Pookymedia Developing "Mambo Motel: The Metaverse Musical"

 

Some readers will remember Pookymedia for it's work on the "Time Travellers" movie and the "Fluffee on a Meshion" videos made in Second Life, as well as "The 1st Question" game show. They've continued to do some work over the years. Recently, they released the trailer for their latest project: "Manbo Motel."

"Mambo Motel is the story of a Prince who wishes to escape the intense scrutiny of the media and longs to find a place where he can just be... himself. He discovers anonymity in Mambo Motel, a Metaverse where all log in equally.

"But like the Prince, no one behind the screen is who they seem to be. Exchanging physical reality for a virtual one, he wins and fails at both fortune and love, finding himself ultimately by losing himself in this new world. The theme of the story is that while you have a human skin of chance, as an avatar you can express who you really are in your avatar skin of choice.

"Experience the world's first Musical set in the Metaverse and see what happens in our new world where anyone can be anything they want to be! Actors perform in front of digitally produced sets which take us right into the virtual environment of Mambo Motel.

"Those onstage are living their virtual lives unlimited by their physical boundaries, and only we the audience see who the people really are behind the Mambo Motel guests on smaller LED screens to the far right and left of the stage. The Show Experience features an amazingly tuneful 16 original song soundtrack reflecting life online in the 21st Century." 

Addition: Pooky Amsterdam would have more to say on the Pookymedia blog.
 

Interview With Bryn Oh

  

Among the artists in Second Life, Bryn Oh is one known to many longtime residents. She not only does art, but some of her exhibitions such as "The Rabbicorn" used art to tell a story. Anita Kimono (Kayly Iali), recently interviewed Bryn. The artist discussed how she came to be an artist, her influences and inspirations, and more.
 
Read the story in Design.
 

Philip Rosedale at Lab Gab

About two weeks ago, Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab, was interviewed by Strawberry Linden on the "Lab Gab" show. Known by the same name inworld, Philip had much to say about Linden Lab and Second Life, as well as his current company High Fidelity. He talked some about what shaped decisions such as what drove him to create Linden Lab, why his particular choice of avatar, his management style at the Lab, the "Rig,' why did he leave Linden Lab and form High Fidelity, and how he thought the Pandemic was driving the public to go virtual like it hadn't before.

Read the details of the interview in People.

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - "Avatar Psychology"

"Avatar Psychology"

Saturday May 30
10 to 11 AM SL time

People experience a 3D virtual world through an avatar representation of their real world self. A virtual world avatar can be distinguished from a static social media thumbnail or handle in that a VW avatar is dynamic and 3-dimensional. Typically, the VW avatar form is either chosen from a menu of premade forms or is assembled from a library of components. In either case, the avatar can be customized with an almost limitless array of elements. The choices made in creating an avatar, the way others react to your avatar, and how you respond to other avatars is psychologically revealing and challenging. An avatar need not resemble the real person at all. It can be a non-human form or human but look different from the person’s “real life.” Indeed, an avatar can be a powerful modality to test a new identity such as transgender in a fully social virtual environment. This causes a distinct shift in one’s body awareness. How a person adapts to this shift has strong psychological implications.

Some people find the avatar experience so foreign that they either are very uncomfortable or decline the opportunity entirely, perhaps due to reduced visual cues inherent in in-person interaction or to how closely participants identify with their avatars and how much they recognize the people behind other avatars. This is a psychological clue about how deeply our perception of self is connected to the emotional investment we make in our avatar.

During the pandemic, educators and students alike have been introduced rather abruptly to the virtual environment. While grappling with how to teach and learn, they may not be aware of the impact of how they present themselves has on the way they interact with each other. Some educators and students adapt well to the virtual environment while others find it uncomfortable. Understanding these aspects of the virtual environment is a critical element in the success of online education. 


Panel participants:

Dominique Meldau
Deepthinker Oh
Phil Youngblood

 To read  more, Click Here.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32

Facebook Announces Upcoming Virtual World "Horizons"

 By Bixyl Shuftan

Today, Facebook announced it was in the process of making it's own virtual world: Horizons.

