Gmail Blog:
We feel your pain, and we’re sorry  —  Many of you had trouble accessing Gmail for a couple of hours this afternoon, and we’re really sorry.  The issue was caused by a temporary outage in our contacts system that was preventing Gmail from loading properly.  Everything should be back to normal by the […]

Tom Espiner / CNET News.com:
Georgia accuses Russia of coordinated cyberattack  —  The Georgian embassy in the U.K. has accused forces within Russia of launching a coordinated cyberattack against Georgian Web sites, to coincide with military operations in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Gmail is down, Twitter sizzling with the news  —  Google’s e-mail service Gmail is offline for many users right now.  Those wondering if they are alone in experiencing the outage can find comfort on Twitter, which is up and sizzling with Gmail down alerts.  To track the spread of the outage […]

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
DEMO v. TechCrunch50 Takes A Nasty Turn With Charges Of Plagiarism  —  We are heads down preparing for the upcoming TechCrunch50 Conference in San Francisco, where we’ll feature fifty newly launched startups and products to an audience of over 1,500 investors, press, entrepreneurs and others who are passionate about startups.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Systemwide GMail Outage  —  Gmail is having a systemwide outage affecting multiple countries, and a whole bunch of its 100 million users are screaming about it on Twitter.  Around 20 million people visit Gmail each day, according to Comscore, and they’re all seeing the same message.

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Georgia turns to Google’s Blogger amid Russia onslaught  —  What do you do when your country is under attack by Russia and your government’s Web sites pummeled by an alleged cyber attack?  If you’re Georgia you turn to Google, specifically Blogger.  —  To get its message out …

John Mahoney / Gizmodo:
Blue Screen of Death Strikes Bird’s Nest During Opening Ceremonies Torch Lighting  —  Well this is just perfect.  At the exact moment Li Ning was rounding the lip of the Bird’s Nest during the amazing torch-lighting climax, someone snapped this photo of our good friend the BSOD nestled amongst the Nest’s […]

Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
Citi: Yep, The Kindle’s A Huge Hit.  $1 Billion For Amazon In 2010 (AMZN)  —  Initial skepticism about Amazon’s Kindle is being replaced by euphoria: Citi’s Mark Mahaney, who was already bullish on the e-book reader, declares that is indeed going to be Amazon’s iPod.

Verizon:
Visual Voice Mail From Verizon Wireless Gives Customers A New Way To Manage Their Messages  —  Customer Inquiries  —  For customer inquiries, please call 800-922-0204 or go to  —  BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The company with the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network today …

The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Motorola Alexander’s non-QWERTY counterpart, Atila  —  Another leaked Motorola handset?  You bet!  This time we’ve got the brother-in-law to the Motorola Alexander — no QWERTY keyboard — with a pretty decent spec sheet.  This one is codenamed Atila, and if you haven’t caught …