Latest consumer-technology news and information from the Canadian Press.

TORONTO - The U.S. International Trade Commission has upheld a Canadian company's patent for its couples vibrator, banning the import, sale and marketing of all infringing products in the United States.

TORONTO - A stronger vote of confidence for BlackBerry's future from analysts at RBC Capital Markets helped the smartphone company's stock rise nearly four per cent on Tuesday.

Top 10 free and paid apps for the iPhone and iPad in Canada for the week ending June 16.

MONTREAL - Quebec and Vermont have partnered to help owners of electric vehicles recharge their rides.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Netflix announced a deal on Monday to air television programming from Dreamworks Animation in what the company described as its biggest transaction ever for original first-run content.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - Google is launching Internet-beaming antennas into the stratosphere aboard giant, jellyfish-shaped balloons with the lofty goal of getting the entire planet online.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Apple says it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data for the six months ended in May.

KENT, Ohio - If you're up to no good in this pocket of northeast Ohio, especially in a witless way, you're risking not only jail time or a fine but a swifter repercussion with a much larger audience: You're in for a social media scolding from police Chief David Oliver and some of his small department's 49,000 Facebook fans.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Jay-Z is teaming up with Samsung to release his new album, unveiling a three-minute commercial during the NBA Finals and announcing a deal that will give the music to 1 million users of Galaxy mobile phones.

LONDON - Phone call logs, credit card records, emails, Skype chats, Facebook message, and more: The precise nature of the NSA's sweeping surveillance apparatus has yet to be confirmed.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Microsoft's Office software package is coming to the iPhone for the first time Friday, offering people the ability to read and edit their text documents, spreadsheets and slide presentations at the doctor's office or at a soccer game.

TORONTO - Even before she officially joined the team at Twitter, the CBC's former executive vice-president of English services, Kirstine Stewart, was doing her part to boost the social network's profile in Canada.

SAN FRANCISCO - The top prosecutors in San Francisco and New York planned Thursday to announce the formation of a nationwide initiative and coalition of police, prosecutors and other officials in an attempt to thwart a surge in smartphone thefts.

LONDON - An influential committee of British lawmakers accused search giant Google of dodging its taxes on Thursday, issuing a scathing report that said the U.S. Internet company took on highly contrived arrangements serving no purpose other than to avoid paying its fair share.

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo is trying to breathe new life into inactive email accounts by giving away the identifications beginning next month.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Tim and Chris Vanderhook think Myspace had it right — at one point. And they believe they've revived and improved that formula for success as the revamped first titan of social media debuts its latest incarnation.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Google says it has discovered and stopped a series of attempts to hack the accounts of tens of thousands of Iranian users in an effort the company believes is an attempt to influence the country's upcoming election.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - More than half of Americans polled in a survey released Thursday said they agreed with the statement "We are really in the era of Big Brother."

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Facebook is introducing hashtags, the number signs used on Twitter, Instagram and other services to identify topics being discussed and allow users to search for them.

TORONTO - Thursday marks the official shipping date for Amazon's Kindle Fire HD in Canada and while it's no iPad killer, it does have one big advantage over Apple's competing tablet: it's about half the price.

MONTREAL - Canada's clean reputation makes it a top destination for cyber criminals to launch global attacks on businesses, says a new study.

WINNIPEG - Some entrepreneurial Winnipeggers are set to unleash an army of bounty hunters keen on nabbing people who park in disabled parking spots without a permit or in front of a fire hydrant.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google is buying online mapping service Waze in a $1.03 billion deal that keeps a potentially valuable tool away from its rivals while allowing it to gain technology that could improve the accuracy and usefulness of its own popular navigation system.