Parlays $10 investment into million dollar corporation in 30 months.

Plush City @ Second Life and Wuhan, China @ Real Life 26-Nov-2006

Anshe Chung has become the first online personality to achieve a net worth exceeding one million US dollars from profits entirely earned inside a virtual world.

Recently featured on the cover of Business Week Magazine, Anshe Chung is a resident in the virtual world Second Life. Inside Second Life, Anshe buys and develops virtual real-estate in an official currency, known as Linden Dollars, which is convertible to US Dollars. There is also a liquid market in virtual real estate, making it possible to assess the value of her total holdings using publicly available statistics.

The fortune Anshe Chung commands in Second Life includes virtual real estate that is equivalent to 36 square kilometers of land – this property is supported by 550 servers or land “simulators”. In addition to her virtual real estate holdings, Anshe has “cash” holdings of several million Linden Dollars, several virtual shopping malls, virtual store chains, and she has established several virtual brands in Second Life. She also has significant virtual stock market investments in Second Life companies.

Anshe Chung’s achievement is all the more remarkable because the fortune was developed over a period of two and a half years from an initial investment of $9.95 for a Second Life account by Anshe’s creator, Ailin Graef. Anshe/Ailin achieved her fortune by beginning with small scale purchases of virtual real estate which she then subdivided and developed with landscaping and themed architectural builds for rental and resale. Her operations have since grown to include the development and sale of properties for large scale real world corporations, and have led to a real life “spin off” corporation called Anshe Chung Studios, which develops immersive 3D environments for applications ranging from education to business conferencing and product prototyping.

Ailin Graef was born and raised in Hubei, China, but is currently a citizen of Germany. She runs Anshe Chung Studios with her husband Guntram Graef, who serves as CEO of the company. Anshe Chung Studios has offices in Wuhan, China and is currently seeking to expand its workforce from 25 to 50. (Pictures of the Wuhan offices are available here).

The valuation of the virtual land holdings is based on property value statistics published by Linden Lab and current simulator prices. Based on these statistics a valuation of one million dollars in virtual assets is conservative, and the actual value may be significantly higher.

This estimate only includes the valuation of the avatar Anshe Chung’s virtual assets at current market rates. It does not include the real world assets of Anshe Chung Studios. It also does not include any valuation based on expected revenue, expected profits or any other intangible business equity (such as brand value or good will). It does not include assets owned in other virtual worlds such as IMVU, There or Entropia Universe.

Anshe Chung and Anshe Chung Studios are independent and not affiliated with other entities such as virtual world platform operators or marketing firms. Anshe Chung Studios is fully owned by Anshe Chung’s creator and her partner and has been wholly financed from virtual world profits.

Above all, Anshe Chung stresses the importance of community in her vision of the virtual worlds and work spaces that she and others are pioneering together. Her goal is not merely to build a corporation, but to foster the development and growth of online communities, and to help make the entry of real world corporations into Second Life and other regions of the metaverse as frictionless as possible. It is her philosophy that Second Life is above all a social space, and that corporate entrants that respect the community will be the most successful.

The Unofficial Guide to Building Your Business in the Second Life Virtual World: Marketing and Selling Your Product, Services, and Brand In-World

The Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center has an interesting new rehabilitation project in Second Life’s virtual world called “AVESS” (Amputee Virtual Environment Support Space). Soldiers abroad who find themselves an amputee typically spend weeks or months in rehab afterwards, away from their friends and family back home. Then when they do return home, they find themselves isolated from their support system of therapists, psychologists, and friends. The in-world AVESS attempts to allow these soldiers to interact with their family Virtually, and then attend presentations and group activities inworld once they return home.

When wounded warriors return home, they face long term care and recovery, often isolated from their family.

TATRC is now developing the Amputee Virtual Environment Support Space on the Second Life Enterprise platform as a virtual clinic where amputees, their families and healthcare providers connect to supplement care and improve the quality of life of patients.

Currently available inworld as a test proof-of-concept, DOD requirements will put the official version in the SL Enterprise space (behind DOD firewalls and security controls). Overall, it looks amazing and powerful, if it catches on.

