

“It’s time for our apps to escape the boundaries of these limited screens that we have in front of us.” That’s the view from Ken Case, CEO of Seattle-based Omni Group, a longtime Mac and iOS software developer that’s releasing its OmniPlan project management software for Apple Vision Pro. Case sees the headset as a strong step toward a new future for computing, and he offers insights into what it was like to develop for the new platform. Read more.

This chart tells Amazon’s story. That’s the trendline for the tech giant’s employment, dating back 15 years, as tracked by GeekWire from the company’s earnings reports. After more than a decade of meteoric growth, Amazon has entered a new era in which it’s controlling headcount, focusing on efficiencies — and posting record profits. Read more.

• Amazon shares were up more than 7% in trading Friday morning after its fourth-quarter results surpassed Wall Street expectations, driven by its cloud and advertising businesses, and record online sales for the holiday shopping season.

• The company also announced a new generative AI shopping assistant called Rufus, part of a broader effort by Amazon to accelerate its AI initiatives across the company.

Okta layoffs: The identity and access management giant cut 7% of its staff, or about 400 workers, including employees based in the Pacific Northwest. Okta acquired Seattle-area startup Auth0 for $6.5 billion in 2022. Read more. 

Remote medication monitoring: Seattle startup Medsense, which develops sensors that attach to prescription pill bottles and help people with medication adherence, raised new investment to fuel growth. Read more.