Nokia’s decision to only make Windows smartphones has been heavily scrutinized ever since CEO Stephen Elop made the announcement in 2011. Why go with Microsoft’s new platform when Android was already better established?

In a recent interview Elop revealed the reason Nokia didn’t switch to Android was because they felt it was going to get dominated by one company: Samsung.

VLC for iOS is making a return to the App Store after a licensing dispute got the popular video player pulled from the App Store over two years ago.

The visual appearance of the app has remained fairly consistent to the old version from 2010. The app was completely rewritten and is much faster thanks to modern output modules for audio and video, and offers multi-core decoding and support for any video files available in VLC media player for desktop operating systems.

Not satisfied with the 100 million download whooping it laid down on the App Store and Google Play, Rovio is taking Angry Birds Star Wars to almost every major gaming console for a scheduled launch of October 29th, 2013.

You’ll be able to flick lightsaber-wielding birds across your HDTV’s screen to your heart’s delight on Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, Xbox 360, Wii U, Wii, and the Nintendo 3DS. Rovio is adding 20 exclusive levels to the game, along with some cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes, to make things a little extra special for those wanting to conquer the galaxy again.

Here’s the trailer:

In response to the public’s outcry that tech companies are working with the NSA to pilfer personal info on targets of interest, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and others announced an alliance with civil liberties groups today demanding for more transparency by the U.S. government concerning wiretapping.

The coalition sent a letter today to President Obama and other leaders in Congress, urging for greater transparency around national security-related requests. Portions of the letter were published last night, but we now have a copy it in its entirety, which can be read below:

Our iDevices have become an essential part of our digital lives. Don’t they deserve a little bit more protection when (and where) you can get it? Cult of Mac Deals has both the “when” and “where” covered with the latest offer: The Mini Utility Mac Bundle.

With this bundle, you’ll get 3 apps that will take the protection of your data on your iPhone, iPod, and iPad to a whole new level. For a limited time, you can get that protection for just $19.99 from Cult of Mac Deals!

Earlier today, we learned that Verizon actually sold a lot more iPhones last quarter than anyone expected, and now it looks like Apple might also be able to say the same. In fact, a Morgan Stanley analyst is now saying that her supply chain checks say Apple will beat their guidance this quarter by a sizable margin.

Apple’s in the process of doubling down on the Apple TV. Following a report that Apple was working on deals with cable networks that would allow for commercial-skipping comes word that Apple is looking to cooperate with TV content providers to bring their own channels to the Apple TV.

If you asked most people what the average price of an iPhone app is, they’d probably say $0.99. But nope. As of April, the average price of an iPhone app is even lower. Shockingly low, even: a mere $0.19. And iPad’s a little higher, but not by much.

Here’s an interesting patent. While hype and rumor has suggested that when Apple introduces a fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S, it’ll be placed under the home button, Apple’s actually patented something much different: technology that would allow an iPhone to detect your fingerprint just by pressing your finger against the screen.

This makes a lot of sense. Not only is it a more elegant place to put a fingerprint sensor — and Apple loves elegance — but it explains the redesigned iOS 7 lock screen, and the way ‘Slide to Unlock’ has been de-emphasized. We’ll see!

Source: Patently Apple

Consensus right now is that iPhone growth is slowing, but that didn’t stop Verizon by growing iPhone activations by 44 percent in the last quarter, beating estimates of activated iPhones by as much as half a million.

Are you a registered developer with Apple? Do you want to try out Mavericks without risking your entire Mac to a potentially wonky version of OS X? I haven’t seen any major issues, yet, but that doesn’t mean that mission critical softaware you rely on will work in Mavericks beta.

So, here’s the solution. Boot up from a USB stick that has been configured as a bootable OS X Mavericks drive. Here’s how.

You just have to love the TurtleCell. First there’s the name, which conjures up images of hard-to-empty bowels. Then there’s the website, which manages to pack in plenty of Standard Infomercial Tropes: the cheesy, grinning model (usually either a family member or just the most photogenic person on the team, but never, ever a professional model), the overplayed example of the problem the product solves (in this case, an absurdly-tangled pair of earbuds) and even – yes, really – a sunglasses-wearing animal mascot in the product video.

