Identity Theft? - Get Identity Guard Protection: March 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

[New post] Twitter Blackbird Pie Just Got Even Sweeter

Twitter Blackbird Pie Just Got Even Sweeter

Justin Shreve | March 30, 2011 at 9:11 pm | Categories: New Features, Social | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1JQ

Last November we launched Twitter Blackbird Pie, a quick and easy way to reproduce beautiful, full-fledged tweets — not just static screenshots of tweets — in your posts, pages, and even comments.

Today we are happy to announce that we've made it even easier for you to interact with tweets on WordPress.com. Thanks to the new set of tools that Twitter just announced, you can now reply to, retweet, or favorite content without ever leaving the page you're on.

Try it out on the tweet below!

@wordpressdotcom
WordPress.com

Twitter Blackbird Pie Just Got Even Sweeter http://wp.me/pf2B5-1JQ

March 30, 2011 9:12 pm via WordPress.comReply RetweetFavorite

This improvement takes effect immediately for all tweets on WordPress.com, so there's no action necessary on your part. Enjoy!

Bonus Tip: Drive Traffic to Your Twitter Account

To gain additional exposure on Twitter, add your account as a verified external service in your public profile under Users -> My Profile in your dashboard. Anytime someone replies to, retweets, or favorites one of your tweets on WordPress.com, they'll be prompted to follow you on Twitter.

Additional Ways to Integrate Twitter with WordPress.com

Display your latest tweets in your blog's sidebar using the Twitter Widget
Add a Twitter sharing button to the bottom of your posts or pages with the Sharing feature
Tweet new blog posts automatically to your Twitter account with Publicize

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[New post] New Theme: Basic Maths

New Theme: Basic Maths

Matías | March 30, 2011 at 6:21 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1HL

Reminiscent of primordial grid designs used in different print mediums, Basic Maths is one of the most elegant, and smartly-designed themes we've ever seen. We are thrilled to have it now available for WordPress.com sites as a Premium Theme. One particular thing of note about Basic Maths, is that it comes with custom support direct from us, the Theme Team at Automattic, for the one-time price of $75.

Basic Maths, a grid based theme.

Apart from a thoughtful design, Basic Maths also offers some cool features, including the possibility to choose custom colors for links and other visual elements, helping you make this theme feel more personal to your site. If you want to make a statement about how important your content is, Basic Maths could be the answer.

You can check more about the theme, designed and developed by Khoi Vinh and Allan Cole, on the Theme Showcase. We hope you like it.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

[New post] Automattic’s Worldwide WP 5k

Automattic's Worldwide WP 5k

Sara Rosso | March 29, 2011 at 5:54 pm | Tags: wwwp5k | Categories: Automattic, Community | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1JY

As Scott mentioned in his How is WordPress.com Made? post, at Automattic we work from all over the world, and we use internal blogs for socializing and exchanging non-work ideas in addition to making WordPress.com and our other products more awesome. One of the things we're really concerned about is staying healthy - we even have an entire blog dedicated to fitness.

We had a great idea: Get all 80 Automatticians from 62 cities to run/walk a 5k on the same day! This way we can get some exercise together as a company even though we're apart (though we won't rule out a softball or Texas scramble at our next meetup).

We want to invite you to join us, WordPress.com users (and self-hosted WP users, too!), in the Worldwide WP 5k - the 5k blogged around the world! The date is approaching, so read on to find out how to participate.

WHAT IT IS: A 5k run/walk (approximately 3.1 miles). You can run, walk, or skip. It's up to you. There's no time limit and there's just one requirement: that you participate!

It's roughly equal to:

3.1 miles
12 laps around a track
approximately 6000-7500 steps
approximately 50-60 minutes of brisk walking

WHEN: We're all busy, but we want you to participate, so we're giving you some flexibility, too. The WWWP5k is set for Sunday, April 10th, but you can do your walk anytime from April 4th -10th (you've got a week to fit it in). Just post about it and use the tag "wwwp5k" so we can find you (and for a chance to be Freshly Pressed). :)

WHO: Anyone who's ever used or loved WordPress (and your families and friends, too).

HOW: You're welcome to blog your entire route and your preparation (videoblog, perhaps?) but above all we'd love to see where you are and how you're completing your 5k. Give us a picture of you and what you see when you cross the finish line and tell us your location as you complete your 5k with the rest of the world.

Some tools & suggestions:

Get a pedometer
Use http://www.mapmywalk.com/ to chart your course
Set your car's odometer to 0, leave your house and drive along a safe course with sidewalks for walking/running, until you reach 1.55 miles (you can loop back the same way), or chart out a 3.1 mile course

If you're not up to running this year, never fear, you can get started with the Couch to 5k method which several Automatticians like - 9 weeks from couch potato to running a 5k, and be ready to run for next year. But make sure to walk this year - no excuses!

Will you be joining us for the Automattic Worldwide WP 5k?

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Friday, March 25, 2011

[New post] New Theme: Rusty Grunge

New Theme: Rusty Grunge

Matías | March 25, 2011 at 4:46 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1JE

It is time to introduce a new free theme which goes by the appropriately evocative name of Rusty Grunge. It goes without saying, this theme has all the rusty and grungy elements needed to appeal to all those who embrace grunginess in themes. It has a light content area over a dark background, and some color splashes around on its design.

The Rusty Grunge Theme

The theme comes equipped with options for Custom Background, Menus, Post Formats, and Header Image. It also bears two distinct widget areas, making this theme not only grungy but also highly customizable.

As usual, find more about what it has to offer on the Theme Showcase.

Designed by Chris Wallace, Rusty Grunge is also available for self-hosted WordPress.org sites via the WordPress.org Themes Directory.

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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

[New post] Wow Your iPad Readers

Wow Your iPad Readers

Nick Momrik | March 23, 2011 at 8:43 pm | Tags: Apple, HTML5, iPad, tablet | Categories: Mobile, Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-1J7

With the launch of Apple's iPad we have seen the future of computing and it is touch. Nothing matches the visceral feel of navigating your digital world with your hands. The past four months we've been working closely with Onswipe to bring your iPad visitors our vision of what a blog can look like re-imagined for a touch experience.

Our iPad-optimized view is app-like in its functionality, but pure HTML5 goodness on the backend: it supports touch interactions, swiping, rotation, and many other features of the iPad. Like when we launched our smartphone-optimized WP-Touch integration in 2009 (now responsible for over 150 million page views a month) this is immediately available and active on the over 18 million blogs on WordPress.com.

There are some fun options to play with too. If you browse to Appearance -> iPad in your Dashboard you can:

Have the theme use an image from your recent posts as a cover.
Upload a logo to showcase your brand or personality on the cover.
Upload an image to be used as a loading graphic when visitors add your site to their home screen.
Switch fonts.
Choose from 9 different skin colors, to best match the feel of your site.
Enable or disable the whole thing.

When you tap to view a post, you get to see the full content with a slick commenting interface and social sharing tools for Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress.com literally at your finger tips. It's a lot of fun browsing sites with Onswipe.

Onswipe has also made the plugin available for self-hosted WordPress.org sites.

On WordPress.com we're seeing about 750,000 page views a day from iPad visitors and it continues to rise. New tablet devices seem to be coming out every time you turn around. In the coming months we'll be expanding to work with other popular tablet devices, but we chose to focus on the iPad first because... well it's cool.

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