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Stephen Wilhite, the creator of the GIF image format, died last week at the age of 74. He passed away after contracting COVID-19 and his funeral was subsequently held on Tuesday this week.

Deliveroo saw strong growth in the fourth quarter as customers continued ordering food online rather than risk catching the coronavirus by going out to a restaurant to grab something to eat.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent out an internal memo informing employees that the company has postponed its 'return to office' deadline. It has followed Microsoft and Amazon as COVID-19 surges.

Google has said it will delay the return to work for employees in the United States following the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. It has originally wanted employees back on January 10.

Google's Sundar Pichai has announced that it has extended its hybrid work setup for employees until January 10, 2022 to give them "flexibility and choice" before they're expected back in the office.

Twitter is experimenting with allowing some users to report tweets containing misleading information, with a special focus on misinformation related to COVID-19, vaccines, and elections.

Yelp has introduced new 'Proof of vaccination required' and 'All staff fully vaccinated' attributes for business profiles to help consumers pick out the safest firms to do business with.

Citing internal emails, a new report claims that Microsoft is offering a $1,500 "pandemic bonus" to almost all of its employees. GitHub, LinkedIn, and ZeniMax staff are apparently not eligible.

Amazon has launched its Returnship program in the United States to help people get back into work following the coronavirus pandemic which saw people lose their jobs due to the lack of trade.

Microsoft has announced initiatives that will assist India as it struggles with daily record numbers of new COVID-19 patients. These include oxygen, ventilators, financial and technological support.

Facebook has announced that it will donate $5 million towards global COVID-19 vaccine equity and it'll work with partners to fight vaccine disinformation that disproportionately hurts minorities.

Google has announced several financial initiatives that will assist India as it struggles with daily record numbers of new COVID-19 patients. The funding could help India obtain more oxygen cylinders.

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg has announced that the firm will turn part of its Menlo Park HQ into a COVID-19 vaccination centre. The firm will also support mobile clinics to serve poorer areas.

EE has announced the expansion of its 5G network to seaside and football locations. It comes as the UK begins to loosen lockdown restrictions which have been in place since the start of the year.

EE has announced it will be opening high street stores in some areas for longer when the coronavirus lockdown is partially lifted on Monday. Customers can also book appointments online.

Facebook is continuing its push to encourage people to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Today, the social media platform launched profile picture frames in an effort to spread the word even further.

The analyst firm Canalys has warned that firms are not spending enough money on cybersecurity. It highlighted that security breaches were higher than even last year so firms need to be prepared.

Vodafone has revealed that streaming and other network usage jumped by 40% over the last year due to the pandemic forcing people to learn and work from home. It also said more people stream earlier.

Ola has said it's launching a vaccine push in the geographies it operates in to help its employees and their dependents get vaccinated against the coronavirus which has shut the world down.

Vodafone has launched a new scheme called communities.connected. It aims to let organisations offer their vulnerable customers lower cost internet access, dongle devices, and MiFi devices.

Ericsson is working with Telia and Sahlgrenska University Hospital to build AI models that allow the hospital to receive COVID-19 patients in a more prepared manner, ensuring enough supplies.

Virgin Media has shared data about its customers' online usage during the third lockdown. It said that upload traffic was busiest in the afternoon generated by video calls and file uploads.

Sky Mobile has revealed that its customers have each saved up 43 GBs of data on average due to them staying at home over the past year and opting to get online with their broadband connection instead.

A new Instagram feature called Live Rooms is rolling out globally and allows live sessions to include three guests. The firm hopes to help content creators and make people more connected.

The analyst firm Gartner has said that it expects IT spending by governments to increase by 5.1% this year as they invest more in devices and telecoms to let employees get work done from home.

Gartner has released its latest predictions surrounding IT spending in 2021 and 2022. Last year saw negative growth in IT spend due to businesses cutting back but growth looks strong this year.

As part of a $150 million investment, Google will launch two features geared towards vaccine education. The firm will also be using its buildings and parking lots as vaccination sites.

Netflix has revealed that it gained 8.5 million new subscribers in 4Q20 and a record 37 million new users over the whole year. It also expects six million new sign-up in the first quarter of 2021.

Two firms have announced that they're working with the NHS to help it monitor cold storage units holding the COVID-19 vaccine. They are also leveraging blockchain technology to keep trusted logs.

Uber has announced that it's running a promotion where people can get free rides to vaccination centres between now and February 28. Each code does have a 4,000 limit so be sure to use it quickly.

EE has said that it's extending its unlimited data offer for NHS workers. The mobile carrier was going to end the offer on January 31 after an extension in October but will keep it going until June.

While Super Nintendo World was lined up for its grand opening early next month, those plans have been placed on hold after a state of emergency was declared in Osaka prefecture to counter COVID-19.

The cloud storage company, Dropbox, is going to lay-off 315 of its employees and it looks to grow over the coming years. The CEO said that redundancies are not a reflection on the workers.

COVID-19 exposure tracking apps like the one for NHS are currently facing issues that cause constant "loading" notifications and slowdowns. Google has acknowledged the problem and is looking into it.