[Source]

A Graphic Novel of Secret Identities: Superheroes Need Not Apply

Peter Bagge’s latest graphic novel, Other Lives, proves to be a brilliantly original and thoroughly surprising read. Although I’m still unsure of what I found to be more surprising—the story’s clever deconstruction of modern identity issues or the fact that it was published by DC’s Vertigo line of comics. In the past I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve read that bore the Vertigo logo (Sandman, Books of Magic, Fables, Hell-blazer, and many many others) yet I still find myself refreshingly surprised by the ever-widening scope of stories that are being released under this imprint.

I had been aware of Bagge’s prior work (his name is frequently brought up by my fellow panelists when I speak on the comics industry at science fiction conventions) but I had never gotten around to browsing any of his work. It takes no more than a quick glance at his artwork to see that he is clearly a product of the 1970’s underground comics movement; there’s an unmistakable boldly inked R. Crumb-style mixed with the elastic loopiness of the old Leon Schlesinger cartoons to Bagge’s artwork. However, his work has clearly evolved beyond his influences—he’s been published by all of the major comic companies and Hate, his satirical look at the alternative culture of the nineties, ran for nearly the entire decade and won the Harvey Award for Best New Series.

In Other Lives Bagge gives us the story of four Dragon Con-going gamer geeks, each struggling in some way with defining who they are. The main plot line follows Vladimir Rostov (pen name, Vader Ryderbeck), an investigative journalist who is researching an article on how people use the internet to assume new identities. The main focus of his story is Javier Ortiz (cover identity, Otis Boyd), a terrorist-obsessed conspiracy theory junkie who may or may not be an agent for the Department of Homeland Securities but is definitely known to be good with computers. Rostov’s investigation frequently takes a back seat to his personal life which is complicated by his own insecurities derived from unresolved issues with his dead father and by his sudden engagement to his girlfriend Ivy Chin (online persona, Shi’a Electra). Rounding out the foursome is Vlad and Javier’s old gaming buddy Woodrow Wooley (poker ID, The Poker King; online persona, Lord Burlington), who serves to reconnect Vlad and Javy and introduces Ivy to the online community of Second World. Plot threads for all four (nine if you count their other lives) characters twist amongst each other in a cleverly plotted study about how much we are influenced by the lies that we tell to others and, more importantly, the lies we tell ourselves.

I briefly mentioned Second World; it plays a large part in the story. Second World is, as the name suggests, Peter Bagge’s version of the online phenomenon Second Life. As in Second Life, Second World allows users to create virtual avatars that exist in a simulated 3D online environment. All four of the main characters in Other Lives interact with Second World in one form or another. Some play nicely, some don’t.

While Second World may be the most visible manifestation of alternate identities, there are plenty of other identity issues at play. Vlad has near-crippling insecurities because he still thinks of himself as the fat, unpopular teenager that he used to be. That, coupled with some serious daddy issues, has left him questioning the value of his life and career. His girlfriend Ivy, however, finds Vlad’s reinvention of himself as a thin (but weight-obsessed) journalist who has cut ties with his past to be a rebellious act that she respects because it is so alien to her conservative Chinese upbringing. Clearly trying to establish her own identity, apart from her family, Ivy leaps headfirst into becoming The Bride and also experiments with a more sexually playful version of herself in Second World. Second World is, of course, a perfect outlet for escapism. Woodrow spends all of his free time in online identities in Second World and on poker sites as an escape from the painful reality of his divorce and financial troubles. The line between separate identities is most blurred for Javy. Diagnosed as a bipolar individual with schizoid tendencies his identity depends primarily on whether or not he’s taking his meds—on them he’s the quiet and shy Javier Ortiz; off his meds he’s the paranoid braggart Otis Boyd.

Complicating matters, Vlad discovers that much of what his hyper-critical father had told him about his own family was untrue. When he tells his uncle about his engagement Vlad discovers that his father had led a secret life of his own. All along Vlad had been led to believe that his father was a restaurant owner whose business had burned down, leading to hard financial times. In truth the restaurant was a struggling but fancy night club that had been torched because Vlad’s father wouldn’t hire minorities and Vlad’s grandfather had left the family with sizable trust funds.

As a whole, the narrative of the story focuses on how each character incorporates their separate identities into their real life. Will the fantasy win out? How much immersion into a second (or third, or fourth) identity is too much? And where and when do you draw the line?

Overall, there’s a universality to the dilemma that Bagge’s characters face: Who are we? We each have our own work, personal, relationship, social, and on-line identities—is any one of these more valid than another? It’s a question that Bagge addresses quite nicely, giving us an entertaining and thought-provoking good read along the way. But don’t let my professional reviewer identity influence you too much—go read Other Lives for yourself.

