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WordPress Wednesday News: iPhone, 10 Downing Street, WordCamp UK, WordPress 2.6 Rocks, WordPress International, and WordPress Themes Directory

WordPress Wednesday News: iPhone, 10 Downing Street, WordCamp UK, WordPress 2.6 Rocks, WordPress International, and WordPress Themes Directory

WordPress iPhone mania sweeps the WordPress Community. WordPress will now rule an entire nation. WordCamp UK a resounding hit. WordPress 2.6 appears to be a stable release. The new WordPress Themes Directory is now an extend. WordPress working hard on improving localization and international translations. Go VOTE for your favorite new WordPress Plugin.

WordPress News

iPhone for WordPress: It’s the talk of the web. The WordPress for iPhone brings your WordPress blog to your iPhone. It is Open Source and compatible with iPhone 3G, iPhone, and iPod Touch and works with full-versions of (2.5.1 or higher) and . You can download it for free from the iTunes App Store. There is a WordPress iPhone frequently asked questions page to help, and a place to report iPhone WordPress problems. A walk-through video on WordPress for iPhone is on the Automattic Publisher blog. CNet Webware gives a positive review of the iPhone WordPress app, including pros and cons such as uploading photos from your Media Library or from your phone’s camera, and a good post preview. The downside is not being able to copy and paste links and text. It’s all hand HTML coding, too. There are a lot of WordPress mobile options for blogging and keeping up with your WordPress blog via your cell phone.

WordPress Now Rules a Nation: Simon Dickson announced at WordCamp UK that Number 10 Downing new site will be on WordPress.

WordPress 2.6 Released: WordPress 2.6 was released last week and appears to be a fairly stable release. It is a mandatory release with security patches and you should Download WordPress 2.6 now. Over 194 bugs were fixed, too. I’ve included a lot of the new features in past issues of the .

WordPress 2.6 Image Placement Changes: Hack WordPress reports on how WordPress 2.6 changes images image handling and WP Lover covers how to float an image in a post in the latest version of WordPres. The new class set up, alignleft, alignleft, and aligncentered do not come setup on many blogs. You have to add the float CSS to make it work right. Hopefully this will be fixed in future versions so the floats do not have to rely upon the Theme designer.

Upgrade with the Automatic Upgrade WordPress Plugin: WordPress Automatic Upgrade WordPress Plugin, which makes upgrading easier, has been updated to work with WordPress 2.6.

WordPress 2.5 Branch No Longer Supported: The announcement of the release of WordPresss 2.6 came with the news that WordPress 2.5 will no longer be supported. It is nearly identical to the new version and has little impact on Themes and Plugins.

News on the Next Versions of WordPress: Jacob Santos takes a guess that WordPress 2.8 will be released before the end of the year with WordPress 2.9 and 2.10 might be coming next year. WordPress has skipped a version number a few times in the past, so this is a far projection with a lot of assumptions for those looking into the future. He also says that WordPress 3.0 will have an emphasis on using BackPress being developed by Michael Adams, which is really exciting as that should make WordPress even more efficient and fast.

New WordPress Theme Directory in Extends: After a lot of
debate and questions concerning the WordPress Theme site, especially over continued problems with security and hidden scripts and ads, has announced the new WordPress Theme Directory within their Extend WordPress area, calling it the official WordPress Themes Directory. Following the lessons learned in the Plugins Directory, they hope that submissions and updates to WordPress Themes for authors will be simple. A Theme will be automatically checked for some of the Theme requirements and errors, providing authors with error reports if there is a problem. For users, there are still some interface issues, especially with the “drilling down” to find the Theme you want, but with so few Themes to check currently, this will clearly improve with time and usage.

WordPressMU Beta Release: WordPressMU 2.6 beta 1 has been released to work with WordPress 2.6 features and includes a change in the version number from 1.6 to 2.6 to match WordPress, improved spam proofing on the sign up page, object cache changes to improve efficiency and speed, and many more bug and security fixes. WordPressMU is the WordPress version that runs multi-user blogs like .

Do You Blog By Email? Ozh brings up blogging by email and asks readers if they are using this long time core feature of WordPress. Are you? Would you like to see it improved? Join the conversation.

