Once again its time for WordPress administrators to upgrade, this time to the latest 3.2 release. In this release WordPress finally drops support for IE6, given its 10 years, its about time. There’s also a new requirement on the back end to be running PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0, so just check what version your host runs before jumping into the upgrade.

According to WordPress, there’s more than 400 improvements. Check out the video below for an introduction to WordPress 3.2 Gershwin.

More info @ WordPress.org

In a post to Facebook, WordPress 3.1 details have been released, although it appears to be by accident. If you visit the associated page, it’s currently blank, which looks like its pulled. http://wordpress.org/news/2011/02/django/

WordPress only recently seen an update to version 3.0.5, however WordPress 3.1 is at RC4, so don’t be surprised if its officially released soon.

According to the details on the Facebook post, WordPress 3.1 will include:

• Significantly improved linking system, to allow for ‘lightening fast’ linking to previous posts
• Simplified writing interface which hides sections that aren’t frequently used, creating a simpler UI
• Admin bar reflects your most commonly visited controls
• Refreshed blue admin scheme available
• Developers can create new post formats, making it easy to create portable tumblogs..

The WordPress application for WP7 just arrived in the Marketplace. Apparently WordPress thinks WP7 is so good it deserves its own website – http://windowsphone.wordpress.org/

The app works pretty much as you’d expect, providing support for both WordPress.com and self-hosted blogs. Features also include Add, edit, publish new Posts and Pages, as well as managing comments.

Update
I found a pretty serious issue with posts generated from the WP7 WordPress app. Posts created don’t structure the post URL correctly, resulting in ‘Page cannot be found’ message.

Check out my hands-on video with WordPress for WP7.

Major features include:

• Merging of WordPress and MU allowing multiple WP sites from one install
• New default theme called Twenty Ten
• Simplified, lighter UI
• Built-in URL shortener service
• Single-click batch upgrade for all plugins

Get it now from http://wordpress.org or find out more from the WordPress blog.

If you’ve ever wanted to operate and manage multiple blogs from a single WordPress install, there’s always been the option of running WordPress MU. Unfortunately by the time you realise you need it, you’re already many months into running your standard single instance blog.

Why would you need to run multiple blogs ? Well perhaps you run multiple sub-properties from the major overall hub. In some scenarios you may want these to be branded or themed differently. Imagine a company that produces mac and pc software for instance. Or perhaps your blog theme isn’t conducive to the photo gallery section of your site.

Good news.. As outlined in a new post from Mitchell McKenna, titled ‘What’s Coming in WordPress 3.0’ he explains that WordPress and WordPress MU are in fact merging. This means from a single install you can operate and manage multiple blogs from one central location. We can assume that the upgrade process allows for this to happen seamlessly.

Also included in the list of new features is the addition of better menus via custom Woo Themes Navigation included in the core release.

There’s also a brand new default theme, which frankly was over due for an update.

More information about all the new features @ MitchMcKenna.com