[Source]

Lately, the word “cheating” seems to be a popular subject amongst my friends – or has it always been?

I will not judge anyone and for whatever reasons people chose to join Second Life is up to them.  I am there for the fun and business. I also have friends all over the world so Second Life is a great place to catch up and I am in a long distance relationship even though we manage to live under the same roof for half part of the year.

Meanwhile, I find it quite disappointing when friends who know you personally in real life seems to think it is ok to betray you in a virtual world… My boyfriend in real life is also on Second Life; I am not one to hide that fact, never have been and it is clearly stated on my profile too.  But apparently some people still don’t know where to draw the line and seem to think it is ok to go after somebody else’s boyfriend if it is in a virtual world.

And here lies again probably one of the biggest debate related to Second Life: Is having a virtual lover while in a relationship in a real life considered cheating?

Following are some thoughts from Dannah…

Actress Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Rush Hour 2) might have an opinion on our topic today. Apparently she was engaged to Vivo Nevo, a wealthy venture capitalist who dabbled with online romance. Harmless enough enough way to pass the time, eh? I mean–she’s Zhang Ziyi!

What did she have to fear from nameless, faceless, socially-inhibited women that lurked in internet obscurity?

Quite a bit apparently. On May 10 the pair quietly called off their engagement. Rumors cite that Mr. Nevo fell in love with a woman he met in a virtual world.

So today’s debate concerns online dating. Is it wrong to pursue an online romance when you are in a committed relationship in Real Life? Are you obligated to reveal your Real Life commitment to your online partner? If you’re single in Real Life, is it wrong to get involved with someone that isn’t?

Yes. Yes. No. Simple answers but I’m sure Josue won’t let me off the hook so easy. *laughs*

Is it wrong to pursue online romance when you are committed to another in Real Life? All you married/engaged/partnered typists can send me hate mail, but yes–it’s wrong.

Oh, I’ve heard all the arguments: “My wife and I no longer connect and I need love in my life”; “My husband is an ass–I hate him, but I can’t leave him for financial reasons”; “My marriage isn’t exciting anymore”; “It’s not like I’m married to her–we’re only living together!”; and my personal favorite, “I believe we can love two people at the same time”.

I love to turn these around and ask the speaker, “How would you feel if your Real Life partner did this?” A very few are comfortable with THAT idea. Of course if their real life partner did it, that would be cheating! Ironically enough, a gentleman I know who claimed it would not bother him if his real life wife had an online partner got his eyes opened. He IM’d me in a rage, saying that he had “caught the bitch” and was filing for a divorce. I quietly reminded him of his statement, and that HE had been involved in numerous Second Life relationships. I asked him why his wife’s behavior was any different than his. He ended our friendship due to my lack of compassion, eventually convinced his Real Life wife to leave her online lover, and–just married yet another woman in Second Life last week.

But let’s get back ‘normal’ people…

The next question is easy. Are you obligated to reveal your Real Life relationship to your online lover? The answer is yes. It’s called honesty.

The last question is tough. Is it wrong to get involved with someone online who has a commitment in Real Life? As a single person I struggle with this. On one hand it’s tempting because the online relationship has little chance of moving to Real Life. As I’m newly divorced from a long-term marriage, a Real Life commitment isn’t on my list of wants. Single men want to hook up within weeks of meeting and that’s not what I want.

If I refuse the advances of a married man, it won’t stop him from cheating. In fact, dating him may prevent the dissolution of his marriage because I’m not going to encourage any Real Life hanky-panky and he’ll get the ‘love’ he needs.

Although I don’t date men in Second Life that I know are married, I would never blame the single person for the affair. We are all responsible for our own morality, and it’s the person involved in the Real Life relationship who makes the choice of protecting that commitment or dishonoring it.

[Source]

CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) – The films in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes seem to be holding a special sub-competition of their own, to see which will have audiences checking their watches most often.

The topical story and strong leads in David Verbeek’s “R U There” feel like a great short stretched into a feature that cannot sustain the tension for which it so earnestly strives.

The best target audience for this film about a young gaming champ should be the enormous gaming/”Second Life” community. Yet gamers, for one, inhabit virtual worlds that are far faster and far more action-filled than the slow-paced, moody “R U There.” Ominous music throughout sets up a thriller, but it’s actually a “boy meets girl but does better with her avatar” story.

