WordPress version 2.9 “Carmen” named in honor of magical jazz vocalist Carmen McRae is available for download. I will soon check and make required changes for all my themes.

New Major Features

• “Trash” feature, if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back, just like your OS.
• Built-in image editor that allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images.
• Batch plugin update and compatibility checking which means you can update 10 plugins at once
• Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code.
• Custom post types so you can juggle more types than just post, page, and attachment.
• Sidebars can now have descriptions so it’s more obvious what and where they do what they do.
• Automatic database optimization support, which you can enable in your wp-config.php file by adding define(‘WP_ALLOW_REPAIR’, true);.
• Rel=canonical support for better SEO. What is rel=”canonical”?
• Themes can register “post thumbnails” which allow them to attach an image to the post.
• When you’re editing files in the theme and plugin editors it remembers your location and takes you back to that line after you save.

More Info & Links

• Video and full list of new features in WordPress 2.9 @ Official Dev Blog
• Download WordPress 2.9