This article was published on December 2, 2015

Woah! Minecraft’s got a virtual phone that lets you make real calls


Woah! Minecraft’s got a virtual phone that lets you make real calls

The level of creativity and innovation in Minecraft was already impressive, but now it’s been taken to a whole new level. Verizon has jus revealed that it’s created a way for users to make a working cellphone in the game.

Yes, you can order some takeaway, catch up with your mom, or even send a Minecraft-style selfie to your friends.

Minecraft’s open world allows people to make all sorts of things in a relatively short space of time, but this one will require a little more time and effort than most.

To get the in-game phone to work in real life, the team uses a server plugin called Boxel that converts Web pages and videos into Minecraft blocks in realtime and displays them on the screen.

The phone looks huge because of the large number of boxes needed in order to be able accurately portray the content it’s being fed… although it’s still in true Minecraft boxy fashion.

verizon_minecraft_internet

Verizon has open-sourced the libraries on GitHub (Boxel and Boxel-client), so if you’re in the market for a giant phone in Minecraft, this is your chance to get one.

Amusingly, you’ll also need to build a cell tower beside your gigantic phone but Verizon has pre-made the items required so you can get that up and ‘running’ in a few clicks.

➤ Bringing Verizon into Minecraft. [GitHub via Kotaku]

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