Today at OC6, we unveiled Facebook Horizon, a new social VR world coming to Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform in 2020. A culmination of what we’ve learned so far about virtual spaces and communities, Horizon is the first step into an ever-expanding world of connection and exploration where anything becomes possible.

... Starting with a bustling town square where people will meet and mingle, the Horizon experience then expands to an interconnected world where people can explore new places, play games, build communities, and even create their own new experiences.

With the announcement there was a youtube of a spokes-avatar showing off the place.



"Beyond our world, there's another world. And it's right here, on my face!"

"Horizon's filled with possibilities. We can play stuff, make stuff, fly stuff. ... Horizons isn't about rules or limits ... It's about getting out there and trying new things, making your mark, making friends ... And you can even build a world of your own. In Horizon, the world is your lobster. ... So come join us, a never-ending, ever-changing world beyond your world."

Horizons will be playable with Facebook's Oculus VR headset and controllers. It was not specifically stated that the virtual world would be playable without a VR rig.

Judging from the pictures, while there's things to do, including able to build things, and places to go, the Horizons is still very much in beta. The most obvious example of this is the legs for the avatars haven't been designed yet, so they just float over the ground instead of walking.

As part of their announcement, Facebook announced they would be closing Facebook Spaces and Oculus Rooms in one month, October 25.

The announcement stated Horizon would be open to play, in beta, "early next year" in 2020. There was a link for people to sign up for access to the currently closed beta.

Hat tip and image credit: Ryan Schultz

Bixyl Shuftan

A Look at VR Chat

By now, most of you have either tried Sansar or talked to or read the reports of people who have, and weren't particularly impressed. But there is another next-generation virtual world out there: VR Chat. If you're heard of the "Ugandan Knuckles" meme, this is where it came from, appearing on some of the videos that various youtube filmers have shown. But are badly-made video game avatars all that there is to the place? Yours truly decided to check it out.

Read the review in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Announcement: This Week at the Science Circle

Saturday 23th 10 AM PDT

“Virtual Reality in Science!” by William Schmachtenberg, Ph. D (Dae Miami in SL)

Abstract: VR in Education. There has been a lot of hype about Virtual Reality in the Media, but what is actually involved in using VR in education? How much does it cost, what hardware do you need, how do you set it up, and how good is the software that is available? For the most part, VR in schools has meant Google Cardboard, but other forms of VR are getting cheaper such as Gear VR and even Oculus Rift.

I have been conducting hands-on research with Google Cardboard,  Gear VR and Oculus Rift setups and will be sharing those results in this presentation, but I hope you will come and share your information on VR as well. I will also include reviews of current VR software.
         
More information about Dae's presentation at https://sciencecircle.org/upcoming-saturday/

The Science Circle (61/126/32)

*  *  *  *  *

Sunday 24th 10 AM PDT

“Horse-hunting Crocodiles and Tiny Alligators: Crocodilian Evolution after the Age of the Dinosaurs” by Alex Hastings, Ph. D                                       

Crocodiles have had an impressively long evolutionary history. During the Age of the Dinosaurs they reached massive size and diversified into a wide array of forms, but their lineage did not die with the mass extinction that ended that era. After the massive ecological shifts that occurred, crocodilians adapted to new circumstances and have been enormously successful.

Dr. Hastings will present some of his research on this fascinating group of animals in the millions of years that have followed since the extinction including running crocodiles and dwarf alligators.


More information about Hasting's presentation at https://sciencecircle.org/upcoming-sunday/

The Science Circle (61/126/32)

Oculus Rift Available at Best Buy, For Nearly $600

Most regular users of Second Life have probably heard of Oculus Rift, the Virtual Reality headset that's been under development for a few years, which has long gotten the attention of Linden Lab which soon worked to make it compatible with Second Life, and was bought up by Facebook two years ago. Also about two years ago, one could place an order for a first generation unit for $350, and there were hopes for a more economical model for when it officially hit the market.

Finally the other day, I saw one for the first time at my local Best Buy. Finally the Oculus Rift headsets weren't just something being talked about on the computer, but available for me to get in the store. But as it turned out, the price hadn't dropped from two years ago. It was $599.99. They were selling a few brands of (low power) computers for less than that. If one adds the Oculus Touch hand controllers, the price goes up to almost $800.00.

