Today WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” was released. [Download] Named after jazz legend Thelonious Monk, it sports a cleaner interface while adding quite a few new features like…

• More secure and stable
• New lighter/cleaner look
• Bulk updates for plugins and WordPress upgrades
• Help tabs on every screen
• New Twenty Ten default theme (very customizable)
• Custom menus which include sub menus
• Custom post types
• Short link support
• WP + MU built in
• 1200 bug fixes

Download WordPress 3.0 here.

Some notable features are:

• Ability to record and upload videos from your phone. We now support both 3gp and 3g2 formats on older generation BlackBerry devices.
• Introducing support for the HD video service VideoPress.
• Streamlined UI and functionality relating to comment moderation
• Overall enhancements to the speed and stability of the app

Below is a video introduction of the official WordPress app for Blackberry 1.0.

Download the WordPress for Blackberry App!

Some notable features are:

• Configure and manage multiple blogs
• Create and edit posts
• Create and edit categories
• Create and edit tags
• Easily add photos
• Easily add or moderate comments
• Comment notification

If you get a chance to check it out, please let us know your experience in the comments below. Also, if you’ve tried the iPhone version and now are trying the Android version, we’d love to hear your comparisons.

Below is a video introduction of the official Android App for WordPress.

Download the WordPress for Android App!

I personally think it comes down to the amount of content you have and how well your site is already laid out. If it’s structurally sound I think a nicely developed mobile version will be appreciated by your customers. On the other hand if it hinders the users ability to see what’s most important on your site or prevents you from making money then it’s probably a bad idea.

As I mentioned earlier a site that’s well coded should work just as well on the iPhone, Droid, Nexus One or whatever smartphone you have, but is the screen size optimal for a full fledged website?

Please leave your comments below.

Late last week Premium WordPress developer ModThemes launched a completely redesigned site. According to the ModThemes blog the team had this to say about the redesign…

The redesign wasn’t merely done for cosmetic purposes, but most importantly to create a much cleaner, streamlined experience for our present and future customers. We wanted it to be much easier to navigate the site and find exactly what you’re looking for. To make this happen we reorganized and removed a lot of the clutter and put more focus on WordPress how to’s, themes and our incredible theme support.

Besides the redesign we’ve also been hard at work on some exciting, new themes that will be rolled out in the coming weeks. We currently offer 5 beautiful, easy to modify, premium WordPress themes and will be soon releasing three more. The first one will be perfect for tech bloggers and will feature a tabbed featured section, video and advertising sections, easy to modify widgetized sidebar and an extremely versatile layout/color scheme for easy modification. The other two will be a photography based theme and e-commerce styled theme.

ModThemes are professional and stylish premium WordPress themes and include the following features…

• Backend Options page
• Easy to follow/modify code
• XHTML/CSS Compliant
• Cross browser compatible
• PSD files included
• Integrated ad space sections
• Integrated social media buttons
• Threaded comments with Gravatars
• Widget ready
• Localized themes
• HD video theme tutorials
• Support forums
• Professional theme customization
• SEO optimized

ModThemes Premium WordPress Themes –> Learn More

Some benefits of using Genesis are…

• Child themes built on the core parent framework of Genesis
• Child theme market place
• Multiple layout options
• BuddyPress add-ons
• Security
• Numerous custom widgets
• SEO optimized

Review the StudioPress Genesis Theme Framework and take it for a test drive. Or browse other StudioPress WordPress themes.

Genesis Theme Framework

Executive Child Theme

Mocha Child Theme

Platinum Child Theme

Review the StudioPress Genesis Theme Framework and take it for a test drive. Or browse other StudioPress WordPress themes.

StudioPress Genesis Theme Framework –> Learn More

StudioPress WordPress Themes –> View All Themes

ModThemes has recently announced the release of their Spades Poker Theme which focuses on the poker/casino gambling affiliate, but can be modified and used for any industry.

Some notable features are…

• Theme Options Page for easy configuration
• Integrated Total Social Widget
• Custom Twitter Widget
• Custom Affiliate Widget
• Integrated ad space sections
• Multi-Level Dropdown Page Menu
• Threaded comments with Gravatars
• Widget ready sidebars
• HD Video Theme Tutorials
• 24 Hour Support Forums

Spades Poker Theme Options Page

Spades Poker Theme Widgets Options Page

Review the ModThemes Spades Poker Theme and take it for a test drive. Or browse other ModThemes WordPress themes.

