WordPress 2.9 is Now Available!

Matt Mullenweg has just announced today in a blog post the final gold release of WordPress 2.9 “Carmen”.

There are numerous small but significant updates in this release. According to Matt, the “coolest new stuff from a user’s point of view” are:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

Upgrade to WordPress 2.9

The feature I’m most excited about is the built in image editor. I can finally crop images without having to delete and re-upload them.

The new media editor can be accessed after uploading as well as in the Media Library

It also looks like the ‘Alternate Text’ and ‘Caption’ options when uploading an image is no longer merged. In addition, unlike WordPress 2.8, the alternate text for images is no longer automatically added from the title if not provided.

As with any upgrade especially major upgrades, be sure to backup your database and files before proceeding with the upgrade.

WordPress.org
WordPress 2.9, oh so fine (WordPress Development Blog)