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.

Hey, thanks to Paul Glazowski over at Mashable for a great review of JLI:

Mashable’s Take: The concept of a virtual world in terms of a graphical, game-like environment doesn’t particularly suit my interests. Yet I find Just Leap In, a beta release launched out of Vancouver, Canada, offers a surprisingly rich experience… Its browser-based nature makes it something of a stunner. The physics engine is a treat, and visual detail again is an outstanding highlight. A look at the world in full-screen is pretty remarkable when one considers the setting in which the application is operating.

Thanks to the commenters on that post as well. Actually, we’ve read and appreciated several thoughtful comments about JLI this week. Susan Reynolds, who writes Case-Notes from the Artsy Asylum, got our joke about empty islands (and shared some very salient thoughts about community-building and relevance for virtual worlds). She also warmed our hearts with this review:

Now comes Just Leap In a newcomer from Canada which, at first blush, sounds like none of the others and could beat Google’s Lively in everything except name recognition. The first clue? You don’t have to search through Google’s annoying database-like setup of questions and answers to figure out how to move around. That alone makes Just Leap In worth a second look.

There’s a lot more out there today, and we’re hoping to round up some responses. At the moment, we’re working towards a major feature release next week that we think you’ll enjoy. Back to the grindstone…

Thanks for checking in.