Vonage on Wednesday rolled out Vonage Mobile, new iPhone and Android apps, that allow for texts and calls while undercutting Skype rates.

It remains to be seen whether Vonage can make much traction against Skype’s installed base. Vonage’s international calling rates are 30 percent less than Skype's.

But that’s only part of the story. The larger tale here goes well beyond a mobile app. Just a few years ago, Vonage was on financial death watch. The company has rebuilt a balance sheet that looked like it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Mark Lefar, CEO of Vonage, talked last month about how the company refinanced its debt twice in the last 13 months, cut those liabilities in half and trimmed interest rates in the 20 percent range to less than 4 percent.

In other words, Vonage is poised to report positive earnings growth on Feb. 15. Today, Vonage is known for more than its quirky commercials. So what’s the strategy? Can Vonage really grow beyond its U.S. base?

The answers to those questions were outlined during Lefar’s talk a month ago. Here’s the short version of Vonage’s strategy.

Grow international. Fifty percent of Vonage cu... [Read more]

Google+ for Android got a major update today, boosting its performance and adding a couple of significant features designed to improve your social networking experience.

Overall, the app runs a lot faster, and scrolling through the Stream is easier, as posts are truncated so you can see more content per scroll. Also, the app no longer jumps to the top of the feed when it refreshes, making it less, well, annoying.

As for features, the app now lets you see who +1'd a post or comment. Previously you could only see the number of +1's, but now you can tap the number to bring up a window listing the users who +1'd.

The other big addition is the What's Hot section of the Stream, located just a swipe away from your All Circles feed. What's Hot is similar to Twitter's Trending Topics, in that it shows you which posts on Google+ are attracting the most activity.

The newly updated Google+ (download) is available now in the Android Market.

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Chrome 17 expands malware detection to some downloads.

Safer downloads and a cautious expansion of site pre-caching land in Chrome 17 today, continuing Google's two-tiered approach to browser speed and user safety.

Google Chrome 17 stable for Windows (download), Mac (download), Linux (download), and Chrome Frame includes a number of new extension APIs and security fixes.

As revealed in the Chrome 17 beta version, Chrome's safe browsing technology will now scan downloads as well as Web sites. It looks for known malware files, and it analyzes installation files starting with Windows-based EXE and MSI. Google hasn't clarified if the scan will later include other Windows-based file types or installers from Mac and Linux operating systems. If a file is suspected of being malicious, meaning that it doesn't match a whitelist, Chrome will check it against Google's se... [Read more]

Invitation to Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview event in Barcelona.

Microsoft will take the wraps off the consumer preview of Windows 8 on February 29 in Barcelona, a key milestone on the path toward launching the new operating system.

The consumer preview is the name Microsoft has given the beta version of the operating system. The company said in December it would launch the beta by late February.

Microsoft sent out invitations this morning to press to attend the "Windows 8 Consumer Preview." And while the invitation doesn't say anything about the debut of the preview itself, it stands to reason that it will coincide with the event.

Take an early tour of Windows 8 (photos)

• ... [Read more]

Open more than 99 tabs in Chrome for Android, and a tab button that doesn't have room for a three-digit number just gives you a smile.

A day after Google released its Chrome browser for Android, enthusiasts are finding the Easter eggs tucked away into the software.

One draws attention to the fact that the browser doesn't have the eight-tab limit of Apple's Safari on iOS. The browser shows a button showing the number of tabs; tapping the button takes a person to a page with all the tabs showing. But there's only room for two numeric digits in the button.

Flipping up pages shown on the tab select page of Chrome for Android flip around if you slide them upward five times. If you look closely you can see an embossed version of the Chrome logo on the "back" of the browser.

So what happens when you open your hundredth tab? The 99 turns to a smiley emoticon. Yes, I tried it, and yes, it's a pain opening 100 tabs.

The other Easter egg, which I like better, concerns what happens when you're looking at the page that shows all your tabs. You can swipe up and down to flip through the stack of tab windows, but when yo... [Read more]

New Mac systems support the ability to boot to Apple's Internet recovery service that provides Lion users with an option to reinstall OS X over the Internet, instead of using a local boot disk to reinstall OS X.

In an effort to bring this ability to some earlier-model systems, Apple recently released EFI firmware updates for 2010-model MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini systems that enable this option.

