Technology

Bezeq Israel Telecom said on Tuesday connections to the Internet for new clients have jumped 64% due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has forced students and employees to study and work from home.

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk sent employees an email on Monday telling them to stay at home if they felt ill or uncomfortable, two people who saw the memo told Reuters.

Facebook Inc said it would work with its partners to send home all contract workers who review content until further notice, as public health concerns due to the coronavirus outbreak rapidly increases.

The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Monday it would open an investigation into possible patent violations involving touch-controlled mobile phones, computers and computer parts by Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and a slew of other companies following a complaint filed by Neodron Ltd of Ireland.

The U.S. Senate agreed on Monday to extend a set of government surveillance tools for 77 days, to allow lawmakers time to consider broader changes to the divisive domestic eavesdropping program.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a key part of the federal response to the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, was hit by an unspecified "cyber incident" on Sunday, officials said on Monday.

YouTube could see a jump in videos erroneously taken down for content policy violations as the company relies more on automated software during the coronavirus pandemic, Alphabet Inc's Google warned on Monday.

The northern English city of Manchester is the fastest-growing tech hub in Europe, measured by the rate of increase in venture capital funding, with investment jumping from 48 million pounds ($59 million) in 2018 to 181 million pounds in 2019, industry body Tech Nation said.

British online money transfer service TransferWise Ltd said on Monday it is partnering with mobile payments giant Alibaba-backed Alipay to enable instant transfers to China using 17 currencies.

The White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy on Monday challenged researchers to use artificial intelligence technology to analyze about 29,000 scholarly articles to answer key questions about the coronavirus.

The U.S. travel sector doubled down on online ads in the last month, joining healthcare and food delivery providers in pushing deals even as the coronavirus pandemic caused mass cancellations and deterred many travelers.

Google sister company Verily launched a website late on Sunday that invites adults in northern California to answer questions about their recent health and travel that could result in their getting a free coronavirus test.

Online travel startups based in Germany are hunkering down to survive a coronavirus pandemic that threatens to inflict a "nuclear winter" on the travel industry as bookings plunge and borders close.

France's competition watchdog on Monday fined iPhone maker Apple 1.1 billion euros ($ 1.23 billion), saying it was guilty of anti-competitive behavior towards its distribution and retail network.

China's Didi Chuxing said on Monday it had launched delivery services in 21 Chinese cities, a move it hopes will provide its drivers with more income after the coronavirus epidemic battered ride-hailing demand.

ZTE said it had not received any notice from U.S. authorities after NBC News reported on Friday that the Chinese telecoms company was the subject of a new bribery investigation.

Technology giant Samsung Electronics has adopted electronic voting for the first time ever for this year's annual general meeting (AGM) on March 18, urging shareholders to use it to help curb the spread of coronavirus.

Israel plans to use anti-terrorism tracking technology and a partial shutdown of its economy to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

Apple Inc said it is closing all its retail stores, except those in Greater China, for the next two weeks to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission, a move that was followed by several U.S. retailers on Saturday.

Alphabet's Google said on Saturday that it was working with the U.S. government to develop a nationwide website that would help Americans with questions about coronavirus symptoms, risk factors and testing.