WordPress 3.6, dubbed “Oscar” in honor of the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson released this week with some substantial, if not mind blowing, feature updates.

You can read the entire announcement from WordPress here

This video was embedded using URL only

Better support of post types – Every new major release comes with a new theme and Twenty-thirteen showcases some pretty forward uses of post types.

Better menu customization – Adding menus to the appearance section was a big step forward several releases ago, but I always felt the execution was pretty clunky even if it was better. This release adds more intuitive menu creation along with some added functionality.

Better autosave – For anyone that forgets to save when they edit or even write directly in WordPress admin you’ll be happy to know that autosave kicks in every 15 seconds now.

Better revision handling – If you’ve ever edited and changed and updated a post you know that all those revisions get saved with the idea that you can rollback. The only problem was comparing one version to another was pretty hard. Not anymore – revisions clearly show comparisons – this looks very promising. Also, you can lock a post down when editing some no one else can edit.

Better native media support – Built-in HTML5 media player for native audio and video embeds with no reliance on external services.

A few more additions to oEmbed – Several years ago oEmbed was added so that you could simply add a URL from supported services and get the player or show the image without embed code. The list has expanded – here’s the entire list as of today

As always, no matter how much testing WordPress does things break during major upgrades as plugin and theme makers don’t always jump in and test – so backup and proceed with caution.

This is also a great place for me to suggest paid themes like Studio Press and tipping your plugin makers so they have the motivation to support!