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Starbucks has joined the growing list of companies implementing procedures to enable social distancing over COVID-19 coronavirus, with the retail coffee shop giant temporarily enabling a "to go" model in all of its US and Canadian stores.

The company will end seating in all of its US and Canada-based Starbucks stores, which will include both indoor and patio areas for the next 2 weeks. In its place, Starbucks will use its own app for ordering ahead of time -- and then depending on the store, walking up to the counter and picking it up, delivery, or drive thru.

Starbucks will physically close its stores in places like schools and shopping malls where "high-social gathering" occurs. Starbucks EVP Rossann Williams explained in a statement: "As we all know, the situation with COVID-19 is extremely dynamic and we will continue to review the facts and science and make the proactive decisions necessary to protect our partners, customers and communities. Every community's needs are incredibly different. We want to make sure we play a constructive role by taking responsible actions, in partnership with the CDC and local public health authorities, so we can continue to do what's right for our partners and customers".

Bill Gates has just announced he is stepping down from the board of directors at Microsoft, with co-founder and ex-CEO of the company pushing more into his philanthropic efforts.

Back in 2008, Gates walked away from his full-time position at Microsoft in order to pursue his philanthropy wishes, but has now stepped down from the board of directors in a similar way. In a press release over the news, it stated Gates will "dedicate more time to his philanthropic efforts".

Bill Gates will stay on with Microsoft as a "technology advisor" to the current CEO, Satya Nadella.

Pornhub has stepped up for Italians that are currently in lockdown throughout the country over COVID-19 coronavirus, offering Italians free premium subscriptions for free.

Yeah, Pornhub knows that millions of Italians are sitting on their hands right now -- and wants those hands elsewhere. They won't even need credit cards to get the Pornhub premium goodness, while the company will also be donating some of its proceeds from Modelhub, which is Pornhub's subsidiary that helps creators sell content, to local hospitals.

Pornhub explains: "Pornhub has decided to donate its Modelhub March revenue to help Italy overcome the emergency. To keep you company at home during these weeks, you'll be able to access Pornhub Premium for free for the whole month, with no need for a credit card".

Bitcoin has dropped by a very dramatic 40% overnight, from its 2020 highs of over $10,000 down to 2020 lows of under $4600 -- but so too is the stock market, and here: Apple.

Apple (APPL) stock has dropped by 11% down to $243 at the time of writing, down from its 2020 high of $327. This means that Apple has dropped from its huge share price highs of $327 on February 12 and a huge $1.432 trillion ($1,432,000,000,000) market cap, to now just $243 and a market cap of $1.065 trillion ($1,065,000,000,000).

Apple isn't the only one experiencing huge drops in their share prices, with most tech giants including Microsoft and Amazon experiencing huge drops and hundreds of billions of dollars wiped away. No tech company is safe, with travel companies and the travel industry in general bottoming out in slow motion right now with most people not wanting to travel over COVID-19 / coronavirus fears.

Google has just asked all of its US-based employees to work from home if it's possible in their roles, effective immediately and through to April 10 over the current coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak.

Business Insider has confirmed the news with Google itself, with the search giant asking staff based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dublin, and Seattle to work from home over the last week or so. Google staff that are required to be physically present at their jobs will be okay, as Google will keep its offices open.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted out that people should "contribute" to "social distancing" if you are able to as it "helps the overall community spread and most importantly, will help offset the peak loads through critical healthcare systems and also saves it for people in need".

It looks like coronavirus / COVID-19 is making waves in the delivery market (I'm surprised it took this long), with delivery startups like Postmates now offering customers a "non-contact delivery option" for those worried about contracting COVID-19.

It's not just Postmates though, with Instacart also implementing a similar non-contact strategy. The company saw a 10x increase in sales this week compared to the week before, as customers were concerned over coronavirus / COVID-19 so the company offered its customers a "leave it at my door option" instead.

Postmates explained the move to TechCrunch, with a spokesperson from the delivery startup saying: "Community health and safety is paramount at Postmates, and we have shared precautionary CDC guidance with our Postmates. Customers have an option to designate the drop-off of item without contact; and we'll continue to encourage employees, merchants and consumers to follow preventative measures. While we are operating with business as usual, we are tracking the situation closely and will help provide the resources necessary to mitigate increased risks".

Apple has joined the growing list of tech companies asking its employees to work from home over coronavirus outbreak fears, with Bloomberg reporting that Apple has asked its staff to work from home for now.

The iPhone giant has asked its employees to work from home as an "additional precaution", but it's not forced -- it's a recommendation from Apple, and not a requirement as there are staff that simply can't pick everything up and just work from home. The news joins other companies that are asking their staff to work from home amid coronavirus spreading throughout the planet.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has tweeted: "Apple is encouraging employees in Silicon Valley to work from home today if they can as an "additional precaution." Its local retail stores remain open". Interesting that Apple retail stores are still open, and I wonder how long it'll be until we see those stores possibly being closed if the coronavirus / COVID-19 situation gets worse.

Google has reportedly ended all in-person job interviews over coronavirus fears, with the everything giant moving its job interviews through Hangouts.

The company has told potential candidates that all interviews will be done through video calls "for the forseeable future", after it restricted employee travel after a Google employee at its Switzerland office was tested positive for COVID-19. This is a big move by a big company, and with no end in sight for coronavirus / COVID-19 and its spread across the globe, it is worrying.

The Verge reports it has seen an email from Google staff, which read: "In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and to protect our candidates' and interviewers' health and wellbeing, we will be conducting all Google interviews globally virtually via Google Hangout (or BlueJeans for applicable countries) for the foreseeable future".

Back in 2017, Apple admitted that it slowed down older generation iPhones on purpose, now the company is set to pay out a massive $500 million.

According to a new report by Reuters, Apple is set to pay out $500 million to settle a massive lawsuit regarding how the company decided to intentionally slow down the performance of older generation iPhones. The lawsuit covers US iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and SE models that were running iOS 10.2.1 or later. The suit also covers iPhone 7 and 7 Plus if those phones were running iOS 11.2 or later before December 12st, 2017.

Consumers can take part in the lawsuit and even get some money back from doing so. It's estimated that consumers could get $25 per phone, and in total, it's estimated that Apple will have to pay back $310 million to consumers. Reuters also mentioned that lawyers are seeking $93 million in legal fees with an additional $1.5 million in expenses. Lawyers also said that settlement for consumers is "fair, reasonable, and adequate" and that payment of $25 per phone is "considerable by any degree".

The COVID-19 virus is hitting numerous markets in the technology industry, and one of those markets is the PC market. Analysts are now stating their expectations for how much it will fall by the end of this year.

According to analyst firm, Canalys, the global PC market is expected to shrink by a whole 3.4% in total by the end of the year if shipments continue to be hindered by the outbreak. The analyst firm also says that if the state of the outbreak worsens over time, the global PC market is expected to take a larger hit of around 8.4%.

The country that suffers the most from this outbreak if obviously China, and in the event of the worst possible scenario, Chinese sales will fall by 12.2%. In the best-case scenario, analysts predict it should only be 3.8%. Here are some numbers that make it a bit easier to understand -- in 2019, around 396 million PC's were sold, and in 2020 Canalys predicts it could be anywhere between 362-382 million units.