Microsoft CEO Ballmer suggests more hardware coming  —  Microsoft Corp's chief executive said his company would look at more opportunities to build its own devices, after the launch of its Surface tablet last month, potentially bringing the software giant into competition with its hardware partners …

HP's Todd Bradley: Surface is no competition to us  —  Todd Bradley, the head of HP's PC business, does not view Microsoft's Surface tablet as a challenge.  —  “I'd hardly call Surface competition,” Bradley said in an interview with IDG Enterprise.  He listed several reasons, “One, very limited distribution.

YouTube Blocks Israeli Hamas Assassination Video  —  Israel has gone to war with Hamas in Gaza, and it is using the Internet as weapon, employing services like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr on its behalf.  —  The idea is familiar to anyone who has a message to push in 2012 …

Exclusive: Spotify to begin rolling out browser-based music app in beta today  —  Spotify today plans to begin the roll out of its first ever browser-based music player, The Verge has learned from sources close to the company.  The web player looks a lot like its desktop counterparts on Mac and Windows …

New WiFi protocol boosts congested wireless network throughput by 700%  —  Engineers at NC State University (NCSU) have discovered a way of boosting the throughput of busy WiFi networks by up to 700%.  Perhaps most importantly, the breakthrough is purely software-based …

Andreessen Horowitz Isn't Selling Any Facebook Shares Because “We Believe In The Longterm Value Of The Company”  —  There are some erroneous reports floating around that investment firm Andreessen Horowitz is selling its stake in Facebook.  Quite the contrary, it's holding on to all of its direct investment …

Kindle Fire HD 8.9 ships today, 4G version to follow next week  —  Did you skip the iPad mini and Nexus 10?  Were you looking for something a little more content focused with a form factor in between the standard sizes?  Well folks, it your lucky day, because the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is here!

Is Siri really Apple's future?  —  Siri is a promise.  A promise of a new computing environment, enormously empowering to the ordinary user, a new paradigm in our evolving relationship with machines.  Siri could change Apple's fortunes like iTunes and App Store...or end up being like the useful …

First Pre-Orders of LTE iPad Mini and Fourth-Generation iPad Models Arriving in U.S.  —  In line with tracking information, a number of U.S. customers who pre-ordered LTE models of the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad have either already received their shipments this morning or are seeing their packages out for delivery.

Rumor: Release of new iMacs may be delayed into 2013  —  After Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed last month that there would be a “significant shortage” of the newly redesigned iMac, a report on Wednesday claims manufacturing difficulties may push back the all-in-one's launch date into next year.

RIM's Chief Is Confident of BlackBerry 10 Success  —  Thorsten Heins, the chief executive of Research In Motion, visited The New York Times readily tells his employees, developers and customers, BlackBerry 10, the name for the new phones and the software platform running it, is a very big bet for RIM.

One Simple Trick Could Disable a City's 4G Phone Network  —  High-speed LTE networks could be felled by a $650 piece of gear, says a new study.  —  Why It Matters  —  LTE networks can have 10 times the bandwidth of 3G, and are eyed as the basis for a new wave of data-rich applications worldwide.

Flipboard teams up with Apple to launch new iBookstore-powered “Books” section in its iOS apps  —  Expanding upon what is now surely one of the most important roles of Flipboard, commerce, the magazine-like app has partnered with Apple (yes, Apple) to launch a slightly surprising new section: “Books.”

Google vs. Samsung  —  Samsung's recent success in mobile phones has been spectacular.  It overtook Nokia for the top spot in overall unit sales.  It went from having almost no smartphone sales to selling over 50 million units per quarter in a matter of two years.  —  It now accounts for nearly 40% of all industry profits.

Built to win: Deep inside Obama's campaign tech  —  The tech unit's sign, autographed by its members.  —  The reelection of Barack Obama was won by people, not by software.  But in a contest as close as last week's election, software may have given the Obama for America organization's people a tiny edge …

Apple to distribute another $2.5 billion to shareholders via Thursday dividend  —  Apple will pay shareholders its second dividend in 17 years tomorrow, distributing roughly $2.5 billion in $2.65 per share across the company's 935 million outstanding shares.

Android crushes the competition in China as it passes 90% smartphone market share: Report  —  Android has established a clear monopoly in China after achieving more than 90 percent market share there, up from 58.2 percent a year ago, according to a new report from Analysys International (via Tech in Asia).

Google's Nexus 7 Tablet With Cellular Data Has Already Sold Out  —  Google's new Nexus 7 tablet with mobile data is now sold out in the company's online Play store.  —  The tablet is an updated version of the one that launched this summer.  It offers 32 GB of storage plus a data connection from AT&T for $299.

Napster, Udacity, and the Academy  —  Fifteen years ago, a research group called The Fraunhofer Institute announced a new digital format for compressing movie files.  This wasn't a terribly momentous invention, but it did have one interesting side effect: Fraunhofer also had to figure out how to compress the soundtrack.

Gmail now lets you search for emails by size, with flexible date options, exact match, and more  —  Google just announced yet another improvement to Gmail's search function.  In short, there are a ton of new options available now that let you search through your email with a fine tooth comb.

Why Microsoft Says the Patent System Is Peachy Keen  —  Bart Eppenauer grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and after moving away for college and law school and a first job in Chicago, he came back to his hometown, joining a Kansas City law firm called Shook, Hardy & Bacon.