To be clear: WordPress itself was not hacked and no user information was compromised. With that said, customers with self-hosted WordPress.org sites were unaffected.

Still confused/curious? Automattic has posted a handy little document/FAQ right over here.

Via: TechCrunch

Tough note to communicate today: Automattic had a low-level (root) break-in to several of our servers, and potentially anything on those servers could have been revealed.

We have been diligently reviewing logs and records about the break-in to determine the extent of the information exposed, and re-securing avenues used to gain access. We presume our source code was exposed and copied. While much of our code is Open Source, there are sensitive bits of our and our partners’ code. Beyond that, however, it appears information disclosed was limited.

Based on what we’ve found, we don’t have any specific suggestions for our users beyond reiterating these security fundamentals:

• Use a strong password, meaning something random with numbers and punctuation.

• Use different passwords for different sites.

• If you have used the same password on different sites, switch it to something more secure.

(Tools like 1Password, LastPass, and KeePass make it easy to keep track of different unique logins.)

Our investigation into this matter is ongoing and will take time to complete. As I said above, we’ve taken comprehensive steps to prevent an incident like this from occurring again. If you have any questions or concerns, please leave a comment below or contact our support.

While we here at Gadgetsteria make use of the WordPress platform, ours is self-hosted. That doesn’t completely exempt us or other self-hosted WordPress blogs from the security breach, however. All WordPress.com and WordPress.org users obviously need to use common sense, change passwords if need be, and roll with the punches.

We’ll keep you updated as the WordPress team provides details regarding the breach…

Via: The Inquirer, Sophos

Hopefully the WP7 version works better than the current iOS WordPress app (hint: it’s garbage). Any WP7 users care to chime in with your experience?

Via: RedmondPie

However minor, updates are always a welcome event. Hop inside for the full, detailed list of WordPress 2.6.2 for iOS updates…

Wordpress 2.6.2 bug fixes in detail:

• Added option to use HTML 4 tags when embedding video in a post.

• Added in-app crash reporting system.

• Improved HTML output for media uploads.

• Improved UX when adding WordPress.org blogs.

• Improved handling of XML-RPC endpoints for WordPress.org blogs.

• Fix for intermittent failures when uploading media.

• Fix for crash when editing WordPress.org blog settings.

• Fix for crash during Autosave check after publish.

• Fix for problems connecting to WordPress.org blogs using HTTP Auth.

• Fix for sync issues when viewing posts.

• Fix for incorrect date/time on publish.

• Fix for landscape orientation issue when editing posts.

Now how about some more TLC to how photo uploads and placement is handled?

Via: Macgadget

Video

LaughingSquid > WordPress Blog]

[Image Source

Well, there are many ways in fact. Perhaps the more common options people are familiar with include Yahoo’s Babblefish and Google Translate. Both are machine based translation services that are free of charge and generally “ok” when accuracy is concerned. (Google Voice translations…need I say more…?) But for the sake of today’s featured article, we’re going to look at New York based company, “SpeakLike” and their robust, human-based translation service.

Besides keeping the lights on, why charge? Simple — it’s community driven. As the description highlights, the translation services provided by SpeakLike are the fruits of labor spanning thousands of actual human bodies. Anyone can become a translator by pointing their browser over here. Again, it won’t be enough to live off of, but that’s not the point. Think of it as added compensation for doing something you may find enjoyable.

Employee compensation and other things aren’t what really matters though. What really takes the cake is how the service works. And….? I’ve only had the plugin installed for a little over an hour so I’ll have to update after I have a good solid few days to play with the plugin. SpeakLike CEO, Sanford Cohen, was kind enough to give me some extra credits to allow me to further test SpeakLight for everyone here. My initial impressions are positive so far. The WordPress setup was a breeze. With 35 supported languages as of writing, a pretty large swath of the planet’s population is covered. Not a small feat by any means. Again, we have to stress that SpeakLike isn’t as instantaneous as machine based “real-time” methods, it is more than adequte considering it is a real human doing all the grunt work work. Anything from 24-hours up to mere minutes are available for users — see, impressive for us mere mortals. And, because real humans are behind the translation process, users can expect rock solid, quick, (and common sense filled) translations. For those in a hurry, there’s help there too via traditional machine-based translation services as well, just for when those precious seconds just can’t be wasted on waiting.

Some may be worried about the delay in translations. It’s a valid concern really. Sometimes a delay, if even for a few minutes just won’t do. It’s those times when machine based translations services do really shine. But if you’ve got a few, striking it up with a living, breathing body — for now — just cannot be beaten by any machine.

