WordPress 3.2.1 has been released. This quick maintenance release fixes a minor JSON-related server incompatibility that only affected a few users and adds a few finishing touches to the new Dashboard and Twenty Eleven theme. This is the first release to make use of the new update system, which only replaces changes files, so you should notice a much quicker process compared to previous automated updates.

News Leak is designed to give the website a professional look with ready to use Social networking support. Rosey invokes a peaceful, soft, and warm mood. Tweaker4 is a theme specifically built for those who love tweaking their own themes.

The official stats over at WordPress.com have been updated to count WordPress installations as well as WordPress.com blogs, and the total number of WordPress-powered sites has just reached a startling 50.1 million! For comparison, that’s just a little bit less than the populations of California and Florida combined, and about 19% of all known sites on the web. For those of you who were here when WordPress began in 2003, did you ever imagine that its use would spread so rapidly?

New plugins Advanced Code Editor enables syntax highlighting in the integrated themes and plugins source code editors. Supports PHP, HTML, CSS and JS. Updated plugins Before And After allows scheduling of text within posts and pages. 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? WPtouch automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from an iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Opera Mini, Palm Pre, Samsung touch and BlackBerry Storm/Torch mobile devices.

Caution is a three-column theme that just screams danger, caution and risk. Instapic is a fun theme styled after the popular Instagram, allowing you to mimic the features that Instagram offers (minus the photo filters), yet run the photo blog on your own. PlusOne looks exactly like the Google+ interface. Twenty Eleven is a sophisticated, lightweight, and adaptable theme built for WordPress 3.2.

Code Poet is a directory of trusted WordPress professionals, developers, designers, and consultants brought to you by the folks at Automattic, and it’s getting a rather significant overhaul. The new Code Poet, which can be seen at the beta site, will make it easier than ever before to find WordPress professionals by specialty, location, and even budget. Do you have what it takes to be a Code Poet? Apply now to be a part of this awesome directory!

New plugins Moo Gravatar Box auto-detects and shows in real-time the Gravatar image when users are filling the comment form. SmugMug for WordPress is designed to help professional and amateur photographers integrate their public and private SmugMug galleries into their WordPress websites and blogs. Updated plugins Fast Secure Contact Form lets your visitors send you a quick e-mail message and blocks all common spammer tactics. Additionally, the plugin has a multi-form feature, optional extra fields, and an option to redirect visitors to any URL after the message is sent. Health Check will perform a number of checks on your WordPress install to detect common configuration errors and known issues. VideoPress allows blog administrators to upload new videos to their WordPress.com video account and manage existing videos from the convenience of their self-hosted WordPress.org blog’s administrative interface. Authors can add any VideoPress video into a blog post through the use of […]

WordPress 3.2 has been released! WordPress is now faster and lighter, with a new Dashboard, new default theme, distraction free writing, admin bar enhancements, and much more. WordPress now requires a minimum of PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0, so make sure that you’re ready before upgrading. Support for the long-outdated Internet Explorer 6 has been dropped too, but there are many alternatives. To avoid any potential issues, make sure that you temporarily deactivate all of your plugins before upgrading, and refer to the WordPress 3.2 Troubleshooting Master List if you run into any problems.