Virtual Space Station on Planet Calypso Sold for $330,000
Venture Beat reports that a virtual space station inside the online world of Planet Calypso has sold for $330,000. The virtual space station was built by The First Planet Company. The space station was bought by a player named Buzz "Erik" Lightyear. We sure hope he enjoys his expensive virtual space station.
A New York company named Virtusphere, Inc. has created a virtual reality experience they call the Virtusphere. The Virtusphere is a 10-foot hollow sphere - big enough to contain a person. Virtusphere, Inc. calls the large sphere a locomotion platform that allows users to be completely immersed into their interactive virtual experience. The person wears a wireless, head-mounted display. The person feels as if they are moving in the virtual reality world as they walk inside the sphere. The company believes its device would work great in theme parks. They are also marketing it to the U.S. Department of Defense. Take a look:
EMarketer Predicts 54% of Kids Using Virtual Worlds by 2013
eMarketer is forecasting that the number of children using virtual worlds like Club Penquin, Pixie Hollow and Webkinz will reach 15 million by 2013. That would be 54% of all kids.
Altogether in 2008, an estimated 8 million US children and teens visited virtual worlds on a regular basis, and eMarketer projects that number will grow to over 15 million by 2013.
Virtual world usage among children in the US is already quite strong and getting stronger. eMarketer estimates that 37% of online children ages 3 to 11 use virtual worlds at least once a month. By 2013, 54% will.
It sounds like an accurate prediction. There seems to be a new online world for kids launching every week. EMarketer says that Virtual Worlds Management says there were 112 virtual worlds for kids under 18 as of January, 2009 with another 81 worlds in development.
We are loving Jennifer Love Hewitt's outfits on Ghost Whisperer this season. In Episode 3, we saw a virtual Melinda with Jennifer's character pursuing a ghost inside a virtual world. In Episode 5, Melinda was wearing some fabulous cruisewear outfits, because the episode took place on a haunted cruise ship. It was good to see the show outside of Grandview for a change. We especially liked the fact that Melinda's husband Jim (David Conrad) had more to do this episode. If they kill of Jim, we are going to be so mad.
Jennifer Love Hewitt has spoken about the Ghost Whisperer wardrobe before. In this interview with TV Tattler she says the wardrobe was more subdued last season.
Is it just me, or is her wardrobe a little more um, subdued this season?
No, it's a fact. We've had a change in designers this year. Everybody brings something different to her. Meeting with the producers (we felt) that the cleavage was starting to get too much attention. When we initially did it in the first season, it wasn't because we wanted people to talk about that, it was because we honestly believed the she was [just dressing like] a newlywed, so whatever. So many [women on] shows now are cops or are always in business suits, so we thought it would be nice to show on network television the Sarah Jessica Parker way of things with this glamorous girl who likes to play with her clothes and can have fun with fashion.
Makes sense.
Somewhere along the way, as cute as it was, people started to concentrate more on that than what Melinda was actually doing on the show. That for us became a very scary thing because the show is not about that. This season we consciously decided to take some of that away. We'll still give the audience a little something. We'll still do the nightgown things for people who need that ... for the 14-year-old boys out there in America. But we really wanted people this season to pay attention to what she's saying and what she's doing. I think we've accomplished that and that makes me happy. I work really hard and to only have people talk about cleavage is not exactly a compliment.
For the record, we love both the storylines and the outfits. And her hair. And her makeup. We're still adjusting to the loss of Jay Mohr, but Jamie Kennedy is growing us.
