WordPress 2.6 was just released a couple of hours ago and it packed with plenty of new features. I had a chance to upgrade Skatter Tech, previously running version 2.5.1, and the entire process went through quite smoothly without any issues. I have included the official video demonstration of WordPress 2.6 above, however I will also go over some of the notable features below.

Post Revisions
This implementation will be a savior to authors who write and edit articles in the WordPress editor. Each time a post is modified a revision is saved. (Like Wikipedia.) Authors can switch back to previous editions or compare two different revisions. This is probably the next best addition to the editor since auto save. The editor also received a few other new goodies including a Word Counter and a improved uploader.

Press This! Bookmarklet
For those who blog content as they browse the web, this is going to be very handy. The new Press This! bookmarklet acts quite like Tumblr. When you launch the bookmarklet, a popup window appears offering options to blog the page you are currently viewing and choose whether it should be considered a Text, Photo, Quote, or Video post. Although I may not use this to blog right away, it is quite neat to be able to save drafts with some info so I can come back to it later.

SSL-Encrypted Admin Panel
Security is a big issue for those who have large blogs. Previously with no SSL support, hackers monitoring a network could theoretically capture passwords and data being published to your blog. There have been a couple of WP Plugins to address this issue, however I personally never found any to function as required. Authors now can login using the HTTPS protocol to encrypt the data being related between their machine and their server for protection. And it’s been working great, for me, so far!

Other Stuff
There are a couple other notable features added, one of which is the Gears add-on. The add-on has to be installed to your computer’s browser and intelligently caches Javascript and CSS files to your machine to allow a much faster and smoother work flow. WordPress now also allows bloggers who are re-designing their themes to now preview it before making it visible to their readers. This would have been quite handy when I was in the process of designing my theme!

There are plenty of other things that have been included in the update and if you wish to find out more about them, visit Word Press 2.6 Announcement Post. If you are using WordPress I personally recommend you upgrade to 2.6. There are many new features you will truly appreciate!

Links: WordPress.org
Download: WordPress 2.6

Only about two weeks after the launch of WordPress 2.0.6 and 2.0.7, the WordPress crew finally pushed v2.1 (aka “Ella”) out of beta. WP2.1, rather than a patch, is a major upgrade from the 2.x series. The blogging engine, which Skatter Tech is currently running, now has a more powerful back-end for administrators to manage content. Although many plugins no longer work for 2.1, we recommend updating since it also includes over 550 bug fixes. The following is some of the major changes implemented.

WordPress v2.1 Features:

• Ajax AutoSave Posts – prevents loosing posts
• Tabbed Editor – WYSIWYG and Raw Code
• Ajax-based Spell Checker for composer
• XML Import/Export – transfer data between blogs
• Search Engine – custom indexing privacy settings
• Front Page – set any page as the main page
• Blogroll – many improvements and changes
• Login – redesigned screen from Shuttle
• Ajax Admin Panel – helps speed up tasks
• Comment Feeds – includes all rather than last 10
• Uploads – management for uploaded data
• Other: Cron support, new APIs, and more

We are pleased with the overall improvments the update brings. Managment and content seems to be flowing much faster than ever before. As we mentioned we are having diffucluties with some plugins, but most of the major ones either already have been updated or work.

Links: WordPress 2.1 ‘Ella’ | Download
Related: Instructions For 2.0.x to 2.1

2006 was an amazing year for Skatter Tech. I thought I’d let everyone know some interesting statistics about our site. Last year alone, we had about 1.12 Million visitors from all 193 internationally recognized countries in the world. The most popular Operating System is still Windows XP and Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser. About 80% of our readers are now using Cable or DSL, while 8% are still on Dial-Up. There are many more interesting statistics below such as popular ISPs, Keywords, Screen Resolutions and so on… (P.S. The data provided is not 100% accurate!)

Total Visitors for 2006: 1.12 Million
Average Per Day: 2,100
Countries Visited From: 195 (thats all of them!)

Popular Posts:
1) Stream iTunes To PSP
2) Soda Machine Hack
3) Russell Peters Video
4) Motorola KRZR Review
5) Sony Pocket Station
6) How To Block Fasterfox
7) Royale Theme For XP
8) LG VX9900 Review

Top Web Browsers:
1) Internet Explorer – 55%
2) Mozilla Firefox – 36%
3) Apple Safari – 5%
4) Opera – 2%

Popular Operating Systems:
1) Windows – 90%
2) Macintosh – 7%
3) Linux – 2%

Network Connection Type:
1) Cable/DSL – 79%
2) DialUP – 8%
3) Others – 12%

Geographical Location:
1) USA – 56%
2) Canada – 10%
3) U.K. – 10%
4) Australia – 4%
5) Remaining 20%: Singapore, Germany, Netherlands, India, France, Sweden and so on…

Referring Source:
1) Google.com
2) Direct Access (skattertech.com)
3) Digg.com
4) Yahoo.com
5) CollegeHumor.com

Top Search Keywords:
1) PSP
2) KRZR
3) Fasterfox
4) iTunes
5) enV

Top Internet Service Providers:
1) Comcast – 9.5%
2) SBC – 5.6%
3) Verizon – 4.5%
4) Road Runner – 3.9%
5) Other ISPs – approx. 74%

Screen Resolutions:
1) 1024×768 – 46%
2) 1280×1024 – 19%
3) 1280×800 – 7%
4) 800×600 – 6%

For the past few months we have been running off our new new servers hosted by MediaTemple and the results have been extremely satisfying compared to 1and1. If you haven’t already done so take a look at our new “Tag Browsing” feature,the new Skatter Tech Mobile, and our Message Boards. We’d also like to let everyone know that we will be getting new authors soon, therefore increasing the content on our site. Also check back next week as we will have heavy duty MacWorld 2007 Coverage.

And Finally, Happy New Year!

1) Google Maps now has plenty of High Resolution Satellite images from all around the world. Google recently also added in maps for the entire world, but currently only consists of country names.
Link: Google Maps | Google SightSeeing

2) Skyhook Wireless is using Wi-Fi to find lost laptops, smart phones, and all other Wi-Fi enabled devices. It can pin point any device and map it. It will work through out most major cities where they have setup plenty of WiFi access points.
Link: Information Week
Related: NetStumbler | PSP WiFi

3) Skype v1.3.0.51 is out. They have made many improvements to the program, mainly re-arranging the menus and buttons. They also modified the theme of the program. They also fixed the always “online” problem they had with many users.
Link: Skype (new website theme) | Download Skype | ChangeLog

4) Google’s Blogger service upgrades! Blogger has added in a new interface to allow uploading photos from your computer as well as the web. They have also allocated 300MB of space to store photos on your blogs.
Link: digg | +digg | GoogleBlog | Update Info 1/2/3

5) Digg 2.0 will be out soon, but digg has put out a beta version of how their site will be after they move to new servers and make some final changes. Just by looking at the interface it is easy to say that this might just become a “slashdot killer”.
Link: Digg Beta (un & pw: betatest) | Digg (Current Site)

Others:
iTunes songs are $1.05 instead of $.99 because of some new tax rules in some states. Not only applies to iTunes, but any type of paid downloadable service – link

Sony’s UMD Disc format was offically approved as a standard media format by the Ecma. A UMDs holds 1.8GB and are read by PSPs. Sony has sold 2.9 million units since March. – link

Yahoo! closes all user created public chat rooms due to large amounts of inappropriate discussions. Still allowed to create and invite users to your own rooms. – link

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