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Help test the new version of WordPress for iPhone using the iPhone simulator by downloading the latest 1.2beta1 code from the WordPress trac. Details about the features of the new version and the download links are available from the WordPress for iPhone blog. Thank TUAW and The Blog Herald.

A nice roundup of photoblogging themes and plugins available for WordPress was published by WPCandy. Many of the links are collections themselves. Definitely worth a looksee if you are looking for a nice photoblog.

Nathan Rice posted a Definitive guide to Sticky posts in WordPress 2.7 complete with screenshots, style suggestions, code examples and custom loop suggestions. He even outlines a method to ignore stickies completely.

Intense Debate, recently acquired by Automattic, is back with a stronger product and a much more integerated and user friendly WordPress plugin that makes the task of switching back and forth from ID easier and less painful. Let us know if you switched and how it went. Thanks to RWW and a bunch of other sources.

To round off this news round up, we have 8 Common Sense Tips for Writing Clean WordPress Blog Posts. Lots of well illustrated tips on cleaning up your blog posts and making them more presentable for both humans and machines. I think this would be one of those must have bookmarks for people just starting off in blogging with WordPress.

Automattic Acquires PollDaddy.: From their recent bi-yearly assembly of Automattic folks, this time at Breckenridge Colorado, Matt announced that the PollDaddy service is the most recent member of the Automattic family and WordPress.com users will now be able to add polls to their WordPress blogs. He also said that the team is working on many features and customizations of polls to make the polls have the same look and feel as the blogs. There is a WordPress.org plugin for PollDaddy and Matt posts about the PollDaddy acquisition on his blog.

From the sound of things, a few cool projects might be announced and introduced in the few weeks following this Automattic meeting.

Automattic Has Acquired IntenseDebate’s Enhanced Comment System: Automattic has acquired IntenseDebate for an undisclosed amount according to TechCrunch and this post on the IntenseDate blog. They are planning to delve into a closed beta once again while they ramp up their hardware for an onslaught of new users from Automattic. Plans include a tight integeration with WordPress (I am assuming with WordPress.com initially and maybe as a plugin for WordPress.org, thus the need for ramping up resources) but will continue to exist as a separate service and will be available for other platforms beside WordPress. Expect more news on this front very soon. Matt and Toni also talk about the acquisition.

When WordPress 2.3 was released into the wild, one of the new features was an update notification which told you when there was a new version of WordPress or a plugin available for download. This was possible thanks to the API service called api.wordpress.org. Earlier this year, I had the privilege of attending WordCamp Dallas where WordPress 2.5 was unveiled to the world. I’ll personally never forget that day, but when Matt showcased the automatic plugin upgrader, it confirmed my suspicions back when 2.3 was released as to where at least some aspects of WordPress were headed.

During some downtime at the event, I pulled Matt aside and asked if him if the team was going to end up heavily using the API to not only upgrade plugins, but upgrade the core and also install themes. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but never the less, that is indeed where WordPress is heading. Thanks to this API, the future of WordPress from an end users point of view looks great.

WordPress 2.5 introduced automatic plugin upgrades. A time saving feature that the masses have loved. WordPress 2.7 is poised to really take advantage of the plugin API that the WordPress team has built thus far, allowing for the browsing and installation of plugins right from your administration panel. Another feature which may or may not be finalized in time for 2.7 is the core upgrade functionality. Again, thanks to the API for WordPress.org, upgrading WordPress could be as simple as a click of a button. The next item to incorporate into WordPress is the theme repository.

Although no definitive proof showcases the theme repository being integrated into the WordPress back end, I feel that it is only natural to incorporate it much like the plugin repository. What I say here is speculative, but based on the discussions that I have read, the plan is to allow users to browse around the theme repository and if they come across a theme they like, you’ll be able to click an install button which will unpack the theme automatically leaving only the step of activating the theme. I’ve mentioned this idea to others and they bring up the subject of theme upgrades. Because themes can be edited with the addition or subtraction of functions, I don’t believe upgrading themes will be as user friendly as upgrading plugins. However, unless a theme author completely revamps a theme, I don’t see the need to have an upgrade theme feature added to WordPress. Instead, the theme author should update the theme, change the version number and then, the theme repository API should notify the end user within the WordPress administration panel that a new version of their theme is available. A link within the message would direct the user to that themes entry within the repository from which they could read the change log. It would then be up to the end user on whether they want to apply the updates or not.