It’s almost deliberately ridiculous. Oh, and the product is an iPhone case with built-in headphones.

You might not know the name, but you definitely know the work. If you have seen Star Wars, or Robocop, or Jurassic Park[1], you’ve seen Phil Tippet’s stop-motion (and go-motion) animation. Tauntaun? Tippet. ED–209? Tippet again.

And now you can buy 3-D character animations by the Tippett Creature Shop right inside a new storefront in the Efexio iPad app.

Briefly gets the award for most-appropriately-named app of the week. It lets you create neat little videos from your photos, and it does it really, really briefly.

PowerCycle is a hip-flask-shaped USB battery pack which is designed to be charged by your bike. You’ll need to be running a dynamo hub with an electrical output to actually charge it, so this is more a bike-friendly design than a bike-only one.

Talking of taking your iPhone to the beach, here’s another way to keep it safe from harm: don’t take it at all. Instead of Instagramming the topless ladies down at your local sea’n’sand pit, you could roll your own analog Instagram. No, not a Polaroid, but disposable cameras, dicked with to make them take even worse photos than they already do.

I hate the beach: It’s full of dirty sand, sweaty half-naked men and polluted with the sound of bad radio stations. It’s exactly like your average building site in fact, and we don’t go and lie in the sun on those.

But in July in Barcelona, the beach is one of the few places you can go to cool down and feel a breeze. It’s also just about the most dangerous place to take your electronic gadgets.

And that’s where these Cloudcover weatherproof cases come in.

Take it with a grain of salt, but Digitimes is reporting that Apple is looking to make a deal with either LG or Sharp to manufacture 55- and/or 65-inch Ultra HD TV panels for a future Apple TV set. “Apple is still testing the technology and has yet to finalize its orders with LG,” according to the report.

Source: Digitimes

Reaction to this ruggedized, clamshell Bluetooth keyboard case for the iPad mini must surely qualify as a “what the…?!” moment. Not because the New Trent Airbender Mini is ruggedized, and a keyboard, and a case, and a stand; but because it combines each of those sought-after elements for $40.

“What the…?!”

Flowboard. Flipboard. Look too similar? The people behind the Flipboard app certainly think so.

Brent Brookler, CEO of Treemo and creator of e-publishing iPad app Flowboard, says Flipboard has been threatening him with legal action since shortly after his app launched back in April, asking him to change the name of his app. Flipboard also wants the logo changed, which they say is also too similar to its own logo.

As the fifth and penultimate game in the indie-darling Bit.Trip series, Bit.Trip Fate has a lot to live up to. Originally released on Nintendo’s WiiWare platform and still part of Bit.Trip collections on the Wii and the 3DS, Bit.Trip Fate has finally, err, tripped its way over to the Mac App Store to join the other four games in the series already there on our favorite platform.

And we’re pretty darn happy about that.

Ogio’s new Gambit backpack is the kind of pack I’d want to haul my gear in while wandering the radioactive desert wasteland of Fallout: New Vegas with. Heck, it’s even equipped with a padded, crushproof pocket called a “Tech Vault.”

Apple and some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies have been under heavy fire ever since info on the National Security Administration’s PRISM program leaked to the public last month.

In response to the public’s outcry that tech companies are working with the NSA to pilfer personal info on targets of interest, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and others have formed a broad alliance with civil liberties groups that will tomorrow demand for increased transparency regarding the U.S. government’s spy programs on citizens.

All Things D reports that the alliance will publish a letter Thursday, demanding President Obama and Congress allow tech companies to provide reports on information requests related to national security.

Social weather iPhone app Weathermob has just seen a big, fat update, which Weathermob‘s PR people describe as “a deeper, more delightful and safer understanding of weather.”

With new activity-based (surfing, hiking, golfing, gardening) channels and additional detail added to the realtime weather trends aggregated from its users, this is social weather, and unlike anything else available at the app store.