Professional gamer Jitze (Stijn Koomen) is in Taipei for a tournament. A terrible accident he witnesses and a sore muscle take their toll on his psyche and body and he’s forced to withdraw from the tournament for a few days. While resting, he meets Min Min (Ke Huan-Ru), a beautiful, older woman who sidelines as a prostitute and, in Jitze’s case, a masseuse.

Wanting to spend more time with Min Min, Jitze even pays her to take him with her for a weekend in the country with her family. Ke’s Min Min is intriguingly vague and although she seems attracted to Jitze, she acts maternal and standoffish. Only when their avatars meet in the virtual world of “Second Life” is she openly flirty and physical with him.

Lennert Hillege’s camera sticks tight to Koomen, who offers an assured, nuanced performance: he is both hard to read and vulnerable. Whether Jitze is alone or wandering through the gray, bleak streets of Taipei, Verbeek drives home the point that gamers, like most of us who are glued to our computers, even when playing or communicating with others are always cut off from actual human contact. In fact, Jitze, a prize-winning master soldier in game life is paralyzed before real suffering, the accident victim, and cannot even offer help.

The serenity that pervades their “Second Life” environments — rarely if ever yet seen on the big screen — wonderfully renders yet another way we can suspend time and even life nowadays. To boot, while Jitze’s avatar is his gaming soldier self, Min Min’s is a silver-haired, bright-eyed knockout with Western features. Again, life is easier/better in a fake world you create than in the real one.

What is novel, though, is seeing gaming competitions for those unfamiliar with them. Surrounded by screaming fans, the teams strategize their plays beforehand, dress in matching running suits and are even treated for sports injuries like real athletes. Yet once the match begins, they could just as easily be playing alone at home, over the Internet.

Related Post with Movie Trailer
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Watching Life 2.0, a documentary about the virtual reality sensation Second Life, was an entertaining thrill, emotionally insightful and satisfyingly voyeuristic.

The juxtaposition of the real and “imaginary” lives of four heavy Second Life users was fascinating. Watching the film was like taking an imaginary vacation to some other planet, with a complete society including beaches and dance clubs, fashion and real estate, friends and strangers. The graphics were very utopian, with clean lines and computer generated images. It was basically a binge of collective imaginations.

Life is much easier in Second Life than it is in the physical world. For instance, while dating in Second Life, a woman gets upset because the private beach won’t allow them to fly.

Second Life resident Caitsu Manga flies a kite in th fields outside of Zero Style Hair. Second Life is a virtual world where users can create a persona all their own while interacting with other players. JESSICA LUTHI / THE GUARDSMAN

After this couple failed to make a real-life relationship work, the man speculated that if they hadn’t ventured out of Second Life, they would “have a nice house in Second Life somewhere with lots of friends,” and would probably be still together, emotionally if not physically.

One of the subjects in the film is the fashionable avatar, Asri Falcone, who designs high-end skin, fashion, and housing products for Second Life denizens.

In stark contrast to her avatar, the camera pulls back to reveal the real-life Falcone, snoring in her unkempt bed before her alarm goes off at 6 p.m. All of the subjects in the documentary seem to spend most of their nights staring into a computer.

Living your life as an avatar is like the ultimate in plastic surgery.

In reality Asri Falcone is pretty, but she’s overweight, lives in her pajamas and chain-smokes. She also lives in her parents’ Detroit basement.

Falcone says she earns well into “six figures” by selling her products, but I wonder if that includes decimal points or is in game dollars, since about 250 Second Life dollars is equal to one US dollar. She lives with her parents because they’ve all had some health problems and her mother is an excellent cook specializing in soul food and fried chicken.

Filmmaker Jason Spingarn-Koff also follows a young man strangely obsessed with building a Second Life persona of an 11-year-old girl. At one point this avatar spends time as a suicide bomber and eventually plans her own death.

The documentary doesn’t judge whether ultimately Second Life, is healthy or non-healthy but it definitely has the power to take over people’s lives. For all of the individuals profiled, their Second Life experience was almost more important and more “real” than their physical surroundings.

One of the founders of Linden Labs, the San Francisco-based company that created Second Life, said one of the biggest differences between the virtual world and first life is that you can’t physically hurt someone or be hurt.

The film is not an encyclopedic expose of how to use the tools in Second Life. For me, the virtual experience of the movie was enough to know about what goes on in this “new reality.” And I’m satisfied that I’m not missing out on anything.

