Linden Lab Creating iOS & Android Versions of SL, Job Listing Suggests

Second Life community members have been clamoring for it for years, and now, according to a job listing posted on Linden Lab's website, the company is creating a version of Second Life for iPhones and Android phones:

Linden Lab is looking for an innovative mobile app engineer to deliver a compelling, responsive mobile interface into Second Life. If you’re passionate about the latest cross platform mobile technologies and would be psyched to wake up every morning knowing that your efforts will enhance the largest, most successful virtual world on the Internet then we want to hear from you!

Job requirements include "Experience developing consumer-oriented mobile applications for Android and IOS." Also notable: Based on this job requirement, it looks like the company is planning to create a cloud-streaming version of SL for mobile: 

Experience with AWS or other cloud-based deployment models, especially streaming cloud-based rendering.

Back in 2014, Linden Lab partnered with the now-defunct OnLive to do just that, so it's good to know they're going in that direction again.

Job is remote and "deep familiarity with and enthusiasm for Second Life is a HUGE plus", so this could be a dream gig for SL's many talented community developers. My recommendation, of course, is to hire Alina Lyvette, whose Lumiya viewer for Android (pictured above) has already sold well over 100,000 copies.

Only negative I see here: If they're only hiring a Senior Mobile Engineer now, it's probably going to be at least 8-12 months before we see an Alpha version of a mobile viewer for SL.

Comments

[VINCENT EDWARD CROMWELL]

Great!

[Darianknight]

I'll paraphrase what Ebbe told me while I was up there concerning OnLive!

I had specifically asked while up there about OnLive and why Linden Lab didn't just buy them out when they had the chance, roll the service into their Premium Accounts as added value proposition, and keep the mobile access along with it. This would have ensured that a Premium Member of SL could effectively run on Ultra regardless of their local computer and get a pretty good experience as the cloud servers augmented their own computer. It's the sort of thing that the average user would gladly pay for - the ability to run on Ultra even if they have myopic computers that can barely handle minesweeper.

The answer, to paraphrase, was something along the lines of:

At the time, OnLive came to Linden Lab looking for permission to make the mobile client and use the trademarks. Linden Lab didn't get hands-on with the process but gave them the green light as a third party.

Judging from this post here, it would seem at least *something* I said up there sunk in during my visit. Of course, they're targeting mobile at the moment and no word yet as to whether the team at Linden Lab has had the collective foresight to try and onboard members of the Lumiya team out of the gate since they seem to have a head start in that area, and just hire the extra people to handle the cloud streaming stuff.

Now, if only they'd turn on the built-in weather system they got from Windward Mark Interactive...

[Briana]

Second life for iPad would be very much appreciated.

[Top Store vip]

LAb seems to have nailed some good one cause the way they are handling Sl looks like if they have a 4 year child as CEO!

[Tutuapp]

Second life for iPad would be appreciated.

[iTech Beast]

nice work. Keep it up