Spectra is the Gutenberg addon from the makers of the Astra theme. The pro version is just being released now. The video considers the Spectra Pro ecosystem, does a walk-through of using it in the Full Site Editor, and discusses the strengths, weaknesses, and positioning of Spectra. I hope you find it interesting and useful.

The first beta of WordPress 6.3 is available. It includes the Command Palette, improved page management, new blocks, and many other improvements.

So they have decided to rename the Command Center to “Command Palette,” which seems like a good choice.

In the not WordPress, but useful department – Here are some nice browser dev tool tips. The author of the article maintains a site with these and the ones in the article are the most popular.

This is an interesting initiative, the idea is a “guild” for WordPress product owners to help with product positioning, pricing, and best practices. The interview provides information about the background and goals of the project.

Reusable Blocks are becoming Patterns with a sync option. The change will be included in WordPress 6.3.

Google is requiring everyone to move to Google Analytics 4 by July 1st, but some people are looking for alternatives instead. Here is a list of 11 free site analytics alternatives.

Gravatar has two new updates.  One is that you can now use it for an online profile with links to your social accounts, which totally makes sense.  The second is that it now has new payment features. That doesn’t, by default, seem like part of a global avatar service. 

Not WordPress, but might be useful – Today I learned that the Google team created a free remote desktop app, called Chrome Remote Desktop. I don’t think it is as robust or full-fledged as Microsoft RDP, but I was able to connect to my Windows 10 Home computer from my Mac to do some basic tasks.

The host computer (the one being connected to) has to download and install a program and then when you go to the URL (below) and click to share your computer an access code shows. On the other computer you enter the access code and you are connected to the host.

https://remotedesktop.google.com/support/