At last the long awaited WordPress 2.5 has been finally released. For six months, it has been in the bakery and believe me the WordPress developers and designers have done a great work for all this time both to get the new release and also to update WordPress.org.

From the WordPress Blog,

2.5 is a major milestone for WordPress not because it added dozens of user-requested features, but because it reaffirms that we’re as passionate about blogging as the day we started. Our community is too fierce to rest on its laurels — contrary to what pundits claim, blogging is far from “finished” and every improvement just whets our appetite for more. And more is coming.

I totally agree with this and it is a great work which has been done both WordPress and also the new redesign of WordPress.org. In summary, the new features are categorised into:

• User Features: Cleaner, faster, less cluttered dashboard; Dashboard Widgets; Multi-file upload with progress bar; Bonus: EXIF extraction; Search posts and pages; Tag management; Password strength meter; Concurrent editing protection; Few-click plugin upgrades; Friendlier visual post editor; Built-in galleries.
• Developer Features: Salted passwords; Secure cookies; Easy taxonomy and URL creation; Inline documentation; Database optimization; $wpdb->prepare(); Media buttons; Shortcode API

For more details, check the WordPress 2.5 Release and the download link at WordPress 2.5.

UPDATE:
WordPress 2.5.1 is now available and you are advised to upgrade. From the release post,

It includes a number of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and one very important security fix. We recommend everyone update immediately, particularly if your blog has open registration. The vulnerability is not public but it will be shortly.

For quite some time, WordPress 2.5 has been in the oven for quite sometime and up to today it is still. Personally, I haven’t tried it out as yet. The release days for it have been postponed now and again but I must say it is worth it.

For those of you who haven’t tried it out as myself, a screencast has been created by the founding developer of WordPress, Matt which shows the new power of WordPress and I am quite impressed about the new version and I can’t wait to get the final version.

My greatest amusing features about this upgrade include:

• New Administration User Interface which is full of Ajax making it more interactive to manage your blog with ease and several authors on the blog can have different color schemes for their Administration Panel
• Multi-file upload feature which is Ajax enabled
• The Built-in Photo Gallery which enables you to group photos, automatic creation of thumbnails and allow comments for the photos, all without need of any plugin. Personally, I am very impressed with this as I’ve longed to have such a feature as plugins have frustrated me.
• One-click plugin upgrade which allows you to upgrade your plugins without the need of using uploading of plugin files.

For more information and new features about WordPress 2.5, you can also check out the Sneak Peak.

UPDATE: 10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.5 offers a detailed write-up about the new features coming up in the new version.

During this Easter festival, I would like to testify of God’s Goodness, Mercy and Grace to me throughout my life. As you recall that last year during my first semster’s exams, I was involved in a terrible accident but through God’s mercy and grace, I, my dad and siso were able to survive.

During that time, it was really hectic for me and I had decided n as it NOT to sit for one of my exams. However, after sometime, I was convicted by God’s Spirit to just prepare whatever I could and go for the exam. Today I come to testify for what the Lord surely did for me. I PASSED ALL THE EXAMS I SAT FOR and I am really grateful to God for the amazing things He keeps on doing in my life.

So as we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection from the Dead which is the essence of EASTER. I would like to encourage you all not to just eat your stomaches out BUT Reflect on WHY JESUS DIED AND ROSE.

Otherwise, I wish you a HAPPY EASTER HOLIDAY.

[Empty Tomb Photo By Donut_Diva on Flickr]

Have you ever been rejected by your friends or got problems with your closest friends or been so worried because of what you are going through or you’ve got something but you’ve got no one to share with. Lately, I have been going through some hard times in my life and I have also seen some of my great friends going through hard times in their life and I have worried why this happens.

However, I have come to realize and experience that life is not a straight line just like the saying goes. We live in a life with people who aren’t perfect (BTW, including myself :-)) and most of them who are selfish and the rule almost governing all is survival for the fitness just like in the jungle.

During my meditations, God reminded me of Nick Vujicic who visited Uganda sometime back and challenged me and some many other people of how God has been using him without limbs. I did a search about Nick to get the video I watched of how he manages to do everything anyone else can do with help from anyone and you can watch it right below.

So if someone without limbs is enjoying his life, why should someone like I keep complaining. Most times, we think of life without problems BUT God never promised such a life. He rather promised that HE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH US. So before you complain to God about whatever situation you are going through, try to think of how you can use what you’ve to God’s Glory rather than thinking God should give you something for you to be beneficial and remember that you will never have a testimony without first being through a hard situation.

Remember in James 1:2-4 (NIV) says:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Keeping Nick’s great story in my mind, Don’t you think that God’s Grace is more than sufficient.

I was thinking of how I could use Google APIs to create and off line application which uses some of the services Google provides. Since I do a lot of website designs, the first that came to my mind was having Google Analytics right at my desktop. It went on lingering my mind that it would be a great tool for other people out there.

Well, the good news is that I don’t even have to write any code, Analytics Reporting Suite is already available to get all this done for you. The suite has a very good user interface and contains all the functionalities provided by Google Analytics.

The Analytics Reporting Suite brings Google Analytics to the desktop. It’s an Adobe AIR desktop application that delivers the same advantageous as Google’s web version but with a richer experience and extended functionality.

To get to use , you need to first download and install Adobe AIR which lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems.

After installing Adobe AIR, go ahead and download Analytics Reporting Suite

Once installed, you will have to add your profile by trusting the application with your Google Analytics username and password and then you will have access to all the functionalities of Google Analytics just like when you’ve logged in when you are using the internet.

Once again, my website re-design has been featured on CSS Hive - CSS Hive is a hive full of dangerously hot webdesign.

Just like We Love WP, CSS Hive contains great web designs though not only WordPress driven websites which you can use for inspirations and also a blog containing future features on the site, resources and articles relating to CSS, etc.

All websites featured have these simple rules:

• Clean and damn hot design!
• Valid XHTML / CSS (tableless) is a must!

Again, I would like to thank to CSS Hive for featuring my website and keep up the good work you are doing.