WordPress released the latest version, 4.4, named “Clifford” in honor of jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown. Wordpress 4.4 is full of new features to help make your site more connected and responsive. Once again WordPress also includes a new default theme, Twenty Sixteen. Here are some of the highlights of this new release:
Meet Twenty Sixteen
Twenty Sixteen is the latest default theme to be included with your WordPress installation. If you’re like me, you never even look at the default theme, but it’s great to have one supplied that you know will work great right out of the box. Twenty Sixteen is built with a fluid grid design that will look great across all devices. It has a flexible header and lots of color schemes you can choose from.
Responsive Images
Arguably a much bigger part of the release than the new default theme is the fact that images are now automatically responsive. No more resizing images for different screen sizes or hoping your theme can handle the duties of serving up responsive images. Your pictures will look awesome whether your visitor is on their iPhone or their computer with a 27″ monitor
WordPress Post Embeds
This update allow you to embed your posts into other WordPress sites simply by copying the url and pasting into the visual editor. You’ll even get an instant preview of how it will look. Now embedding other posts on your WordPress blog is as easy as it is with videos and other media.
Introducing WordPress 4.4 “Clifford”
For all the techies out there
Infrastructure for the REST API is now included in the core of WordPress. The REST API gives developers an easy way to build and extend RESTful APIs on top of WordPress allowing for new and exciting plugins to be developed and integrated into the CMS.
Should You Update?
Updating WordPress not only makes sure you’re using the latest technology possible for your website, it also means you’ve got all of the latest security updates. Since WordPress powers 25% of the web now, security is absolutely critical. Wordpress can be updated through your dashboard or you can head straight to WordPress to download the lated version.