Second Life on the Xbox/PS3/iPhone?
Avatar Dusan Writer finds an interesting snippet of HTML code on search.secondlife.com
Linden freezes land supply as prices plummet
Average prices on Second Life’s volatile real estate market have fallen from L$11.5 per meter to under L$6 per meter in less than three months. To help shore up the market, Linden announced it was instituting a two-week freeze on additions to Second Life’s land supply.
Not just IBM: Microsoft looking into OpenSim
UgoTrade’s Tish Shute carries an interview with Microsoft developers working on OpenSim.
One small step for avatars, one giant leap for avatar-kind?
While still in its technical infancy, the push towards interoperability continues to chug ahead.
M-rated avatars disinvited, then re-invited, to Linden’s birthday bash
In May, Linden sent out a “Calling All Cultures” invitation on its official blog to the birthday party, held around the theme of “celebrating the cultural diversity of Second Life.” But as Massively.com reported, the company changed tracks.
Second Life on your cell phone?
Running Second Life on a cell phone isn’t a brand new idea — Comverse was talking about the idea well over a year ago. But Vollee has taken the idea out of the lab into public beta.
Garry Kasparov targeted in real-life repeat of the “Anshe Chung incident”
Pranksters have duplicated Second Life’s notorious “flying penis incident” in a real-life stunt aimed at chess grandmaster and Russian political dissident Garry Kasparov.
Training virtual border guards
Even as some panic about the possibility of terrorist exploitation< of Second Life, a program in Canada is using the virtual world to catch people at the border.
Rivers Run Red wins a Webby
Metaverse development company Rivers Run Red won a Webby award for Branded Content for their work promoting Coca-Cola in Second Life.
VW analysts sees boom in kids and branded worlds
The casual gaming market, which includes virtual worlds, grew by 29% last year to total over US$1 billion, says a report by market analysts.
Mitch Kapor unveils SL navigation via 3D camera
Linden Lab Chairman Mitch Kapor just sent over a video for a project that he first disclosed to Reuters in Davos: Hands Free 3D, a novel way of navigating Second Life using only your own body movements and a 3D camera.
Linden to increase land supply, drop prices
Linden Lab announced on its blog yesterday it would be increasing the land supply in Second Life for the second quarter of 2008.
Second Life on The Daily Show
Jon Stewart had his own take on the appearance of Philip Rosedale and other virtual worlds experts before Congress last week: “Virtual worlds hearings! It’s official: Congress has given up on the actual world!”
Cisco in Second Life to stay
“We’re definitely committed to Second Life,” Cisco’s Jeanette Gibson told Reuters at the Virtual Worlds Conference in New York. “Second Life is here to stay, and so are we.”
Ondrejka looking to get out of academia
Reuters caught up with Linden Lab ex-CTO Cory Ondrejka at the Virtual Worlds Conference in New York. Ondrejka teased us for getting our coverage of his departure from the company wrong. “I didn’t leave Linden Lab. Philip fired me,” Ondrejka corrected.
Vivox to Lipsync, Part 2: Call us!
On the heels of yesterday’s blog post that virtual worlds voice implementer Vivox would keep its service closed to third party developers like Lipsync, company executives told Reuters they’ve wanted to cooperate but didn’t know how to get in touch.
Vivox to Lipsync: No voice for you
Vivox executives told Reuters at the Virtual World Conference there’s no plan to open access to Second Life’s voice stream to external developers, limiting the practical usefulness of planned “lipsync” technology.
Logitech subsidiary debuts “3D Mouse” for Second Life
3Dconnexion, a subsidiary of computer peripherals giant Logitech, debuted a made-for-Second-Life “3D Mouse” at the Virtual Worlds 2008 Conference in New York.
Apology to IBM and Linden Lab
Due to a technical error, I accidentally transmitted a story well in advance of the embargo set by IBM and Linden Lab. My sincerest apologies to all involved.
Reading lips in Second Life
A new technology could add a whole new level of immersion to voice chat. Called “Lipsync,” now a viewer alternative to the Second Life browser, it lets Second Life avatars move their lips in rhythm to their speech.
