WordPress.org

Aesthete is a responsive theme designed to suit fashion, style, or beauty blogs and websites.

Moonset is a responsive, vibrant, abstract theme, reminiscent of a silvery moon rising over the colorful horizon.

Noteworthy is designed for news and magazine style blogs, and photo galleries.

Poloray is a flexible mobile-friendly theme.

SemPress is a highly semantic HTML5 responsive theme.

What’s new in version 1.6.5 of WordPress for BlackBerry?

• Fixed an issue where stats couldn’t be loaded on some Jetpack sites.
• The app now remembers the previously opened blog.
• Removed the support for the AtomPub protocol since it will be removed in WordPress 3.5.
• Performance and reliability improvements.

We also added a small patch for the picture uploading issue that some users are still experiencing on WordPress.com.

Version 2.2.4 of WordPress for PlayBook is available for download on the RIM AppWorld.

What’s new in version 2.2.4:

• Thai language support.
• Fix for loading all pages.
• Post title added when viewing a comment.
• Images now link to themselves to better support image lightbox plugins.
• Fix for duplicate image uploads.
• Support for BlackBerry 10 Devices.

We’ve also released the binary package for the new BB10 devices. If you own one of these prototypes, let us know what do you think about the app!

Siobhan McKeown who I’ve noticed has made a name for herself within the WordPress community over the past two years has published an excellent guide with all sorts of tips on how to become one of the top WordPress professionals. While she nails it on multiple levels, I have a tip or two of my own. First, it’s WordPress with a capital P, dangit. Secondly, make sure you use the correct WordPress logo or else you’ll look stupid within the WordPress community and serious players will fail to take you seriously. Last but not least, do not use the word WordPress within the domain name. For example, www.wordpressdevelopers.com. This is considered trademark infringement and is another way for no one within the WordPress community to take you seriously.

In what is being considered one of the more interesting conversations at Le Web this year according to what I’ve read on Twitter, Om Malik And Matt Mullenweg discussed a number of things revolving around WordPress. While there were a number of tidbits to take away from their conversation, my favorite is Matt’s comments regarding the mobile usage of WordPress.

Mobile is giving us a chance to re-imagine the interface of WordPress from the ground up

To follow that statement, Matt also said that Automattic currently has more employees working on the various mobile applications versus the core of WordPress.

Every once in a while, someone writes a post about how we should show some love to WordPress developers who put out free plugins and themes. “Go to their site, make a donation! Even just a few dollars is good!” But sometimes, it can be hard to spare even a few dollars. For some of us, $10 is a dessert after a nice steak dinner at a restaurant. For others, $10 is our kid’s school lunch for three days. Or maybe we just hate filling out and submitting the form for PayPal or whatever online payment system the developer uses for that purpose.

But, what if there was a way to quickly and easily show a little love without having to fill out forms, or even spend any extra money? In many cases, there is such a thing: affiliate links. Look at your favorite developer’s web site. Do you see any ads or links to Amazon.com, ThinkGeek.com, or similar sites there? Even if the particular product listed there isn’t something you plan to buy, do you plan to buy anything from that site? Then when you’re ready to purchase those books for your nephew, or that Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver for your niece, use the developer’s affiliate links to do it. Click their link, search for your stuff, and buy what you were already planning to buy anyways. They will get a tiny kickback from your purchase, without any extra money coming out of your pocket. You can donate without making a direct donation. It might not be much, but it’s still better than nothing!

Your favorite developer gets some love, your nephew gets some books, and you get to feel all warm inside. For free.

Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Blessed Ramadan, Happy Holidays, Good Winter Solstice or Festive Festivus!

Original Article: Giving back. For free! Dougal Campbell's geek ramblings - WordPress, web development, and world domination.

New plugins

Authy for WordPress allows you to add Authy two-factor authentication to your site.

GC Message Bar lets you put a sticky message to the top or bottom of your site.

Jetpack Photon for NextGEN Gallery extends Jetpack’s Photon CDN to images in NextGEN Galleries.

Memory Load Consumption and db size Usage allows you display your site’s PHP Memory and Database usage in your Dashboard.

Updated plugins

BackWPup allows you to backup your WordPress database, files, and more.

Co-Authors Plus allows you to assign multiple bylines to posts, pages, and custom post types via a search-as-you-type input box.

Facebook makes your site deeply social by integrating functionality from Facebook.