For someone making a hundred thousand a year, this probably would be no big thing. But for a blue collar worker like me making less than a quarter that, the cash would be harder to come by. It is noteable to mention that when Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg was demonstrating Sansar to reporters last month, he did so using the Oculus headset and hand controllers.

Granted customer reviews are very good, rated an average of 4.4 out of five of over a hundred reviews with 87% saying they would recommend it to a friend. But for someone with a tight budget, it may simply be out of reach. At least until the price goes down.

"So close, and yet so far."

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab CEO Demonstrates Sansar to Wall Street Journal

(Click here if the video fails to play)

At the Wall Street Journal's WSJD Live 2016 global teleconference on technology, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg (known inworld as Ebbe Linden), demonstrated it's upcoming virtual world Sansar. In a video segment about a minute and a half long, Altberg donned a VR helmet and controllers and with a wide screen showing a living room somewhere in Sansar, he moved things around in front of WSJ reporters Jeoffrey Prowler and Joanna Stern. He did explain the content was made by other users, this particular content bought by the Lab from one particular user, going on to say Second Life had a "half a billion dollar GDP." Of Sansar, he stated that they had invited "a few hundred users" to take part in their "creative preview," with plans to keep adding more, with the full opening sometime in the first quarter of 2017.

There was also a tweeted video by Benjamin Rohe, who was among those there, showing about a half minute of footage of Sansar avatars.

Both Inara Pey and Hamlet Au, who also wrote about the video with Ebbe Altberg (Inara about the video with the avatars), felt not much new was revealed by the videos, but they did raise some questions, such as when donning the VR helmet can the view be adjusted to see one's own avatar, and considering "less than a million people" own a VR headset why was Ebbe Linden using one to demonstrate Sansar? Inara felt the next set of Lab Chat would be "interesting."

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Modem World, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

"The Real Life Danger of Virtual Worlds" by Frolic Mills

Frolic Mills, the former editor of "The Best of Second Life" magazine, known as Juan Delgado in real life, recently posted a thoughtful commentary on Facebook on the subject of virtual reality addiction. Contacting him, he gave his okay for it's republication here.

* * * * *

Having lived my real life successfully out of virtual worlds for the past 10 years or so, I think qualifies me to write this essay about the potential dangers of virtual worlds. I always hear "expert" psychologists and other specialists (who have probably never even played an online game) say that it produces addiction, anti-social characteristics, withdrawal from family and friends and even, that it even encourages criminal behavior. I don't doubt for one bit that there is always going to be a minority percentage who will prove all of these studies right. Just like there is always a drug addict, an alcoholic, and a pill junkie we all know, I am sure there are people who surrender to the fascinations of virtual worlds to the point they have no desire to entertain the idea of the real world any longer, and even modify their real life behaviors accordingly. I get it, but I don't think it's the majority.

Most of us, virtual users, lead well balanced lives. We love our families, we go out when we want to, we participate in the real world just like the guy next door. But yes, and I admit it, if you want to be on top in any virtual world, you must put in a LOT of hours. No question about that. But the difference between wasted time and real life pleasure is always purpose, and here is where it gets confusing for the non virtual user "specialists". It is not the same that you spent 1000 hours killing virtual hookers with a car, than socializing to meet friends or even your real life spouse from a virtual world. It is not the same if you admired someone else's creation and spent a lot of money making your avatar beautiful, than being the creator of beautiful things and making a fortune thanks to your virtual artistic skills. It's not the same at all; However, all of these examples, have two things in common, for all virtual users. The first and foremost is entertainment value, and secondly, and the most dangerous one, is the idea that real life can be totally fulfilled from the comfort of your computer, just a few meters away. Again the difference between insanity and survival will always be measured by your purpose and the amount of time spent on it. It is crazy to spend sleepless nights killing mobs to the point you don't go to school next day; it is survival to spend sleepless nights creating a better virtual world, which in return aids to your real life economy or any other heart felt purpose, like love, helping victims or charity events. There are thousands of other examples of effect/cause in virtual worlds, but I will let each person reading this essay, decide where their cards fall.

