The first beta version of WordPress 2.6 has been released, you can download this version here. According to WordPress Trac Roadmap the final release of WordPress 2.6 should be released between 7th July 2008 and 14th July 2008.

Below are some of the things that are included in the next version of WordPress (2.6):

• Post Revisioning
• A “Press This” bookmarklet for tumblelog style quick posting
• Caching of static files with Gears for faster Admin page loads
• A new and improved image editing dialog that offers lots of control over the images in your posts
• Theme previewing as seen on WordPress.com
• Built-in word counting in the post editor
• The ability to disable remote publishing for the security conscious
• XML-RPC API for changing blog options
• Better SSL support for the Admin
• Hierarchy-aware paging in the Manage Pages and Manage Categories admin pages.
• The ability to relocate your content directory
• The ability to move wp-config.php out of your web root
• Drag-and-drop sortable galleries
• Customizable default avatars
• Bulk delete, activate, and deactivate for plugins
• Check box range selection with shift-click
• TinyMCE 3.1.0.1 with lots of bug fixes
• jQuery 1.2.6 with some nice performance improvements
• jQuery UI 1.5
• Lots of bug fixes and performance improvements

Can’t wait to see the 2.6 stable version so that I can use it for this blog.

Those of you that read the Blog at meebo or use the Meebo service – you would know that meebo just got a fresh new design for the meebo inside interface.

As meebo stated in their blog post,

• the background has been darkened to improve console and link readability.
• the new chrome uses fewer colors for faster loading (a section of the title-bar has 4 colors only).
• the new minimize, maximize, and close buttons are more streamlined so they don’t have too much that “click-me-now” feeling.
• the background, buttons and chrome colors all come from the same family of blues.
• icons have been reworked to use a consistent palette, so that no icon is more prominent than others.
• buttons have been updated to match the buttons introduced in the website redesign of a couple months ago.
• last but not least, new color schemes have been added: aqua, brown, carbon, red.

The day I saw this in my Preferences on Meebo Beta, It put a smile on my face! Why? Well to me, having the meebo interface how I want it to display is one of the Best Things that you can do!

For those that don’t like the flat skins.. There still are some of the Classic Skins on Meebo in your Preferences.

PS: David says that a new onyx design (v2) will be out in the near future – Stay Tuned to the Meebo Blog!

You probably have heard that Firefox is launching Version 3.0 tomorrow – and I was wondering, Are you downloading tomorrow?

Although I already have Firefox 3 RC 3, I will be upgrading to Firefox 3 tomorrow to help Firefox hit their world Record that they want! I’ve add a Download Day / Firefox 3 Badge to the sidebar. Did you know that I have optimized this blog for Firefox? Look at the Footer:

JoshB is proudly powered by WordPress / Feedburner and Optimized for Firefox | Designed by: Bob and Commenting by: Disqus.

So, are you downloading Firefox 3.0 tomorrow? Together we can make Mozilla make it to the world record book.

Besides the Firefox information in this blog post, I’d like to UPDATE you on how the finals are going. I started my Science final today and will probably finish it tomorrow, I will start/finish my Math final tomorrow and for the Social Studies one, I will start that tomorrow and finish it on Thursday.

Thanks for reading, I am looking forward to reading your comments below.

As you might notice, we’re missing some comments on the posts – I am working on getting them restored.

UPDATE: Comments have been restored.

We currently have a new theme called Green Love on the site along with a new commenting system – called Disqus. You can comment just as you would have with the other commenting, but this one has some extra features – I’ll post those later. I think this theme is much better than the other one was.

Not only with a new theme and new commenting, I’ve added a contact form to the Contact page and I’ve added an about Josh page with information about me and where you can find me on the web. Plus, if you go to a page that is not found, it forwards you back to the homepage – soon this will give you the most popular posts and most commented posts. The sidebar also has some changes with the new theme and things I’ve added – I’ve added the Pages, a Disqus sidebar box, Utterz Widget, MyBlogLog widget, a Call Me widget powered by Grandcentral and a Subscribe and Share icon.

I’ve got a contest for all of you now – You know how Google changes their logos for holidays? I’d like to do that as well, here! So, If you can create a background image (800 x 135 Pixels) and that must be the size of the image. Here is the current one. You can send the contest logos to me by sending an email to josh [at] buddes [dot] net. The holidays I would like to see contest logos for are Christmas, Birthday, Fourth of July, New Years, Halloween, Memorial day, Thanksgiving and Veterans day.

What do you think of my Blog’s new theme? Give me feedback via the contact form, twitter or Commenting with the new Commenting system powered by Disqus.

New Web and Pro Client Look - Now that we’re allowing hosts to allow Guest Participation / Block Guest Participation, We’ve added a new look to the clients to make it easier to work with the Hosting Process.

Screen Shots: Web Client | Pro Client

Request to Talk using the Phone - Are you just on the phone and have joined a TalkShoe Call? Dial *8 (*T) if you are muted and the host will unmute you at some point, if they wish.

Number of Participants - If you’ve seen some shows live on TalkShoe, you’ve probably realized it is telling you how many participants that show has On the Homepage and on the Live Now page.

Screen Shots: Homepage | Live Now Page

As Dave said in the blog post on TalkShoe, this is the most stable release on TalkShoe, yet.

This week’s new release has been our most stable ever (still not quite perfect – there are occasional streaming failures that we’re working to resolve)