other Minecraft.net Servers Down, Not Possible to Join Through the Launcher

If no one has noticed yet, when you try to play Minecraft.net, it says "cannot connect to minecraft.net." However, it's possible to play through the browser. Has anyone seen anything strange as of yet? I believe the server's are down just like before with the old launcher, they're making a new one, and you have to redownload it to work. While the launcher isn't uploaded yet, I believe if there is a new launcher upcoming, as this happened before where you couldn't play with the old launcher but you could play in the browser unless you redownloaded the launcher, there will most likely be a new layout, including "demo" mode in place of people having to use cracked accounts, they can play a demo for a bit as announced before I believe. This "possible new launcher" might also include the much-needed Mod API(?), as it was announced to happen in 1.3, and will most likely instead be integrated into a new launcher instead of in the game itself. I'm not jumping to conclusions, but a new launcher is what happened before with the move from Beta 1.7.3 to Beta 1.8, you had to redownload the launcher to play it outside of the browser. For people still logged in, this isn't a problem, but I wouldn't recommend closing Minecraft, or your computer any time soon unless you can verify it's back up.
Me personally, I'm excited for a new launcher, as it brings more features, and hopefully more awesome stuff. Your thoughts?

And I was just about to play on a small server with a friend, how amazing is Mojang's timing ? Too good to be true.