Apple has repurchased $14 billion of its stock in the two weeks after its first-quarter financial results and second-quarter revenue outlook disappointed investors.

Apple bought $12 billion of the shares through an accelerated repurchase program and $2 billion on the open market, the company confirmed.

Californian leaders want to make it compulsory for smartphones or tablets sold in the state to have built-in "kill switches" to counter the rocketing number of thefts of the devices.

State senator Mark Leno and other elected officials on Friday unveiled legislation requiring that new smartphones or tablets have technology that could be used to remotely render them useless.

Taiwan's smartphone maker HTC said Saturday it has signed a patent and technology collaboration agreement with Finnish phone giant Nokia to end all pending patent litigation between them.

Under the deal, HTC will make payments to Nokia and the collaboration will involve HTC's LTE patent portfolio to further strengthen Nokia's licensing offering, a company statement said.

Amazon on Friday yanked gibberish translations of classic works from the shelves of its online ebooks shop.

An array of titles including "Treasure Island" and "War of the Worlds" billed as translations of famed books into French, Italian, and Spanish and offered by an "M Angelo" for 99 cents each were gone after complaints that they made no sense.

Google took aim at office meeting rooms on Thursday with the release of a Chromebox for videoconferencing.

"These days, we often connect with each other from far-flung locations, coordinating time zones and dialing into conference calls from our phones," product management vice president Caesar Sengupta said in a blog post.

New Internet restrictions approved by parliament are raising concerns the government is trying to control the flow of information amid a corruption scandal, and a senior European official on Thursday called the measures "a step back" for media freedom.

Under the legislation approved Wednesday, the country's telecommunications authority would be allowed to block websites or remove content that is deemed to be in violation of privacy without seeking court approval. Internet providers would also be forced to keep data on peoples' online activities and make them available to authorities when requested.

A free smartphone application has encouraged more than 70,000 Argentines to become citizen-cops as they shop.

Argentina's government blames escalating inflation on speculators and greedy businesses, and has pressured leading supermarket chains to keep selling more than 80 key products at fixed prices. President Cristina Fernandez wants citizens to report any overpriced items to the consumer protection agency.

At least 10 U.S. states are considering bills to legalize or expand Internet gambling this year, according to a group that tracks gambling-related legislation worldwide.

But the Gambling Compliance survey also finds slim chances for a national law to regulate Internet poker, predicting a major effort by online gambling opponents to block it in Congress.

Turkey's Parliament has approved legislation that would tighten government controls over the Internet.

With a show of hands, the legislators late Wednesday endorsed allowing Turkey's telecommunications authority to block websites for a privacy violation without a prior court decision.

The European Union's antitrust watchdog on Wednesday accepted "far-reaching" concessions offered by Google to settle allegations it is abusing its dominant position in Internet searches, bringing the three-year-old case close to an end.

Google would significantly change the ways it displays some search results in Europe in favor of its competitors. But reaching a settlement will spare the company a longer antitrust procedure that could have resulted in fines of up to 10 percent of the company's annual revenue, or about $5 billion.