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Season’s Greetings from Just Leap In!

We’re delighted to tell you about a major upgrade to JustLeapIn.com today—just in time to ring in the New Year.

When you’re next online, dive right in to JLI to try out the new beta, or read on for the details.

Here’s the big news! Today, we’re introducing the following features for beta testing:

• Multi-user 3D networking & collaborative editing – invite your friends to help you build a world, and play in real time on the Web. Please help us experiment!
• Multiple spaces per user – create up to 100 3D spaces on the Web, share up to 3 at a time
• Facebook Connect – link JLI to your Facebook account (more coming soon)
• Audio upload – upload your sound clips and music and attach to objects in 3D space
• Private spaces – only friends with your share link can play in your space
• Increased object limits – you can now have up to 50 objects per space, and up to 30 unique objects.
• Next-gen Portals – one of our signature features has a major facelift: open any Portal, and you can see your 3D destination space right away! (Current users will have to re-deploy their portals to see the new effect).
• Faster caching – we’re caching more 3D content for faster access. So the more often you visit, the faster your downloads. :-)
• Lots of brand new 3D content, seasonal spaces, and delightful toys – read on beneath the fold for details.

As ever, JLI supports both Mac OS X and PC web browsers (Firefox and IE 7). We let you share your favorite 3D spaces with friends anywhere on the Web—just hit the “Share” button from any 3D space.

It’s a beta test, so you hit any trouble with the new beta or have a suggestion to share, please (please!) contact us for help, or hop on the JLI Forum.

Very best wishes from all of us here in the Great White North (brrrr). We want to take this opportunity to thank you SO much for your help, your creative suggestions, and all the time you’ve spent with JLI in 2008—not least your thousands of incredible spaces and contributions. It’s going to be an incredible New Year!

Read on for new 3D content…

Hi folks! While we’re working on our next major update, we’re also busy responding to feedback.

Our sample avatars just returned from physiotherapy today. So the next time you log in and see your avatar in action, look for:

• - Sprint mode (Shift + run over 2 seconds)
• - More variety in idle animations
• - More natural responses, sidesteps, stair climbs, etc.

More motion soon.

You’ll also notice a charming tweak to interactivity in today’s update: lights in any space are now interactive (click once to turn off, click again to turn on).

Love her or hate her, Vice Presidental nominee Sarah Palin is one of the most popular celebrities on the world stage today—and she can sure deliver a punchy line.

You might have noticed our new Palingram 3D applet, a cheeky toy that lets you write your own speeches for Governor Palin to deliver in a 3D world, and share with your friends:

Check out Sarah’s default message, Sarah Speaks, then click “Create Your Own” to write new lines for a (virtual) Governor Palin to deliver to the world.

Click Send to Friends to share your Palingram by email or to embed it in your blog (or anywhere on the web) by pasting the html code.

Enjoy! As always, we look forward to your feedback as our beta evolves at www.justleapin.com.