WordPress 3.6 makes your writing experience even better.

The latest and greatest WordPress, version 3.6, is now live to the world and includes a beautiful new blog-centric theme, bullet-proof autosave and post locking, a revamped revision browser, native support for audio and video embeds, and improved integrations with Spotify, Rdio, and SoundCloud.

Write with Confidence

Explore Revisions

It’s easy to compare two revisions from any point in time, and to restore a revision and go back to writing. Now you can be confident that no mistake is permanent.From the first word you write, WordPress saves every change. Each revision is always at your fingertips. Text is highlighted as you scroll through revisions at lightning speed, so you can see what changes have been made along the way.

New Revisions Comparison Interface

You can drag the slider back and forth to easily see what was added (green) or removed (red).

Improved Autosaves

Never lose a word you’ve written. Autosaving is now even better; whether your power goes out, your browser crashes, or you lose your internet connection, your content is safe.

Better Post Locking

Always know who’s editing with live updates that appear in the list of posts. And if someone leaves for lunch with a post open, you can take over where they left off.

Support for Audio and Video

New Media Player

Share your audio and video with the new built-in HTML5 media player. Upload files using the media manager and embed them in your posts.

Embed Music from Spotify, Rdio, and SoundCloud

Embed songs and albums from your favorite artists, or playlists you’ve mixed yourself. It’s as simple as pasting a URL into a post on its own line.

[wpvideo UmhwbWJH]

(Love another service? Check out all of the embeds that WordPress supports.)

Under the Hood

Audio/Video API

The new audio/video APIs give developers access to powerful media metadata, like ID3 tags.

Semantic Markup

Themes can now choose improved HTML5 markup for comment forms, search forms, and comment lists.

JavaScript Utilities

Handy JavaScript utilities ease common tasks like Ajax requests, templating, and Backbone view management.

Shortcode Improvements

Search content for shortcodes withhas_shortcode() and adjust shortcode attributes with a new filter.

Revision Control

Fine-grained revision controls allow you to keep a different number of revisions for each post type.

External Libraries

New and updated libraries: MediaElement.js, jQuery 1.10.2, jQuery UI 1.10.3, jQuery Migrate, Backbone 1.0.

From the WordPress Codex, here’s their more detailed hightlights:

Highlights

  • Admin Enhancements
    • Menus UI improvements
    • Revisions revised to be more dynamic and scalable
    • Autosave and Post Locking
    • Preview Audio and Video on Media Edit Screen
    • In-line login following expired sessions
  • For Developers
    • External Libraries have been updated. More Info
    • New audio/video APIs give developers access to powerful media metadata, like ID3 tags.
    • Filters for revisions, allowing you to set the number of revisions ad hoc instead of only via a define. More Info
    • Semantic Markup allows themes to chose improved HTML5 markup for comment forms, search forms, and comment lists.
    • Search content for shortcodes with has_shortcode() and adjust shortcode attributes with a new filter.

Along with tons of bug fixes, some highlighted here:

Bug Fixes

  • Strip slashes from passwords sent to new users by email
  • Make sure the url returned by post_preview() is filterable with preview_post_link
  • Fix handling of ‘0’ as meta_value argument in get_pages()
  • Correctly print ‘after’ data when scripts are concatenated in WP_Styles class
  • Properly truncate UTF-8 post slugs in wp_unique_post_slug()
  • Avoid PHP notices in Media Library if an attachment parent does not exist
  • Fix some tabbing issues on the post editing screen
  • Avoid notice by checking for user agent in wp_new_comment()
  • Avoid notice in parent_dropdown() by checking if post exists before testing post id
  • Prevent an unintended visibility change from “Password protected” to “Public” when updating the post
  • Avoid a warning in mb_internal_encoding by making sure we have a charset first
  • Fix unnecessarily persistent “pending email change” admin message
  • Ensure we strictly compare ‘all options’ and ‘not options’ when protecting these special options
  • Make sure to reset the modal after gallery insertion
  • Add sanity checks on image metadata to avoid warnings
  • Avoid an undefined index notice in get_post_type_archive_feed_link()
  • Avoid notices when array args are missing in WP_Image_Editor::multi_resize()
  • Fix notice in wp_generate_attachment_metadata()
  • Avoid PHP notices when deleting or restoring an item that no longer exists

That’s not all the changes, either… there are a total of over over 700 issues closed out in their tracking system with this release. Go ahead and back up your database, then upgrade now, then test your plugins and make sure there are no issues. If you run into any issues, reach out to me on Twitter using @WebWizards for some guidance.