It has been about two weeks since I upgraded my blog to WordPress 2.5. The new version (which was delayed for about one week) brings many changes, most of them in the backend (administration panel). These changes, which change the blogger’s experience when he admins his blog, offer a faster, and more organized admin panel. WordPress 2.5 could have been released as version 3.0 for sure.

The new admin panel is more friendly than the old one (as soon as you get used to it). Anything that is about the frontend of your blog (write, manage, comments, design) is on the upper left corner, and anything that has to do with the backend (settings, plugins, users) is on the upper right.

The new dashboard is well organised. Page elements are divided into small “widgets”, which inform you about incoming links, recent comments, WordPress news feed and recommended plugins. AJAX is used in every edge of the new dashboard, making comments’ moderation, editing and saving faster and more entertaining.

The WYSIWYG editor, Tiny MCE 3.0 offers permalink editing option and autosave seems to work nicer. There is no “Save & continue” editing button in the new editor. This button is divided to: “Save” button and “Publish” button, which makes the operation cleaner. Last but not least is the “Toggle Full Screen” button of the new editor, which lets you write your post in full screen mode, like editing a document in MS Word. Photo and media can be added easier and photo galleries can now be created without using external plugins.

The biggest surprise though comes when you access the plugins page in the new WordPress 2.5. Plugins can now be automatically updated with a single click, without using FTP access to your server. You just provide the FTP access information (username, password) to your WordPress installation and if a plugin is outdated, you click “Upgrade automatically” and WordPress automatically replaces the older version with the newer one.

WP 2.5 offers also many security enhancements (Technorati will stop crawling WP blogs that use WP 2.3.2 or older). If you want to further secure your blog, you can edit your wp-confing.php file and add one more constant called SECRET_KEY and use the unique key that Wordress.org will provide to you. More info on that here. It is also recommended to upgrade to version 2.5.1 as it fixes a critical security issue, especially if you use the open registration mode in your blog.

In general WordPress 2.5 is a milestone, a great upgrade, which makes blog’s administration much easier and faster as long as you get used to it. Remember to check plugins and themes compatibility before upgrading! Simpla widgetized theme works great with WP 2.5

Microsoft Mobile Memory 8000 mouse is a pointing device designed for notebook users (I purchased it for my notebook as I dislike touchpads ). This mouse features also 1GB flash memory, which can be used as a usual portable flash drive. Apart from this, this device features a rechargeable NiMh battery, so you do not need to carry extra batteries.

As you see on the image above, the pack contains the pointing device, the reciever which is also a 1GB usb flash drive, a magnetic cable which is used for charging your battery, a case for carrying the mouse and a poor leaflet with instructions on how to install the mouse alongside with the IntelliPoint driver cd.

Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 can be connected to your notebook via Bluetooth if your notebook supports it. If you choose to connect it via bluetooth, you do not have to plug the transceiver, so you have one more free usb port on your notebook. Changing interface between 2.4Ghz and bluetooth can be easily done via a button on mouse’s bottom. A button for turning the device on and off is also located there.

Charging the mouse is really easy. There is a led light near the tilt wheel: if the led glows red, it needs to be charged. You have to plug the magnetic cable to the transceiver and to the mouse. When the cable is connected, the indicator light becomes green and solid green when its fully charged (needs up to 5 hours for a full charge). You can continue using the mouse while it is charging, but the computer must not be on hibernate mode or turned off.

Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 uses laser technology. The pointer is accurate enough and well responsive. IntelliPoint software lets you customise buttons’ behaviour and point speed. If you would like to use the mouse under Windows Vista and want the tilt wheel to support Flip 3D function, you have to update IntelliPoint to version 6.2 (the mouse is shipped with version 6.1). Tilt wheel features 4-way scrolling and there are also two customisable buttons on the right which by default are used as “back button” and magnifier.

The device’s design is great. Touch feeling is nice, solid and very ergonomical even for people with big hands. Although the mouse is small and lightweight, so it can be carried easily using the included carrying case. The transceiver is bigger than many others in the market, but is as big as a usual usb flash drive.

Overall
Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 is an elegant device, with nice design, easy-to-carry which features also 1GB flash memory built in the transceiver. To pros should be considered that it can be charged straight from notebook by connecting the transceiver with the mouse via the magnetic cable without stopping working or having to change battery every so. Its package should be considered full, although its price is high (€ 98 here in Greece).