VWFE: The thing I don't get about Vodafone's 'Inside Out' Second Life tech

Stuart Dredge Virtual Reality
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I could be being really dumb here, or it could be an Emperor’s New Clothes moment. You decide. Vodafone’s David Erixon has been on-stage at Virtual Worlds Forum Europe talking about the operator’s Second Life activities, including its new ‘Inside Out’ tech.

Basically, it’s a heads up display within Second Life that lets you make voice calls and send texts to friends real-world mobile phones, and vice versa. Around 10,000 have been distributed, says Erixon, which is pretty successful by Second Life standards.

Here’s what I don’t get: when I’m using Second Life, I invariably have my real-world mobile phone on the desk or in my pocket. If I want to call or text friends, I’ll use that (and they’ll call/text my mobile number in return). So why would I want to complicate that process by making part of it virtual?

Anyone? Bueller?

Check out other stories from the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe in our Virtual Reality category.

Stuart Dredge
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3 comments

  • Hey guys,

    Another point too – you can use the service to make free international calls and texts. As long as the call is initiated in Second Life it’s free, which is pretty cool!

  • Hi Bodman, thanks for that, I see your point. A lot of the examples I’d seen quoted were of you calling real-world friends using it, which is where I got confused. I see the sense in having the virtual number if you’re going to be giving it out to strangers. Hurrah!

  • The point is that you don’t know the phone number of your virtual friend so you can’t call them with your phone. By using this you can txt your virtual buddy without ever knowing the name/number (it remains private) – message and call is passed via the service. So you can continue your virtual conversation via a real world extension…but remain unkown.

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