AT&T Corp.

In yet another move to get Apple's iPhone into more retail outlets, Best Buy on Tuesday became the first retailer to offer refurbished iPhone 3Gs at stores nationwide.

The news follows two similar moves in December. That's when AT&T began offering refurbished iPhone 3Gs even as Wal-Mart inked a deal with Apple to sell brand-new iPhone 3Gs at a $5 discount at its stores.

Jennifer Wunder, an associate English professor at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Ga., says she likes to keep her college-provided cell phone handy to send text messages and e-mails to students.

Wunder, 38, says her interaction with students is way up because she's reaching students on the same device they use.

"It's an incredible educational opportunity," she said.

On Jan. 7, she'll join about 75 fellow employees who will unplug their office phone and go wireless for good, said Lonnie Harvel, the school's chief information officer.

Two words apply well for the year just ended: Whoa, Nelly! With the financial markets in chaos, the jobs landscape littered with layoffs, and the most audacious outpouring of federal funds since the Great Depression, most of us are ready to look forward to cheerier times in 2009.

Macworld wouldn't be Macworld if it didn't stir up the rumor mill just days before the much-anticipated event. Apple fans enjoy thinking up fun devices and gadgets that Apple engineers should be developing, and this year is no different.

"As always, the more out the rumor is, the less likely it's going to come to pass," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy at Jupitermedia.

High on the rumor list is the iPhone nano, a wishfully more affordable version of the iPhone. Already manufacturers have posted photos of silicone cases and other accessories.

Text messaging is a wonderful business to be in: about 2.5 trillion messages will have been sent from cell phones worldwide this year. The public assumes that the wireless carriers' costs are far higher than they actually are, and profit margins are concealed by a heavy curtain.

Walmart began selling Apple's iPhone 3G at nearly 2,500 of its stores on Sunday. The news came just before AT&T announced Monday that it will sell refurbished iPhone 3Gs for just $99.

Walmart is offering the black 8GB iPhone 3G for $197 and the 16GB black or white model for $297. Those prices are contingent on a new two-year service agreement -- or a qualified upgrade -- from AT&T.

New media reports suggest that Samsung handsets based on Google's Android platform will reach the United States beginning in the second quarter of 2009, with Sprint being cited as the most likely wireless reseller. To accelerate the development process, Samsung recently added 30 experts in Linux and Java to increase its Android team to 80 developers, according to the Korean publication ETNews, citing an unnamed Samsung official.

Acer, AT&T and RadioShack have teamed up to offer a deal that brings the Acer Aspire netbook to market for only $99. Netbooks are mobile computing devices with a screen size of five to 10 inches that run a full version of a client operating system, such as Windows XP or Linux.

The Acer Aspire, with integrated 3G wireless technology, usually sells for $500. AT&T is subsidizing the cost of the device, but customers have to sign up for a two-year AT&T DataConnect mobile-broadband service agreement. Plans start at $60 a month.

Netbooks Emerge in the U.S.

AT&T Inc., the country's largest wireless carrier, is testing a technology that can improve the signal available to cell phones in subscribers' homes, and plans to make it available in a trial market next year.

John Stankey, chief executive of AT&T's Operations division, said Tuesday that the company is testing so-called "femtocells" in employees' homes, and is looking at a broader, city-sized test with customers in the second quarter.

With video and other rich media growing by leaps and bounds on the Internet and in corporate networks, Cisco has decided it's time to optimize. On Monday, the San Jose, Calif.-based company introduced new technologies and solutions it said will better enable "medianets" in home networks, businesses and through Internet service providers.

The company said "data-based communications are being replaced by video and rich media," and this is straining networks originally designed primarily for data.

'Immersive New Experiences'