Alongside Solidres 4.4.0, eleven add-ons and the Lumina template have new releases. Three more add-ons now install as Joomla packages, the Hub and the invoices take up the new tourist tax, iCal sync stops losing imported dates when a download fails, the Experience booking form is rewritten, and Lumina now works in right-to-left languages.
Solidres 4.4.0 is out, and its headline is tourist tax. Until now a property had one tourist tax setting: an adult rate, a child rate and a night cap. That fitted some towns and not many others. It could not hold two levies, every new rate had to be typed in on the day it started, and two of its charge types did not compute what they promised.
In 4.4.0 tourist tax is a feature of its own, built into Solidres itself. The release also brings a set of booking and payment fixes, two security fixes, and pages that print properly from a device in dark mode.
Solidres 4.3.0 is out. It is a polish and hardening release: cleaner URLs, better headings and accessibility, a smoother booking flow and two security fixes. The Hub, Experience and Feedback add-ons also now ship as packages. Every fix is in Solidres itself, so every site benefits, whichever template it runs.
According to Joomla official website, Joomla 2.5 will reach its end of life on Dec 31, 2014, that means all Joomla 2.5 websites will not receive any updates including security updates. If your website still runs Joomla 2.5, make sure that you upgrade it as soon as possible. If you are planning to start a new Joomla site, make sure that you choose Joomla 3 to avoid unnecessary upgrade later.
You should be careful when choosing a 3rd extensions to install into your Joomla site, avoid all Joomla 2.5 compatible only extensions: there is no point to choose them, we’ve seen a lot of users who stuck with Joomla 2.5 because of some 3rd extension developers do not upgrade their extensions for Joomla 3.
Below is a nice tutorial which cover the process of upgrading from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3:
https://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/how-to-upgrade-from-joomla-2-5-to-joomla-3/
One of the most exciting new features in the upcoming Joomla 3.2 is two factor authentication, when enabled this feature, beside the username you will be required to enter your password + a time based secret key (this key is changed every 30 seconds), that is the reason why it is called “two factor”. This feature enhances your website’s security because a single password is considered not security enough nowadays.