The coolest things for the coolest phones
What the mobile world needs now, more than ever, is easy access to 3D flying penises and avatars of people who want to have sex while dressed as cartoon animals.
Vollee’s Second Life Mobile beta is set to offer just that and - hopefully - more. We were sceptical the last time this subject popped up on Pocket Picks, but it does look pretty good, as you can see in the video clip below..
In many people’s minds, virtual worlds mean one thing, and one thing only: Second Life. Such was the hype surrounding that virtual world last year, that it’s easy to forget that there are actually dozens - if not hundreds - of rivals, a number of which actually have more users. If you’re a parent, you might already know this, from seeing your kids use Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin or Webkinz.
However, all these virtual worlds are accessed on a PC - either through a dedicated application like Second Life, or through a Web browser. Mobile handsets haven’t had much of a look in, for obvious reasons such as their small screens and the cost of streaming lots of data to the phone as you move around a world.
This, however, is changing…
Continue reading ‘Opinion: Mobile virtual worlds could be the next big thing’
Can I have a quick rant? Second Life is a fairly popular virtual world, even if its active users are dwarfed by those of less swizzy 2D kidworlds like Club Penguin and Webkinz. But still, Second Life has secured enough column inches to make it an ideal way for any company to cop some zeitgeisty cool by announcing some kind of tie-in with it. Any kind. Even if they quietly abandon it a few months later.
Now, I’m not suggesting that’s the case with Samsung, but its decision to trumpet an application that lets users access Second Life from their phones is puzzling. Who would use such a thing? Surely squeezing Second Life down to the level that it’ll run on a phone negates the whole point of being there? And in any case, how many extra handsets is the company really going to sell due to having this application.
Continue reading ‘Samsung putting Second Life on mobile phones… but why?’
Now this is just too deliciously geeky for words. Vodafone has launched a new service called InsideOut that allows you to take a real mobile in the real world and call or message someone using a virtual one in Second Life, which if it continues to grow and absorb the world at the rate that it is just now will soon have to be re-named First Life.
Texts cost L$300 (which is apparently somewhere around $1) and voice calls cost L$300 per minute which isn’t exactly cheap but hey, that’s the price of living out a full blown Matrix fantasy.
The service will continue to run in beta form until the end of November so for the meantime it’s free to try. We have dibs on pretending to be Neo, you can be Morpheus.
(Via Engadget)
If you haven’t heard of Second Life you have probably spent the last five years locked inside a safe that has been dipped in concrete with a sign on the front reading ‘beware anthrax’. Essentially it is a virtual world populated entirely by human controlled avatars who lead alternative existences to their drab real lives as bored housewives, chartered accountants and marketing gurus.
It’s quite an addictive virtual pass time, so much so that DoCoMo is working on an application that will allow you to log in to your account from your mobile phone. Of course the controls will be gimped and various features will no doubt be stripped out wholesale by necessity, but it will give certified addicts the chance to check in on their pixelated alter-ego when they are out stocking up on ready meals.
DoCoMo is currently looking for 100 Beta testers in preparation for the launch of the application. Assuming all goes well, there’s a chance some carriers on this side of the hemisphere might attempt something similar.
(Via Mobile Choice Blog)
