The scope for WordPress 3.5 has been proposed. Of note, the planned release date is December 5, with release candidates landing around November 14, and a feature freeze at the end of September. WordPress 3.5 will also be introducing the new default Twenty Twelve theme, full support for Apple’s new super-high-definition Retina displays, and improved user experience and image handling. Of course, WordPress 3.5 is still in the planning stages, so these are all subject to change at any time before the feature freeze in September.

Development for WordPress 3.5 is underway as the core development team engage in their first scope session today. With that, they also have a few exciting announcements. After almost three years of service and a few thousand contributions, Andrew Nacin is being promoted to Lead Developer! Some of you may remember when Andrew Nacin got his start with an insignificant twelve-character patch, and with just as much determination, you too could be a Lead Developer some day. After some amazing work through the past few releases, including the new theme customizer and distraction-free writing, Daryl Koopersmith is being granted ongoing commit status. And, thanks to his keen eye on WordPress security, Jon Cave is having his temporary commit status extended through the release of WordPress 3.5. If these sort of promotions get you excited about your future in WordPress, now is the perfect time to get involved.

Twenty Twelve, the next great WordPress default theme, has unfortunately been removed from the 3.4 development cycle and pushed back to 3.5. There is no specific reason given for the change, but it seems likely that the team would rather focus on the core functions as WordPress 3.4 draws closer to its inevitable April release. If you already have Twenty Twelve activated and are using trunk, make sure that you activate another theme before upgrading to the latest, as Twenty Twelve will be removed. If you want to continue to use Twenty Twelve, you can grab it from GitHub for now.