In a new round of EFI updates released yesterday, Apple appears to be filling out support for this feature in all of its 2010 models, now bringing this feature to the MacBook Air, iMac, and other MacBook Pro systems besides the 13-inch model that was the only updated one in the previous release.

Unfortunately so far systems from prior years have not seen updates that enable this feature, so even though they may run Lion it is likely safe to assume they will not be updated to include the Internet recovery feature.

The updates should be available via Software Update for the respective systems, but can also be downloaded from the Apple support Web site at the following locations.

MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.3 (2.98MB)

iMac EFI Update 1.8 (3.02MB)

A group of hackers has released the source code for Symantec's PCAnywhere product.

The public release of the code yesterday came as no surprise as the hackers had been threatening such an action in a series of e-mail negotiations with what they thought were representatives of Symantec. The group, known as Yamatough but operating under the umbrella of Anonymous, had been demanding a $50,000 payoff from Symantec to keep the source code private.

Yamatough was actually negotiating with law enforcement officials posing as Symantec representatives in an attempt to draw out the group. But a "spokesperson" for Yamatough told Reuters that it never intended to take the money and just wanted to humiliate Symantec and still release the code.

Symantec spokesman Cris Paden confirmed to CNET that the posted source code was for PCAnywhere. But he reiterated that the stolen code was from 2006 and said that the company prepared for its release with a series of patches to update the software.

"Symantec was prepared for the code to be posted at some point, an... [Read more]

Microsoft's new Windows Store

Windows users can grab some Angry Birds and a host of other games when Microsoft's Windows Store opens for business later this month.

The new store is slated to launch in preview mode by the end of February at the same time the Windows 8 Consumer Preview debuts.

Citing a "source familiar with Microsoft's plans," The Verge has spilled the beans on which games will be among the first titles to pop up in the store. Though Pinball and Solitaire will automatically come with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, several other games will be available for download from the store.

The titles revealed by The Verge include:

• Angry Birds
• Crash Course
• Full House Poker
• Hydro Thunder
• Ilomilo
• Ms Splosion Man
• Reckless Racing
• Rocket Riot
• Tentacles
• Toy Soldiers
• Wordament

Asked about the game titles, a Microsoft spokesperson told CNET that the company has nothing further to share at this time.

The Windows Store will... [Read more]

Among the gargantuan number of active sites on the Internet, Netcraft shows Nginx as having just surpassed Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) for the second-place rank.

Nginx, a Russian startup that has succeeded where others have failed at challenging the dominant Apache software for housing Web sites, has begun trying to convert its popularity into actual money.

Nginx (pronounced "engine X") yesterday unveiled corporate support offerings for the product, a traditional business model for open-source software. It offers three grades--Essential, Advanced, and Premium--with three- and twelve-month contracts for services including installation, configuration, performance tuning, and maintenance.

"Subscribers to the Advanced and Premium options receive design, implementation and optimization assistance, as well as prioritized development. Premium subscribers will have access to an additional set of customization options," the company said. In addition, it's begun offering consulting services, too.

Web server software is used to house Web sites, sending data when browsers request Web pages using the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). Apache's HTTP server has dominated the area, but in recent weeks Nginx has caught on widely enough to surpass Microsoft's Internet Information Serv... [Read more]

OneNote for Android in action.

Microsoft has released a version of its OneNote for Android, continuing an expansion of the note-taking software beyond the company's own operating systems.

"Mobile versions of OneNote are currently available on Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, and now Android," Microsoft's Michael Oldenburg said in a blog post today. "No matter which platform you prefer, OneNote Mobile lets you easily capture and access all of your notes and ideas on the go."

The software lets people take graphically rich notes with active items such as checkboxes. Using a SkyDrive account, people can sync notes across multiple devices.

The app is free for up to 500 notes. After that, it costs $4.99 if you want to be able to start new notes or edit notes, but you'll be able to sync and view them.

In Microsoft's feature list has the following for OneNote for Android:

Text formatting, images, and bulleted lists

To-do lists with clickable checkboxes

Quick photo capture with your phone's camera

Quick access to recent notes

Store and access multiple OneNote notebooks

Sync to your free SkyDrive account ... [Read more]