Oh it's seemed like it's been months and months – but the wait is finally over. The WordPress app for iPhone, iPod Touch devices running iOS if now available in the iTunes App Store.
In a way it has been months and months, since I am part of the beta team, and have worked with the folks at Automattic and other enthusiasts across the globe to get this new version ready and stable for general release.
Chris Boyd, the maestro behind all of the beta team efforts and the release cycle, posted on the WordPress iOS blog tonight the following update regarding the new features included with this release:
in summary
Video
With 2.6 you can now record, upload, attach, and play videos within the app. When paired with a VideoPress upgrade, this feature becomes an even more powerful way to publish videos from your iOS device to the web.
Local Drafts
We've completely rewrote the areas of the app that handle Local Draft posts and pages. We’re now using Apple’s Core Data technology to save posts locally before they’re published or saved online.
While that change alone will bring a new level of stability and reliability to the way Local Drafts are treated, we took it a step further and added some triple checking to determine if a post has truly been published and can safely be removed from your Local Drafts library. Once you publish a Local Draft, we do an additional call to verify that the ID we got back from the server during a publish actually exists as a post or page we can retrieve. Only after we’ve verified that your new post does indeed exist on the server do we go ahead and delete the old Local Draft. All of this happens in the background, within a second or two.
Autosaves
One of the nicest things about editing a post with WordPress is the autosave draft feature. If something happens and you need to revert to an older version of a post, you can just select a previous version and restore it without issue. We’ve implemented a similar feature in 2.6. When Autosave is enabled, while you’re working with a post, a small grey WordPress logo will appear in the bottom right-hand corner to let you know that autosaves exist for that post. Click the logo, and you’ll flip over to a screen that will allow you to restore the post from one of those autosaves.
Setup Process
We’ve completely rewritten the Add Blog/Setup Site area as well, allowing WordPress.com users a quick way to add their blogs, and giving WordPress.org users a faster, more streamlined experience when adding their sites.
Media Library
We’ve taken the old Photos tab and turned it into a new Media Library more along the lines of what you’re used to with WordPress. We’re now giving you additional information about media items such as dimensions and file size, as well as the ability to insert media items into a post above or below your content. Look for even more expansion in this area in coming releases.
Bugfixes and Enhancements
We think 2.6 includes enough bugfixes and performance enhancements that they deserve to be listed as a separate item. If you’d like to learn more about the bugs we’ve fixed or just keep up with our progress as we move along with each version, you can check out the Trac Timeline.
Also, from now on expect to see major releases more often, each followed by one or two small bugfix releases soon after. (We’ll be submitting 2.6.1 shortly.)
All that being said, I should mention as well that now this is a Universal App – so no more pixel stretching on the iPad.
Head over to the App Store here and get your free update.
You can follow the WordPress iOS team on Twitter @wordpressios and you can follow Chris Boyd @chrisboyddotnet (I'll throw in a Twitter plug for myself too…@jameshicks)
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