Brian Gardner has just announced the re-release of his original Revolution Magazine theme, although with many enhancements to bring it up to par with his other StudioPress offerings.

New in this 1.0 release are…

• An extensive theme options page shown below
• Tabber section
• Auto sized thumbnails
• Support for language localization
• Sidebar enews and updates section can be turned on/off in options
• Overall updated sleek, web 2.0 look with navigation drop down menus

StudioPress Magazine Theme 1.0 Options Page

Review the Studio Press Magazine theme and take it for a test drive. Or browse other StudioPress WordPress themes by Brian Gardner.

First and foremost, try not to use too many plugins. What I mean by “too many” is dozens and dozens. The reason being that not all plugin developers support their plugins or even update them regularly so using a small number of integral ones is probably a better choice. This is especially true since WordPress is constantly upgrading and some plugin developers may not be very quick in updating their plugins. The less plugins you have, the less problems you’ll run into down the road when upgrading your WordPress install.

Below I have compiled a list of 10 of what I think are “Must Have” WordPress plugins for anyone starting or even currently using a WordPress self hosted blog/site.

Note: Most if not all of the following plugins are available on the official WordPress plugin directory, updated frequently and supported by their respective developers.

1. WordPress Database Backup
You have to keep your site backed up! That’s just a no brainer. Unfortunately most people get lazy or simply forget. This can be a nightmare if your site unfortunately ever gets hacked or even if you happen to be drunk at 3AM working on your site and accidentally delete half your posts. WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables along with other tables in the same database. This plugin makes it extremely easy to back up directly to your computer, via email or even to a folder on your server. Note: You should also make sure to back up all your theme files regularly as well.

2. WP-SpamFree
An extremely powerful WordPress anti-spam plugin that eliminates blog comment spam, including trackback and pingback spam by using a dynamic combo of JavaScript and cookies to weed out the humans from spambots, preventing over 99% of automated spam from ever getting to your comments section. Another nice feature is this doesn’t rely on an annoying CATPCHA or challenge question. Super easy to install and will save you tons of headaches in the long run.

3. WP Security Scan
Scans your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions. Work for everything from passwords, file permissions, database security, intrusion protection, auto hides your WP version, helps with WP admin security and removes WP meta tags from core among others. For me this plugin was most helpful in determining the proper file permissions I should have and is a must have for anyone looking to lock down their WordPress install.

4. WP Super Cache
This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts, thus helping your server cope with the “Digg Effect” or any other social networking site one of your posts might jump to the front page of.

5. All In One SEO
This plugin helps optimize your WordPress blog/site for the use of search engine optimization otherwise know as SEO. This is a must have for anyone looking to gain traffic through search engines like Google. It allows you to optimize backend settings to get the most out of your posts, but also allows you to add specific titles, descriptions and keywords to each of your posts/pages. It also helps stop duplicate content from appearing on your site by allowing you to turn off indexing of archive pages etc…

6. Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will create a XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog for Google, Ask.com, Yahoo and Bing. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol are notified about the update. This plugin makes it extremely easy for search engines to index your site and get deep into inner pages. It’s a must have for helping improve your search engine rankings and indexing.

7. Analytics360 w/ MailChimp
This plugin which is extremely easy to setup allows you to pull Google Analytics and MailChimp (newsletter) data directly into your dashboard, so you can access robust analytics tools without ever leaving WordPress. This plugin makes it extremely easy to check traffic stats, growth and your top referrers. It also integrates stats for MailChimp newsletter data. I’ve only played with the newsletter feature a little, but it seems to be right up there with aWeber with a much more intuitive interface. Note: You will need to sign up for a free Google Analytics account prior to using it.

8. Feedburner Feed Replacement
The plugin will detect all ways to access your feed and redirect them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for your main posts feed and optionally, your main comments feed as well. Google which now owns this plugin says it’s supported up to WP 2.5, but I haven’t seen any issues with it using later versions. If someone could chime in with any recent news on this plugin working with the latest WordPress installs I would greatly appreciate it.

