Vollee (http://www.vollee.com) offer something entirely unexpected: Second Life via your 3G mobile phone. Sound impossible? Well, actually, no.
Vollee take the innovative approach of remoting all the processing of the Second Life client and the 3D rendering of the image itself, by running this as a shart on a remote server. What the Vollee client does is recieve a video stream of the resulting image, and map your control responses back to the remote server.
Sounds like a complex solution? Maybe. Does it work? Absolutely! I have to say, having shown this technology to a number of colleagues, this is a bround-breaking solution to providing a real answer to hi-fidelity content on mobile devices: process it elsewhere and stream the resulting display.
I have to add that I am using the Nokia E61 version of the software on my Nokia E71, and it's working fine, if a little sluggish and not supporting the phone's WiFi connection (only working with the 3G internet).
So please hurry up with an E71 version, Vollee!
Vollee mention in their press content on their website that they are interested in using this as a technology to allow access to any persistent-world type game from your mobilephone ... so this could be a future where you can play WoW on your mobile.
Now, what would be really interesting is to see if anyone gets ahead of this by launching a VNC client for PC and Mobile Phone that allows you to do this using any application of your choice and manages the image resizing (or even a panning virtual desktop) for you and maps your controls appropriately....
Thursday, 25 September 2008
The Curse of WoW
I was just nosing through one of the MMO news feeds. It's a dire state if you ask me. It's either WoW or nothing. There seem to be so many MMOs failing at the moment and the feedback seems to fall into two categories, either a) why play this when WoW is so much better, or b) this is just copying WoW, so we might as well just play WoW. Sheesh. Time for something new please!
Nokia E71 Mini Review
It's taken me an age to choose a new mobile. It all comes down to what I want to use it for - as much as a computer as a phone - and I get stuck with the combinations of input options.
I didn't want a mobile with a standard keypad and predictive text - in my experience it makes a nightmare out of typing a URL or an email address. I also, for a variety of reasons have no interest in a Blackberry or anything by Apple (a company that I feel is as cynical about it's users as Google seems to be).
So I was happy to discover the Nokia E71. A phone with a decent 320x240 screen, a full (and usable) keyboard, mini SD card memory expansion (this one came with a 1GB card), WIFI and the usual camera options.
As a basic phone, the E71 does everything that you'd expect from a Nokia phone and does it with ease. The numeric element of the keypad would be a little tricky to dial a number whilst running for a train, but other than that, works fine (and I don't have small fingers).
It also manages all the additional software and connectivity that you'd expect and makes it easy to install additional application software - skype for example.
I have to say, one of the things that really makes this phone a pleasure to use (other than the keyboard) is the Nokia-ness of it. It works as easily and consistently as any Nokia phone and with the same reliability. There's no phone crashing and needing a hard reset here!
The E71 basically is the perfect internet ready 3G phone, for everyone who doesn't want blackberry or apple.
I didn't want a mobile with a standard keypad and predictive text - in my experience it makes a nightmare out of typing a URL or an email address. I also, for a variety of reasons have no interest in a Blackberry or anything by Apple (a company that I feel is as cynical about it's users as Google seems to be).
So I was happy to discover the Nokia E71. A phone with a decent 320x240 screen, a full (and usable) keyboard, mini SD card memory expansion (this one came with a 1GB card), WIFI and the usual camera options.
As a basic phone, the E71 does everything that you'd expect from a Nokia phone and does it with ease. The numeric element of the keypad would be a little tricky to dial a number whilst running for a train, but other than that, works fine (and I don't have small fingers).
It also manages all the additional software and connectivity that you'd expect and makes it easy to install additional application software - skype for example.
I have to say, one of the things that really makes this phone a pleasure to use (other than the keyboard) is the Nokia-ness of it. It works as easily and consistently as any Nokia phone and with the same reliability. There's no phone crashing and needing a hard reset here!
The E71 basically is the perfect internet ready 3G phone, for everyone who doesn't want blackberry or apple.
Pale Heretic ... As seen on SLMen.com
In keeping with how I started in Second Life, I have just launched two new mens suits.
The fashion industry in Second Life is a significant part of it's economy - given the opportunity to look like just about anything, there is a roaring trade in just about anything.
That said, the market does make value judgements about all the new products that are launched. For men's fashion items, the standard I measure my work against is http://www.slmen.com a site that is owned and operated by long-standing Second Life resident Ben Vanguard.
With SLMen, Ben consistently delivers insightful reviews of the new fashion lines as they are released, which is exactly what he has done for the latest two from Pale Heretic. Read the reviews at http://www.slmen.com?s=pale+heretic
The fashion industry in Second Life is a significant part of it's economy - given the opportunity to look like just about anything, there is a roaring trade in just about anything.
That said, the market does make value judgements about all the new products that are launched. For men's fashion items, the standard I measure my work against is http://www.slmen.com a site that is owned and operated by long-standing Second Life resident Ben Vanguard.
With SLMen, Ben consistently delivers insightful reviews of the new fashion lines as they are released, which is exactly what he has done for the latest two from Pale Heretic. Read the reviews at http://www.slmen.com?s=pale+heretic
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Google ... where did all the innovation go?
Google has been hard at work in it's application developments recently. We had Google Health, then Lively and now Chrome. Google Earth was innovation, as was Google Health. My concern is that Lively, and now Chrome are Google essentially reiterating existing applications, with no obvious sign of the innovation or insight that I'd expect them to display.
Both Lively and Chrome add new applications into already heavily populated application genres. From a marketing perspective I'm struggling to see the real UPS, from a perspective of differentiation, producing applications into competitive genres - Virtual Worlds and Browsers both seeing a lot of growth over the last couple of years - effectively dilutes Google's presence, unless they can launch what becomes the leader in both of these genres. And that is no mean feat.
This is the thing that seems to be lacking from Google at the moment (and the thing that would make some sense of this sporadic application development) is a public statement of Google's view of th future of the Internet, it's service and application provision, and how that will fit into our personal and professional use of computers and the internet.
Then just as I finish writing this I see Dennis Howletts Post on the Google Chrome ELUA over at ZDNet and I can't believe that they actually think that this is acceptable behavior.
Oh, and at the point Chrome launched, Google's own plug-in for Lively didn't work. The there's the DoS vulnerability.
Google: time to sort it out and lead the future of the internet rather than seeming to treat your applications development with a lack-lustre attitude, and your end users with a significant amount of contempt.
Both Lively and Chrome add new applications into already heavily populated application genres. From a marketing perspective I'm struggling to see the real UPS, from a perspective of differentiation, producing applications into competitive genres - Virtual Worlds and Browsers both seeing a lot of growth over the last couple of years - effectively dilutes Google's presence, unless they can launch what becomes the leader in both of these genres. And that is no mean feat.
This is the thing that seems to be lacking from Google at the moment (and the thing that would make some sense of this sporadic application development) is a public statement of Google's view of th future of the Internet, it's service and application provision, and how that will fit into our personal and professional use of computers and the internet.
Then just as I finish writing this I see Dennis Howletts Post on the Google Chrome ELUA over at ZDNet and I can't believe that they actually think that this is acceptable behavior.
Oh, and at the point Chrome launched, Google's own plug-in for Lively didn't work. The there's the DoS vulnerability.
Google: time to sort it out and lead the future of the internet rather than seeming to treat your applications development with a lack-lustre attitude, and your end users with a significant amount of contempt.
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