**For those on the go, be sure to check out SpeakLike’s Photo Translator. Simply snap a picture of some text, click a few virtual buttons, and boom — translations on the go!

Stay tuned as I test out SpeakLike for WordPress. I encourage SpeakLike users to also give me feedback as how to get the most out of the service.

***Interesting Factoid: (You know, being a gadget blog and all), SpeakLike CEO Sanford Cohen’s favorite gadget at the moment is his trusty iPhone 3G.

SpeakLike on Twitter
SpeakLike Website

The official WordPress Android app that we’ve talked about a couple of times before is finally available in the Android Market for FREE! So how does it stack up? I’ve been using it for all of 20 minutes so far. I’ll need a little bit longer to get a better impression. But the feature set is respectable: write/edit blog posts, moderate/reply to comments, new comment notifications, and multiple blog support.

An interesting little factoid: WordPress for Android is built off of the source code for wp2go so fundamentally it isn’t too far removed. The developers have tweaked a few things and sped up the app a bit though. A fresh coat of UI polish has also been added so it’s not the same exact thing in case you were worried. If you are still worried, give the video below a few minutes of your time.

The big zingers here for me are the multiple blog support and new comment notification features. Head on over to the Android Market and let us know what your favorite (or not so favorite) features are. Aaaaannnnd GO!

Video

Unwired

A post today on IntoMobile highlights a link located at android.wordpress.org/ that supposedly leads to the Android support/info page at WordPress.com. This support page would obviously document an Android app of some sort. Only problem is, an Android WordPress app hasn’t been announced yet.

Since the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms already have an official WordPress app, it would only make sense for Android to join in on th e party. I for one am extremely excited seeing as how Gadgetsteria is run off of WordPress. Since picking up my Droid back in November, I’ve been using WPToGo to get all of my mobile blogging/comment moderation done while on the go. It is far from perfect and frustrating at times but there’s no doubt it’s highly useful.

With all of that said, the android.wordpress.org link may cause many to believe that an Android WordPress app is imminent. I can’t blame you. The same link style appeared right before the iPhone and BlackBerry versions went live as well. However, after skimming through the comments at IntoMobile, another blogger by the name of Andrew pointed out that he touched on this whole WordPress/Android love fest back in October at his site ChangingWay. There he highlights how even several months back, the same link was “live”, though still protected, proving something is going on behind the scenes for Android.

Further adding fuel to the speculative fire, in an older video of Sony’s Xperia X10 a WordPress App for Android can clearly be seen in the app drawer (left). Granted it could very well be a place holder and void of any real meaning. I mean, the video in which the screen grab was captured from originates way back from July of ’09. Clearly they’re either having problems with bugs/development or they are developing one hell of an application.

WordPress for Android has to be coming at some point. Do you think Google is lining up a big WordPress app/announcement to accompany the Nexus One announcement or at the very least, use CES as the birthplace? Or are all of these signs mere coincidental?

I for one am crossing my fingers. I’m finding myself spending an increasing amount of time on WPToGo on my Droid. Can WordPress make a functional and worthwhile mobile app for Android?

IntoMobile > BlogHerald

Within the last several years, blogging has gone from a simple geeky thing enjoyed by tech journalists and gadget nerds to something that many people from all walks of life can partake in. Even more recently, with the explosion of smartphone usage, mobile blogging has started a sort of “rebirth” for the whole blogging scene since you can now take yourself and your blog on the road, expanding possibilities.

For iPhone users, there are several blogging apps each with their own pro’s and con’s. Since I run WordPress, my natural choice was the WordPress iPhone app. The first version was pretty good though was missing several features and abilities that just left it rather “meh” for me. Even other options I tried just weren’t quite working for my tastes so I just settled that for now, my mobile blogging experience would always rate a 3/5. Thankfully the WordPress team has come back to answer many complaints and requests with the first version of the app with version 2.0.

What you’ll immediately notice is you won’t be prompted for an update to your existing 1.0 WordPress application. Since it’s an entirely different app, you’re going to have to manually search for it. 2.0 brings a completely revamped UI so that managing your WordPress blog is easier, more intuitive, and faster. It’s worth mentioning that previous issues with self-hosted WordPress blogs have been cleared up with 2.0 so that both WordPress.com and WordPress.org (WordPress 2.7+ required) blogs operate seamlessly while on the go.

