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WordPress 2.8.1 – tighter plugin security and a faster dashboard

WordPress has just released an update to their popular blog-software: WordPress 2.8.1.

Aside from the usual bug fixes, this update addresses a security issue where admin pages created by certain plugins could be viewed by unprivileged users. In other notes, the update reduces the memory usage of the dashboard (always welcome!), improves the automatic upgrade process (no longer will the upgrade accidentally delete files from a failed upgrade), fixes glitches in styling in the plugin editor and auto-save errors in IE as well as a fix to the rich-text-editor not loading properly due to compression issues.

For a full list of changes, head over to the official WordPress blog, and download WordPress 2.8.1 from here.

Mozilla Jetpack – FireFox add-on development using HTML, CSS and Javascript

Mozilla Jetpack released - whatwasithinking.co.ukA couple of weeks ago, the creative minds behind Mozilla Labs have launched the open source project Jetpack to the FireFox community.

Jetpack is an API which enables designers and developers to write add-ons using HTML, CSS and Javascript, encouraging more and more developers to join the 8,000+ people strong add-on community.

The Mozilla Labs Jetpack website already has a wealth of information, from guidelines to tutorials (ranging from how to disable <embed>’s or how to integrate the twitter API) and information on distributing your new add-on.

If you would like to find out more, just head over to Jetpack.mozillalabs.com for more information.

FireFox 3.5 – big update, new technologies, faster browsing

firefox3.5 released - whatwasithinking.co.ukFireFox, one of the most popular browsers on the market, has been updated to version 3.5 yesterday. Based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, this browser promises to be about twice as fast as FireFox 3 (and 10x faster than FF2!), to support new technologies, improve its performance and be even easier to use than before…

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WordPress 2.8 – upgraded and ready to go!

wordpress 2.8 upgrade - Whatwasithinking.co.ukWordPress 2.8 has been released just a few days ago. Here are the most notable features of 2.8:

  • New drag-and-drop widgets admin interface and new widgets API
  • Syntax highlighting and function lookup built into plugin and theme editors
  • Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns
  • Allow configuring the number of items to show on management pages with an option in Screen Options
  • Improved database performance
  • Support IIS 7.0 URL Rewrite Module
  • Faster loading of admin pages via script compression and concatenation
  • Improvements to the script loader: allows plugins to queue scripts for the front end head and footer, adds hooks for server side caching of compressed scripts, adds support for ENFORCE_GZIP constant (deflate is used by default since it’s faster)
  • Load the minified versions of the scripts by default, define(‘SCRIPT_DEBUG’, true); can be used to load the development versions
  • And many more!

For a list of all features, please have a look here.

You can download WordPress 2.8 here.

Mobile FireFox (codename: Fennec) goes beta

Mozilla Fennec has reached beta 1 - Whatwasithinking.co.ukFennec, the mobile version of Firefox has reached beta. Mozilla’s answer to the browser wars on mobile devices is here to provide its standards-based open-source browser engine, optimized for mobile, that can be embedded by device manufacturers and others, and is going to be a full-featured mobile browser including support for XUL-based add-ons, delivering on Firefox’s key principles of ease-of-use, security and accessibility, and help developers debug and deploy web applications for the mobile market.

Read on after the break what has changed in beta 1, screenshots and how you can get hold of it… Keep Reading

Up close and personal – Personas for Firefox

Up close and personal and 3d - Mozilla Personas - WhatwasithinkingThe never-sleeping minds from Mozilla Labs (who just gave us Bespin a few months back) have recently announced the the introduction of Mozilla Personas,  light-weight skins allowing users to “dress up” the look of their favourite browser via an addon.

After installing Personas and restarting FireFox you are able to install skins via a new icon through the new Personas menu, enabling you to browse through the most popular skins, latest skins or simply just through all existing categories, and with the click of a button you can preview what your browser will be looking like before applying it with a single click.

Feeling creative and want to know more on creating your own skin? Then read on… Keep Reading

Flash for mobiles – Adobe’s Flash Lite Distributable Player (preview)

Adobe Flash Lite Distributable Player - Flash for mobiles - Whatwasithinking.co.ukAdobe announced in February this year that its latest version of Flash Lite 3.1 Distributable Player has been released for beta testing.

This new player will enable developers and integrators to create rich, expressive applications targeted to the latest version of Adobe’s Flash technology, with the ability to distribute their apps including the runtime installer to millions of open OS mobile devices with a streamlined workflow and reduced time to market.

For now, the distributable player is only available on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile devices, but more devices are to follow very soon…

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Bespin – open web development in the clouds

Mozilla Bespin - Whatwasithinking.co.ukIn the beginning of January, Mozilla Labs, the developers behind the beloved web browser FireFox, have announced the release of Bespin, its first  initiative for open web development.

Bespin is an open, extensible  web-based framework for code-editing with the aim to increase productivity, promote open web standards and egage users and developers on a high level of user experience. Keep Reading