Genkii appear to have had Sparkle in the works for quite some time, but they must have spat out whatever drink they were drinking at the time when Apple announced their inter-app micro-commerce structure for iPhone 3.0, which is perfectly tailored to Second Life's "pay 65 cents, increase penis length by 200%" mini economy.

Currently, Genkii has a $5 IM app in the App Store that ties into your Second Life IM account. They hope to expand their actual standalone virtual world later this year, preserving the ability to tie into pre-existing worlds like Second Life and Playstation Home.

If there is anyone out there who can't wait to get a mini avatar on their iPhone, buy it clothes and an apartment, and seek out other mini avatars to IM with, forgive my skepticism. But I think Sparkle has missed the boat by about a half decade. We'll see what happens. [TechCrunch]

The virtual city, or "Virtual Decatur" as the fine elected officials of Decatur are calling it, would be a networking hub for the city as part of a greater overall effort to boost the economy.

Virtual Decatur is only in the planning stages, but designers have already listed a number of MMO-type qualities they'd like to see implemented. There would be custom avatars and chatting, like there is in any number of MMOs today, but in Virtual Decatur the residents, non-residents and government officials would bear certain marks, so that they'd be easily distinguishable from one another. Business owners would have the option of a virtual storefront if they donated to the city.

The virtual world would also boast achievements (GovBlago2213, You've unlocked a senate seat!). Back in the real world, these achievement points could be turned into coupons or discounts for participating businesses.

Other Virtual Decatur features could include:

• Opportunities to gather citizen input on policies, topics of interest, city services, and happenings
• A Virtual City Hall Tour with multimedia capabilities.
• Streaming video of public meetings, ideally with a chat room feature that allows viewers to comment.
• Access to visitors information (store hours, directions, weather, etc.)

We eagerly await the first griefer-induced lawsuit. [Decatur, Georgia via Game Politics]

Like in many virtual worlds, Habbo Hotel lets you buy furniture to deck out your pad. The kids apparently perpetrated the theft through a phishing scam: by creating websites that mimic the Habbo login, they could trick the victims into unknowingly surrendering login IDs and passwords. The crooks could presumably just swing by their room and transfer whatever they wanted to their own accounts. Says a spokesman for Sulake, Habbo Hotel's operator:

"It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money. But the only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people's usernames and passwords and then log in and take the furniture."