WordPress have given some initial details of the plans for WordPress 3.2.

Rather than adding lots of new features, this release is going to concentrate on speed improvements and restricting the WordPress minimum requirements (this will allow existing code to be removed and will make adding code in future easier).

The requirements changing are…

• PHP 5.2.4 required – WordPress will simply be dropping support for PHP 4 (i.e. there won’t be very many new PHP 5 features added)
• MySQL 5 Required – like above, WordPress will simply be dropping support for MySQL 4
• Internet Explorer 6 – no more fancy IE6-only hacks. WordPress will be officially discontinuing support for IE6 and instead providing a “use a real browser” nag screen (something this site already has installed)

With support for long-outdated technologies being dropped, they promise this will be the fastest and lightest WordPress in quite some time. To this end they will also be focussing on speed improvements all around, including (but certainly not limited to) the Dashboard and admin menu.

Two further announced changes are…

• New Fullscreen Editor -  a new fullscreen editor that’s “more beautiful, more useful, and simpler.”
• Better Upgrades – only changed files will be upgraded in future. Yay!

WordPress have also promised faster release cycles in future (concentrating on what’s promised and not adding further changes later on).

Certainly, I’m excited by this

Wazala, a startup in the e-commerce business, has launched a new feature – Wazala Touch. This automatically enables a mobile phone optimised shopping experience on iPhone andAndroid handsets (without the need of any downloads to get it to work!). This features costs no more and is now integrated into their standard e-commerce package.

Wazala is designed to integrate with an existing site. You simply need to add some kind of “shop” button to your site and then, without leaving your site, they can easily purchase items.

Here’s a good example. Visit the Silkfactory website. If you move your cursor to the top right a shopping basket drop-down will appear. This has been added to the site automatically via Wazala. Now click on their “Online Shop” option. A window superimposes over the top where you can shop and purchase your goods (and it integrates perfectly with providers such as PayPal and Google Checkout). It’s really well done and is a superb solution to adding e-commerce to an existing site.

With prices starting at $9.99 a month for small businesses, this seems an ideal solution.

Not yet convinced? Try their own demo store, their sample stores or read their “buzz”. To try out Wazala Touch, try their aforementioned demo store on your phone!

Today I’ve released minor updates for 3 WordPress plugins – Flu Pandemic Level, Simple Twitter Data and Simple URL Shortener.

This is to fix a bug in the file fetching routine which may cause it to fail for some users.