So what is my point? Well, there is a danger that I have never heard anyone speak about, and that, in my opinion, is the underlying reason to all "virtual world behavior studies" and that is, the fear of loss of creative freedom.

Of course I know, virtual worlds give a false sense of accomplishment, I also know people sometimes get lost in their virtual fantasies, but this is not what I am talking about, these are not the people I am referring to. I am talking about really talented artists who were able to create amazing real life survival with their virtual creations. There is nothing comparable to the joy of successfully sharing one's own universe or viewpoint with millions, from the comfort of your bedroom. I am afraid that once this has been achieved and it is over; the real world, or any other world, will never be as interesting anymore. Very dangerous indeed!

Please keep in mind that even Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and other very successful virtual creators still have to leave their homes in order to get to work. It also seems like the world is fascinated with examples of how people started their great businesses from their garages or basements. Well how about this? Thousands of people I know made plentiful real life livings and even millions of dollars with their laptops by their side, while sipping coffee in their own beds, and all this, without the headaches of running a Forbes top 100 company. Fascinating - Isn't it?

Yes! But if you are in the top 1% who actually made it big in virtual worlds, and then lost this privilege for whatever reason, the world may never be the same for you.

What do you guys think?

Juan Delgado / Frolic Mills

Linden Lab Announces Project Sansar Closed Alpha Ready For Volunteers For Testing

Earlier this week on Tuesday August 18, Linden Lab issued a press release saying that their next generation virtual world, currently called Project Sansar, was ready for testing and stated a "small number of volunteers have been exclusively invited" to help out.

Linden Lab stated they plan for Sansar to be able to be used, when ready for full release, by handheld devices, as well as being compatible with VR headsets such as Oculus Rift. They touted the next generation virtual world as able to "empower people to easily create, share, and monetize their own multi-user, interactive virtual experiences, without requiring engineering resources. ... eliminating the complicated challenges that today limit the medium to professional developers with significant resources." They did not go into detail as how this would be different from Second Life.

Ebbe Altberg, Linden Lab's CEO (known inworld as Ebbe Linden), talked about "Lowering the barrier for VR experience creation. ... Project Sansar will do for virtual experiences what WordPress has done for the Web."

Slated for general availability in 2016, Project Sansar will democratize virtual reality as a creative medium. It will empower people to easily create, share, and monetize their own multi-user, interactive virtual experiences, without requiring engineering resources. The platform will enable professional-level quality and performance with exceptional visual fidelity, 3D audio, and physics simulation. Experiences created with Project Sansar will be optimized for VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, but also accessible via PCs and (at consumer launch) mobile devices. Users can explore and socialize within Project Sansar experiences through advanced expressive avatars, using text and voice chat.

Drawing on more than 12 years of unique experience running Second Life, the largest-ever user-created virtual world, Linden Lab will make it fun and easy for Project Sansar users to create social VR experiences, eliminating the complicated challenges that today limit the medium to professional developers with significant resources. Project Sansar will allow creators at all levels to focus on realizing their creative visions, without having to worry about issues such as hosting and distribution, multi-user access and communication systems, virtual currency and regulatory compliance, and other challenges associated with creating, sharing, and monetizing virtual experiences today.

“We want to lower the barrier of entry for VR experience creation,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. “Project Sansar will do for virtual experiences what WordPress has done for the Web: empower a broad range of people to create with professional quality and reach global audiences. By greatly expanding who can create virtual experiences, Project Sansar will also extend the value of VR to a wide variety of use-cases — from gaming and entertainment to education, architecture, art, community-building, business meetings, healthcare, conferences, training, and more.”

The small group of initial creators invited to help test Project Sansar will create 3D content using Autodesk’s Maya® software and will export their creations to the new platform. At consumer launch, Project Sansar will support a variety of third-party creation tools as well as native building options, so that creators can work with their preferred software.

In the coming months, Linden Lab will welcome additional creators and content partners to Project Sansar as new features are added to the platform and testing expands.

Linden Lab is also currently recruiting talented engineers to join the team developing Project Sansar. More information about working for Linden Lab, current positions, and applications can be found at lindenlab.com/careers.

