If you’ve noticed that I haven’t been talking a whole lot about WordPress 2.6 lately, it is because our friend John over at The WordPress Expert has been doing a great job keeping us updated on the latest features in the WordPress 2.6 branch.

A couple newly discovered WordPress 2.6 features:

• WordPress Auto-Upgrade
• Plugin Auto-Installation
• Theme preview

It is GREAT to see the WordPress auto-upgrade feature being built into the base WordPress install, and the other two are very useful features.  Click over to check out the other new features and descriptions for each.   Great work John!

Now that WordPress 2.5.1 is out and people are pretty much used to all the new stuff we got from the double release, I think we can now start to look forward to WordPress 2.6.

If you are someone who likes alpha testing, you can now check out a live WordPress 2.6 alpha demo.

As of the publishing of this post, it looks like the newest feature is Google Gears support.  For those unaware of what Google Gears is, it allows you to work offline.  Several services including Google Reader already use it.

Thanks to Gabfire for the heads up on this!

It is destined to happen after a major release and I know many of you have said that you were waiting to upgrade to 2.5 until the first fix was in place.   Well I’m happy to say that WordPress 2.5.1 is now available for download!

It looks like this release fixes over 70 bugs, included a major security vulnerability that is currently unknown to the general public.   In other words, if you are on WordPress 2.5 already, it is a good idea to upgrade.  Here are the other things mentioned in the post:

• Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.
• Better performance for those who have many categories
• Media Uploader fixes
• An upgrade to TinyMCE 3.0.7
• Widget Administration fixes
• Various usability improvements
• Layout fixes for IE

Download WordPress 2.5.1

As we all try to get used to WordPress 2.5 and the changes it brings, I think it is only natural for our eyes to turn towards August 2008 when WordPress 2.6 is currently scheduled to be released. I’ve been reading some posts around the blogosphere lately from people that have had conversations with members of the WordPress team about WordPress 2.6, but I haven’t really seen any details about what we can expect with this new version.

At least this was the case until yesterday when I noticed John managed to track down some information about what is new in WordPress 2.6. Here is the information John provides as of today:

• Post Revisions — Wiki-style revisions management for blog posts: a cool new power-feature, just announced on the WordPress Development Updates blog.
• The Meta Bookmarklet - Okay, so that’s not the official name, but that’s what I’m calling it until there is one. Matt talked about this at WordCamp Dallas — the idea is to have a bookmarklet that would pre-fill information from sites like YouTube, etc. For example, imagine clicking the bookmarklet when you’re watching a YouTube video and then having a new blog post setup for you with the video already embedded. Cool, huh?
• Post Word Count — A WordPress.com feature that might be making its way into WordPress 2.6.
• Shift-Click Checkbox Selection — In WordPress 2.6, you should be able to select a range of checkboxes in the category, comment, tag, post, page, and media administration sections by checking the “start” checkbox, holding the Shift key, and then checking the “end” checkbox… Gmail style.

It looks like John will be continuing to update this post as more WordPress 2.6 information comes available, so make sure to check it out!

While we wait for WordPress 2.6, I figured it would be fun to discuss some possible features you’d like to see in the next big release, or at least some changes you’d like to see to the current setup.  I’ll get us started with my short list:

1. More Plugins Integrated - Not only can plugins sometimes open up security holes in your website, they also can require maintenance.  There is also the concern of poorly coded plugins that can cause way to many database queries and other problems.   I think when WordPress integrated tags into WordPress 2.3, it was a really great move, and one I hoped they would continue going forward.  There are quite a few plugins that are “must use” for pretty much any blog, so I’d like to see many of these built into the core WordPress installation.
2. Move Categories Box - WordPress 2.5 moved the category box down below the tags.  I’d like to see it back on the right side just above the “Related” menu.  This is a quick and easy change and I would quit forgetting to assign a category when I write posts.

What would you like to see in WordPress 2.6?

Just wanted to post a heads up and let everyone know that I haven’t disappeared.   I usually try to post 1-2 times a day whenever possible, but I’ve been having some computer problems that required finding some parts.  I ended up having to buy them online, so now I’m just waiting for them to arrive.  For the moment, my computer access is very limited, but I hope to have things back to normal by the end of the week.  

Anyway, in the meantime, why don’t you check out this video from WordCamp Dallas about what is being worked on for WordPress 2.6.

[Video found via WPCandy]

Just a quick post to let you know that the third release candidate for WordPress 2.5 is now available.   If you want to try it out, you can download the zip file here.

I know this will disappoint some people because we were hoping to have it in time for WordCamp, but it is good to see they are taking the time to get everything right. Because WordPress 2.4 was skipped, this is like two releases at once.