Android for all and the new Nexus 5  —  Just in time for Halloween, we have two new treats for Android fans.  First, we're excited to unwrap our latest platform release, KitKat, which delivers a smarter, more immersive Android experience to even more people.  And second, we're introducing Nexus 5—a new Nexus phone developed with LG.

Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google  —  Rockstar's reverse-engineering lab in Ottawa, Canada.  —  Rockstar Consortium  —  Canada-based telecom Nortel went bankrupt in 2009 and sold its biggest asset—a portfolio of more than 6,000 patents covering 4G wireless innovations …

Angry Over U.S. Surveillance, Tech Giants Bolster Defenses  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Google has spent months and millions of dollars encrypting email, search queries and other information flowing among its data centers worldwide.  Facebook's chief executive said at a conference this fall that the government “blew it.”

iPad Air Teardown  —  It's All Hallows' Eve, the ghosts are out, and there's a spooky chill in the—nope, that's just Apple's latest ghoul, the iPad Air.  Time to gut our new toy and carve it into a bone-chilling Apple-lantern.  While our cobbers down under don't celebrate Halloween quite like we do …

Google's Secret Revealed: Barge To Offer High-End Showrooms, Party Deck  —  SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) - Google's mysterious floating barge on San Francisco Bay will feature luxury showrooms and a party deck for the tech giant to market Google Glass and other gadgets to invitation-only clients, multiple sources told KPIX 5.

Apple testing Mail update for OS X Mavericks to fix Gmail, stability, and smart mailbox issues  —  Since the launch of OS X Mavericks last week, many users have been reporting widespread, various, consistent issues within Apple's bundled Mail application.  —  Many of the issues …

J.D. Power's fuzzy math: Samsung's 18 stars beat Apple's 22  —  How exactly did Samsung overtake Apple in “overall satisfaction”?  —  FORTUNE — You can hardly blame the reporters and editors who wrote all those headlines proclaiming Samsung's victory over Apple (AAPL) …

iPad Air Online Orders Go Live in the United States, Canada, and Europe  —  Apple began taking orders for its redesigned thin-and-light iPad Air in the United States, Canada, and Europe at midnight Pacific Time, after the tablet launched earlier today in several Asia Pacific countries.

Google, Red Hat, Oracle contributing dozens of engineers, designers to fix HealthCare.gov  —  Google, Oracle Workers Enlisted for Obamacare ‘Tech Surge’  —  Google, Red Hat, Oracle and other companies are contributing dozens of computer engineers and programmers to help the Obama administration fix …

Meet “badBIOS,” the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps  —  Three years ago, security consultant Dragos Ruiu was in his lab when he noticed something highly unusual: his MacBook Air, on which he had just installed a fresh copy of OS X, spontaneously updated the firmware that helps it boot.