[New post] Do More Faster

Greg posted: "We've just released two improvements that will make WordPress.com even more efficient for you, leaving you more time to create content. Site Stats If you get a lot of traffic to your blog, your stats were sometimes slow to load.  We know you like to lo" Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on WordPress.com News Do More Faster by Greg We've just released two improvements that will make WordPress.com even more efficient for you, leaving you more time to create content. Site Stats If you get a lot of traffic to your blog, your stats were sometimes slow to load.  We know you like to look at your stats often, think about how all those seconds added up.  Now, your main stats page loads all of its data in parallel: This loads your whole stats page two to three times faster, which means less time spent staring at a spinner and more time for interacting with your readers and creating content. Of course, if you're a Jetpack user, you can partake in the speedy stats goodness on your WordPress.com stats page as well! Toolbar Notifications We've made your Toolbar Notifications faster to interact with also. Now you can navigate the Notifications menu from your keyboard. Keys: n : Open/Close the notifications menu (make sure you aren't currently typing in a text box first). j / k (or up and down arrows) : Navigate through your notifications r : Start replying to a comment notification. a : Approve/Unapprove a comment. s : Mark as Spam/Unspam a comment. t : Trash/Untrash a comment. If you're logged in, hit n now and try it out. Greg | August 15, 2012 at 1:31 pm | Categories: Notifications, Stats | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-35k Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/do-more-faster/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

[New post] New wedding themes: Lovebirds and Ever After

Michelle Langston posted: "At the beginning of 2012, we launched our wedding theme Forever and let you in on how you can use WordPress to document and share your wedding experience with your friends and family. Now we're doing it again. Get the rose petals and bubbles ready, here c" Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on WordPress.com News New wedding themes: Lovebirds and Ever After by Michelle Langston At the beginning of 2012, we launched our wedding theme Forever and let you in on how you can use WordPress to document and share your wedding experience with your friends and family. Now we're doing it again. Get the rose petals and bubbles ready, here come our two new wedding themes, Lovebirds and Ever After. Lovebirds, a sweet theme with whimsical illustrations by our very own Caroline Moore, allows you to inform your guests about your journey and upcoming celebration — in style. The lovely cursive font adds just the right amount of garnish to the clean layout, providing you with a beautiful, clear frame in which to tell your story. Where did you meet? How did the proposal occur? Who's in the wedding party? Where will the wedding take place? Spare none of the details! Take the demo for a spin or learn more about Lovebirds on the Theme Showcase. Next up, we have Ever After, designed by Takashi Irie, another one of our own. Ever After makes effective use of subtle textures and ornaments to add elegance and grace to your wedding site. Ever After's wide, one-column layout is ideal for sharing photos and videos of your wedding, in addition to all of the details surrounding your special day. It can transform your site into an online wedding album as you relive the memories of your wedding and subsequent journey, hopefully to end with a happily...ever after. As usual, take a look at the demo, and read more about the theme on the Showcase. Personalization Lovebirds and Ever After both feature a responsive layout that resizes to fit smaller screens, ensuring that your guests stay informed even on the go. Personalize your site with your own custom header and background images. If you want even more customization, our Custom Design upgrade gives you access to oodles of fonts, unique color palettes, and a custom CSS editor -- all the tools you need to create a look that matches your wedding. Our new wedding themes also allow you to add an RSVP form, a guestbook Page template, and our special Milestone widget that shows how much time remains before the Big Day! Introducing Weddings.WordPress.com Now that we have 3 themes for weddings, we wanted to show them off and show how easy it is to use WordPress for your wedding, all in one place. Visit weddings.wordpress.com to learn about all of our features, and to sign up for a free wedding site today, using one of our wedding themes. We hope this will be a great resource for you. Michelle Langston | August 14, 2012 at 4:00 pm | Categories: Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-352 Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/new-wedding-themes-lovebirds-and-ever-after/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

