With the increasing popularity of virtual worlds today and advances made in mobile communications capabilities, it was only time before these two came together to allow people to also take their virtual lives with them while on the go.

 

Recently, excitement has been building around the potential of virtual worlds, and now, Second Life, the 3D virtual world platform created by Linden Lab, can be accessed from a mobile device thanks to a new service powered by 3G streaming services provider, Vollee.

 

Back in 2007, TMC's (News - Alert) President Rich Tehrani wrote that "Second Life is slowly becoming the 3D Internet" and that "the potential for this technology remains tremendous."

 

"Whether the Web evolves to become three-dimensional or a service like Second Life becomes our default conduit to 3D is unknown. What is known is the 3D world is coming and now is a great time to get accustomed to the technology," Tehrani said.

 

In fact, Second Life has continued to evolve and allows residents to not only communicate with one another using VoIP, IM or chat, but it has become a place to sell and buy goods and perform a number of other real world-like tasks.

 

For residents of the virtual world, this new mobile capability means they can take their virtual lives with them while on the go. Anyone with a qualified 3G or Wi-Fi -enabled handset can download a thin-client to their device and quickly log-in using their existing Second Life accounts.

 

Using their proprietary solution, Vollee is able to stream high-end PC titles to mobile, and using their VolleeX engine, can stream the original application to mobile devices by adapting the applications screen size and key layout.

 

According to the company, their interactive video streaming platform "optimizes compression to minimize bandwidth requirements" and "leverages the 3G mobile networks in such a way that gamers can easily and smoothly navigate virtual worlds."

 

"Vollee offers the perfect Second Life mobile service that brings our virtual world to handsets in a way that is ideal for connecting our Residents," said Christopher Mahoney, Business Development Manager, Linden Lab. "We look forward to the new and exciting ways people will be able to extend their Second Life experience through this new service."

This capability is available on 40 mobile handsets with future support planned for additional 3G and Wi-Fi enabled devices, including the iPhone (News - Alert). A complete list of supported handsets is available HERE.

 

A free beta application that lets new Residents explore the entire virtual world from their handsets is also available at http://www.vollee.com/secondlife.