Wordpress 2.6.1 is out of beta and has been released to the public as a full download. Those of you running Wordpress 2.6 on your own hosting should have seen the admin status message over the weekend revealing the availability of the next version of Wordpress.

To upgrade, simply grab a copy of the latest release and FTP it to your server, replacing the existing Wordpress files. If you’re in doubt about plugin compatibility, a helpful suggestion is to disable each active plugin on your blog BEFORE running the update.

When you have everything uploaded, simply go to www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php to call the upgrade script (where yourdomain.com is your actual domain name).

From the Wordpress blog…

With 2.6.1, we’re continuing our trend of releasing a maintenance release shortly after a major release in order to get fixes for the inevitable “dot zero” bugs into your hands without a long wait. If you’re happy with 2.6, however, keep on using it. You need not upgrade to 2.6.1 if 2.6 is getting the job done.

2.6.1 offers several improvements for international users. Styling of the admin for right-to-left languages is much improved thanks to the efforts of the Farsi and Hebrew translation teams, and a mysterious gettext bug caused by certain PHP configurations is now fixed. For IIS users, 2.6.1 fixes several permalink problems. Image insertion problems in the Press This feature experienced by IE users are also fixed. Of note to everyone is a fix for a performance bug in the admin where those with a lot of plugins would experience slowness on some pages.

Popularity: 11% [?]

I’m just making the update to Wordpress 2.6 this morning here on ProFreelanceBlogger.com, having tested it locally for a week or so.

Just as I get the update set and enjoy the added support for Google Gears to speed up the admin area, I see that they’ve announced and released the beta version for Wordpress 2.6.1 with the full release expected within the next few days.

I’m currently in the process of updating all blogs that I run or am involved in running to Wordpress 2.5 at a minimum, having found at least one blog still running Wordpress 2.0.2 (my how things have come a long way!).

To find more about Wordpress 2.6.1 beta and keep up with bug tracking and the Wordpress 2.6.1 development, click here. If you want to download a copy of the beta release, click here.

Popularity: 11% [?]

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I’ve just put the finishing touches to My Music Artists International, which (well, is not quite finished) is operating in stealth mode for the next week or two. Last night I was able to mark the launch of My Music PR, another string to my ever increasing musical bow.

The fun thing about it is, a lot of the collaborative work on the project in terms of preparing press releases, contact lists etc. is being facilitated through Google Docs.

Why?

• We’ve got Google accounts already
• It’s free
• It’s very easy
• A number of us can update and maintain documents / spreadsheets simultaneously
• Platform independent and accessible from anywhere with a web connection

If those aren’t reasons enough for you to try it out, then I don’t know what is.

In the office / coffee shop / library / studio / sitting room (wherever I’m working from) we’ve got different operating systems, different versions of Microsoft Word or Apple Pages going. There’s lots of emailing back and forth to make sure everyone has the same document but there comes a point when you have to say “enough”.

The solution? Logging into Google Docs, setting up a new spreadsheet to work on and inviting everyone in to work on it.

Any documents or spreadsheets you’ve emailed to your Google account as well can also be opened within Google Docs, saved and exported again for working locally. Why we didn’t go this route for collaborative work before I’ll never know.

Give it a go by visiting Google Docs homepage.

Popularity: 18% [?]

While I’m an advocate for the Adobe suite of tools (having had them drummed into me through ports of employment and education), the cost of buying the full Adobe Creative Suite can be quite expensive, as can picking up individual copies of both Photoshop and Illustrator, especially now in their CS3 iterations.

While I put aside the hard-earned dough to fund CS3 purchases of both Photoshop and Illustrator, there are cross-platform open source alternatives available for designers.

GIMP

If you’re looking for something along the lines of Photoshop, then why not try your hand at GIMP? Billed as “the GNU Image Manipulation Program“, GIMP can be used in both a Windows and OSX environment and is suitable for the likes of photo retouching, image composition, manipulation and authoring.

You still get the use of alpha channels, layers, quick-masking, paths and all the usual features you would expect from an image editor, with the added bonus that it opens PSD files (Photoshop Documents).

Download the latest version of GIMP here.

Inkscape

Inkscape came recommended to me a few months ago as a strong open source alternative to Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape being a vector drawing program.

Ideal for illustrators, logo and graphic designers, it packs features similar to those found in Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format. (via).

Support for Windows 98 or ME (shudder the thoughts) users no longer exists but you can download Linux / Windows / OSX copies, while the application has also been successfully used on FreeBSD and other Unix-based systems.

Download the latest version of Inkscape here.

When it’s not going to cost you anything, what have you really got lose? Plus, if you’re saving for that CS3 license, you’ve got two powerful, free packages that will act as a steady stop-gap until you spring for your preferred toolset.

Popularity: 14% [?]

If you’re still putting of upgrading your version of Wordpress to the latest (2.5, with 2.5.1 already on the way) then maybe it is time to make the jump. I say this as word circles the web yesterday and today that Technorati, one of the biggest blog indexing sites online, has decided NOT to index “vulnerable and exploited Wordpress blogs”.

If you don’t upgrade your copy of Wordpress, you’re at risk of being left out of the Technorati blog index as well as other services feeding off Technorati.

Some of the older versions of Wordpress have been exploited and may (a small possibility) in certain circumstances be hacked or are at a greater risk to hacking attempts, these issues being patched in more recent versions, especially in Wordpress 2.5.

Exploits can be made through core WP files and possibly through suspect Wordpress themes as well. Mark Ghosh, who writes for Weblog Tools Collection suggests the downloading of themes only from the author’s original link (unless, in my opinion, you’re sourcing themes from a high-traffic and respected theme host).

The bottom line is though, in the combat of spam, hacking attempts and the possibility of falling out of search engine results and rankings, now is the time to be upgrading to Wordpress 2.5. I’ve already updated several blogs and it’s an absolute breeze. If you’re stuck, don’t be afraid to shout!

Of course, this only applies to those of you hosting Wordpress blogs yourself, if you’re on Wordpress.com then you’ve got nothing to worry about!

Popularity: 23% [?]

The Toronto-based team behind FreshBooks (online invoicing tool useful for freelancers) have today released their version 4.4 upgrade.

I’ve been a FreshBooks user for a few months now, keeping the number of clients on the service (you’re allowed a few clients on their free service) low before deciding to move over to their service for full-time billing and invoicing. The thing is, I’ve decided I’ll be making the move but the procrastinator in me is holding out to finish off invoicing matters with existing clients.

However, new clients as they arrive are being moved onto FreshBooks.

If you’re on the lookout for an easy-to-use online invoicing and time management tool, you have my recommendation. Invoices you create and email out to clients generate online access accounts for your clients to allow them log in, view outstanding payments or make payments online (credit card, PayPal etc.).

They’ve also gone and released (with version 4.4) a handy time tracker widget for the OSX Dashboard.

While the free account limits you to using just three clients, you can upgrade to 25 clients from just $14 p/m, great value if you’re living and working within the European market. There’s also plenty to choose from in customising your own console, branding your own electronic invoices (or snail mail options if you choose to go postal), issuing recurring invoices, tracking billed and unbilled hours and lots more besides.

If you haven’t yet tried FreshBooks and you’re looking for an invoicing tool to help keep track of your freelance work then go no further.

Popularity: 17% [?]