WordPress Plugin Competition: The final listing of the Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugin Competition Finalists and Prize List is out. The list of 51 entries was published in last week’s WordPress Wednesday and now the voting is on. Go have your say on which WordPress Plugin you can’t live without.

Having Trouble Publishing Code in Posts and Comment? If you publish code in your WordPress posts and comments, WordPress may think it is code. To prevent code acting like code, WordPress automatically filters it out of the posts and comments, as does many other blogging and CMS programs. To publish code as content, see Writing Code in Your WordPress Posts and Writing and Publishing Code in Your WordPress Blog Posts.

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress Wednesday News: WordCamps in Africa and China, WordPress 2.6, WordPress Plugin Contest Ready for Votes, WordCamp UK, and More WordPress News.

WordPress Podcasts

WordPress Podcast: The WordPress Podcast: Episode 43: Out Of Date Blogs Hacked, All-In-One SEO Gets Dropped, Then Picked Up covered those topics and the development of the Crazy Horse new WordPress Administration Panels interface, Batcache, HyperDB, WordPress Plugins, WordPress 2.6, and security issues.

WordCast Podcast: WordCast is having a WordCast Mugshot Contest with winners winning WordPress mugs and other prizes. To enter, you must share a picture of your favorite mug. The latest episode of WordCast 22: Rawk On! features issues with WordPress 2.6, PodPress, the WordPress Theme Directory, Weblog Tools Collection’s Plugin Competition, legal blogging issues, and some hot WordPress Plugins.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordPress Events CalendarWordCamp UK: The reports of the weekend’s successful WordCamp UK are still coming in, including summaries, slides, and video of the speakers. They are also holding a competition looking for the best write-up of WordCamp UK with prizes on offer. Here are a few highlights.

Record Breaking WordCamps: We’ve got some record breakers coming up for WordCamp events. There are 5 WordCamps set for this September, and three will all be on September 27: WordCamp Utah in Salt Lake City, WordCamp Birmingham in Alabama, and WordCamp Portland in Oregon. Three WordCamps are scheduled so far for October. It’s going to be an autumn stuffed with WordCamp and WordPress fun.

WordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar as found on the WordPress Roadmap and the WordPress Meetup Group Listings (subject to change).

WordCamp San Francisco August 16: August 16, 2008 is the next WordCamp San Francisco, considered by many to be the premier WordCamp event. This year, it appears it will be only one day instead of two, but details are still coming. It will be at the Mission Bay Conference Center this year.

WordCamps and WordPress Meetups Everywhere: A WordPress Meetup is a frequent meeting of WordPress fans. A WordCamp is a day or two long event with sponsors and dozens if not hundreds of WordPress fans gathering annually. If you would like to sponsor or host a WordCamp, check out the new official site for tracking WordCamps is WordCamp Central, which includes instructions and guidelines for running a WordCamp. If you would like to start a WordPress Meetup group, find a meeting place and announce it among your friends, and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress, as many track WordPress event announcements there.

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

WordPress Plugins DatabaseWordPress Plugin Translation Aids: Jacob Santos announced improved translation for WordPress Plugin headers in WordPress 2.7. These will help Plugin authors to play better with the new Automattic i18n Tools and the Plugin Extend Administration IU online translation tool, making your Plugins play nice internationally. This is all part of the overall internationalization project of WordPress.

Announcing WordPress Themes and Plugins on Weblog Tools Collection: “How to Get Featured in Our Daily Releases on Weblog Tools Collection” describes the steps to help you promote your WordPress Plugin or Theme to the world on one of the most popular news and information sites on WordPress.

PodPress Fix Due Soon: PodPress will not currently work under WordPress 2.6 but a fix is promised soon. Blogging Pro has a temporary solution to keep PodPress running until the fix is ready.

Sitewide Tags for WordPressMU: Donncha has released his Sitewide Tags Pages Plugin for WordPressMU which will create tag pages representing all the tags used by the multiple blogs across the site.

Windows WordPress Toolbox: Peter Westwood has written two posts, Windows WordPress toolbox and My WordPress Toolbox, containing the frequent code and tips he uses for the work he does with the development of WordPress. These are real time savers that will work on Windows, Linux, and other operating systems.

Interesting WordPress Plugins: Here are some interesting and unusual Plugins I found recently:

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.

