Google Launches Lively -- 3D Virtual World

Google's just launched Lively is a 3-D simulation application where users can customize avatars and create environments (rooms) with stuff they pick from a product catalog. The environments can also be embedded in blogs or web sites.

clipped from www.lively.com Create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms you design clipped from www.youtube.com Lively by Google is a new product available in Google Labs. Create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms you design. clipped from www.readwriteweb.com clipped from www.lively.com Create your own virtual space Express yourself Add your room to your site clipped from news.yahoo.com Google ventures into virtual reality with 'Lively' Google thinks Lively will encourage even more people to dive into alternate realities because it isn't tethered to one Web site like Second Life, and it doesn't cost anything to use. After installing a small packet of software, a user can enter Lively from other Web sites, like social networking sites and blogs. The Lively application already works on Facebook, one of the Web's hottest hangouts, and Google is working on a version suitable for an even larger online social network, News Corp.'s MySpace. clipped from www.sizlopedia.com Google Lively: 3D Interactive Virtual World clipped from www.eweek.com Google Gives Virtual Reality a Second Life

Related:
Lively - Welcome
Lively: Google Launches Virtual World - ReadWriteWeb
Google ventures into virtual reality with 'Lively' - Yahoo! News
Google creates Lively virtual reality that will rival Second Life | Mail Online
Google Gives Virtual Reality a Second Life
Google Lively: 3D Interactive Virtual World
Google Lively: Comprehensive Guide to Getting Started [SearchEngineWatch]
Google Lively: First Impressions - Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology
Official Google Blog: Be who you want on the web pages you visit

Fring -- Free Mobile VoIP, IM and More

Fring is a peer-to-peer Mobile VoIP based internet telephony network which enables users to interact with social networks and to call and chat for free.
Recently it also launched an API, allowing third-party developers to develop new applications for the community.

clipped from en.wikipedia.org clipped from www.fring.com fring™ is a mobile internet service & community that enables you to access & interact with your social networks on-the-go, make free calls and live chat with all your fring, Skype®, MSN® Messenger, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!™ and AIM®* friends using your handset’s internet connection rather than costly cellular airtime minutes. clipped from www.fring.com Take all IM buddies mobile and view from them one, integrated contact list Free calls Live chat instead of SMS Call landlines and regular cellular contacts using SkypeOut or SIP clipped from www.youtube.com How to make a free call using fring clipped from www.youtube.com fring on iphone clipped from www.fring.com fringAPI™ released! Get creative & develop your own fringAdd-on™ apps here clipped from www.fring.com fringAPI shares fringing freedom with web developers clipped from www.blonde2dot0.com

Related:
fring – Make free mobile calls, IM with Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk™, SIP & Twitter, AIM® & Yahoo!™
Fring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
fring » fringAPI shares fringing freedom with web developers
Blonde 2.0 » Blog Archive » fring Releases Open API to Enable New Mobile VoIP Apps [Israel Media Tour]

Vivaty 3-D chat rooms and social environments

Vivaty wants to offer a smaller but easier to access version of multiplayer platforms like Second Life.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Vivaty, a start-up based in Menlo Park, Calif., is creating 3-D virtual chat rooms that people can add to the Web pages and social networking profiles on the sites where they spend most of their Internet time. Vivaty turns a flat profile page into a three-dimensional live chat room. Users choose characters to represent themselves from a list of preternaturally handsome avatars — a requirement for any such service — and proceed to one of a dozen environments, like a gothic urban warehouse or seaside villa. clipped from www.vivaty.com Home FAQ About Contact Signup Blog clipped from www.vivaty.com Grab your photos and videos - any image from the web - and you're in. Hang out, chat with friends, watch videos, listen to music, and more. Jump from scene to scene with anyone you invite, your Facebook friends are just clicks away. It's all in the browser, no waiting for big downloads to install. You'll be saying "your place or mine?" in no time.

via: KurzweilAI.net
Related:
Welcome to Vivaty | Easy Virtual Scenes
Online Chat, as Inspired by Real Chat - New York Times
Dreaming of a 3-D Web - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Japanese cellphones robot buddy

clipped from www.weirdasianews.com Robotic Cell Phone Friends Japan, known for their advanced cell phone technologies, has come out with a new advancement that will allow you to truly call your phone a friend. clipped from afp.google.com Japanese cellphones to turn into 'robot' buddies TOKYO (AFP) — For those who feel a bit lonely just talking on the phone, a Japanese company is offering a cellphone that turns into a robot buddy ready to chat. The PhoneBraver will be released in April after a character in an upcoming television drama series entitled "Cellphone Investigator 7." The telephone comes with enough artificial intelligence to learn the user's habits. If the user calls a particular person many times, a text phrase such as "You're calling her often these days, aren't you?" might appear coming out of the face's mouth, according to Softbank Mobile spokesman Katsuhide Furuya. The user could carry on conversations with the phone by responding "yes" or "no" or with other simple replies.