One big gripe I had with the original app is that it actually crashed fairly often for me. And of course, the timing was never perfect as it would choke and die right in the middle of post taking everything I had written so far with it. Why didn’t I stop and save? You know how it is — getting in the zone when writing can make you oblivious to pretty much everything else. The WordPress developers have responded with a new auto-save/restore feature that will prevent such losses when an app crash presents itself or your network connection vanishes. Whew!

Other notable features that add to the overall tweaked aesthetic appeal include commenter gravatars and re-worked listing display of posts/comments/pages. Overall, it’s more polished and looks nice. Another nifty tidbit that slipped in this update includes custom XML-RPC endpoints (Google it).

For the negatives, there really isn’t anything I’ve found yet save for the inability to directly reply to comments from with the comments screen. This omission is highly annoying and I was hoping it would have been remedied in the 2.0 release. Looks like we’re waiting until 3.0. Now before you flame me, it is possible to replay to comments, though it isn’t as intuitive as one would think. Instead of navigating to “Comments” -> select comment to reply to -> “push reply”, you instead of have to go to the actual post’s edit mode, and then write your replies to comments from there. Again, not intuitive. And as we speak, I just fired up the up after closing it and now I’m sitting staring at the “Blogs” page that simply lists the blogs I have synced with the app. Clicking on Gadgetsteria does nothing. Stay tuned on that one…

Wrapping up, WordPress 2.0 is a big update over it’s predecessor. Regardless if you have the first one or not, you need this one. Give it a shot and let us know how you like it.

After spending a good half hour with the new version, I can honestly say it is a very worth update that anyone and everyone use 1.0 should download.

Mobile bloggers and CrackBerry aficionados take note, the WordPress BlackBerry app has been updated to version 0.9.0.175 *correction* 0.9.0.157. Besides a new set of numbers, users can now enjoy:

• Custom field support

• Ability to write and post excerpts

• Support for comment replies

• Gravatar support

• Open comment list for a specific post

• Open URL of author in BB browser

• Added support for French and Italian languages

Overall a welcome update for sure. I know the ability to reply to comments on the go is a big plus in my book. If you’re currently rockin’ an older version of WordPress for BlackBerry, you should be prompted to upgrade. If the upgrade prompt is eluding you or you simply haven’t taken the plunge yet, you can pick up the new beta version at http://blackberry.wordpress.org/install. Enjoy!

• Download WordPress for BlackBerry version 0.9.0.157 now

• Improved response time and UI navigation slugishness

• Removed photo manipulation options in app (already available in camera app)

• Local drafts bug fixes

• Prompt added when clicking back button after composing/editing post

• Category bug fixes

• Fixed issue with private posts not being published correctly

While the aforementioned features are great and all, the best part is that the WordPress team is working with RIM to include BIS-B support. So far the team involved with this app is making steady headway. Hopefully in the final incarnation it turns out to be a very compelling and worthwhile app. For those of you who have already upgraded, how’s it going for you?

Source: Berry Review, Image Source

Source: Berry Review, Image Source

While many of you out there either don’t have a WordPress blog or care in the world to even start one, there may be several of you fine individuals out there who are looking to dip their toes into this whole blogging thing.  Besides the obvious and more often talked about domain names, server hosts, etc., the biggest question you need to ask yourself is: “What are you going to blog about?”  Picking a too general or too specific topic/genre will hamper your ability to grow and attract readers.  We’ll assume you’ve already made it through the whole “finding yourself” stage as well as server set up and the other beginning set up junk.  For this post we’ll focus on how to actually write an article.  Unleash the writer within…

Writing a post in WordPress is actually quite easy and doesn’t require the amount of brain surgery and rocket science that some may thing.  Using various pictures with scraggily traced red outlines as well as some text here and there, I’ll give you a quick, simple, and easy how-to on how to write articles using WordPress.  It is worth noting that since you are reading this article, chances are you aren’t very strong yet in your WordPress skills and/or HTML.  If that is the case, I highly suggest avoiding going into HTML view (though you can always toggle into it to see what your articles really look like under the pretty face that everyone normally sees.  Being able to edit the raw HTML of an article gives the author more creative freedom as while WYSIWYG editors are always nice and convenient, they aren’t always perfect, sometime requiring a bit of tinkering and tweaking underneath the hood.

1.  Creating a new post:

On the top left of the WordPress Dashboard, click on “Add New”.  Upon clicking on Add New, a new page will be loaded featuring blank text boxes, tag/category fields, as well as optional fields for excerpts and other custom fields.

