The next release of WordPress has come early, about a month earlier than the projected timeline. It is a welcome upgrade, though, since it boasts a lot of new features, but not as heavy as 2.5 was. Current release is WordPress 2.6 beta 1. One of the notable features of 2.6 is the Google Gears implementation. Users will now have the ability to work offline when there is no Internet connection and will automatically synchronize the files that were changed once they are connected again. Geniosity.co.za has a better write-up of 2.6's new feature. There's also the Post Revisioning feature which allows you to go back to a previous revision of your entry if in case you digress too far away from the subject of your post and need to go back and review what you were actually trying to convey. This was something that made me think about the bandwidth and database space, that it may consume a lot of. But the developers commented that it won't really make a significant impact on the database and that it will only extend the auto-save feature. You can also preview themes before you actually use it. There were a lot of updates to make your install more secure, and tons more to enhance the user experience. I wasn't really expecting to be all this giddy waiting for 2.6 but after test-driving beta1, I just can't help it. Tentative date of release is July 14. Emphasis on tentative.