After narrowly surviving the near-death legal ordeal that was 2007, Vonage is bent on proving its Internet phone service is a viable business, and not merely as takeover bait for an eager cable or phone company. A major challenge will be stemming the tide of customer defections, whether due to service problems or the lure of bundled phone, TV, and broadband service from rivals.

In mid-December, in the hip, Frank Gehry-designed IAC building in New York, Intel held a small gathering for a dozen or so journalists to preview the corporation’s planned showcase at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Curiously missing: any mention of a much-anticipated, low-cost laptop, called the “XO,” for children in developing countries.

First he became a top rap artist. Then he turned his talents to the movies as an actor. Now Ice Cube has a new line to add to his resume: Internet entrepreneur. Cube and his partner DJ Pooh, a record producer and screenwriter who also is a self-described techie, are the latest entertainers to launch a Web site showcasing all sorts of videos, original to music to user-generated.

Peer-to-peer consumer lending sites are shaking up the world of Internet finance. Be it the Internet or broadband wide-area networks, growing capabilities and increasing standardization are changing the way finance organizations do business, as Part 1 of this series discusses.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear an argument in the Quanta v. LG Electronics case. The issues involve some interesting patent doctrines and their interplay with technologies of today. The case involves LG licensing some chipset patents to Intel with some express contractual provisions.

Easing into the role of full-time philanthropist, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates delivered his final keynote address at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, giving the audience an earful of predictions for the next decade. High-definition video will become ubiquitous, devices will become more interconnected, and keyboards will drift off to oblivion.

While apparel, department and specialty stores bemoan a 2007 less-than-stellar holiday sales season, consumer electronics retailer Best Buy announced Friday that its total revenue for the fiscal month ending Jan. 5 rose 11 percent to $7.3 billion, meeting the company’s expectations. That increase was due in part to the net addition of 127 new stores during the past 12 months.

Outsourcing phenom Infosys Technologies posted mixed third quarter results, causing its stock valuations to drop by some 5.6 percent midday Friday. It also reignited speculation that the Indian-based conglomerate’s fortunes may be too closely linked to the U.S. economy.

GameStop, the world’s biggest retailer of video games, said Thursday its same-store sales during the nine-week holiday period jumped 20 percent, as strong sales of games combined with solid demand for consoles and handheld devices. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, is a key indicator of retailer performance since it measures growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.

Microsoft’s Jeff Raikes, the top executive in its business software division, will retire in September. Stephen Elop, chief operating officer at networking equipment maker Juniper Networks, will replace Raikes, the software maker said. Raikes, 49, was recruited to Microsoft from Apple by chief executive Steve Ballmer in 1981.