MacRumors

AT&T is again offering refurbished iPhone 3Gs at $99 for the 8 GB model and $199 for the 16 GB models, a $100 discount from the non-refurbished price and a $50 discount from their standard refurbished price. All sales require a two-year contract.

According to AT&T's site, refurbished iPhones may come with minor cosmetic issues.

Refurbished phones are previously owned devices that have been unused or lightly used and returned during the 30-day trial period. Each refurbished phone is independently quality tested and loaded with the latest software to meet current factory standards. Some refurbished iPhone 3G devices will have minor scratches.

AT&T briefly offered refurbished 8 GB iPhone 3Gs for $99 in late December.

At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, The iPhone Blog was able to get a hands-on demonstration of the upcoming iPhone version of Documents To Go from DataViz. Documents To Go, which currently provides editing capabilities for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files to a variety of mobile platforms, is planned for release on the iPhone sometime in the second quarter of this year. Spreadsheet functionality, however, may not be ready for the initial release, and The iPhone Blog makes no mention of PowerPoint functionality in the preview version.

On a positive note, The iPhone Blog was particularly impressed with Documents To Go's implementation of cut-and-paste:

Also here, Cut and Paste done in a very clever way. You can:

- Double tap a word to select it.
- Triple tap a paragraph to select it.
- In magnify view, you can hold down your finger with the cursor in the same spot until the magnifying glass pulses, which will then let you select character by character.

DataViz is apparently also planning a strategy for working around Apple's limitations on third-party iPhone applications interfacing with Apple's built-in applications such as Mail, although DataViz declined to provide details on exactly how this work around will work.

However, and heres where things get mysterious, DataViz does plan on having a desktop client that will allow you to sync your documents over to the iPhone and back again and the DocsToGo app on the iPhone will be able to get around the sandbox of not being able to store files locally.

DataViz will also be including the ability to view PDF attachments with the iPhone version of Documents To Go.

Appliya announced that they have obtained a license to develop and distribute iPhone and iPod Touch apps based on the popular anime francise, Evangelion.

Neon Genesis Evangelion first aired on Japanese television in 1995, and then went on to become a multi-billion dollar international anime franchise. The story is getting a modern upgrade with the new Rebuild of Evangelion project, a series of four movies that retell the original story with new animation, new characters, and some new plot twists.

The initial app offerings will be "casual" apps that utilize the visual style, characters and storyline from Rebuild of Evangelion films. The apps will make use of the touch screen as well as the camera, calendar functions, and clock.

While I'm not an anime fan, I'm sure there is a segment of our readers that will welcome this news.

In the wake of recent announcements regarding upcoming mobile application stores on platforms other than the iPhone, additional details about these new stores are beginning to come to light.

Notably, Androinica reports that Google's Android Market is offering a 24-hour return policy on application purchases.

App browsing is a breeze when all of the products are free to try, so how will that change now that some apps cost money? Well, it basically won't. Any app purchased from the Android Market can be returned within 24 hours from the time of purchase. That means from the moment you buy that app, not install it, so be sure to install right after purchasing and make a decision on whether or not paid apps are worth keeping.

Androinica also points out several other items of interest in the Android Market Business and Program Policies document, including the lack of application upgrades within the market, meaning that users will have to obtain upgrades directly from developers. Google also reveals that all billing disputes related to app purchases must be directed to the developers or payment providers, not Google.

Boing Boing reports that an official South Park application, demoed and submitted to Apple in October, has been rejected for inclusion in the App Store. According to an e-mail received by Boing Boing from a member of the South Park team, the application was deemed by Apple to be "potentially offensive".

"We first announced our iPhone App back in October, after we submitted the Application to Apple for approval. After a couple of attempts to get the application approved, we are sad to say that our app has been rejected. According to Apple, the content was 'potentially offensive.' But Apple did admit that the standards would evolve, citing that when iTunes first launched it didn't sell any music with explicit lyrics. At this point, we are sad to say, the app is dead in the water. Sorry, South Park fans."

The source did not mention whether Apple objected to the entire application or to certain specific features of it, which were previously described in Boing Boing's October preview:

The app functioned beautifully, with the ability to stream clips, grab wallpapers for your device, read news, and browse the complete episode index. Also: choose character likenesses as "contact images" for your iPhone -- assign a face to the phone book entry of your choice.

While Apple has apparently left the door open to future shifts in its policies, the South Park team seems to have ceased its efforts to work towards App Store acceptance in the current environment.

CNET reports on the upcoming release of AMBER Alert, a free iPhone application providing notifications of AMBER Alerts, which are issued throughout the United States by law enforcement agencies in response to confirmed reports of child abductions. According to the application's author, Jonathan Zdziarski, AMBER Alert will provide real-time notification of alerts, complete with photos and descriptions of the victim, suspect, and vehicle involved, as well as the ability to report sightings.

Notably, sighting reports will also be tagged using the iPhone's built-in GPS, allowing law enforcement agencies to easily track sightings.

The iPhone's GPS is used to include your current GPS position with your sighting report, allowing AMBERAlerts.com to create a geographical search radius based on the number and pattern of reports in a specific location. This provides for smarter policing and can help filter false positives. The information is forwarded to the appropriate state patrol barracks where it can be responded to in a much faster fashion than traditional phone call screening.

Zdziarski is also making his code available to other developers who wish to make their applications "AMBER Aware", which allows the applications to utilize background tasks to check for new AMBER Alerts.

MacDailyNews reports that Smule, creators of the popular iPhone applications Ocarina [App Store] and Zephyr [App Store], have raised $3.9 million in a round of venture capital financing led by Granite Ventures.

Bessemer Venture Partners, the lead investor in Smule's first round, participated in this new round alongside existing investors Jeffrey C. Smith, co-founder and CEO of Smule, and Maples Investments. Smule will use the new funds to enhance its position as a leading developer of innovative applications and services for mobile users.

The $3.9 million round represents one of the largest announced funding events for iPhone-related companies and is particularly impressive given the recent economic downturn.

Previously, the iFund was announced in March 2008 by the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) as a $100 million fund to support companies developing applications and services for the iPhone and iPod touch. KPCB later announced in September 2008 that they had funded five companies for a total of approximately $30 million.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the Nevada Gaming Control Board has alerted the state's casinos to the existence of card-counting programs for the iPhone and iPod touch. Card counting is a strategy for card games mostly commonly applied to blackjack in which a player tracks the values of cards being played to determine when the cards remaining to be dealt are more likely to be in the player's favor, and adjusts his or her betting accordingly.

Card counting is not illegal in Nevada casinos. However, using a device to aid in the counting of cards is considered a felony under Nevada laws governing cheating, control board member Randy Sayre said.

Gamblers using the iPhone card-counting program can be detained by casino operators and arrested by state gaming agents.

While the specific application described in the alert was not identified in the news article, the description of the application suggests that it may be A Blackjack Card Counter [App Store]:

The program uses four different strategies for card counting. It also operates in the "stealth mode," in which the phone's screen is shut off. The program can be run effortlessly without detection as long as the user knows where the keys are.

The Nevada gaming commission was tipped off to the existence of card-counting iPhone applications by the California Bureau of Gambling Control, and although the Nevada board has not received any reports from casinos about players using the applications, they decided to alert the state's casinos in order to raise awareness of the issue.