We’re excited to announce a major update to Just Leap In today, including controllable avatars. We’d like to invite you to visit us and test out the new features at justleapin.com:

Avatars: You can now select and control a character in the Just Leap In world – just click “Identities” to pick one. To view your avatar in action, click the “person” icon at the top-right of any space, or use your scroll wheel to zoom out. (This is just the first step towards fully functioning avatars: over the coming weeks we’ll add key features like networking, customization, and “surround view” for cinematic viewing of your character).

Newsfeeds and RSS: keep in touch with your friends’ actions in JLI (starting with comments) without logging in. Read the newsfeed for your space, your links, and the entire site: just click the RSS link beneath any newsfeed to subscribe in your browser or reader of choice.

Invitations: invite your friends to your space by e-mail.

Popularity: browse the most popular spaces on JLI, by most Comments and incoming Portals.

Lots of new art and content to play with, ranging from French cafe furniture to gondolas and toys like a (suspicious) gnome and a fish.

We’re also looking for volunteers to suggest new space templates, objects, and games. Please jump on the Suggestions thread on our Forum to participate!

Ahoy! We rolled out an update to JLI today, adding a handful of new features—just ahead of a major release planned for the next week or so.

• The JLI Player has been upgraded.  If you downloaded an earlier version, you’ll be auto-upgraded the next time you enter a space (please be patient!).  Alternately, you can download the upgrade directly here.  

• You can now subscribe to specific in-world newsfeeds by RSS, and receive updates from the virtual world (like when someone leaves a comment in your space) without logging in.  Click the RSS link beneath any newsfeed to subscribe in your browser or reader of choice.  

• You can also connect your portals to other spaces to subscribe to their events and comments.  Remember, you can always “hide” your space to prevent it from appearing in the sitewide beta newsfeed.

• There are several new popularity filters in the Explore view, so you can find and visit and comment on the most discussed and linked spaces.

• There’s new art and content today, including new space templates (like a forest mansion and a grand landmark) and new objects to use, with some special new Toys.

So come on, log in or register to try it out—please share your feedback. And look out for another update coming soon!

We’re delighted to roll out a new update to JLI today. Log in to test the new features, including a simple newsfeed enabling you to track what’s happening around the site—starting with Comments. This is the first version of the newsfeed; we’ll be adding a lot of functionality and control over the next couple of releases.

Today’s art update features two more Spaces: a Fashion Boutique (Boutique) and a Venetian style Canal (Venice). You can preview these in the application (Explore for “Templates”) or use them for yourself. We’ve added a new sample character (animation), and about 18 Objects as well as 12 new Textures. Some of you will also notice a massive improvement to spaces with Water, which is now reflective and gorgeous on a wider array of hardware.

We’re also continuing to work on various bug fixes and hardware issues. Read on for the complete update.