1. Greetings

Welcome to the April 2001 edition of i-news. Last month saw Imagine Media being profiled in New Media Age magazine for the imminent release of our Galaxy® Guy project. Also, Apple's Mac OSX finally shipped with the typically modest slogan "The world's most advanced operating system". We also saw the final verdict from Judges in the US, that Napster must block the trading of copyrighted music (275,000 files have already been removed).

2. TDMB

Imagine recently went live with a creative new site for TDMB (The Direct Marketing Business) and in March it was awarded a Golden Web Award for its innovative design and use of Flash. Imagine used Flash to create the audio and animation in the main site and used HTML and PHP to create complementary dynamic content as an alternative for people without the Flash plugin.

Imagine worked closely with TDMB to ensure the site communicated the benefits of Direct Marketing and was enjoyable to use. We wanted to tempt the visitor into exploring the site and used a number of hidden elements to reward visitors for doing this. A selection of characters is available upon entry to the Flash site, the choice of which determines the content a visitor receives. See www.thedmb.co.uk

3. Shameless Self Promotion

In a spare few moments, we have been busy creating promotional downloads including a stunning screensaver, several downloadable desktop pictures and an emailable animated advert.

The majority of the work is still in progress, but as a subscriber to this newsletter we have made the latest desktop pictures available to download right here. These will not be available to the general public until a later date!

• Click here for the toaster.
  
  
• Click here for the fish.

4. Key Stats

Macromedia now claim that over 311 million internet users can play Flash content. The latest release, Flash Player 5, offers improved sound support with MP3 embedding and scripting. It remains the number one choice for creating animation and interactive games. The 4% of surfers without the Player can download it here.

5. e-voting

With the UK general election now set for 7 June and many people around the country forced to vote by proxy or post, is it time to introduce electronic voting? Being able to place your vote from a computer seems an obvious extension of 'e-government'. It is certainly in line with Tony Blair's pledge to make the UK "the best place in the world to trade electronically by 2002". However, the concept does have its critics. A US e-voting study concluded that e-voting requires even more sophisticated security systems than those applied in e-commerce and the threat of a massive attack would be clearly too unattractive a proposition to make the whole thing viable. You can't stop progress though and it looks as though Estonia will be the world's first nation to provide e-voting at its next General Election in 2003. After all, where there is an opportunity, there is an entrepreneur and you may find yourself choosing your next leader from www.Election.com - 'the complete election management solutions company'.

6. Useful Sites - Free text messaging

Text messaging (or SMS) is great for contacting people who you don't actually need to speak to or for silently keeping in touch when in a meeting or on a train. It has become so popular, over 45,000 text messages are sent every minute in Europe. Ever keen to keep abreast of the latest technological trends, we have tracked down the best free online text messaging service for you to send SMS to friends and colleagues. Just go to the SMS section on Lycos and you can send as many text messages as you like direct from the website.

7. Website of the Month

Experience all the fun of a biosphere without being locked in a tin can with 4 sweaty Russian cosmonauts. The recently completed Eden Project in Cornwall claims to be 'A living theatre of plants and people'. It is a 35 acre site with giant conservatories reaching 45m at their highest point designed to efficiently capture solar energy. The website is simple and fast, featuring plenty of interesting content including QuickTime VR panoramas of the Project.
www.edenproject.com