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Its like the Groundhog Day for Vonage (VG), the beleaguered VoIP services company. After being separately sued by Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S), and losing its cases over patent infringements, the Holmdel, NJ-based company is now facing similar charges from AT&T (T).

Vonage was ordered to pay $66 million to Verizon, and it recently settled its case with Sprint for around $80 million. AT&T, apparently has been trying to reach a settlement for past two years, but couldn’t strike a deal. “We were forced to file a lawsuit,” AT&T spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft Launches Unified Communications Portfolio. Jeff Raikes, President of Microsoft’s Business Division tells CNET “The era of dialing blind, the era of playing phone tag, the era of voice-mail jam…that era is ending.” Good sound byte but far from truth. Aswath rightfully points out that problem is not that of technology but of social behavior. Anyway lets sit back and watch them duke it out with Cisco Systems.

Vyke, another VoIP Client for Nokia S60 phone. The options for making VoIP calls from Nokia S60 phones with WiFi keep on increasing. Vyke is the latest to join the party. I still like Truphone.

Why CD Baby popped a Snocap. Derek Sivers, CD Baby CEO outlines why his company cut the cord with Shawn Fanning’s start-up, Snocap. It seems like a case of too much expectations from a Silicon Valley company that seems to have drink too much of its own kool aid. Sivers didn’t say that, but should have.

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These sites, in alphabetical order, offer food for thought with posts that will widen your perspective on the interaction of business and design in games, particularly in the realm of casual gaming.

1. Brinking by Nabeel Hyatt. Nabeel is a serial entrepreneur, currently co-founder of Conduit Labs. He shares insights into the intersection of virtual worlds and social web space.

2. Game Tycoon by Dave Edery. Dave manages the worldwide portfolio of games for Xbox Live, and is a research affiliate at MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program. His blog ranges over a variety of game-related topics, but often considers the future of game development and distribution.

3. Games*Design*Art*Culture by Greg Costikyan. Greg is no-holds-barred and always smart and funny, although you may find yourself in vehement disagreement.

4. Guardian UK Games by Aleks Krotoski. The most mainstream-friendly on this list, Aleks covers games from cultural and consumer perspectives.
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I’ve been virutally introduced to the creative CEO of web-based T-shirt company called Spreadshirt, named Jana Eggers, late of Intuit, Sabre, Lycos and Los Alamos National Laboratory! Founded in Germany in 2001 (but now managed by Jana out of Boston), Spreadshirt is a site where you can create your own T-shirts emblazoned with pics from your Flickr account, and other digital media you like. It’s cool.

I’ve been told more than once that Jana has a great blog that is quite relevant to Found|READers called Life on a Shirt. Today I checked it out, and imagine my delight when I found, very near the top, a post about our very own Om Malik. Continue »

“If a task…does not, in some way, increase my revenues or lower my costs, I don’t deal with it.”

I had dinner last night with a friend who is the director of marketing and development at a hot new startup in the hospitality/retail area. I’d tell you what it’s called but I don’t have permission just yet—the convo wasn’t official.

But it suffices to say that the company aspires to be “the next Starbucks,” serving trendy, profit-rich beverages with often-difficult-to-pronounce names, only theirs have a bit more “kick.”

The company is onto something. They’re growing fast, from just one outlet a year ago to five, in major cities like Seattle, NYC, and DC — which isn’t bad for a new retail storefront concept, under any circumstances, and especially good for one with only angel investors. And their about to double the roll-out pace.

Which is why I don’t see my friend too often anymore, she’s usually off scouting sites in new cities. So last night, while I had her attention, I asked her about an issue that I know plagues a lot of founders in a growth-mode, including me: Time management. Continue »

Yesterday Jane brought news of Google actively reaching out to game developers to partner with its Adsense/Adscape network. I just got word that San Francisco-based casual game ad network Mochi Media is partnering with London-based MyGame.com, a casual game site with a user-created flavor.

MyGame.com is also an offshoot of King.com, a truly gigantic game network that boasts 10 million active monthly users (according to a spokeswoman) that recently partnered with RealNetworks (RNWK). Mochi Media’s MochiAds division creates a revenue source for Flash game developers; it already has partnerships with massive casual hits like the beloved Desktop Tower Defense. MyGame has a comparable program in which developers can upload their games and — if the games prove popular — share revenue with the company. (More or less a YouTube-meets-casual games proposition, not unlike Kongregate.)

Where is all this going?

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Tumblr, a blogging software startup that ascribes to the philosophy that less is more, has raised $750,000 in Series A funding, according to Private Equity Hub. The money came from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures, with Spark general partner Bijan Sabet joining Tumblr’s board.

Tumblr’s service, Tumblelogs, gives users pared-down tools to set up a personal web site where they can share and muse about what they find on the web or in the world. It doesn’t even have reader comments. You could think of it as a hybrid between Twitter and full-on blogging.

Full disclosure: Our investors at True Ventures have a stake in Automattic, which makes WordPress.com, on which the GigaOM Network runs.