Thursday, January 12, 2012

The time for Tablets is 2012

This week I had to fly to Baltimore for a kickoff event with the University of Maryland, State of Maryland and the ADAA whereby we will use Jibe to develop counseling spaces for those struggling with addiction.  When deciding how best to pass through the auspices of the TSA I decided to leave the laptop at home and take 2 of my Android tablets my Acer Iconia 10.1 inch and my Kindle Fire 7 inch.



Jibe will initially be integrated via our browser based system with medical records systems and other computer services but mobile will come into play once this foundation is completed.

In addition to lightening my load I was able to worry less about battery life and bothering those in the seats next to me with a large laptop.  But would I be able to show off our virtual world platform Jibe without a traditional computer?  The answer ended up being "yes"!

After the cake cutting ceremony (there was actually a cake with the project name "AVATaR" on it) I was able to pass around my Acer Iconia Honeycomb tablet with the 3D Jibe multi-user world running on it.  I had to do no explanation of how to move your avatar around, it was just intuitive even to non-gamers and those when never logged into a virtual world before.

When discussing with counselors about the lowered barrier to entry for our web browser based deployment of Jibe and the mobile app version many heads shook in agreement that this was the easiest way to introduce this concept to new users.  People just started using it!

When combined this year with our upcoming inworld mesh building tools and the touch interface Jibe will be a compelling platform for those wanting the easiest way to create and use a virtual world.

So in terms of general computing and our own virtual world platform my load has been lightened both in weight to carry around and in the need to teach users how to interact with 3D worlds.  To me this litmus test proved that 2012 is truly going to be the year of mobile virtual worlds and mobile computing in general.

To try the simple beta demo of Jibe-Mobile click here https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ReactionGrid.JibeAndroid&feature=order_history or search for Jibe on the official Android marketplace.

See you in 3D-anywhere!
Kyle G

2 comments:

  1. Great post, follow you on g+ if possible.

    Arduino

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  2. I'm totally convinced that tablets are THE mobile platform. After tablets, we go to HMDs. Rack servers, desktops, and laptops will always be around, because you will need them for business purposes. As long as Jibe is blazing new paths, OpenSim will thrive.

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