WordPress 3.3 "Sonny" now available

WordPress 3.3 code name "Sonny" final version is now available for download, as well as update either from Dashboard or through FTP clients. WordPress 3.3 contains several new features and improvements as listed in "What's new in WordPress 3.3" section.

Overview
WordPress is an open source CMS, often used as a blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plugin architecture and a templating system. Used by over 300 of the 10,000 biggest websites, WordPress is the most popular blog software in use today.

It was first released in May 2003 by Matt Mullenweg as a fork of b2/cafelog. As of September 2009, it was being used by 202 million websites worldwide.

Key Features
Here are some key features of WordPress:

• WordPress has a templating system, which includes widgets that can be rearranged without editing PHP or HTML code, as well as themes that can be installed and switched between. The PHP and HTML code in themes can also be edited for more advanced customizations. WordPress also features integrated link management; a search engine-friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to articles; and support for tagging of posts and articles.

• Automatic filters that provide for proper formatting and styling of text in articles (for example, converting regular quotes to smart quotes) are also included. WordPress also supports the Trackback and Pingback standards for displaying links to other sites that have themselves linked to a post or article. Finally, WordPress has a rich plugin architecture which allows users and developers to extend its functionality beyond the features that come as part of the base install.

• Native applications exist for Android, iPhone/iPod Touch, and BlackBerry which provide access to some of the features in the WordPress Admin panel and work with WordPress.com and many WordPress.org blogs.

Download WordPress
WordPress 3.3 is now available for download at the link below:

• Download WordPress 3.3 for Windows (.zip - 3.8 MB)

What's new in WordPress 3.3 (December 12, 2011)
This release contains the following new features and improvements:

• Drag and Drop Media Uploader.
• Admin bar and admin header combined as single toolbar Flyout Menus.
• Dashboard Welcome Area for each upgrade or new installation.
• New Features Pointers.
• Better co-editing with co-authors as there will not be any time lag in edit operation by different authors. This will reduce or chances of invalid locking.
• Thumblr Importer to import content from Thumblr.
• Don’t loose the widget settings even after switching back to old themes.
• jQuery 1.7.1 and jQuery UI 1.8.16.
• Improved Editor API.
• Improved performance for permalink structure with category as slug.
• Better support for iPad and other tablets with responsive screen.
• Find the complete changelog here..

The full list of changes that are in WordPress 3.3 is available in the change log.

System Requirements:
WordPress is designed to run on the following operating systems:

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista
• Windows XP
• Windows 2000
• Windows ME
• Windows NT
• Windows 98
• Windows 95

Additional requirements:

• PHP 5.2.4
• MySQL 5.0

Source: WordPress 3.3 “Sonny” now available