Second Life App for the iPad Puts the Virtual World in Your Hands... And At Your Fingertips!

Pocket Metaverse, the iPhone app for accessing Second Life which I quite dig, now has a version for the iPad. I recently gave it a whirl, and while it's mainly a resized version of the original app, running it on the iPad gives you some uniquely cool features. While the iPhone version also displays Second Life's dynamic map, for example, translating that functionality to the much larger iPad screen turns the experience from an eye-scrunching, finger-pinching pain into something grand: A virtual world that spreads out beneath your fingertips. Now it's genuinely pleasurable to skim the Second Life map with the flick of a wrist, and poke random places. As with many iPad apps, the UI experience changes our relationship to the data, making it tactile, and intuitive.

That's not the only feature that's been greatly improved from the leap to iPad:

Here's a look at the way Pocket Metaverse dislays your Second Life inventory. Again, putting it within a large touch screen interface changes the experience for the better. Up until now, I had basically declared inventory bankruptcy, unwilling to deal with the thousands and thousands of items that have piled into it over the years. Looking at it on the iPad, however, it seems much less daunting. (Now we just need some sweet new ways to reorganize and/or nuke the mess.)

The big question for me is how widely the iPad app will be adopted by Second Life users. If iPad sales continue at their impressive clip, it's fairly certain a significant percent of SL's user base will use Touch Metaverse for some of their avatar-based activity. Then we're likely to see more development emphasis placed on the features that really rock on the iPad. For example, with the dynamic map, think more messages and Easter Eggs put in Second Life's sky.

In any case, here's what the log-in screen looks like. If you have an iPad or access to one, give it a try, and share your own reactions here.

Comments

[Ari Blackthorne]

Simple business tool.

I have an iPad 3G coming and I've already purchased this software (even though I don;t use an iPhone or iPod Touch) - but it's not to go in and "hang-out" in SL.

It's a business tool in that will will allow me to pop-in-world on the fly (via 3G if necessary) to pay money, send inventory, IM Chat - all for customer-support-related issues.

In the end, to me, that is a selling point I will use: "very fast access to business manager and support" - well, except for those six to eight hours when I am dead to the world cutting logs.

LOL

[Ann Otoole]

Sweet. Is it a 3D viewer or just text interface? If 3d how is building with it?

And does it have a gigantic sidebar blocking 33% of the screen that shoves center view off center?

[Yak]

I use it on the iPhone and share your liking this app.
It seems to me that for the iPad with its big screen, there is only one way to go for the developers.... Real 3D immersion. Yes it probably requires a wifi conection, but at a reaonable low resolution it may even work in 3G.

[Bill Friis]

Yeah. No photo in-world. When you "poke random places" on that map, do you go there, or what?

[Adric Antfarm]

Your hands are aging well ahead of the rest of you.

[Negko Devinna]

Uh oh, i ve been trying to access sl on my iPad using this app and I get a message saying that second life can not be accessed from this computer.....
First time it happens to me, does anyone experience the same thing?

[Stone Semyorka]

Pocket Metaverse...

Got it. Use it everyday. Love it!

But I still want a complete log-on showing my avatar in its surroundings.

[Randal Oulton]

I was surprised that, within a sim, you can't move around, no arrows to move or anything, or am I missing something?

[Fay Jansen]

I was wondering if youre logged on, you can actually see the pop up menus. Like for example if you get a notecard, do you get the menu to accept it?

[Max]

You can look at inventory, but you cant do anything with it,
Needs a lot more functionality,
is really only a chat app

[Salah]

I just installed the app on my iPad 2 but I don't know how to login, I am puttin my family name, first name, and password but it doesn't seem to work. I don't know where I should put my username..
Please anyone can help me?

[Tammy]

I've used it, it's ok. I prefer to use remote access to either my windows or Mac computer and fully login. Works perfectly using Splashtop remote desktop app! Try it!

[Lonka Simondsen]

OMG....i LOVE this....I just found it. I allready got it for my phone.

[Dragon]

$4.99 for something that is free, don't let the developer tell you that they pay for access, SL is a free game. there are other apps that are available for free and advertise-free as well