New plugins Amazon Tools allows you to integrate your WordPress blog with Amazon Web Services. Category Redirect to Post or Page allows you to easily redirect category links to a specific page, post, or even an outside url. Updated plugins Exploit Scanner searches the files on your website, and the posts and comments tables of your database for anything suspicious. It also examines your list of active plugins for unusual filenames. Health Check will perform a number of checks on your WordPress install to detect common configuration errors and known issues. jQuery Vertical Accordion Menu creates vertical accordion menus from any WordPress custom menu. WordPress Sphinx Search allows to use Sphinx Search Server power to enable ultra-fast and feature-rich search on WordPress-based websites.

WordPress celebrity Joost de Valk has just launched an interesting service where he provides plugin reviews and inspections for free. This is certainly an interesting prospect for newcomers wondering, “is this plugin right for me?” Mark Jaquith has been offering a similar service through Covered Web Services, including a full security audit, for quite some time. Sure, it’s for a fee, but how can you pass up something like this from a core WordPress developer? Since the idea of plugin reviews seem to be gaining popularity, would you be interested in seeing us review a few plugins submitted by you, our kind and ever-present readers? Please let us know in the poll below! Would like to see us review plugins?survey software

WordPress 3.1.1 has been released. This maintenance and security release fixes 26 issues with the following highlights: Performance improvements Fixes for IIS6 support Fixes for taxonomy and PATHINFO (/index.php/) permalinks Fixes for various query and taxonomy edge cases that caused some plugin compatibility issues Regarding this release’s security fixes, “the first hardens CSRF prevention in the media uploader, the second avoids a PHP crash in certain environments when handling devilishly devised links in comments, and the third addresses an XSS flaw.” For most of you, 3.1.1 should be available as an automatic update via your Dashboard. If that isn’t working for you, you can download WordPress and perform a manual update.

New plugins Clip Art Illustration Search and Insert allows you to enter search terms for illustrations and images that you may wish to use in your posts. Featured Posts Scroll will scroll a set of posts (either automatically or via user click) in any desired location within a template or a post. WP Display Header lets you specify a header image for each post individually from your default headers and custom headers. WP Save Custom Header lets you save and reuse uploaded header images. Updated plugins eShop is an accessible Shopping Cart plugin. IE6 Upgrade Option displays a warning message, simply and politely informing the user that their browser is out of date while providing links to download newer, more optimal browser choices. Proper Network Activation is a small utility for MultiSite, which ensures that plugins are correctly activated accross your network.

If you’re a new WordPress users, or perhaps even a veteran, you may have noticed an inability to work with your widgets at Appearance -> Widgets in your Dashboard. This is fortunately not common, but it can lead to a ton of confusion and many hours of frustrating attempts to fix it. First, make sure that your browser has JavaScript enabled. This is usually the most common cause of the issue, and fortunately the easiest to fix. If your browser does have JavaScript enabled, use an FTP or SFTP client to access your server and a plain text editor to edit your wp-config.php file. Once the file is open, add define(‘CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS’, false); below the define(‘DB_HOST’ line and save the file. In most cases, one of the two methods will work for you. If you’re still having trouble, stop by the WordPress Support Forums for further assistance.

Baza Noclegowa is a clean, clear, and light theme for blogs, corporate websites, and big portals as well. Citrus is based on greens and oranges, and available in narrow (2 column), medium (2 column), and wide (3 column) varieties. MyPhoto is a very clean and elegant theme created specifically with photography, portfolio, and other gallery type sites in mind. Space Weapons is a two column theme, perfect for personal blogs and space enthusiasts.

New plugins Disable XMLRPC Methods allows you to only enable/disable the specific XML-RPC methods you need. Latest Tweets Tooltip allows you to show the latest tweets about a certain word or phrase in a draggable and resizable jQuery tooltip window. Updated plugins Health Check will perform a number of checks on your WordPress install to detect common configuration errors and known issues. Posts 2 Posts is a foundational plugin that allows you to create connections directly between posts of any type. WordPress Beta Tester provides an easy way to get involved with Beta testing WordPress.

ThemeSorter, a new WordPress premium theme directory, launched recently with an impressive catalogue and is on track to take the premium theme directory industry by storm. Unlike recent premium theme directories, ThemeSorter’s layout is very basic and straight-forward, but what it lacks in a flashy interface it makes up for with data and organization. With access to several sellers and a huge catalogue, ThemeSorter’s themes are organized via formats, niches, colors, and styles. What do you think of ThemeSorter’s contribution to the world of premium theme directories?