By Angela Penny/The Guardsman

CANNES, France — The dark side of the virtual world descended on Cannes Sunday in teen suicide dramas playing on the potentially dangerous blur between reality and the Internet.

“Chatroom”, the first of a trio of cyberspace thrillers chilling the film festival, sees a dysfunctional youngster (upcoming British star Aaron Johnson) obsessively watching Japanese suicide videos in a dark locked bedroom.

He sets up a chatroom with four other troubled teenagers, but seems only to want to mess with their heads.

Directed by Japanese master of horror Hideo Nakata, but panned by many Cannes critics, the British movie brings a note of caution to fans of the virtual world both on the Internet and in video games.

“The Internet has been increasingly amplifying negative emotions: anxieties, fear, envy, hatred and anger,” said Nakata, whose movie was screened at the festival’s “Un Certain Regard” section.

“It is now proven that this can result in the most extreme acts, either of killing yourself or other people,” he said in production notes.

In “Black Heaven”, by France’s Gilles Marchand, a teenager is attracted to a beautiful but deranged young woman who lives a double life in an online game called “Black Hole”, where she seduces avatars into committing real-life suicide.

Marchand said he came up with the idea of making a film mingling real life with virtual worlds after watching a teenager, oblivious to shoppers in a department store, playing a videogame in which his avatar had just committed murder.

His movie is set in sunny southern France, counterposing the light and colours of the Mediterranean coast with the dark, highly stylised world of the online game.

Dutch offering “R U There“, also screening in “Un Certain Regard”, is director David Verbeek’s tale of a professional gamer forced to pull out of a wargame tournament in Taipei — where the watchword is “kill!” — for several days due to muscle strain.

Normally locked up in virtual worlds he suddenly comes face to face with the real world where he is drawn to a local woman, Min Min.

A Taiwanese doctor suggests “he lives too much in his mind and needs to live with his body” but Min Min instead convinces him to follow her example by relaxing as an avatar on Second life.

“What he surrenders in the end is his need to always control his environment,” said Verbeek.

But while the pair have a common need to feel free from the constraints of life “they cannot accomplish this in real life,” the director said.

“Only virtual reality enriches their experience, despite being an imaginary world.”

Trailer here

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SYNOPSIS: The story of Jitze (20), a professional gamer who travels around the world to compete in video game tournaments. During a stay in Taipei he unexpectedly witnesses an accident which ressembles those he re-enacts in his video games on a day to day basis; this confronts him with his own mortality and his world is suddenly shaken by reality, in a violent way. He meets an intriguing Taiwanese woman in the hotel bar where he is staying, never quite figuring out whether she is an escort, masseuse or bettle nut girl. He tries to get close to her but only manages to do so in the virtual world, on Second Life which they both visit.

Following on the heels of Chatroom comes another movie with a foot in the virtual world. Here, though, the realms of cyberspace are represented literally rather than metaphorically. The movie features a sprinkling of scenes from Dutch gamer Jitze (Stijn Koomen)’s exploits in a war sim contest and another handful from the artificial reality of Second Life. However, in this case, the fact of computer-based worlds and their effect on our essential being is the message of this movie, rather than a device for a more plot-driven tale.

Jitze is competing in a gaming tournament in Taiwan and is the star of his team, which is easing through the early rounds. His split from his surroundings evokes that of Scarlett Johansson in Lost In Translation – only Jitze isn’t really a stranger in a strange land. As his response to witnessing a motorbike accent shows, his disconnect is in fact with other people and himself. A (psychosomatic?) shoulder injury then pushes him to the sidelines, and towards Min Min (Ke Huan-Ru), who he attaches himself to in what seems like a desire to feel. She urges him to join her on Second Life, but it’s the time they spend together and the reality of her physical touch which arguably reconnects him with the world and himself.

The film is evenly-paced but languidly so. Long, dialogue-free scenes are spread throughout, which does tend to drag despite the brisk 87 minute runtime. You do get a fair sense of Jitze’s isolation, but the ideas in the movie sometimes feel lost in its self-consciously arty direction. Despite that, R U There is just about thought-provoking enough to keep things interesting.

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For all of the conveniences of online shopping — no crowds, easy parking, seemingly endless choices — it can’t always compete with the real thing. At least not yet.