Fast Secure Contact Form lets your visitors send you a quick e-mail message and blocks all common spammer tactics. Additionally, the plugin has a multi-form feature, optional extra fields, and an option to redirect visitors to any URL after the message is sent.

Keyring provides a very hookable, completely customizable framework for connecting your WordPress site to an external service.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin displays a list of related entries on your site and feeds based on a unique algorithm.

It works while you work, it works while you sleep, during your vacation, your weekends, and never takes a day off. Akismet, the best way to protect your online properties from spam, recently hit an incredible milestone we’re delighted to share: over 60 billion spam comments, forum comments, blog posts, pingbacks, trackbacks, and tweets squashed on sight. Boom!

Just how many is 60 billion? Well, let’s say we equate one spam to one mile. 60 billion miles would take you to the sun 645 times. Akismet continues to squash more and more spam by the minute. In fact, back when we hit our 50 billion spam milestone, we were catching about 700 spams per second. In November 2012 alone, we caught three billion bits of spam, which is 100 million spams per day. Per. Day. That’s 1200 spams per second. Blink: Akismet just nabbed 1200 spam. Incredible, yes?

Akismet works with WordPress and many other platforms. If you don’t see your platform on the list, all you need do is grab an API key and get coding.

Akismet is 100% free as in air, free as in birds for individual users’ personal use. Check out our professional / business plans: sign up and say adios to spam.

Copyblogger has a list of seven items that will help you become a better WordPress based publisher.

WPHub.com is hosting a poll right now that asks, What Has Been The Most Important WP Theme Feature In 2012? Out of the choices listed, I voted for Responsive Design because of the prolific usage of Tablets and smartphones versus the traditional desktop computer. On that note, I think it was a very wise choice to have the new default theme in WordPress 3.5 have a responsive design by default. After you place your vote, feel free to come on back in the comments section and explain why you voted for that choice.

Slides are available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ednailor/truly-dynamic-sidebars-for-wordpress

WordPress 3.5 RC 3 has been released.

This RC is quite polished, and it looks like the final WordPress 3.5 release may be just a few days away judging by their previous timeline. The new Media interface has received a few more enhancements, uploading errors are now more specific, and various mobile device and Internet Explorer bugs have been fixed.

This is most likely the last WordPress 3.5 RC before the final release hits, so if you’re plugin or theme developer who doesn’t like surprises on launch day, you should definitely test your products now.

If you run into any bugs, please check the known and fixed issues first, report them if they have not already been reported, and visit the support forums if you need any help.

The third release candidate for WordPress 3.5 is now available. We’ve made a number of changes over the last week since RC2 that we can’t wait to get into your hands. Hope you’re ready to do some testing!

• Final UI improvements for the new media manager, based on lots of great feedback.
• Show more information about uploading errors when they occur.
• When inserting an image into a post, don’t forget the alternative text.
• Fixes for the new admin button styles.
• Improvements for mobile devices, Internet Explorer, and right-to-left languages.
• Fix cookies for subdomain installs when multisite is installed in a subdirectory.
• Fix ms-files.php rewriting for very old multisite installs.

At this point, we only have a few minor issues left. If all goes well, you will see WordPress 3.5 very soon. If you run into any issues, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums.

If you’d like to know what to test, visit the About page ( → About in the toolbar) and check out the list of features. This is still development software, so your boss may get mad if you install this on a live site. To test WordPress 3.5, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

On what has been a longstanding tradition, Aaron Brazell of Technosailor.com has published his list of 10 things you’ll need to know regarding WordPress 3.5. Unfortunately, he also announced that it would be his last one.

For 7 years, I’ve been publishing these articles every time a new version of WordPress comes out. Since version 2.0. It’s been a long run. It began as a need to fill people in about new features in WordPress (and there were a lot in 2.0). There wasn’t anybody doing these at the time, and certainly WordPress wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now (22% of the internet is powered by WordPress).

But many more people have stepped up in recent releases and have started updating readers with new features and expectations. My job here is done. I’m passing the baton but really the baton has already been passed and I’m happy about that. This will be my final 10 things article. Thank you for sticking around and following along all these years.

I want to personally thank Aaron for putting together those 10 things posts as they were always a highlight to read as well as signaling that the next major release of WordPress was very imminent.

The WordPress iOS team has released version 3.3 of the popular mobile app. Thanks to 3.3, the app now has sounds such as clicks, refreshes and a crumple sound when you discard panels on the iPad. Since I use my iPhone on vibrate all the time, the sounds are a minor addition. However, they are a nice touch for the app overall. Outside of the addition of sounds, the release boasts more than 20 bug fixes and stability improvements. The next version looks like it will include a new Notification feature for WordPress.com and Jetpack enabled blogs. A new Visual editor is also in the works.

