On August 1, 2013, WordPress Version 3.6, named for Oscar Peterson, was released to the public. For more information on this enhancement and bug-fix release, read the WordPress Blog, the Release Post, and see the Changelog for 3.6. This video shows an overview of the media integration features. More details about features are below.

Highlights

• New Default Theme – Twenty Thirteen
  • Focus on blogging
  • Single column layout with Sidebar / Widgets in the footer
  • Latest Theme Features support, particularly Post Formats and Semantic Markup
  • Font-based icons (Genericons)

• 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 choose improved HTML5 markup for search forms, comment forms, and comment lists.
  • Search content for shortcodes with has_shortcode() and adjust shortcode attributes with a new filter.

What’s New

General

• Use digraphs for German umlauts in remove_accents()
• Use Ellipses instead of …
• Consistently apply ‘register’ filter
• Automatically esc_url() the URL echoed by the_permalink()
• Allow developers to specify an Accept-Encoding header in WP_Http::accept_encoding()
• Pass tag object and args array to topic_count_text_callback from wp_generate_tag_cloud()
• Use wp_unslash() instead of stripslashes_deep
• Improve the performance of backslashit() by avoiding regular expressions
• Disallow accidental or negligent deregistering of critical scripts in the admin. Covers jQuery, jQuery UI, Underscore, and Backbone
• Remove the_title_attribute() from anchors with the_title() as text
• Display username (user_login) rather than user_nicename in Toolbar below username

Posts

• The Revision Management UI saw significant improvement
• Shortcode attributes can now be filtered via shortcode_atts_$shortcode hook
• The ability to change post formats was removed from Quick Edit
• A ‘not_found’ label was added for non-hierarchical taxonomys
• Better UX for dealing with multiple users editing the same content (aka Post Locking)
• Audio/Video support More Info

Media

• Add oEmbed support for Rdio and Spotify
• .webm (video/webm) was added to the MIME types list
• The Media Library can now be sorted by Author name
• Bug fixed where initial gallery link-to setting wasn’t applied
• Return from image_downsize() earlier if a custom resize function is used
• Orientation information was added to items in gallery_shortcode()
• New Audio and Video previews are available on the Media > Edit Screen
• Added wp_audio_shortcode() and wp_video_shortcode()

Comments

• Improve wp_list_comments() markup
• Add the ability to use HTML5 input types in the comment form

Appearance

• The Navigation Menus UI got a significant refresh
• The Customizer can now be accessed via the Appearance menu
• Screen options can now be added to the Appearance > Widgets Screen

Plugins

• Prevent plugins from overriding jQuery in the admin
• Prevent plugins with certain filenames from breaking links in the admin menu

Users

• Remove the three default contact methods (AIM, YIM, Jabber) for new installs.
• Pass old roles to set_user_role action
• The workflow for deleting users has been improved

Settings

• Allow any post format to be set as default in Settings > Writing Screen

Accessibility

• Better keyboard/screen reader accessibility in the Nav Menus UI
• Background image’s “select a file” link works with keyboard navigation

Under The Hood

General

• Use official MIME types for Windows Media file extensions
• Redirect after save on options-permalink.php to ensure permalinks are fully flushed
• Only show database errors if both WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY are enabled

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