3pointD.com

An anoymous reader just sent me a link to this YouTube video of a replica, built in the virtual world of Second Life, of Apple’s glass cube store on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Keep in mind there were earlier reports of an Apple store in Second Life, but those didn’t show anything half as elaborate as the build on display in the video, which also features fairly high production values for machinima. I’m in Austin at SXSW and can’t get into Second Life very well on this laptop in this hotel, so I can’t go check out what’s at the old location, and there’s no location given for the store in the video. However, the video does end with production credits, and they don’t give any indication of whether or not Apple is actually involved. The video is credited to metaverse services firm AxisVR LLC, which advertises a number of interesting services but doesn’t provide a client list. (I’ve never heard of them before, but that doesn’t mean much.) 3pointD wagers that the new Apple store, which looks very well built out in the video, might have been built out by Apple employees, but hasn’t been approved by Apple’s legal beagles. That or it’s AxisVR spending a lot of time and effort to angle for a highly unlikely contract from Apple. We wonder whether the SL store will be manned 24 hours a day, as the New York location is.

This flew by me as I was getting ready for SXSW, but MTV, which has been roaring ahead with its virtual-world initiative, has announced it will launch a fashion line based on designs by Lauren Conrad, star of Laguna Beach spinoff The Hills. The designs will be made available first in the the Virtual Hills section of Virtual Laguna Beach. “In addition,” according to a press release, “Lauren will develop a real-world fashion line that will be available in high-end boutiques, retail stores and online later this fall.” (more…)

RatePoint, which provides a way for users to rate, share, discuss and connect based on how they rate sites on the Web, will launch a new avatar ratings service for the virtual world of Second Life on Monday, according to a press release. I’ve been talking to the RatePoint crew over the last week or so, and the service seems pretty cool (note that RatePoint is an advertiser on 3pointD at the moment, so take that as you will). I especially like the fact that RatePoint will try to match people with other users who’ve rated avatars similarly — more or less like Last.fm builds a constellation of “neighbors” for you based on similar musical tastes. The question for RatePoint’s Second Life service, though, is how much uptake it will actually see in practice. Ratings systems have been a controversial thing in Second Life, and there hasn’t yet been one that’s been wildly successful. Can RatePoint break the mold? (more…)