5 o’clock roundup: Attack downs e-commerce sites, Google hits FTC speed bumps and more

Here’s the latest action:

Blackberry Messenger to blame for service outage — Blackberry experienced delays and interruptions when trying to send or receive messages during a service-wide outage yesterday. Today, the phone’s parent company,Research in Motion, attributed the trouble to two recently-launched versions of Blackberry Messenger that turned out to be buggy. In response, the company is providing an even newer version, recommending that all users download it as soon as possible.

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FTC puts Google’s AdMob buy under the microscope — Google has been asked for a second time to turn over documents related to its acquisition of the mobile advertising network to the Federal Trade Commission. This could be a sign that the deal is setting off antitrust alarm bells, but so far the search engine is playing it cool.

Nexus One may be invite only to start — Engadget reports that the Nexus One may be on sale by Jan. 5. But eager buyers shouldn’t get their hopes up. Apparently Google will only be handing out invitations for the phone to select individuals initially. It’s unclear how or when they will choose these customers, or when it will transition to general release. The article also lists some new specs on the handset.

DDoS attack strikes before Christmas, slows e-commerce giants — An attack targeting Neustar, the domain name service provider for web sites like Amazon, Expedia and Wal-Mart, took some of the biggest shopping sites on the internet down today, with just two days left before the big holiday. This is the second year in a row this has happened.

Barnes and Noble’s Nook beats expectations — After receiving lackluster reviews, the e-reader being offered through Barnes and Noble, called the Nook, will probably sell about 60,000 units in 2009, its inaugural year. While this is more than the company had anticipated — a generally good sign — it doesn’t seem so impressive when you compare it to the 400,000 Kindles sold by Amazon in its first year.

Indiana does its best to lure EV maker Th!nk — The County Council in Elkhart, Ind. voted to preliminarily approve a decade-long tax break for Norwegian electric vehicle maker, if the company agrees to build its new plant near Middlebury. But so far, Th!nk has named Oregon and Michigan as possible locales.

Is Solyndra set up to lose money? — Greentech Media breaks down the pre-IPO company’s financial model, revealing that it could continue to lose money if it doesn’t bring its manufacturing prices far enough below its current module pricetags.

Genetic testing co. 23andMe captures $27.8M — The company, co-founded by Anne Wojcicki (wife of Google founder Sergey Brin), brought in the sum in a second round of funding. It allows consumers to send in a sample of saliva to have their genomes read for predispositions to disease and other conditions — a concept backed by Google, Genentech, New Enterprise Associates and Mohr Davidow Ventures (which later sold its stake after throwing its weight behind competitor Navigenics).

San Francisco resurfaces cell phone-cancer concerns — The city is toying with the idea of requiring mobile retailers to warn consumers that their cellular phones could potentially cause cancer due to radiation. Despite past rulings that there is no connection between the two, a similar ordinance is being discussed in Maine as well.

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Cc:Betty cleans up your mobile inbox — The application, used to thread and keep track of emails sent between groups of people for easy viewing, has just launched for the iPhone, allowing users to organize mail on their phone for simple access on the go.