Ain’t we all glad that Automattic has just made available WordPress 2.9? This latest upgrade has addressed over 500 tickets, bugs and enhancements, according the official WordPress blog where you can also view a short video of some of the “cool things” about the new version.

Writing in the WP post, founder Matt Mullenweg says this is a major release and that’s why the video was made. If you want to watch it here, you’re welcome.

So what are some of the coolest new stuff on offer with v2.9? Here’s what Mullenweg has listed on the official blog:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.

2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.

3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.

4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

Looking at the new features, I quite like the newly tweaked image editing feature. Now bloggers can crop, scale and rotate images within WordPress itself which is pretty cool although it’s not Photoshop.

The next good thing is that any deleted stuff will move to the Trash where it will still be recoverable if you happened to change your mind and want to retrieve a deleted item.

If you want to know more about the new upgrade, WP guru Aaron Brazell at TechnoSailor.com has summed up “10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.9“.