I thought the main reason for Windows 7 being Windows NT 6.1 was because that way they could avoid breaking driver compatibility since most of the drivers should still work between these very similar architectures. Windows NT 6.0 - Windows Vista/Server 2008 Windows NT 6.1 - Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 Windows NT 6.2 - Windows 8/Server 2012

I read that as iPod Mini and became confused

They did not announce a version 2, they announced job application spots for a later generation of Surface devices. Not only could this be referring to other kinds of Surface devices, but even if it was an updated version of the first it shouldn't come as a surprise that Microsoft is planning newer devices. Personally I would find it a whole lot more strange if they weren't developing newer possible versions of their products.

This is the first found and publicly revealed malware, it does not necessarily have to be the first malware on the platform. We have no way of actually knowing whether there's already been other malware in the store before.