There is not much that I can say in a few words here that you have not already heard elsewhere in the news. However, I would like to pay my respects to Steve. Steve Jobs was and will be one of the greatest influencers in my life. I learned about him in college, started to follow his career and philosophy as a student of his, and became an ardent fan of the man and his career as I learned more about him. He was a brilliant thinker, a fantastic leader and a living legend to me. His commitment to the computing experience is shared by many but is paralleled by few. His death is even closer to home because of personal reasons but I mourn his loss with more heaviness in my heart than I have ever felt for someone I have only known through the media. I can selfishly […]

New plugins Ad Logger allows you to log clicks on iframe adverts and other social network buttons. ImageFX allows you to add filters to your WordPress images uploaded through the normal media uploader. WP-Tweetbox gives you a widget to show a fully customizable Twitter-searchbox in your sidebar. wpsc Support Tickets is an open source help desk and support ticket system that allows you add support ticket capabilities to any WordPress site. Updated plugins UI Labs offers experimental WordPress admin UI features with the aim of building upon and enhancing the default WordPress User Interface. These are unofficial core UI experiments – who knows what could happen?

WordPress 3.2 has been downloaded over 9 million times since it was released last July. That means that there has almost been 100,000 downloads of WordPress 3.2 each day, once again calling out to the rapid adoption rate that WordPress sees with each major release. At this rate, WordPress 3.2 will soon exceed the 15 million count that WordPress 3.1 reached just before WordPress 3.2 was released. If you aren’t using WordPress, start today and contribute to the counter’s rise!

Biotodoma is a dark two-column theme. Divide is a bright and powerful theme using vibrant orange, yellow and white. OctoPink is a pink two-column theme, released in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

New plugins Bookings allows you to provide online booking services for your site. Updated plugins GD Pages Navigator allows you to change the way navigation works for pages and other hierarchical post type with different navigation methods. Simple Facebook Connect is a framework and series of sub-systems that let you add any sort of Facebook functionality you like to a WordPress blog. Tallyopia Analytics provides analytics that you can embed into your site using shortcodes or view in your admin dashboard. yolink Search is a drop-in replacement for WordPress search that provides relevant results.

BlogoLife is a simple HTML5 and CSS3 theme for personal blogging that supports post formats, and several customization options. Brightpage is a fixed-width right-sidebar theme with a featured images slides. Farewell is a simple two-column, fixed-width, blog style template. Grace is soft, subtle, and simple in an almost totally monochromatic color schreme except for the odd touch of deep plum for title and hovered links.

iThemes is launching an outstanding program designed for educators, “focusing on delivering high-quality web design tools and training to the education community.” To get the ball rolling, they’re asking for only 100 qualified educators to apply before October 1st. Those who are accepted into the beta run will receive over 150 high-quality themes, over 20 plugins, 300 hours of professional training, and more as the year continues. Not only is WordPress the most popular blogging platform today, it’s also become quite popular as a class resource. Many teachers are setting up P2-themed blogs for class discussion or simply using WordPress as a base (with no blog element) to provide class-related documents, movies, and more. As someone who was raised in a family of educators, it’s great to see a company like iThemes stepping up to provide such an all-in-one program to help other educators get started with WordPress, and it’s […]

New plugins FB Autosuggest brings the power and style of Facebook friend search to your blog. infoGeniuz Advanced Form Analytics enhances your current form plugin with hidden data that can now be added to each and every lead filling out your online forms. Updated plugins Social Media Tabs allows you to add Facebook, Google +1, Buzz, Twitter and RSS profiles and feeds to any widget area with stylish sliding tabs. WatchCount.com WordPress Plugin shows the Most Popular (or a seller’s) eBay items in a blog’s sidebar or posts.