Based on my experience in dealing with WordPress end users, the three most difficult tasks when operating a WordPress powered site is upgrading WordPress, browsing and then installing themes, and last but not least, installing or upgrading plugins. Thanks to the hard work of the WordPress developers and associated volunteers, the API has provided us with the opportunity to use a piece of software where the three most difficult tasks to perform when using WordPress are practically automated. At the click of a button, you’ll be able to install a plugin, upgrade a plugin, upgrade to a new version of WordPress or install a theme. I may be wrong, but WordPress may be the first publishing system to provide this type of functionality to its user base.

I’ve had this feeling for quite a long time that WordPress was eventually going to provide these features as a means of making it as easy as possible to keep everything up to date. I suppose I may have a WordPress instinct built into me? At any rate, this is the road that the development team has decided to travel and I am happy to be part of the ride.

Are you looking forward to these three mundane tasks (possibly) being turned into simple mouse clicks?

Not 21 years old, but that is now the number of people employed by Automattic. As was reported by Ed Sutherland of ProBlogNews.com, Automattic has hired Warwick Poole, former director of systems at Vidavee which was recently acquired by Vignette. According to his job title as “Systemologist” Warwick will be in control of.

Keeping the barriers to online publishing low, by scaling the infrastructure which runs Wordpress.org, Wordpress.com, Akismet.com and other related projects.

But that wasn’t enough for me. I sent Warwick an email containing a few questions regarding his title, as well as his role within Automattic. Here are his responses.

Jeff - First off, congratulations on becoming the 21st employee for Automattic.

Warwick - Thanks, I am very pleased to be involved with Automattic.

Jeff - Mind telling us how this all came about?

Warwick - I am a longtime WordPress user. So I have known about the company for a while. I found Automattic’s recruitment note hidden in their HTTP headers (an innovation typical of this group) and got in contact. Then I met some of the Automattic team.

Jeff - What will your primary focus be while employed by Automattic?

Warwick - For the next few weeks, supporting WordPress.com users and helping bloggers with any support questions they have. All new employees work the support desk for 3 weeks as a way to grok the user experience and to get to know the product(s) well. It’s a great idea. All companies should do this.

Check this: http://automattic.com/about/how-we-work

Jeff - Your role within the company has been labeled as a Systemologist, just what exactly does that mean?

Warwick - It’s a made up title, like some of the other Automattic titles I will be working in the Systems group which looks after the infrastructure powering WordPress.com, WordPress.org and Akismet, and some other projects no doubt.

Jeff - The job criteria states that the employee will be working on keeping the barriers to publishing low while scaling various projects administered by Automattic. Can you give us a couple of your ideas on how you plan on improving the scalability of these projects?

Warwick - Thats not an official Automattic job criteria, I wrote that on my LinkedIn profile. To me, WordPress represents liberty: an instant global publishing system that is accessible to anyone who has the means to be online. The Automattic team is world class and an incredibly talented group of people and their systems are scaling already to impressive levels. This is accomplished with a team so small that it’s hard to fathom. I’ll be working with these guys.

Jeff - What can the end users of the various projects administered under the Automattic umbrella look forward to with your employment?

Warwick - Someone who can speak Afrikaans. But most importantly, a vegetarian amongst the BBQ lovers at Automattic

With the popularity of WordPress.com along with other Automattic projects increasing, Warwick will have plenty of work ahead of him to accomplish. But I think it’s reassuring to see Automattic take a vested interest in trying to make the WordPress software as scalable as possible. Keep in mind that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are live examples of what is capable with WordPress. What is accomplished by those two sites can be equally accomplished by anyone else.

Congratulations to Warwick for becoming the next member of the Automattic team.

Why Polaris is Backing Automattic: Mike Hirshland from Polaris explains their rationale for providing a “relatively small” bit of funding for Automattic. A friend of mine from Wooster, another Matt, had a very catchy DJ handle (radio, yes I was a DJ at Wooster) which I believe appropriately describes Mike’s depiction of Matt. Henceforth Matt will be referred to as WonderBoi.

Mullenweg launches Automattic: There are times in ones’ life when they kick themselves for not having done something that was staring them in the face, feel like they have let themselves down but are still incerdibly happy for the way the cookie crumbled. This happens to be one such situation for me. Congratulations Matt! This is well deserved and I laud you (and your cohorts) and your efforts.

Wordpress.com out of beta: If you have always wanted a Wordpress.com blog but have lacked an invite, this is your chance. Wordpress.com is now public and anyone can sign up. This is pretty cool. Go Automattic!

Go here to sign up for your blog.