Virtual Worlds Forum

Pulling website content into Second Life is one of the key features required for enterprise use, so Daden's launch of its Daden Navigator web browser is sure to make a splash. They're billing it as the first "publicly available web browser" for the virtual world, in contrast to the browser launched by Linden Lab earlier this year, which Daden says didn't allow users to click on links to surf between different sites.

Most of the virtual worlds for kids are tightly controlled, with restrictions on user-generated content - as you'd expect, given the age of their target audience. However, Shidonni is a new service that takes a different tack - letting kids create their own virtual worlds, create animals for them, and then share them with friends.

There are many reasons you wouldn't want to play World of Warcraft on an iPhone. The lack of a mouse and physical keyboard for starters, not to mention limited screen estate. However, there are many technical reasons why getting WoW running on an iPhone is an impressive feat, so hats off to Alan Joyce, who's managed it using Telekinesis, an application that provides a web gateway for controlling a Mac with an iPhone. In other words, the laptop in this video is what's actually running WoW, but the iPhone is acting as a separate screen and controller.

Habbo has teamed up with Conduit to launch a new 'community toolbar', which will make it easier for its users to chat, post in forums, and be updated with news feeds, My Habbo homepages and friend alerts, even when they're not within Habbo itself. "The functionality lets members see their friends, messages and Habbo news from anywhere online," says Teemu Huuhtanen from Habbo. "It's a constant reminder of the community that's waiting for them, and therefore encourages them to keep coming back."

As head of HP's Innovation Program Office, Philip McKinney's job involves thinking long-term about new technologies, so it's encouraging that he's optimistic about the future for virtual worlds. Even if that future is a couple of decades down the line.

There's a big buzz today around an HTML comment that someone's discovered in the source code for search.secondlife.com - it reads "placeholer page for XBOX, PS3, and iPhone versions of client when they launch next real soon now". The idea of Second Life running on an iPhone isn't new, of course - Comverse has already shown its technology to make this happen - but it's the first time there's been any kind of (seeming) official plan from Linden Lab to make its virtual world accessible to consoles.

Crisp Thinking describes itself as an 'online child protection specialist', so it's not surprising to see it setting its sights on the virtual worlds sector. Its NetModerator chat-monitoring technology has just been signed up by virtual world Xivio.

Here's a quick post on a video that's well worth watching: it shows someone navigating in the Edusim virtual world using a smartboard and a Nintendo Wiimote controller. The latter has been hacked to be used in a variety of ways - controlling PCs for example - but this is one of the first times I've seen it used in a virtual world setting. Anyway, it's well worth a look.

Israeli firm Comverse grabbed headlines earlier this year when it demonstrated a client running Second Life on mobile handsets, including the iPhone. The company isn't alone in this aim - Vollee is working on a similar idea - but the latter company was first to actually get its technology into the hands of consumers, albeit via a beta test. Anyway, I was keen to catch up with Comverse to find out more about its platform, and whether there's really a demand for the mobilisation of virtual worlds like Second Life. Daphna Steinmetz, head of Comverse Innovation Labs, fielded my questions.

This isn't news as such, more a useful tip for anyone trying to keep track of what's hot in the rapidly-evolving virtual worlds space. A website called Summize lets you search for specific words or phrases on Twitter in real-time, to see what people are twittering about a given subject. The results can often lead you off to worlds or articles before they break big online.

If you're interested in artificial intelligence and its applications within the virtual worlds space, you should definitely check out a startup called Virsona. The company's site involves a bunch of 'Virsonas' which, it says, are "virtual personas created to Reason, Remember and React just like a living, historical or fictional character". The idea is to have AI bots taking the roles of famous figures to talk to users (think educational potential), but also to let users turn themselves into a virtual persona.

We don't often do hardware reviews on this blog, but they could become more regular as new computer peripherals emerge for use with virtual worlds and MMOs. An example is the SpaceNavigator, which is a product made by Logitech subsidiary 3Dconnexions. I've seen it described as a '3D mouse', in that it's designed to help you navigate 3D worlds more intuitively than you would with the traditional combination of a keyboard and mouse. Anyway, I've been testing one for a few days in Second Life, which is one of the first virtual worlds to support the device.

Here's a story out of leftfield to show how 3D avatars could break out of the web and onto other media platforms. TV Asahi is producing a one-hour pilot TV show called Hoshi-ichi Owarairyoku Test, due to air on 14th June in Japan. It appears to be some kind of cross between a gameshow and a talent show, hosted by local celeb Kendo Kobayashi. Anyway, the interesting thing (from this blog's point of view) is the fact that up to 100,000 viewers will be represented on-screen as 3D avatars.

NASA's latest mission to Mars is well underway, with the landing of its Phoenix mission on the surface of the Red Planet. To explain the purpose of the mission (and its progress), NASA has unveiled what it calls a 'cyber twin' on its Second Life island, which visitors can chat with.

The notion that the Second Life client is a bit confusing for new users has been around for a long time now, and in fairness to Linden Lab, it's something that a.) the company has admitted, and b.) has taken steps to counterbalance by having helpers on-hand on the Orientation Island. But even so, there's clearly scope for a better client in terms of being more accessible to new users. Now Dusan Writer is offering a fat Linden Dollar reward to anyone who can come up with one. To be specific, he's offering L$800,000, which is around $3,000 of real-world cash, although that's split between first, second and third prizewinners, so the top prize is actually L$500,000. The competition runs until 29th June, and all details are here.