It was just announced today that WordPress 3.0 has been released and you can get it here. This is considered a pretty big release with many new features and bug fixes, I’ll list some notable ones below:

• A merge of WordPress MU and WordPress, making it possible to run multiple sites from one installation.
• New features for theme developers including new APIs to have custom backgrounds, headers, menus, and more.
• New custom post type and taxonomy features for posting new and different kinds of content (besides posts, pages, etc.).
• A new default theme called Twenty Ten, which shows off all this new functionality. Say bye bye to Kubrick!

Watch the video below for more information:

If you’re upgrading, remember to backup your site. Also remember your themes probably won’t break but if they do, you can at least revert back to your backup and figure out what the problem is.

Have you upgraded to WordPress 3.0? I’d be interested in hearing your experience in the comments.

It was announced recently that WordPress 2.9 has been released. There are a few cool new features, which I’ll list below:

• Built-in image editing – This feature allows you to do basic image editing to your uploads, including cropping, resizing, rotating, among other things.
• Easier embedded content – Using the oEmbed standard, embedding content can now be as simple as pasting a URL. Support for YouTube, DailyMotion, Flickr, WordPress.tv, among many others.
• Global trash feature – The Delete button is now replaced with a Trash button, giving you a second chance to recover posts or comments you would have otherwise deleted by accident.
• Bulk plugin upgrade – Now you’re able to bulk upgrade plugins automatically, instead of upgrading one by one. On top of that, it now takes advantage of the community-powered plugin compatibility data from the plugin directory.

The video below covers these features in more detail.

I’ve upgraded a few of my sites to 2.9 with no issues. Regardless, make sure you backup your site beforehand. If for some reason automatic upgrade doesn’t work, you can still upgrade manually.

Has anyone else tried WordPress 2.9? Let me know what you think in the comments.

In case you didn’t notice the message on top of your WordPress dashboard, WordPress 2.8.6 is now available. The release fixes two security problems that can be exploited by registered and logged in users with posting privileges.

Basically if you have untrusted users on your blog with a user level of “Author” or above, upgrading is highly recommended.

I’m sure you know the drill by now, make sure you backup before you upgrade. I haven’t heard of any upgrade issues with this release so it should be relatively painless.