“Alexa, tell Blog Helper to create a new post called ‘Granny’s banana bread recipe.’” Imagine logging a new draft on your WordPress site using only your voice while working in the kitchen. That’s what Blog Helper, an Alexa skill, enables for WordPress.com and self-hosted Jetpack users. It is available for free in Amazon’s catalog of…
Jetpack 4.8 was released this week with a settings redesign that is a continuation of the React.js-powered admin interface introduced last September. The new settings screen has been completely rearranged under a more simplified menu. “We went through every setting on WordPress.com and Jetpack to make sure it was necessary to keep around, and to…
WooCommerce 3.0 “Bionic Butterfly” was released today with significant improvements to the product gallery and developer tools. This version, which was previously going to be 2.7, is the first major release since the plugin switched to semantic versioning. It was released after more than three months in beta and an extended RC testing period that…
Readers may remember in 2015, we highlighted Camp Press, a conference devoted to disconnecting from technology to focus on strengthening bonds that encourage collaboration within the community. Mendel Kurland, who has spent the better part of two years organizing the event, announced that Camp Press will take place September 23-24, at Fry Lake in Seminole, OK. The event is a…
WP-CLI has hired Alain Schlesser as a new part-time co-maintainer. The position was made possible by sponsorships from Automattic, Bluehost, DreamHost, SiteGround, WP Engine, and more than 60 individuals who contributed to the project. “With Alain joining the project as a co-maintainer, the WP-CLI project is restoring capacity to meet current demands (e.g. support), and…
The original Raspberry Pi was released five years ago and the micro computer product line is still going strong. The Raspberry Pi Foundation sold its ten millionth Pi last year and just released the Pi Zero W in February 2017 with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. If you are among the millions of Raspberry Pi owners…
The application for WordCamp Netherlands 2017 has been denied. The camp, which held its sixth edition in Utrecht last year with more than 425 attendees, was one of the most well-established WordPress events in Europe. Yesterday lead organizer Marcel Bootsman published a post on the Dutch WordPress community site to explain why the camp has…
Earlier this week, the WordPress plugin directory relaunched with a new design and an improved search algorithm. Feedback has been rolling in from Tavern readers and members of the Advanced WordPress Facebook group. The improvements to search has received a number of positive comments in addition to people requesting the ability to sort results. The…
Automattic’s mobile engineers released a major update to WordPress for Android this week. Last year the app’s users saw a growing disparity between the features available to self-hosted sites and those available to WordPress.com users. Not having the WP REST API in core was holding the app back from providing the same site management features…
Two weeks ago, I highlighted a WordPress plugin that displays upcoming WordCamps in the Dashboard. I’ve recently discovered that the WordPress Community team is working on an official plugin that does something similar called Nearby WordPress Events. The plugin attempts to detect a user’s location and displays upcoming events within the WordPress News dashboard widget.…
WordPress.org relaunched the plugin directory this week with a new design and improvements to the search algorithm. The redesign spent more than six months in beta for feedback and testing, but many contributors on the project said they felt their feedback was not taken into account. The result is that the new design shipped but…
The WordPress Polyglots team is asking for volunteers to help organize WordPress Global Translation Day Three. The event may take place on September 30th, the same day as International Translation Day, but the date is dependent on when organizing teams form. Global Translation Day is a 24-hour event that includes live streaming, local, and remote…
In this episode, Marcus Couch and I are joined by Daniel Ha, CEO and co-founder of Disqus. Ha explains why he created the service, what his thoughts are on large sites disabling comments, and the state of comments on the web. We also discuss the company’s monetization strategies and what opportunities exist to generate revenue…
Just when you think all the best domain names have been gobbled up by bots and squatters, Poopy.life emerges as the fastest new way to spin up a WordPress test install. Joe Guilmette, team lead at WP All Import, opened up Poopy.life to the public today, offering free unlimited WordPress installs for anyone who needs…
Poedit 2 was released today after two years in development. The app has a refreshed interface for translating .PO files, which Poedit creator Václav Slavík said was created by a professional designer. It is also the first paid upgrade for Pro users since the app added support for WordPress theme and plugin translations in 2013.…
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