Global Roundup: Uber donates to Ukraine, Apple rolls out upgrades + more

Where will you spend your weekend? The cinemas? On entertainment and fitness apps?

As you make these choices, we think it’s important to run you through the Global Roundup of tech stories – a compilation of happenings and news on the global tech scene that you missed during the week.

During the week, mobility giant Uber donated an app to help the United Nations distribute food in war-torn Ukraine. The Worldwide Developers Conference opened on June 6, with Apple releasing a list of exciting upgrades.

Let’s dive into the full updates in Global Roundup for this week:

Uber donates to Ukraine

Uber said on Wednesday it had donated a customised version of its “Uber Direct” software app to the U.N.‘s World Food Programme to help distribute food in Ukraine.

The WFP is scaling up operations in Ukraine and expects to be able to provide food and cash to three million people per month by June, the agency said in a joint statement with Uber.

Reuters reports that the software will allow the WFP to coordinate a fleet of vehicles and track deliveries in real time to densely populated areas where larger vehicles might not be able to travel safely.

The WFP is already using the app in Dnipro, with plans to expand to Chernivsti, Kyiv, Lviv and Vinnystia, it said.

According to the WFP, the app is an addition to a US$250,000 donation made by Uber to World Food Program USA to support the emergency response in Ukraine.

Apple rolls out upgrades at WWDC

Global tech giant, Apple has revealed a ton of exciting news at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2022. These include a glimpse at the highly-anticipated iOS 16, a new MacBook Air, camera use upgrades and much more.

The latest announcement from the tech giant also comprises; an all-new MacBook Air with the new M2 chip, new Mac software, called macOS Ventura, new iPad software, called iPadOS16, Apple’s ‘buy now, pay later’ service, new Apple Watch software, called watchOS 9 and the new Apple M2 chip.

WWDC 2022 gathered Apple developers and press for the first time in two years. But the event was also a homecoming for many Apple employees who have been working remotely for the past two years because of the pandemic.

Apple started requiring corporate employees to return to the office earlier this year.

Apple’s WWDC is the company’s biggest Apple software announcement of the year. 

Microsoft is scaling down Russia operations

Microsoft says it is “significantly” scaling down its business in Russia, more than three months after Russia invaded Ukraine. The software giant first pulled the plug on “new” sales of products and services in Russia in early March, and now Bloomberg News reports that the company is laying off 400 employees in Russia as it begins to wind down its business there.

“As a result of the changes to the economic outlook and the impact on our business in Russia, we have made the decision to significantly scale down our operations in Russia,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to Bloomberg News. “We will continue to fulfill our existing contractual obligations with Russian customers while the suspension of new sales remains in effect.”

Microsoft says it is “working closely with impacted employees” in Russia. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood revealed earlier this year that Russia accounts for less than one per cent of Microsoft’s revenue.

Microsoft isn’t the first big multinational company to suspend or wind down its business in Russia. Many Western companies, including Dell, Apple, Nike, and Adidas, are severing ties with Russia, closing stores, or pausing sales.

Twitter complies with Musk

After a weeks-long impasse, Twitter’s board plans to comply with Elon Musk’s demands for internal data by offering access to its full “firehose,” the massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the state of negotiations, The Washington Post reports.

The move aims to end a standoff with the billionaire, who has threatened to pull out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter unless the company provides access to data he says is necessary to evaluate the number of fake users on the platform.

The information could be provided as soon as this week, the person said. Currently, some two dozen companies pay for access to the trove, which comprises not only a real-time record of tweets but the devices they tweet from, as well as information about the accounts that tweet.

Musk’s legal team contends the data stream is essential for understanding the amount of spam and bot activity on its platform, a figure that could influence the company’s ad revenue, according to a letter sent to Twitter on Monday.

That’s the size of Global Roundup for the week. See you next Friday!