* * * * *

Daniel Voyager and Inara Pey have also reported about the announcement. "The Verge" also did an article, though it's choice of words, "fading from public view, was a virtual world in its own right," could be interpreted as saying Second Life was dead and closed.

Both Daniel Voyager and Inara Pey posted about a youtube in which Ebbe Linden discusses a few details about Sansar: https://youtu.be/2mQj7TpE-Wc . Inara also wrote an analysis of the talk.

Bixyl Shuftan

SLife and Times: Fake or Cheating

Tiddily Winks recently thought about a certain issue. If someone's married in real life and engages in virtual intimacy online, isn't it cheating? She had heard some agree, though may make an allowance if the spouse knows what's going on. Others felt it's just another form of pornography. She expressed a few thoughts on the matter.

Read more in People.

SL Video: "The Drax Files - World Makers [ Episode 22: Virtual Health Adventures]"

(Click here if the video fails to load)

The latest Drax Files, "“Second Life is the perfect place for amputees to overcome emotional trauma by sharing stories and realizing they are not alone!” says Sandra L. Winkler, assistant professor at NOVA University in Florida, teaching occupational therapy.

Her Virtual Health Adventures project is using Second Life to find out if virtual reality can offer a better learning environment for amputees than a traditional website.

Dr. Winkler’s 3-year study is funded by the United States for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality  and is currently mid-way through the 3-year study period.

She adds that while it would be too early to state conclusions on the project, preliminary results clearly show that virtual worlds with their unique ability to create a sense of "being-there", are a powerful tool to facilitate a peer-network: a place where amputees from all over the world help others [veterans of wars and non-military amputees alike] and offer emotional peer support to families.

"Second Life offers a space where clinicians can learn from patients what they might not be able to glean from textbooks", Sandra Winkler says: a space where amputees can share insight into their lives so that able-bodied students or any other interested party can experience what it feels like to lose a limb.

More information at http://www.virtualhealthadventures.org/ [this video will also be presented in modified form at http://www.icdvrat.reading.ac.uk/2014... ]"

An Unexpected Problem With Oculus Rift

By Bixyl Shuftan

Danah Boyd of Quartz wrote an interesting article that suggest a little caution about the notion that the Oculus Rift could be a cure-all for Second Life's ills. Despite all the "guy in real life" jokes, it's agreed that close to half of Second Life's users are female. So when Dana's article suggested that women were more likely than men to feel nausea from using a 3D rig, it's likely to get attention. "By and large, my male friends and colleagues had no problem with these systems," Dana wrote, "My female peers, in the other hand, turned green."

Why were girls more likely to have trouble. As it turns out, there's evidence sex hormones affect the retina more than any other body part apart from genitals. The reason this is a problem is there are two ways someone can tell depth perception, "motion parallax," which has to do with an object's apparent size, and "shape from shading," which is how the light from off an object changes when you look at if from a slightly different perspective. While virtual reality handles the former just fine, "3D graphics does a terrible job of truly emulating shape from shifting." And Dana's research concluded women on the whole rely on shape-from-shading much more than men (pdf link).

This doesn't mean that this applies to each and every one. Some women can still handle Oculus with ease while some guys will need a barf bag handy. Still, it's a suggestion that perhaps more research needs to be done on the matter.

Source: Quartz Magazine 
Image Source: Jeff Chiu

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: "Why Am I Here?" Notes on Getting a Second Life

Valkyrie McGill, known in some places as Valkyrie Ice, can be frequently seen at Club Cutlass, Club Zero Gravity, and a few other places in her glowing green jackalgirl, or one of her other avatars. Valkyrie is more than just a dancer, but has written for publications. In this article originally published for a futurist online magazine, Valkyrie describes her first experiences with Second Life, and what the virtual world means to her.

Read Valkyrie's story in People.

Philip Rosedale at the SVVR

Earlier this week, the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR) Conference and Expo took place. Philip Rosedale had the honor of being the keynote speaker. Second Life Newser was able to get to one of the places in Secone Life where the event was broadcast. But, technical difficulties got in the way.

Fortunately, we were able to find it on youtube later. So here it is.