A Kansas State University marketing professor said consumers can expect that some of the disadvantages of online shopping will disappear as retailers adapt models from Second Life.

Esther Swilley is a K-State assistant professor of marketing who studies e-commerce and mobile marketing trends. Her research has included exploring the role of trust in choosing which Web sites to shop, seeing what types of consumers are more likely to accept marketing on mobile devices like cell phones, as well as understanding how cell phone companies can keep young adults as customers.

Swilley said experts expect that the future of online shopping will borrow from Second Life, meaning that a shopper could send his or her avatar to a virtual store, a Web site with a three-dimensional feel.

“Your avatar could move through the store and pick up items,” Swilley said. “You could even have it put on a shirt and look at it in the mirror before ordering it. Retailers like this because they could see how well items do in their virtual stores. Do people pick it up? Do they like it? This can guide what they stock in their real stores.”

Swilley said shopping with an avatar could even take on a social function.

“You’re at your computer and your friend is at hers, and you can shop together,” she said. “The technology is crude now, but look back at the Internet when it started.”

In research published in the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, Swilley found data to back up the assumption that people shop Web sites with names and brands they trust. However, Swilley said that when well known, trusted retailers have tried selling products in Second Life, they haven’t fared as well.

“People in Second Life didn’t like it,” Swilley said. “If you’re a person using Second Life, you’re more likely to purchase products from another avatar rather than an outside retailer. It’s almost like participants think, ‘This is our world. Stay out of it.’”

Swilley said that cell phones and other handheld devices are another world where people have been reluctant to let in retailers and marketers.

“People don’t want to be sent text message advertisements,” Swilley said. “That’s why marketers are looking at other ways of doing it. They are looking at models where if you want ads on your phone, you could pay less for your phone service. For instance, while your phone is dialing, the background could be an ad.”

People might find some ads helpful, like one that lets you know that you’re about block away from a coffee shop. Swilley said that customers might even be able to text a drink order and have it waiting for them when they get there.

“Mobile ticket are sales supposed to be the next big thing, and auctions also do well on cell phones,” Swilley said. “On the Internet, people are more money-conscious. They want things for free. On a cell phone, they’re time-conscious. They want things conveniently.”

One convenience that Swilley doesn’t see catching on is wallet phones. Paying with credit or debit cards through a cell phone or other mobile device may save time and space in your pocket or purse. Yet even technology-savvy Asians and Europeans are hesitant to embrace wallet phones, she said.

“People say, ‘I lose my cell phone all the time,’” Swilley said. “What would you do if your cell phone was your wallet? Would people change their behavior in how they use the cell phone?”

Before shopping with a cell phone or mobile device becomes as common as shopping online — maybe someday with an avatar — Swilley said there are money issues that need to be resolved.

“A difference between cell phones and the Internet is that with a cell phone, you have to go through telecom companies, and they’re looking for money from everybody,” she said. “Should the telephone company get a cut from purchases? Would products have to be sold for more to make up for it? I’m not sure how well it will play with cell phones because it costs so much just to have the phone and service in the first place.”

Instead, Swilley and colleagues found that the cell phone features that attract and keep young customers are extras like gaming, chat and other applications that let them interact with friends. This research will appear in The Services Industries Journal in April.

[ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2009)]

Second Life® and Opensim rely on high-end computing hardware and broadband for a full, immersive virtual world experience. But what about when you’re away from your computer, at school, at work, traveling, or when you simply don’t have the time to launch the full SL Viewer? what if you just wanted to send a few Instant messages?

Now you can with Sparkle IM. Log in to your Second Life® or Opensim account and begin chatting right from your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Sparkle IM features:

- Send and receive IMs
- Send and receive offline IMs
- Region chat
- Send teleport requests
- Accept friend requests
- Change your start location
- Render avatar in-world (no more clouds!)
- Add profile pictures, Born On date to profile view
- Handle secondlife:// URLs.
- IM vibration/sound alert support
- Screen settings
- Use over wifi, EDGE, or 3G
and more!

Sparkle IM supports SecondLife®, SL® Beta Grid, OSGrid (Opensim), and any other custom server connection compatible with Opensim/SL®.

Sometimes all you want to do is log in and chat. Use Sparkle IM and connect to virtual worlds, no matter where you are in the real world.

* Languages: English, German, Japanese
* Seller: Genkii
* © 2009 Genkii, Inc.
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 2.1 or later.

For more iPhone news, check out InewsandApps.com