Technology News (Reuters)

Indian gym and wellness startup cure.fit has laid off as many as 800 of its staff across the country and permanently closed a number of fitness centres to cut costs amid the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown, sources familiar with the situation said.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp said on Monday it will launch an e-commerce service in India this week to enable customers stuck at home during a nationwide lockdown to buy its products from their local retailer.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Monday launched an updated version of its MacBook Pro, with modified keyboards as the laptop line had faced criticism for typing-related problems, while boosting performance and adding storage.

Mobile operator Vodacom Group said on Monday it had switched on Africa's first live 5G mobile network in three cities in South Africa, with further rollouts planned in other parts of the country.

Russia and China are taking advantage of the coronavirus emergency to put their interests forward in Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday, describing Chinese efforts to promote Huawei mobile phone network equipment as malign.

IG Group said on Monday Charlie Rozes, former finance director of Jardine Lloyd Thompson, will join the online trading group as chief financial officer, at a time when the sector is benefiting from strong volatility due to a coronavirus-induced selloff.

France's state-supported "StopCOVID" contact-tracing app should enter its testing phase in the week of May 11 when the country starts to unwind its lockdown, a government minister said on Sunday.

The number of people who have died in France after contracting the new coronavirus rose on Sunday by 135 to 24,895, the health ministry said.

Chipmaker Intel Corp is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli public transit app developer Moovit for $1 billion, financial news website Calcalist reported on Sunday.

Tokopedia, Indonesia's largest e-commerce platform, said it was investigating an attempted hack and claims that the details of millions of its users had been leaked online.

U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc has applied for a licence to supply electricity in the United Kingdom, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.

India has ordered all public and private sector employees use a government-backed contact tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as it begins easing some of its lockdown measures in districts less affected by the coronavirus.

Tesla Inc told furloughed employees on Friday that they will remain out of work for at least another week, postponing a plan to resume normal operations on May 4 at its San Francisco vehicle-assembly plant, according to an internal email.

Uber Technologies Inc was ordered by a U.S. judge on Friday to face a lawsuit claiming its illegal predatory pricing and other anticompetitive practices stifled competition, and drove rival Sidecar Technologies Inc out of business.

The Canadian province of Alberta on Friday launched the country's first phone app to trace contacts of people infected with the coronavirus, as the country slowly restarts its economy.

Shares of Tesla Inc tumbled 9% on Friday after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted that the electric carmaker's high-flying stock was overly expensive.

Some workers at Amazon.com Inc, Target Corp and Instacart Inc staged protests and sick-outs on Friday to demand a safer work environment and better pay during the coronavirus outbreak.

Syria's leading tycoon, Rami Makhlouf, said he will appeal to President Bashar al-Assad to allow his mobile communications company, Syriatel, to reschedule payment of taxes owed to the government in order to avoid a possible collapse of the firm.

More people stayed home in Brazil, Japan and Singapore in April as those countries' novel coronavirus cases surged, while people in the United States and Australia returned to parks and jobs as infection rates flattened, data from Google show.

Facebook Inc is at risk of losing a key seal of approval that gives companies confidence they are getting what they pay for when it comes to advertising with the social-media giant, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.