Gliding you through Second Life

VIRTUAL WORLDS
If you want to vastly improve your in-world experience, have I got a device for you. A new 3D "mouse" helps you to explore Second Life. Using the SpaceNavigator (about $59 at 3dconnexion.com), you glide effortlessly through virtual spaces, eliminating the need for arrow and page up-and-down keys. (You must have the latest version of Second Life, which is expected soon. You can download a test version of the software at SecondLife.com.)

SL filmmakers (someone's got to document this transhuman trip we're on) can execute perfectly smooth tilts, pans, and tracking shots. The SpaceNavigator has a cap that you tug on to control your avatar's flying and walking.

You can push, pull, and twist the cap left and right. Two buttons in the base allow you to switch between the avatar controls and the detached flycam. The harder you lean on the SpaceNavigator's cap, the faster you move in a particular direction.

SpaceNavigator becomes an extension of your hand, blurring the line between flesh and hardware - but not in a creepy, David Cronenberg way.

One of my future-oriented journalism students and I recently took a trip around Second Life New England, in my Jules Verne-inspired submersible. With SpaceNavigator, I was able to glide around the vessel's cabin and then pull back to see ships at port and the rippling waters of an imagined Nantucket Harbor.

Second Life support for the SpaceNavigator (in a soon-to-be-released update to Linden Lab's client software) shows Linden Lab is serious about removing one of the biggest barriers to full virtual world immersion.

The SpaceNavigator replaces the keyboard as a navigation tool for Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth. You will still need your old keyboard and mouse for some inputs, however.

Survival Tech

Hand cranks keep hardware going

Engineers have solved the power problem that once vexed the makers of mobile gadgets: They will make us humans work for our own electricity. It's called "biomechanical energy harvesting." One example: a knee brace, developed at the University of Michigan, which powers cellphones and implanted devices as you walk.

At least the knee brace works when you are walking - something you probably do once in a while. Not so with the safety and survival gear from Life+Gear Co. (which can be found at lifegearcompany.com).

To make its lanterns, flashlights, sirens, and radios work, you have to put extra muscle into them, unless you can find an outlet along a dry riverbed. The good news about Life+Gear's multiuse survival gear is that you can get them with adapters for use in the home or car. But that hand crank might come in handy when your wagon runs out of that $4-per-gallon black gold on your way to the Maine lakes this summer.

Computing on the go

The not-so-mobile mobile printer

I'm feeling taken again by the printer manufacturers, who sell you their cheap hardware to get you hooked on their expensive inks. A day after spending $80 on refills, I smashed my Brother printer to bits after its millionth paper jam. The Dalai Lama used to smash wristwatches he couldn't fix, so I don't feel too bad. Still, I was hopeful when the new Hewlett Packard mobile printer arrived at my home office last week. Wrapped in its black leather sleeve, the HP470 Mobile Printer inspires confidence. It took only minutes to install the ink and drivers and to get the printer humming. It's a feeling that lasted through set-up, and the first 50 or so print jobs I ran through the machine. The printer is capable of kicking out almost two dozen pages per minute, from both wired and wireless sources, and from memory cards (some accessories required).

Text and images from the HP470 were sharp at first. But the printing inexplicably went out of register at times, requiring some mucking around with the utilities software.

And I'd put quotation marks around the word "mobile." The HP470 weighs five pounds with the lithium battery. Add another pound (approximately) for the leather sleeve, which you should get. I can't see its eggshell casing surviving an inspection by a surly TSA worker.

Innovative last week

With Nokia's games, you're not alone

Nokia last week launched its new mobile games service with Brain Challenge and Asphalt 3: Street Rules, World Series of Poker Pro Challenge, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, and System Rush: Evolution - a good mix, all in all. The service works on Nokia N81, N82, and N95 phones. Players can join in multiplayer games, chat live, and participate in tournaments. You can also IM your buddies while playing cards or blasting all of those big, bad aliens.