On Tuesday January 14th, at 3:00PM Eastern ChatWP will be hosting the first ever Twitter chat dedicated to WordPress. Twitter chats are structured conversations centered around a hashtag. This enables anyone who uses Twitter the chance to participate in the conversation. The first chat will be with special guest Jason Coleman, author of “Building Web…
While WordPress has been around for over a decade, companies that are successfully making a business out of it are still very young. Companies like iThemes, StudioPress, HeadwayThemes, and RocketGenius are some of the few that come to mind when I think of successful, veteran WordPress companies. Every day, there are individuals and groups working…
If you haven’t been by to visit the WordPress Core Trac lately, you’ll be delighted to find that a flurry of updates were made over the holidays. Andrew Nacin took some time to add new features, enhancements, and bug fixes to Trac during his break. This long list of tiny improvements adds up in the…
The Aesop Story Engine is one of the most beautiful tools for WordPress that I’ve seen in a long time. Named for Aesop, the master story teller whose fables are woven into our cultural consciousness, this engine provides a powerful suite of multimedia storytelling tools. The Aesop Story Engine plugin was created to be a…
Cloudup is a file sharing service that was acquired by Automattic on September 25th, 2013. Their goal is to make file sharing “simple and beautiful.” Not having any experience with Dropbox, Cloudup was amazingly easy to set up and start using. In the past, I used FTP to upload images I wanted to share to…
In case you missed it over the holidays, an important notice was issued to WordPress.org plugin developers. The WordPress Plugin Repository will no longer allow developers to commit files with PHP syntax errors in them. Mika Epstein, one of the developers who helps to review incoming plugins, posted an example of what the kick-back error…
Distraction free writing mode is something I rarely use in WordPress but WP Smackdown has a great post that explains how using two plugins can enhance the distraction free writing experience. The Just Writing plugin enables the ability for preferences to be stored on a per-user basis as well as a few other features. Meanwhile,…
Web development Agency 10up has announced they have acquired Brainstorm Media for an undisclosed amount. Brainstorm Media, also a WordPress development agency, was a staff of eight led by Paul Clark and Taylor Aldridge. The entire team will join 10up at the start of 2014, adding to its development capacity and strengthening the creative design…
David Bisset has been organizing WordCamp Miami for the past five years. That’s a long time in WordPress years! WordCamp Miami will celebrate its five year anniversary May 23-25, 2014. The first WordCamp Miami was held in 2010, spreading the phenomenon of WordCamps to one of the largest metropolitan areas in the US. Every single…
Piwik is leading the way when it comes to open source web analytics software. More than 1,000,000 websites are using Piwik for analytics, according to the current Builtwith assessment. The team has just launched its 2.0 release with a brand new website and redesigned mobile app. This release is the culmination of seven months of…
It’s been a long time since the Tavern has received a new coat of paint. I’d like to introduce you to the new WordPress Tavern. This design is a child theme that we created, based on Stargazer, a new parent theme from Theme Hybrid. WPTavern is now responsive and looks good on any mobile device…
Brian Richards has announced that he is giving away 12 full year scholarships. Winners will be given access to every new session published in 2014. According to Brian, that’s at least $360 in live, personal training. Winners are chosen every day at 12PM Eastern Time. To enter the drawing, you’ll need to tell Brian how…
If you want to use WordPress in the Queen’s English, you’re in luck. There’s an en-gb translation and it’s been updated for WordPress 3.8. With the new admin design, British English WordPress installs will spell words like “colour” and “customise” in the proper English style. The easiest way to get an installation that uses proper…
Imagine being born with a genetic disease that causes your lungs to fill, making it hard, sometimes impossible, to breathe. Imagine being susceptible to lung infections and a shorter life expectancy than everyone else. Imagine coughing attacks, feeling as though you’re drowning, regular hospital stays, and the fear of an uncertain future. Now imagine that…
One of my favorite features of the WordPress 3.8 ‘About’ page is the live admin color scheme picker. WordPress 3.8 ships with eight different color schemes. If you don’t find a favorite among the default color schemes, there are more options available using a plugin. A small group of designers have collaborated to bring WordPress…