• Publishing options and Text Formatting

After choosing a title and filling the main body with some relevant text, choosing tags (search engine helpers) on the mid right can help your article stand out from the sea of endless articles.  You want a fighting chance don’t you?  Tags are separated by commas with no limit in the amount of tags in sight.  After choosing some tags, next up are categories.  Depending on how the author of a particular blog incorporates and uses categories, they often can come across looking much like tags.  In the case of this blog, I have given you choice.  You can find just about everything and anything by search at the top, the tag clouds located at the top and bottom of the sidebar, and also through categories.  Hey, I like it when you read.  I’m here to help.

Editing the text that you have created may seem like a chore but with a few selections and button clicks, your text can be transformed into whatever you little blogging heart desires.

The screen grab above shows a slew of buttons and options that may seem overwhelming.  In reality, most people will only use a few of these options.  Starting at the top left and moving left to right, top to bottom, we have the Upload/Insert buttons.  These four buttons, images, video, music, and media allow you to upload the respective content. (see screenshot below)  It’s again pretty straightforward really.  The second row contains more text oriented editing tools: bold, italics, strike through, unordered bulleted list, ordered bulleted list, paraphrase/quote/indented text, left/center/right justification, create hyper link, break hyperlink, create “more” break, toggle spellchecker on/off, toggle full screen mode on/off, and finally show/hide “kitchen sink”…a.k.a. – the 3rd row of icons.

Upload images from either your computer or pull images that you’ve already uploaded located in the gallery.

Row 3 brings with it (again from left to right): Predefined CSS font styles by way of a nifty drop down box.  Following the CSS font style picker, you have your standard underline, full align, quick text color picker, paste clipboard content as plain text, paste clipboard content as word doc, remove formatting, insert/embed media, insert custom character, indent left/right, undo/redo, and help.  Are you lost yet?

Finally, the fourth row pictured is actually a quick insertion plugin for various types of movies.  The plugin in question is Viper’s Quicktags Video Plugin.  As the icons suggest, clicking the YouTube icon will easily allow you to embed YouTube content etc.

• Excerpts, Custom Fileds

Depending on how the blog is set up, your articles will either post the full content or content excerpts.  If you do use excerpts, this is the place you add the little blurbs that will be shown instead of the full article.  The excerpt will of course link to the full articles.  One way to truly make WordPress your own is with the use of custom fields.  While custom fields can hold many different forms, functions, and uses, I have chosen to set up an “image” custom field that actually creates and places thumbnails.  The “value” field for such a custom field as “image” is simply the direct link of the image hosted online.

• Publishing Options

When it comes time to hit that big blue Publish button, take a second to really look over your options.  While WordPress automatically saves periodic drafts of articles in the case of a browser crash, power outage, etc., it is still a good idea especially with longer articles to go ahead and hit that save draft button to avoid any nasty issues later resulting in lost data after some sort crash/power outage.  The status of your article (before being published), will show as either draft or pending review depending on the users’ privileges on the blog.  Visibility is pretty self explanatory.  You can set any article to be fully viewable by the public, password protected for a select few, or completely private.  Why someone would choose completely private is beyond me.  I haven’t thought of a scenario in which I’d need it.  One particularly neat feature is the ability to give a post “sticky status”.  That is, a post that is “stickied to the front page” will stay at the vary top as long as the little sticky check box is checked with unstickied apps falling in place in normal order underneath the sticky article.

Finally, rounding out the list of publishing options,  you either choose to have your article published immediately upon the press of that big blue button, or, you can choose to schedule the post to go live on another date and time.  I have found that scheduling posts can be very helpful for times when you want to post content when away.  Good trick indeed.

This post was by no means the most in depth article on WordPress or how-tos concerning WordPress.  It is merely a quick little guide to get you and your articles going if you just need a quick reminder on how to use wordpress.   If you’ve gone through all of this and realize you’ve made a mistake on one of your previous, already posted articles, simply select “Edit” in the top left sidebar instead of “Add New”.  It’s that easy.

If you think I need add more to this how-to, call me out on it and let me know.  If you’d like to see more how-to’s either in regards to WordPress or simply other areas of techdom, shoot me an email and make a request and I’ll see what I can do.

WordPress users who have been dying for any form of mobile wordpress will be extremely excited to know that there is one coming. At Blackberry Word Camp in San Francisco, Matt Mullenweg let slip that the words:

New Blackberry app soon

Now I don’t know about you, but I translate that literally word for word as: “We’re working on one…It’s coming soon”. Wouldn’t you? I have the WordPress App for my iPhone and like it for the most part. However, it needs some big improvements concerning actual post creation. Blackberry/Wordpress users, are you excited?!

**Source: Berry Review