Technology

Twitter Inc on Thursday said its ads sales slightly rebounded in Asia after a plunge due to the coronavirus outbreak and it had accelerated work on tools to attract advertisers, becoming the latest tech company to report a lighter blow from the pandemic than forecast.

Orange is in intense discussions with Apple over developing France's smartphone app for tracing people who are at risk of coronavirus infection, CEO Stephane Richard said on Thursday.

Zoom video conferencing app does not have 300 million daily active users, the company admitted on Thursday to the Verge, saying it "unintentionally" referred to daily meeting participants as users in a blog post.

Silicon Valley billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg offered dueling views on lockdown measures designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus on Wednesday, with Facebook's Zuckerberg endorsing the measures while Tesla's Musk condemned them as anti-democratic.

Nokia has won a share of China Unicom's 5G core network order alongside Huawei and ZTE, Nokia's Chief Executive Rajeev Suri told Reuters in an interview, citing information published by the telecom operator.

Facebook Inc will allow users in the United States and Canada to transfer photos and videos to a rival tech platform for the first time - a step that could assuage antitrust concerns by giving users an option to easily leave the company's services, the social media network said on Thursday.

Nokia Oyj eked out a small profit in the first quarter, backed by demand for its new high-margin 5G telecoms equipment, and predicted a strong second half of the year, sending its shares higher.

Global smartphone production is expected to slump a record 16.5% to 287 million phones in the June quarter from a year earlier as the coronavirus pandemic muzzles demand, TrendForce said https://press.trendforce.com/press/20200430-3357.html, despite supply chains resuming after weeks of shutdown.

China is strongly opposed to the United States abusing export control measures, which would hurt the interests of U.S. firms more, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Thursday.

The coronavirus is roiling global job markets, but the picture is not all gloomy. Finance, technology and consumer goods firms are hiring tens of thousands in the United States and other countries, according to data from Microsoft Corp's professional networking site LinkedIn.

Belgian telephone, internet and television service provider Proximus reported higher than expected first-quarter net profit on Thursday, and said market regulator BIPT has granted it and four other companies temporary 5G licences.

A turnaround in France helped Orange post growing first quarter revenues, though store closures in Europe during the coronavirus outbreak dented equipment sales and hindered efforts to roll out new fibre optic broadband connections.

SoftBank Group Corp said it sees a loss of around 700 billion yen ($6.6 billion) for the year ended March on the portion of its WeWork investment held outside the Vision Fund, as the virus compounds woes at one of the firm's biggest bets.

State-controlled telecoms group Swisscom AG said on Thursday that the rollout of its new fifth-generation (5G) mobile technology was getting stalled due to the governments' resistance to installing upgraded antennas.

Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd is expected to extend its decade-high earnings streak when it reports fourth-quarter results next week, powered by the hit Switch console which is expanding its reach among locked-down consumers.

Amazon.com Inc has bought cameras to take temperatures of workers during the coronavirus pandemic from a firm the United States blacklisted over allegations it helped China detain and monitor Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Facebook Inc beat analysts' estimates for quarterly revenue on Wednesday and said it has seen "signs of stability" for sales in April after a plunge in March, in yet another signal that tech giants may weather the coronavirus-induced economic collapse better than other sectors.

SoftBank Group Corp said it sees a loss of around 700 billion yen ($6.6 billion) in the year ending March on the portion of its WeWork investment held outside the Vision Fund, extending the group's expected net loss to 900 billion yen.

Qualcomm Inc on Wednesday forecast current-quarter revenue largely in line with expectations as it signed more contracts for 5G phones, which use higher-priced chips, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted production channels and led to a fall in demand for smartphones.

Self-driving cars, trucks, sidewalk robots and shuttles are rolling out of the labs and parking garages and onto American streets to help deliver groceries, meals, and medical supplies.