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October 11, 2007 11:02 PM PDT

Movable Life is a movable 'Second Life' feast

by Daniel Terdiman

Movable Life is a browser-based way to log into Second Life, though it only offers the ability to move around and chat.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

SAN JOSE, Calif.--I wrote earlier that I has asked the super-connected virtual worlds expert Jerry Paffendorf what the best thing he had seen at the Virtual Worlds conference here and that he had pointed me to inDuality.

Not long afterward, I ran into another friend, the also super-connected virtual worlds expert Eric Rice and asked him the same question. He pointed me to a technology called Movable Life, which he proudly said allowed him to run Second Life on his iPhone.

Well, I had to check that out. So a little later, I found my way over to the booth of a little Japanese company called 3Di, and asked for a demo of Movable Life.

Seconds later, I was logging into Second Life via a Web browser, and moments after that, I was in-world.

This was, however, a very limited version of SL, as was quickly pointed out by the company's Adam Johnson.

The idea, it turns out, is to provide SL users a way to get in-world for simple things like chatting and instant messaging and moving around, all on a very light client that, because it's Web-based, works behind a firewall.

So, while you can get in-world, you can't actually see a normal in-world view. All you see, in fact, is a map view that you can move around with a Google Maps interface.

Still, you also have access to your friends list, as well as your inventory. So I was able to IM a friend who was in-world at the moment and have a quick conversation.

Like inDuality, Movable Life has limited applications for now. But Johnson said that in the future, he plans to incorporate many more features, including a full in-world view, voice chat, the SL payment system and inventory and real-estate management tools.

Those things will be cool, but for now, it's just kind of cool to be able to log into Second Life from a Web browser.

And, of course, an iPhone.

Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel.
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About Geek Gestalt

Daniel Terdiman, uniquely positioned to take you into the middle of another side of technology, chronicles his explorations of the "fun beat," from cultural phenomena such as Burning Man to cutting-edge aircraft to game conventions.

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