According to a Digitimes report, Microsoft may be releasing its own branded Windows 8 tablet next year.

Says the report:

Xbox 360 is currently the only own-brand product line that Microsoft has achieved success [with], while Zune media player, Kin smartphone and own-brand TVs all had unsatisfactory performance. However, Microsoft is still considering to launch an own-brand tablet PC and is proceeding on a low profile.

Microsoft began selling branded Tablet PCs 12 years ago, but the market was not ready and sales were light.

With the creation of Windows 8 however, Microsoft is building an operating system that works for desktops, but has many features optimized for tablets, which have exploded in popularity since the launch of the Apple iPad.

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It appears that popular European music streaming site Spotify has signed a deal with Universal Group, meaning it is one step closer to launching in the United States.

Over the past few months, Spotify has signed deals with Sony and EMI which means just Warner Music Group remains as a hold out from the Big 4 labels.

Most in the industry believed Universal would be the toughest of all the labels to negotiate a deal with so a Warner deal seems imminent at this point.

Spotify offers unlimited free streaming music. It is unclear what the business model will be in the United States.

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said this week that the company will build a new "spaceship" building in Cupertino, one that can hold 12,000 employees.

Says Jobs (via Reuters):

It's a little like a spaceship landed. There is not a straight piece of glass in the building. We know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use.

The building will be four stories, circular in shape and have a large 150-acre interior courtyard. Apple's new architecture will be in addition to the company's main campus.

That's rather odd, 12,000 people in a building, in one building. But we've seen these office parks with lots of buildings, and they get pretty boring pretty fast, so we'd like to do something better than that. I do think we have a shot at building the best office building in the world.

Apple bought most of the land from HP.

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Microsoft's upcoming "Patch Tuesday" will patch 34 flaws in Windows products, the second largest collection of updates this year.

The 16 security updates include patches for Windows, IE, Office and SQL Server.

9 of the updates are "critical," with the other 7 being "important." Those are the two highest threat labels.

The highest bulletin count so far this year was April's 17.

Internet Explorer will receive a few critical updates, separately, within two weeks, added Microsoft.

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Google has acquired the large advertising optimization platform for publishers AdMeld for $400 million in cash this week.

The company launched in 2007 with $30 million in venture capital.

Thanks to their initial investments, Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Time Warner Investments are set to make a large windfall.

CEO Michael Barrett was fired in 2008 from News Corp., after he failed to get MySpace to an unreasonable $1 billion revenue target.

MySpace has since continued its decline, losing $165 million last year alone.

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Authorities in Spain have arrested three members of the hacking group Anonymous, each of which was allegedly part of the attack on the PlayStation Network where a file was found on the server with Anonymous' calling card.

The arrests follow a plot by the group to attack Spain's Central Electoral Board website, among other Spanish sites.

Police have posted pictures of IRC chatlogs in which the suspects detail their plans of attack.

The authorities also note that those arrested "have the capacity to make decisions and direct attacks," and were actively involved in the attacks on the PSN, Egypt, Chile, Iran and Colombia.

This week's arrests come just days after NATO declared Anonymous a cyberthreat that would be "persecuted" and "infiltrated."

Anonymous responded in kind:

Do not make the mistake of believing you can behead a headless snake. If you slice off one head of Hydra, ten more heads will grow in its place. If you cut down one Anon, ten more will join us purely out of anger at your trampling of dissent.

(Pic of Spanish police with Anonymous 'V' masks via TNW)

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