A few days ago, WebDevStudios announced that they acquired the Startbox theme framework. I’ve known WebDevStudios to primarily be a client development oriented business so I thought it was interesting that they have decided to move in the direction of a commercial theme shop. I managed to get Brad to answer a few questions I had regarding the acquisition and this is what he had to say:

With the acquisition of StartBox, does this officially make WebDevStudios a commercial theme shop?

Technically yes, however I don’t feel we are out there to compete with the many successfully established theme shops in the community. There are a ton of great themes and frameworks out there, so it really comes down to what is the best fit for the person or project. StartBox is our first major push into the commercial WordPress space. Our goal is to focus on making the StartBox theme framework as amazing as possible. Everything else is just gravy.

Will you be sticking with the Theme Club idea already established by StartBox?

For now yes, but that could change in the future. Currently you can access all child themes for $100/year or purchase any single child theme for $47. We currently have 9 child themes available, but plan on rapidly expanding that in 2013. The StartBox core framework is also 100% freely available via Github: https://github.com/WebDevStudios/StartBox

At WebDevStudios, we pride ourselves on having a strong focus on development. Because of that we plan on making some really amazing child themes and utilize those strong development skills to include features that go above and beyond what users might see in other themes out there. These themes and features will also carry over into our client work so it’s really a win win for us.

Will all previous plugins created by WebDevStudios be moved under the StartBox club umbrella?

We don’t have any plans to move our existing plugins to the theme club. We are working on a few pro versions of our plugins, but the base plugins will always remain free and available on WordPress.org. We do have plans to build plugins specifically for StartBox. If a StartBox plugin would be useful in other themes, and not just a feature specific to StartBox, we plan on coding and releasing it for everyone to use.

When I think of WebDevStudios, the thing that pops into my mind first is the Genesis Theme Framework. Will Genesis no longer be the framework of choice for future client work?

We love Genesis and that doesn’t change because of StartBox. Going forward we do plan on using StartBox for most client work, but ultimately will use whatever theme is a good fit for the project. A good amount of our contacts come to us wanting Genesis, so we will certainly give them what they want.

The beauty of StartBox is it allows us to not only shape the future of the theme framework, but also build and sell really amazing child themes for StartBox. We’ve given a lot of consideration to building and selling stand-alone themes and custom child themes for other frameworks, but at the end of the day we decided to focus on a framework that we have full control over.

Since the release of version 3.2 the team has been hard at work on several new features. Today we’re we’re happy to announce that the first — in-app Sounds — is now available in version 3.3. Adding sounds to the app has been on our wish list a long time, and while this is a modest update, we hope you will enjoy it!

Sounds

There are five new sounds created by the talented Josh Mobley in the app:

• You’ll hear a swish sound when you open a panel on the iPhone, or tap a menu item on the iPad.
• A pulling sound plays when you pull down to refresh content.
• Once the refresh completes you’ll hear a click.
• When you receive a new comment a chime will let you know about it immediately.
• The app now makes a crumple sound when you discard panels on the iPad.

Our goal is to provide elegant sounds that enhance your experience with WordPress for iOS, but you can mute the new sounds from the Settings screen if you prefer a silent app. Your device’s mute button will silence the app as well.

Stability Improvements

In addition to the new sounds effects, we continue to make the app even more stable. In this release we fixed a total of 21 issues.

Next Up

A new Notifications feature for WordPress.com and Jetpack-enabled blogs is nearing completion. We also have a visual editor in the works, which we’re very excited about. If these are features you’re interested in helping with, or if you have a different feature or improvement in mind, the time to help make WordPress for iOS amazing is NOW! Drop us a note on our dev blog or chime in at make/mobile on WordPress.org and we’ll help you get started as a contributor!

A huge thanks to the contributors that worked on this release: koke, aerych, mrroundhill, fklu, jkudish, daniloercoli, isaackeyet, and jmobb.

What do you think of the new sound effects? Drop a comment here or follow us on @WordPressiOS to let us know!

WordPress.com users were greeted with a new Media Manager over the weekend. This is the new media uploader coming in WordPress 3.5 when it releases December 5, 2012. For most of us, this is a long-awaited, dream come true. The clunky WordPress Image Uploader is gone, replaced with one more visual and easy-to-use. The announcement [...]