virtualization

Gemini: A virtual mobile world wakes to life

Second Life may have nudged its Grid onto the mobile screen, but it's Gemini's EXplo platform for enabling mini virtual worlds that earned a spot on Deloitte's Wireless Fast 50 list at the CTIA Wireless conference (coverage).

In S'town, a game built on the EXplo platform, users can chat on screen, buy products, stare at advertising billboards, and meet up with online friends, even whooshing to a meeting point on the other end of the expansive world. That's in Japan, where impressive phones on the Softbank network are already attracting a demographic of "young, … Read more

My first book, 'The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life,' is published

One of the things that separates the new News.com personal blogs, like this one, or Declan McCullagh's The Iconoclast, or Caroline McCarthy's The Social, from the larger, impersonal News.com blog, is that they are a place for us to write not just about what's going around us, but also what we're doing ourselves that's relevant.

In my case, that's pretty easy because I live a lot of the things I write about. So there's a never-ending supply of blog fodder. And you get the benefits of that. Insert smiley here.

Well, … Read more

Playhut opens kids' virtual world

Correction: This blog initially misstated the day of the announcement. It is Tuesday.

More toy makers are joining the virtual worlds' fray. Playhut, a toy company known for making physical play structures like inflatable fire engines or playhouses for kids, is trying its hand at online virtual worlds for the 6 years and older set.

On Tuesday, the company said it launched two online worlds--one for boys and one for girls--under the brand GoLive2.com Kraze. The free sites enable members play games, dress up virtual characters and chat with friends--once parents send a permission slip via e-mail to the … Read more

Wii virtual console releases for this week

Billiards in space, a Japanese import, and classic sequel make up this week's list of Wii Virtual Console releases.

Lunar Pool (1987, NES, 500 Wii points)--It's the future, and it's space--so obviously the first thing that comes to mind is billiards. Enjoy 30 tables and two game modes. Rad space uniforms not included. Ninja JaJaMaru-kun (1985, NES, 600 Wii points)--Up until now, Ninja JaJaMaru-kun was only available as an import from Japan. In this action game you must rescue Princess Sakura while battling a villain named Namazu Dayuu. Golden Axe III (1993, Genesis, 800 Wii … Read more

Attent turns Outlook into a microeconomy/MMORPG

If you're a Microsoft Outlook user at work, managing your in-box could be one of the most challenging things you have to wrestle with each day. Handling incoming e-mail and categorizing its importance is a skill, and a process people have to learn. There are several third-party apps to help you figure out what's important beyond the stock methods included with the Outlook (colored flagging, and urgency), but many are for the individual, rather than the entire company.

Likewise, as a sender, figuring out how to prioritize the e-mail you're sending to others is a balancing act, … Read more

Microsoft Virtual Earth offers 3D building capability

Microsoft and Dassault Systemes have released a 3D building application for the Virtual Earth mapping program, the companies said Friday.

Virtual Earth-3DVIA will let people create 3D structures with textures and colors and share them with one other online. The models can also be tagged with real-life addresses or town information so that they can be viewed in Virtual Earth as they would be on a map.

The application is being released as a "technology preview," according to the companies, in order for them to get feedback for its next release.

The program could be a rival to … Read more

Virtual bikes in race for fat-free kids

Let the octogenarians have their Wii Bowling. At the other end of the life cycle, kindergarteners are getting their own indoor workout with virtual bikes.

As childhood obesity persists as a mainstay in headlines, more companies are looking for ways to make exercise fun--or at least seem like fun--and e-bikes are apparently leading the trend. Fisher-Price debuted its "Smart Cycle" earlier this year, for example, but it has some competition from across the pond in U.K.-based Gymkids and its "Cyberbike."

Both have brightly colored toy-like designs and can hook up to a TV … Read more

The talking dog of virtualization

I started my computing life on a Sinclair ZX81 with 1k of memory (total). If I wanted to get it to do anything of significance I had to laboriously hand code it, sometimes from a magazine that published user-submitted programs (with accompanying bug notices and typo corrections in the following month's issue). Today I work on a Mac Book Pro with dual 2 gigaherz processors and 104,857,600 times more memory (approximately). It does most things I want, including running two operating systems simultaneously.

I use Parallels on top of OS X, and let me start by saying … Read more

Reality show coming to 'Entropia Universe'

If there's one thing you can be sure of about Jon "Neverdie" Jacobs, it's that he's always up to something crazy.

A couple of years ago, he became the first person to ever pay $100,000 for a virtual asset--a space station in Entropia Universe that he insists is profitable. More recently, he bought one of the valuable banking licenses in that virtual world, paying tens of thousands of dollars more for it.

Now, Jacobs' newest effort is a reality show that will focus on the finalists of the Massive Multiplayer Online World Championships. This, … Read more