According to AdMob, the latest stats put iPhone OS web requests at 51 percent of all smartphone web traffic. The nearest competitor is RIM OS (Blackberry) with 19 percent of smartphone web traffic, while Microsoft Windows Mobile made third place with 14 percent.

Apple devices, including the iPod Touch, represent over 18 percent of total global web ad traffic. The only company with more traffic is Nokia, clocking over 30 percent in the same category. Worldwide requests from Apple devices increased 28 percent from December to January, hitting a total of 1.2 billion.

The refurbished iPhones are back! Now available through the AT&T website. Both iPhone 3G models, the 8GB and 16GB, are available with free two-day shipping. Including the refurb discount, this puts the price of an 8GB model at $99 and the 16GB at $199.

Besides being a great deal, the phones come with a warranty of at least 90 days. Apple can provide more details about the specific length of your warranty on their website if you provide the serial number. According to AT&T, these refurbished devices are previously owned, and have been unused or lightly used and returned within the 30-day trial period.

Picsel Technologies and Picsel Research, both based in the UK, have filed a lawsuit against Apple in the Delaware US District Court. Picsel alleges that Apple is illegally using patented screen rendering technology in the iPhone and other devices.

The company has apparently licensed its technology to companies such as Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Palm, Samsung, and others representing 250 million mobile devices worldwide. The technology in question speeds up rendering to make actions like panning and zooming appear smoother.

Apple does not approve of your sense of humor. That is unless you're downloading one of the 80+ iPhone apps related to farting, belching or puking. Next time you're sitting down to watch the cable television show South Park, make sure you have permission from Papa Jobs. The South Park crew was working on an iPhone/iPod Touch app for the AppStore but has now been forced to abandon its work on the project.

Rejected twice from the AppStore for being potentially offensive, the South Park application was already receiving glowing reviews last fall. For fans of the show, the app would have offered a multitude of clips, news, and wallpapers. There was even a feature to associate popular South Park characters to people in your contacts list.

We've already reported in this forum about the patent awarded to Apple for a "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics." Well it seems they've already flexed their muscle with Google during the development of Android.