We have a lot of news-worthy things going on here at AppThemes. We decided that we would put it all in one big news post. So here we go:
ClassiPress 3.1: We’re Almost There
Is it a miracle? You might think so. The release of CP3.1 is just a couple of days away. We had a very good round of testing and the developers are taking care of the last of any lingering issues. We expect that a full release candidate will be ready very soon.
We made an extra effort to review internally before releasing CP3.1 to beta testing, so we think we will have a very solid update. However, there always seems to be one or two things that are uncovered after a release as big as this. We are planning to follow up with a minor release in about four to five weeks.
Moving forward, we are going to make an effort to update ClassiPress once every six months. As soon as we complete this update, we will be making plans for the next release.
We would like to extend a big “Thank you!” to everyone that helped us test ClassiPress 3.1. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
New Hires
Since joining AppThemes, it has been my highest priority to increase production resources. With more developers on staff, I knew we would be able to develop new products faster and release updates to existing products more consistently.
AppThemes Hires Core Contributor
On that note, we are excited to announce that Pete Mall is now a member of the AppThemes team. Pete is a WordPress veteran and one heck of a developer. He is a regular core contributor to WordPress and bbPress and is well known as a speaker at many WordPress related events.
Pete will be a major force in future AppThemes products. He and Dave have already had discussions on how to make AppThemes products better and more powerful. You will be able to see some of the results of Pete’s influence right away.
More Developers on Deck
In just the past couple of weeks we hired two more developers who will be great assets to the team. One of the new developers is another core contributor to WordPress and well known in the WordPress community. The other developer is a young intern with a very strong skill set. He’s shown incredible aptitude in his short time with us and I think we’ve drafted a future all-star. We will have more announcements on the new team members soon.
Another Support Expert
While expanding our development team is important for creating the best WordPress application themes, making sure that we have a support staff to help our customers is equally important.
Renato Rezende is the latest addition to our support team. Many of you already know Renato from the forums. He’s been in the wedding business for years and taught himself WordPress when he found that paying developers and designers to create websites for him was way too expensive.
Renato uses our application themes for his own business ventures so he is very experienced at getting the most out of AppThemes products. Drop Renato a line in the forums and introduce yourself.
What About Vantage?
OK, so we’re just about finished with ClassiPress 3.1 but many of you have been waiting a long time for Vantage. I’ve promised an update on Vantage and want to share our plans with you now.
At the moment, we do not have a definitive release date for Vantage but we will have one soon. After this week, Dave and I will be meeting to create a development plan for finishing what is left on Vantage. Once we have confirmed with the developers the feasibility of our plan, I will be able to announce a certain release date. Please give me about two weeks to complete this.
I know the desire to have Vantage is very high. We want to get it to you as soon as possible and we are going to throw all our resources on this project. Vantage will not be here tomorrow, but it will be here soon.
We appreciate your patience and look forward to making good announcements soon.
Thanks
That about wraps up the news for now. Keep an eye out for ClassiPress 3.1 and feel free to leave a greeting for Renato or Pete in the comments. Thanks everybody.