With WordPress 2.8.1 Release Candidate 1 available now, it’s only a matter of time before the full WordPress 2.8.1 is fully released to the public.

This is good news for those of us hesitant to download the beta or release candidate of the content management system known as WordPress.

Get WordPress 2.8.1 Release Candidate 1 Here

One main issue being worked on the WP 2.8.1 Beta is a fix for themes calling categories in a way that is causing them to fail.  As you can see on my site here, my category call is failing at the moment as well.

Other Changes in WordPress 2.8.1 Beta

• Less memory usage by the dashboard
• Automatic upgrade fix when a failed upgrade occurs (files were being deleted)
• Problems with the Rich Text Editor worked around
• Extra security added

If you are still on WordPress 2.7.x it may be a good idea to wait to upgrade.  If you are already on 2.8 you may be experiencing these problems but be patient or go get the 2.8.1 Beta now.

According to Geoff Spick at CMSWire.com, CushyCMS has added multilanguage support, XML editing features, a new WYSIWYG and more.  But are the changes enough to keep Cushy ahead of others like Surreal or Clover?

Read more Cushy news here…

iWidgets is a newish service I stumbled upon recently. Founded by Peter Yared and Casey Sackett and headquartered in San Francisco, the company offers widget building services on crack. Couple that with advertising services and you have a powerhouse to be reckoned with.

A long list of features makes iWidgets a viable resource for the casual blogger as well as enterprise level business. Easy, painless registration is all it takes to start building your viral future.

Features of iWidgets

• Multimedia Content Adding – Add nearly any type of content from text to video to sound and more
• Tagging Allowed – Add tags to your widgets
• Viral Components – Share and Grab This components allow for viral spreading of your widget campaign
• Google Analytics – Track your widgets with analytics
• Multiple Views – Create multiple views of your widget for a full level user experience
• Monetization and Advertising – Monetize your widgets with ads or advertise your own business (advertising your own ads is not a free service)

Despite Sprout Inc.’s announcement to go fully for profit, they are still a wonderful service and have been rated very highly by a variety of publications and news media. But iWidgets seems to have everything that Sprout Inc. offers in their SproutBuilder and portions of what they offer in their SproutMixer.

iWidgets also seems to push the idea of spreading content and it may have something to do with the fact that their service is still free…maybe the old share and share alike idea. Will they end up charging and potentially harming relationships with existing users? Sprout ran into some issues when they made their announcement.

Regardless whether those at iWidgets decide to start charging for their service or not they have my vote for the widget building service of today. Check out the video below for more.

There are (according to Wikipedia) 4 types of widgets and widget software.  They are as follows:

• Widget Engine: In computer software, a widget engine is a host software system for running and displaying desktop widgets on the desktop. Desktop widgets are physically inspired applets that give access to information and frequently used functions such as clocks, calendars, news aggregators etc.
  The widget model is attractive because of ease of development. Most widgets can be created with a few images and about 10 to several hundred lines of XML/JavaScript/VBScript.
• GUI Widget:  In computer programming, a widget (or control) is an interface element that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. Widgets are sometimes qualified as virtual to distinguish them from their physical counterparts, e.g. virtual buttons that can be clicked with a mouse cursor, vs. physical buttons that can be pressed with a finger. Widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits. Programmers use widgets to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
• Web Widget:  The web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation. They are derived from the idea of reusable code that has existed for years. Other terms used to describe web widgets including: gadget, badge, module, capsule, snippet, mini and flake. Web widgets often but not always use DHTML, JavaScript, or Adobe Flash.
• Mobile Widget:  The mobile widget is essentially the same thing as the GUI widget, but it is designed for use on mobile devices

So now that you have an idea of what a widget is and what you can do with it, where do get them?  Personally, I try to limit my resources for such things to as few as possible.  With so much on the internet in regards to things like this one can get bogged down with info quite quickly.  So here are some resources for widgets:

http://www.springwidgets.com/
http://www.widgetbox.com/
http://www.oneqube.com/

There are widgets for nearly anything you can think of.  If you can’t find a widget for what you want, both of the sources listed above have resources for creating your own widgets.  They can be placed nearly anywhere, too.  There are widgets specifically designed for use with sites such as MySpace, MyYearbook, Facebook, and also, desktops for PC and Mac.  So whatever your needs are for content, widgets may be the answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widgets