[New post] Big iPhone/iPad Update Now Available

Isaac Keyet posted: " Today is an exciting day! A new version of WordPress for iOS was just pushed live, and it's been dubbed the "biggest update ever". It features a completely re-imagined interface for both iPhone and iPad that takes mobile blogging to the next level. It" Respond to this post by replying above this line New post on WordPress.com News Big iPhone/iPad Update Now Available by Isaac Keyet Today is an exciting day! A new version of WordPress for iOS was just pushed live, and it's been dubbed the "biggest update ever". It features a completely re-imagined interface for both iPhone and iPad that takes mobile blogging to the next level. It's most noticeable on the iPad: a sliding panels interface enables you to quickly get to any part of the app and rediscover your content. New Interface As soon as you download the app you're greeted by a new welcome screen that guides you while adding your blog(s) to the app. Once authenticated you're taken right to the Reader, where you can catch up on the blogs you follow, find topics you like, and now use a friend finder to discover your friends' blogs on WordPress.com. On the iPhone you'll see a list icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Tap or swipe to open the sidebar, revealing all your blog's content, as well as the ability to upload a quick Photo and access your Settings. On the iPad the sidebar is right there, the first panel to the left. As you tap items in the list they'll open in panels allowing you to drill deeper into the app. Enhanced Stats In the latest update of WordPress for iOS you can now view your full WordPress.com Stats right from within the app. This means more details, more control, and much better use of screen space. For the iPad the panel expands to the size of two panels for better viewing. Reader and Quick Photo for iPad The big, beautiful screen on the iPad is a perfect fit for the WordPress.com Reader. You can now keep up with blogs you follow, browse topics that interest you, and check out the latest Freshly Pressed posts. The panels interface makes it easy to navigate around and even visit the full site right from the app. The "Quick Photo" function is one of the most popular iPhone features, and now we are bringing it to the iPad as well. Use your iPad's built in camera to take a photo or select one from library. It all works as seamlessly and as fast as it does for the iPhone. Friend Finder Did you know you could use your accounts on other social networks to find friends blogging on WordPress.com? In the latest update of WordPress for iOS you can do this right from the app - finding your friends on Twitter, Facebook is only a tap away. You can also securely search your device's address book to find your friends' blogs. Post Formats Post Formats are an important part of many themes these days and it was time for WordPress for iOS to get the ability as well. By using post formats you effectively choose how your post will look once published (if your theme supports them). More Enhancements, Bugfixes, and Tweaks * New Post Preview for iPad: When viewing a post on the iPad, you'll now get a nice preview of the post including formatting and images. * All-Around Landscape Support: Nearly all areas of the app support landscape orientation now, including all of the tabs in the post editor. (You'll notice this on the iPhone and the iPod Touch.) * Easy Site and Dashboard Access: A no-brainer. We added buttons in the Sidebar to view your site as well as a Dashboard link so you can access your full WordPress dashboard ("/wp-admin") right from within the app. Thanks to this you can now easily update your theme, manage your users, access your tools, and more. In total over 180 enhancements and bug fixes made it into version 3.1 of WordPress for iOS. Get WordPress for iOS Download the app from the App Store today! If you're on a device, go to get.wp.com/app and we'll send you directly to the store on your device. You can read more about the update over on the WordPress for iOS Blog, and make sure to follow the app on Twitter to receive the latest news first. Isaac Keyet | August 9, 2012 at 9:37 pm | Tags: app, Mobile, update, WordPress for iOS | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-33P Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/wpios-3-1/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

