• Android for all and the new Nexus 5 and Nexus 5 available on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile but not on Verizon, to sell in carrier stores too – Google makes the LG Nexus 5 official, selling for $349 unlocked on the Google Play store. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat, which also is now available, but whether your existing Android device gets it is up to the manufacturer and your carrier. Also Android 4.4 KitKat Coming Soon to Nexus 4, 7, 10 and Google Play Edition Phones and Google’s Nexus 5 with KitKat available today, starting at $349: hands-on impressions
• iPad Air Online Orders Go Live in the United States, Canada, and Europe – At this writing, it’s shipping for delivery on Nov. 4.
• iPad Air Teardown – iFixit takes apart the latest iPad.
• Apple testing Mail update for OS X Mavericks to fix Gmail, stability, and smart mailbox issues – In some cases, messages have been deleted in the current Mail app.
• Touch ID takes hardware security to new levels – Here’s how, why, and what it means! – Apple’s Touch ID sensor on the iPhone 5S is tied to the phone. You can’t replace the sensor by itself, which makes it more difficult to do any kind of hardware sniffing of the data it carries.
• How Apple will handle replacements for iPhone 5s units with battery problems – As reported, some 5s units have battery issues. Apple will be calling affected owners directly.
• Apple, Microsoft-Backed Rockstar Consortium Sues Google, Samsung Over 7 Nortel Patents – BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony are members of the consortium, which purchased patents from the now-defunct Nortel. Also defendants in the suit: ASUSTek, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech and ZTE. There’s new, bigger patent troll in town.
• J.D. Power’s fuzzy math: Samsung’s 18 stars beat Apple’s 22 – JD Power says Samsung’s tablets beat Apple’s for customer satisfaction, even though the iPad won in all categories but one: cost. That category is weighted more heavily, apparently.
• Angry Over U.S. Surveillance, Tech Giants Bolster Defenses – Consumer tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter are clamping down on data security in the wake of revelations of government snooping on the Net. Also Germany may invite Edward Snowden as witness in NSA inquiry
• Google’s Secret Revealed: Barge To Offer High-End Showrooms, Party Deck – The mystery barge in San Francisco Bay is apparently a invitation-only showroom – complete with bar and party deck – for Google products that can be broken down and moved anywhere in the world.
• Meet “badBIOS,” the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps – It sounds like science fiction, but this malware may use high-frequency sound to jump onto computers that aren’t connected to a network. And it can attack both PCs and Macs.
• Oracle, Google and Red Hat Engineers Ride to the Rescue of Health Care Site – The government’s finally calling in the big guns to fix HealthCare.gov.
• AT&T Is Said to Explore Vodafone Takeover as Soon as Next Year – AT&T may make a bid for the European carrier, despite suspicion of Ma Bell 2.0 in Europe over its complicity in government surveillance.
• Panasonic to pull the plug on plasma TV panels – Panasonic will no longer make plasma TVs, abandoning the technology it once championed.
