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The update for the popular iOS blogging app has been released on the App Store, with more than 180 enhancements and fixes.

The new version of WordPress for iOS, which includes an updated user interface and dozens of additional features, is now available on the App Store.

Version 3.1 of the app, dubbed its “biggest update ever,” was released on Wednesday.

The new app has 180 new features and fixes in total, according to the WordPress blog.

Among them are sliding sidebar panels, which have become a common feature in many iOS applications such as Facebook and Twitter, to take advantage of the larger iPad screen. Post formats, which allow the user to set the format and theme of the post, have also been added.

In addition, the update sees a host of features finally ported to the iPad, such as the WordPress.com Reader and Quick Photo uploading.

According to the WordPress for iOS blog, development on the app is continuing “at a very rapid pace,” and the company is “already marching towards the next big release.”

The developers outlined features that they want to pack into the next release — namely a Visual Editor, a Notification Area, and Featured Images support — and said that they welcome contributions from outside developers.

WordPress remains one of the most popular blogging platforms in the world. With more than 54 million WordPress sites

, the hosted WordPress.com service is growing by over 100,000 new “presses” per day. More than 330 million people view more than 2.5 billion WordPress pages each month, according to its official statistics.

Source: http://cnet.co/OZcP99

A new standard which will enable the creation of trillions of new web addresses has been enabled.

Several companies switched to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) at 00:01 GMT on Wednesday.

The new system is necessary to prevent the internet running out of available addresses for new devices.

Experts said users should not notice any difference in their web use, and new devices should be using the new system as standard.

Companies such as Google, Facebook and major internet service providers have enabled the new system in order to encourage the widespread adoption of the standard.

The actions come as part of World IPv6 Launch Day, a special event organised by the Internet Society.

IPv6 will eventually replace IPv4, which was conceived during the early days of the internet. It only allows just over four billion unique IP addresses – the sequences of numbers used to identify a device.

Each internet-enabled device – such as a computer, tablet or smartphone – needs its own IP address in order to connect to the internet.

However, due to the shortage of IP addresses, many devices – such as multiple computers in the one home – have to share addresses, which can often slow down connection speeds.

Networking giant Cisco predicts that by 2016, 18.9 billion internet-enabled devices will be online. Switching to IPv6 means trillions of possible addresses can now be made.

Vint Cerf, early pioneer of the internet and current “chief internet evangelist” for Google, explained in a blog post: “The new, larger IPv6 expands the limit to 2^128 addresses—more than 340 trillion, trillion, trillion! Enough for essentially unlimited growth for the foreseeable future.”

‘Imperial to metric’

To ensure a smooth transition, and to make sure devices do not stop working, both systems will work side-by-side for the next few years.

“Most users shouldn’t notice anything,” said Leo Vegoda from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the Internet address system.

[info_box title=”Spot the difference” image=”” animate=””]

• The old IPv4 system uses 32-bit addresses like this:216.27.61.137
• While an IP address under the new system will look more like this:21DA:00D3:0000:2F3B:02AA:00FF:FE28:9C5A

[/info_box]

Some users on IPv4-only devices may experience speed issues, he added.”If ordinary Internet users need to know stuff, then the technology isn’t right.”

Once the full switch to IPv6 has been made, older devices and networks may encounter problems.

“The introduction of IPv6 is the IT equivalent of the move from imperial to metric for measurement; the two can run side by side but aren’t compatible with each other,” explained Mark Lewis, vice president for development for telecommunications firm Interoute.

Mr Lewis warned that the proliferation of internet-enabled devices presents a pressing security risk for companies.

“The introduction of IPv6 will effectively mean that every device, from the mobile phone to the vending machine could become a mole in the office,” he said.

“This puts the onus on organisations to secure and understand these new internet enabled devices that operate within the office walls.”