See Also
GPT Store Release

WordPress Techniques and Tips

Here are some more interesting WordPress tips I’ve uncovered:

Want to Write a WordPress Tip and See It Here? If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts. When its ready, contact me at lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com.

WordPress.com News

WordPress.com W logoiPhone updated for WordPress Themes: The new iPhone WordPress application has been updated to work with the Prologue and Mdot WordPress Themes on . The mobile interface has been updated, which can be reached at m.wordpress.com. They are working on improving the look, but for now, you can post to your blog, check stats, add a bookmark, and other goodies to your WordPress blog from your iPhone.

WordPress Community News

WordPress Community graphicLooking Back Into the History of WordPress: Keith Dsouza of Weblog Tools Collection shares “Evolution of WordPress: B2/Cafelog to WordPress 1.0”, a history lesson on how WordPress grew out of B2/Cafelog in the early days.

Get Your WordPress Mug: I love my new WordPress mug. Go get yours at the along with t-shirts and hoodies. Don’t want to buy one? Enter the WordCast Mugshot Contest and you could win one, alone with some other fun schwag. A lot of blogs are offering WordPress mugs for prizes. Why not you?

Found a Bug in WordPress? If you find a bug in WordPress, report it by following the instructions in Reporting Bugs on the , the online manual for WordPress Users.

Give Something Back to WordPress: Jeff Chandler of Weblog Tools Collection has written “24 Ways To Contribute To WordPress” with suggestions on how to get involved in helping WordPress development. If you would like to help with the , the official online user manual for WordPress users, we need you. If you would like to contribute to WordPress as a volunteer in the WordPress Support Forums, testing, coding, and more, see Contributing to WordPress. If you would like to help improve WordPress by reporting bugs, please report them via the WordPress Bug Report form. Your help is needed to ensure WordPress works.

Vote for WordPress Ideas: There is still time to get your vote in for ideas on upcoming versions of WordPress in the The section. Why not take advantage of it and add your voice to the vote.

Looking for a WordPress Expert? If you are looking for a WordPress expert, try the WordPress Consultants list from , the WordPress Jobs listings, and the WP-Pro mailing list.

WordPress Installed For Free: Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress) is a free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.

Don’t Use WordPress in Your Blog’s Name: It’s about respect. Please use WordPress names right because WordPress is a trademark and you are not allowed to use WordPress in your blog’s domain name or URL unless you have permission of and . Also, remember, it’s spelled “WordPress” not “WordPress”. Oh, and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

WordPress News Sources

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.


Each Wednesday on is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact me at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com

View Comments (6)
  • Oh. What I was talking about was speculation about the milestones based on past milestone releases. It is entirely possible that I’ll be wrong.

    I sometimes talk to myself on my blog, because I think no one is listening. I apologize for the misinformation. I’ll be sure to include a disclaimer in the future.

  • With WordPress nuking all category names per updating from a pre-2.3 setup, how come you’d call it a “stable release”?

  • @ Robert:

    The issues of a pre-WordPress 2.3 upgrade to WordPress 2.6 were addressed with the upgrades that came before WordPress 2.6. They have nothing to do with the current version but a change implemented a few versions ago that impacts the template tag for categories. It was thoroughly discussed and referenced then.

    Another reason to keep your upgrades current. You can keep up with the news at the time there are reports of problems or changes. :D Sorry for your problems upgrading from a much older version.

  • Get a 3G iPhone, you won’t regret it!

    The software quirks will be ironed out shortly and the iPhone is really a paradigm shift for mobile phones (like the original Macs was for DOC PCs).

    Truly amazing (or should I say incredibly great )

  • “Success means having the courage, determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.”

    Bush & Brown would do well to reflect on this when they ask the taxpayer to bail out irresponsible bankers

    Subject: The Birk Economic Recovery Plan

    I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

    Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

    To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000bona fideU.S. Citizens 18+.

    Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child.

    So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

    So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

    My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

    Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

    Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.

    That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

    But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
    A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

    What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
    Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
    Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
    Put away money for college – it’ll be there
    Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
    Buy a new car – create jobs
    Invest in the market – capital drives growth
    Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
    Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

    Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
    who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
    that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

    If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out
    a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

    If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

    As for AIG – liquidate it.
    Sell off its parts.
    Let American General go back to being American General.
    Sell off the real estate.
    Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

    Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

    Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”

    But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

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