9. Breadcrumb Navigation
This plugin generates locational breadcrumb trails for your WordPress blog so it’s easy to follow which page you’re currently on and get back to another page easily. This site currently uses this plugin and can easily be demonstrated as you click through the WP Theme Store. Making your site easily navigated is a must and will bring readers back again and again if they know they can easily find the content they want.

10. Social Bookmarking
This example is quite general as there are many, many social bookmarking plugins. I’d highly suggest you find the one that best fits the design of your site and will currently just link above to the search results on the plugin directory. Most do the same thing in the end so finding the one that best fits your look, but more importantly allows your visitors to easily share your posts/pages across sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious with the click of a button. Most tend to put these at the end of their posts/pages.

Ok, so now you have a domain picked out, WordPress installed on your hosting account and all the necessary 3rd party plugins to help take your blog big time. Now get into the WordPress Theme Store Shop and find yourself the perfect premium theme to modify.

Also, please feel free to suggest any plugins you love using and couldn’t live without in the comments section below.

Now let me start out by saying whatever the reasoning is it shouldn’t really matter as WordPress.org is doing a huge favor to these developers by adding a section for them. This is especially true considering WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg has recently (around Christmas I believe) stated he didn’t like the term “Premium Themes” cause it placed other free themes in the directory as less of a product, but as we all know he couldn’t have actually thought that if he’d ever looked at the themes in the free repository. Although they’ve gotten much better over the last couple years, the free directory is still somewhat of a joke especially when one can purchase a premium theme for around $60 that is fully supported and easily modify it to fit their needs and look completely different than anyone else who’s purchased the same theme.

What has bothered me a bit is the reasons given for going GPL. While it should really matter and doesn’t in the long run anyone who knows the WordPress industry knows the reasons given are generally not actually the real reasons and are somewhat misleading to the average end user. In the end though the average premium theme customer doesn’t really care about the GPL or even know what it is as I’ve Tweeted many times before.

What bothers me even more though are the users that almost demand and go after theme developers about how their themes aren’t really “true GPL” cause they’re not 100% free. Well you know what? That’s crap! These guys are doing this as a business and WordPress even went out of their way to clarify this recently and stated that…

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

All GPL means is that you’re giving the same rights to your customers as you have. Plain and simple. I guess I’ve just never understood how some people can have the audacity to demand you provide them with free work. I’d love to demand they do their job for free and see how they like it. These developers are working extremely hard to provide good clean code with advanced options and awesome support forums and communities for easy modifications. Weather they charge you for the theme or for the support is irrelevant as you’re already getting a superior product compared to the free theme repository.

Let me also clarify this post isn’t to bash anyone either as I have total respect for all these guys and am personal friends with a couple of them, but my point was to just say although many developers do want to contribute to the community… the reasons given publicly probably aren’t as simple as they seem and that’s ok as these guys have families to feed, employees salaries and affiliates (like myself) to pay.

My personal opinion is that being on the GPL bandwagon or not is irrelevant considering people generally just want a theme they’re going to use once on their one or two blogs and change up every year or so. Also the thieves are going to rip off the themes anyways within a day or so of it being available. Look, if the movie and music industry can’t stop it, WordPress theme developers sure aren’t going to stop it. Those aren’t their customer base anyways as those people weren’t going to pay in the first place. Plus their not going to get the theme supported which is a huge draw to these themes.

In the end I don’t think being GPL compliant really matters except for the fact that WordPress itself won’t offer their blessing and list the theme series on the commercial directory. No one wants to be the odd guy out, but if you happen to not want to go the GPL route we’ll always list your theme series here at WP Theme Store wether you’re GPL compliant or not. While we don’t have even 1% of the clout WordPress.org has, we make up for it with detailed information and hopefully soon a growing community of premium theme users that will offer reviews/rankings of previously purchased themes and offer an alternative to the general commercial theme directory for bloggers and site owners looking for the perfect WordPress theme which in the end is exactly what premium theme developers/designers are doing for their customers… offering them an alternative to the free, unsupported theme directory with better products, services and an overall superior experience.

Visit the following link to learn more about WordPress and the GPL.