(Click here if the video fails to load)

 Daniel Voyager had a few words about what he had to say, including, "we're going to be arguing over the price of virtual real estate  on Pandora soon."

Press Release: "Back to the Future In the Metaverse" on May 15

On Thursday May 15 at 11 AM SL Time (2PM EST, 8PM EU Time) there will be a meeting in Second Life to discuss the VR renaissance outlined in "Back to the Future in the Metavverse."

Date: Thursday, May 15, 2014
Time: 11am PDT (2pm EDT, 8pm EU)
Location: Soleri City, Terasem Island, Second Life
Click here to teleport to Soleri City (requires a Second Life viewer)

Background: see Back to the future in the Metaverse.

Keynotes:
Martine Rothblatt is a visionary technology entrepreneur and social activist, founder of Terasem (see this recent Time article)

Philip Rosedale is a visionary technology entrepreneur, founder of Second Life andHigh Fidelity.

Other speakers will be announced here soon.

Contacts: Giulio Prisco, Khannea Suntzu

Second Life contacts (avatars):

giulioprisco
Eschatoon Magic
Khannea Suntzu
Kirsch Greenwood
Perplexing Poultry

Facebook Buys Oculus Rift for Two Billion Dollars (Main Article)

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Tuesday, it was announced that Facebook had purchased Oculus Rift for two billion US dollars. “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” stated Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”

The announcement from Facebook stated the deal was for about $400 million in cash and about 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock valued at 1.6 billion US dollars. It was also stated "The agreement also provides for an additional $300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on the achievement of certain milestones."

The news of Facebook's latest acquisition, a month after they had bought the messenger platform WhatsApp for $19 Billion, came just after it was announced that 60,000 Oculus Rift units had been sold in it's first year. Hamlet Au of New World Notes thought this news, while impressive on it's own, also suggested a greater potential demand for virtual reality headsets. As the units had sold for $350 US dollars, "it's a very solid data point suggesting there is a mass market for a cheaper consumer model." Facebook's announcement claimed the figures were more than 75,000 units.

Early on, Linden Lab showed interest in the virtual reality headset, enough to start working on integrating it with Second Life in an "unofficial capacity." Hamlet Au then called the move then an "enormous gamble," but one it should take. Now, with Oculus Rift's future being a mass market one, Hamlet felt the Lab should invest more than ever.

Facebook also has some former Lindens on it's staff.  Cory Ondrejka. Linden Lab's co-founder is the head of Facebook's mobile division. Jim Purbrick, another Facebook worker who once worked at the Lab, posted, "Apparently I work at a virtual worlds company again."

Reaction appears to be mainly positive, people anticipating Facebook's large coffers able to generously fund research and development. But there have been some complaints, notably about concerns about privacy and datamining. On Oculus Rift's Kickstarter page, many posted complaints about the move: "I hate to see Oculus join facebook. Facebook is something I hate from the bottom of my heart (never joined it) .. the news totally ruined my day and I'm thinking of canceling my pre-order." The BBC reported that the creator of Minecraft, Markus  Persson, creator of popular online game Minecraft, had cancelled a deal with Oculusafter hearing the news, "We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. ... I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out."

So why did Facebook buy up Oculus Rift? The social media  giant has been buying up a number of acquisitions. So perhaps it's mainly for another source of revenue. But there may be other reasons. Perhaps Mark Zuckerburg is looking to catch the next tech wave. Perhaps Facebook is trying to appeal to younger users, which have been leaving as more older people sign up. Or perhaps it is, as one man in a CNN article put it, "to hedge against the day that the era of the social network as we know it becomes totally played out?"

This is clearly big news for virtual reality and virtual worlds. The money behind the multi-billion dollar company means promises for more and faster developments. But what will be the catch?

Sources: BBC, CNN Money, CNN, Facebook , New World Notes,
Image Credit: Robyn Beck/CNN 

Bixyl Shuftan

Facebook Buys Oculus Rift for Two Billion Dollars

On Tuesday, it was announced that Facebook had purchased Oculus Rift for two billion US dollars.

Stay tuned for more details.

Sources: BBC, CNN Money, CNN  
Image Credit: Robyn Beck/CNN