Noupe.com has an overall comparison post between the MODx CMS and WordPress. The overview is not thoroughly comprehensive but it does provide an at a glance view of MODx. I’ve never used MODx before so I’ll have to take their word for it.
General Overview Of MODx Versus WordPress
How To Become A Top WordPress Professional
Siobhan McKeown who I’ve noticed has made a name for herself within the WordPress community over the past two years has published an excellent guide with all sorts of tips on how to become one of the top WordPress professionals. While she nails it on multiple levels, I have a tip or two of my own. First, it’s WordPress with a capital P, dangit. Secondly, make sure you use the correct WordPress logo or else you’ll look stupid within the WordPress community and serious players will fail to take you seriously. Last but not least, do not use the word WordPress within the domain name. For example, www.wordpressdevelopers.com. This is considered trademark infringement and is another way for no one within the WordPress community to take you seriously.
Matt Mullenweg Interviewed By Om Malik At LeWeb
In what is being considered one of the more interesting conversations at Le Web this year according to what I’ve read on Twitter, Om Malik And Matt Mullenweg discussed a number of things revolving around WordPress. While there were a number of tidbits to take away from their conversation, my favorite is Matt’s comments regarding the mobile usage of WordPress.
Mobile is giving us a chance to re-imagine the interface of WordPress from the ground up
To follow that statement, Matt also said that Automattic currently has more employees working on the various mobile applications versus the core of WordPress.
How To Be A More Productive WordPress Publisher
Copyblogger has a list of seven items that will help you become a better WordPress based publisher. ∞
Most Important Theme Feature Of 2012?
WPHub.com is hosting a poll right now that asks, What Has Been The Most Important WP Theme Feature In 2012? Out of the choices listed, I voted for Responsive Design because of the prolific usage of Tablets and smartphones versus the traditional desktop computer. On that note, I think it was a very wise choice to have the new default theme in WordPress 3.5 have a responsive design by default. After you place your vote, feel free to come on back in the comments section and explain why you voted for that choice.
The Last 10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress
On what has been a longstanding tradition, Aaron Brazell of Technosailor.com has published his list of 10 things you’ll need to know regarding WordPress 3.5. Unfortunately, he also announced that it would be his last one.
For 7 years, I’ve been publishing these articles every time a new version of WordPress comes out. Since version 2.0. It’s been a long run. It began as a need to fill people in about new features in WordPress (and there were a lot in 2.0). There wasn’t anybody doing these at the time, and certainly WordPress wasn’t nearly as popular as it is now (22% of the internet is powered by WordPress).
But many more people have stepped up in recent releases and have started updating readers with new features and expectations. My job here is done. I’m passing the baton but really the baton has already been passed and I’m happy about that. This will be my final 10 things article. Thank you for sticking around and following along all these years.
I want to personally thank Aaron for putting together those 10 things posts as they were always a highlight to read as well as signaling that the next major release of WordPress was very imminent.
WordPress For iOS 3.3 Released
The WordPress iOS team has released version 3.3 of the popular mobile app. Thanks to 3.3, the app now has sounds such as clicks, refreshes and a crumple sound when you discard panels on the iPad. Since I use my iPhone on vibrate all the time, the sounds are a minor addition. However, they are a nice touch for the app overall. Outside of the addition of sounds, the release boasts more than 20 bug fixes and stability improvements. The next version looks like it will include a new Notification feature for WordPress.com and Jetpack enabled blogs. A new Visual editor is also in the works.
WebDevStudios Acquires Startbox Theme Framework
A few days ago, WebDevStudios announced that they acquired the Startbox theme framework. I’ve known WebDevStudios to primarily be a client development oriented business so I thought it was interesting that they have decided to move in the direction of a commercial theme shop. I managed to get Brad to answer a few questions I had regarding the acquisition and this is what he had to say:
With the acquisition of StartBox, does this officially make WebDevStudios a commercial theme shop?
Technically yes, however I don’t feel we are out there to compete with the many successfully established theme shops in the community. There are a ton of great themes and frameworks out there, so it really comes down to what is the best fit for the person or project. StartBox is our first major push into the commercial WordPress space. Our goal is to focus on making the StartBox theme framework as amazing as possible. Everything else is just gravy.
Will you be sticking with the Theme Club idea already established by StartBox?
For now yes, but that could change in the future. Currently you can access all child themes for $100/year or purchase any single child theme for $47. We currently have 9 child themes available, but plan on rapidly expanding that in 2013. The StartBox core framework is also 100% freely available via Github: https://github.com/WebDevStudios/StartBox
At WebDevStudios, we pride ourselves on having a strong focus on development. Because of that we plan on making some really amazing child themes and utilize those strong development skills to include features that go above and beyond what users might see in other themes out there. These themes and features will also carry over into our client work so it’s really a win win for us.
Will all previous plugins created by WebDevStudios be moved under the StartBox club umbrella?
We don’t have any plans to move our existing plugins to the theme club. We are working on a few pro versions of our plugins, but the base plugins will always remain free and available on WordPress.org. We do have plans to build plugins specifically for StartBox. If a StartBox plugin would be useful in other themes, and not just a feature specific to StartBox, we plan on coding and releasing it for everyone to use.
When I think of WebDevStudios, the thing that pops into my mind first is the Genesis Theme Framework. Will Genesis no longer be the framework of choice for future client work?
We love Genesis and that doesn’t change because of StartBox. Going forward we do plan on using StartBox for most client work, but ultimately will use whatever theme is a good fit for the project. A good amount of our contacts come to us wanting Genesis, so we will certainly give them what they want.
The beauty of StartBox is it allows us to not only shape the future of the theme framework, but also build and sell really amazing child themes for StartBox. We’ve given a lot of consideration to building and selling stand-alone themes and custom child themes for other frameworks, but at the end of the day we decided to focus on a framework that we have full control over.