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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 time you read this.
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Search Engine Journal, Portfolio.com, Between the Lines, 43 Folders, The Register, Switched, InformationWeek, WebProNews, TechCrunchIT, Technologizer, Webware.com, broadstuff, VentureBeat, Danny O'Brien's Oblomovka, GigaOM, Beyond Search, The Universal Desktop, The Blog Herald, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Marketing Nirvana, Homotron.net, Google Blogoscoped, The Next Web, HighTouch and The Inquisitr
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Lenovo intros the monstrous ThinkPad W700, and we get our hands all over it (updated with Wacom video demo) — Like your laptops to be over-achievers? Like, the really annoyingly stacked variety of over-achiever? Enter Lenovo's newest outrage — the ThinkPad W700.
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Lenovo ThinkPad W700 Has a BUILT-IN Wacom Tablet and Professional Grade Screen

ThinkPad W700: Lenovo Intros Biggest ThinkPad Yet (videos)
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GottaBeMobile


TWITTER LIMITS FOLLOWING TO 2,000 — Twitter has always been looking for better ways to combat spammers and it appears they have recently added a new measure to combat one aspect of gaming. — User can now only add up to 2,000 followers before being limited and receiving this error message.
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Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent — Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.


Android may be here sooner then we think — We're hearing rumor after rumor that Android has been delayed, and pushed back to 2009. Well TmoNews is jumping into the pool or rumors, calling BS on those other rumors, and putting in our vote of confidence on a presale of the Android phone on September 16th, 2008.


The Much Anticipated DataCase Launches: Turn the iPhone Into A Wireless Drive — The much anticipated DataCase application for the iPhone launched this morning. — The app, which costs $6.99, turn your iPhone into an easy-to-use wireless storage device that can be access by any other device on your wireless network.
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TUAW


Social network popularity around the world — With the help of Google data, we have looked at 12 of the top social networks to answer a simple, but highly interesting question: — Where are they the most popular? — The social networks we included in this survey were MySpace, Facebook …
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Webware.com


Vongo is Gone-go — This certainly isn't shocking: Starz Entertainment has shut down online movie service Vongo. A visit to the site shows the following message: — The writing was on the wall for the service when the company announced Starz Play, a white-label movie download service for Verizon, in May.

Keyczar: Safe and Simple Cryptography — Cryptography is notoriously hard to get right and if improperly used, can create serious security holes. Common mistakes include using the wrong cipher modes or obsolete algorithms, composing primitives in an unsafe manner, hard-coding keys in source code …

States may tax iTunes, other digital downloads — If you enjoy buying music from iTunes, movies from Amazon.com's Unbox, or computer software from anywhere, be warned: the halcyon days of tax-free digital purchases may be over. — With retail e-commerce sales now estimated to exceed $130 billion a year …
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9 to 5 Mac


‘Pump and Dump’ conmen targeted — Scammers using the net to hype stocks are being targeted with software that can spot fraudulent trading patterns. — Many hi-tech conmen use junk mail to hype stocks so they can sell shares they own in the companies at a profit.

Is Amazon's Kindle the iPod of the book world? — Can Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader ever make the mainstream? — Amazon's shareholders will hope so - its stock rose 8% yesterday off the back of an estimate by Citigroup analyst Mark Mahoney, who said sales will reach 380,000 by the end of this year.

AMD split rumors accelerating — San Francisco (CA) - Hector Ruiz' time at the AMD as we know it today is coming to an end. Ruiz recently stepped down from his role as CEO, but kept his position as chairman of the board with the purpose of launching AMD's Asset Light and Asset Smart strategies …
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Engadget

Global Trail of an Online Crime Ring — As an international ring of thieves plundered the credit card numbers of millions of Americans, investigators struggled to figure out who was orchestrating the crimes in the United States. — When prosecutors unveiled indictments last week …