I am waiting for Wordpress 2.5 release like many of you, the final release is not yet available but Wordpress 2.5 RC 1 is available for beta testers.

What it offers,

A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? Then WordPress 2.5 might be the release for you. It’s been in the oven for a while, and we’re finally ready to open the doors a bit to give you a taste.

Wordpress 2.5 admin looks awesome with bright colors and some useful features. The admin links have been reorganized, the most frequently used links like Write, Manage, Comments and design are at the prominent position. Other links settings, plugins and users are in the corner of the admin panel.

Now you can embed multimedia content easily using links in the write panel. You can upload media or link it from a URL. There is built in Gallery feature in the media section.

Some of the features you love (ok, I love)

• Plugin upgrade - You can automatically upgrade plugins from plugin manager, you need to provide FTP information for this to work
• Tag management- Add, edit tags easily
• Mass delete posts - Now you can delete a bunch of posts, pages or comments.
• Plugin Editor - You can edit plugins from Admin panel, why you want this, some plugins like top commentators require some tweaking

Further Reading:

• WordPress 2.5 Plugins Beware: Automatic Plugin Upgrade Problems
• WordPress 2.5 RC1

Note: The screenshots are not from the production site