[New post] Freshly Pressed’s Best Of July 2012

New post on WordPress.com News Freshly Pressed’s Best Of July 2012 by Kevin Ohannessian The month of July has come and gone and we featured over 600 posts on Freshly Pressed. So here is a look back at ten of these stories: those we thought were the most interesting and those the WordPress.com community loved and engaged with the most. • Torridon Photographer Fraser McAlister shares the shots he took on a trip to Scotland: photos of hills, lakes, insects, and more spotlight the country's beauty. The unique green/gray palette made this photo series feel visceral. • Crocheting to Change the Planet We get a glimpse at the Crochet Coral Reef project in St. Petersburg, Florida and learn about climate change's effect on the biodiversity of the ocean. And how could you not love jellyfish made of yarn? • Why Blogging Scares Me A young blogger shares why she waited a month to put up the first post of her new blog devoted to life and food. Her honesty and openness left an impression on us. • An Open Letter to Jessica Redfield Miles Venkman somberly compares his own experience with The Dark Knight Rises to that of the late Sports blogger. The shootings in Aurora left a mark on many communities, including WordPress. • Dirty Thirty: The List What would you like to accomplish before you hit the age of 30? One young woman shares her aspirations. Everyone should make lists like this and actually push to fulfill them. • Why sweat the big things? Worry about the small (really important) stuff. This food blogger discusses what frustrates him in life, and shares a wonderful and unique sorbet recipe. As before, honest and thought-provoking writings about life really engage people. • 5 Easy Steps To Make Your Own Blog Header! Donah takes us through how she created the images that top her blog page. It is a clear tutorial that can be helpful for many bloggers who are looking to improve their pages but aren't sure how. • Friday Fifteen This bibliophile shares with us a handful of 15-word book reviews, focusing on books from the U.K. to celebrate the Olympics. It is a series, so check out his other quick reviews. • 10 Things That Suck About Being a Guy This sometimes earnest and sometimes tongue-in-cheek post highlights the pitfalls of masculinity. This post is quite universal; most of us men feel this way at sometime or another. • The Olympics Are Fabulous (Sometimes) Lastly, Julia Hass shares her opinion on the Olympics--not the athletes or the sports events, but the teams' clothes. The nations' official uniforms were all quite different and quite intriguing. What were your favorite Freshly Pressed items and blogs posts of the month? And for those who want more, check out Freshly Pressed, follow our Daily Post writing prompts and challenges, and browse our Recommended Blogs and our blog topics. For more info on how we choose posts for FP, peruse our support documents. Kevin Ohannessian | August 3, 2012 at 5:01 pm | Tags: blogging, Freshly Pressed | Categories: Community | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-32E Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/freshly-presseds-best-of-july-2012/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

[New post] A High Resolution Experience

New post on WordPress.com News A High Resolution Experience by Matt There's a new generation of devices really changing how we look at the web, Apple calls it Retina, others call it HiDPI (high dots per inch), but it's been trickling its way up mostly through mobile phones and then in tablets with the iPad 3. Basically the idea is that the pixels are so close together you can't even see them, even if you put your nose right up to the screen. (Wipe off your screen now.) My mind was personally blown when I first saw the new Retina Macbook Pro -- basically Apple took the clarity of the retina screen and brought it to full 15" laptop (which also has amazing other specs) and the result is remarkable. So much so that it ruins you, like the first time you saw a HDTV and then had to look back at a regular one again. The one disadvantage is that many apps, and most websites, don't have high-resolution equivalents of all their graphics to take advantage of the new screen, so they get "doubled" and look fuzzy, they stand out like a sore thumb. You may have noticed that we've been going bit by bit through the entire WordPress dashboard, the reader, and all of our sites updating them to take advantage of this new capability, often crafting new icons and graphics by hand. (Go by an Apple store and check out WordPress.com if you want to get a taste of it, but I warn you it's hard to go back.) But for you guys we can go a step further. All of your blog posts will now serve high-resolution images for users that can see them, at least the images that we host. Since we create all images dynamically on the fly, what we do is if you've uploaded a higher resolution photo and sized it down, we'll serve a double-size so it looks super sharp to those visitors -- they'll think you're ahead of the game. We've also completely revamped Gravatar to be Retina-ready, and made it so that all Gravatars across WordPress.com are HiDPI as well. Here's how sharp things look on a HiDPI device compared to a regular display: P.S. We just launched the same available for Jetpack users, our second simulaunch. Matt | August 2, 2012 at 9:55 pm | Tags: Apple, iPad, Retina, Retina Macbook Pro | Categories: Features | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-32A Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/a-high-resolution-experience/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com