Michael Richey has published a new extension designed to eliminate the problem of timing out while in the middle of important changes and updates on a Joomla website.

RocketTheme has rewritten their Joomla text editor extension, RokPad, from the "ground up" for Joomla 2.5. RocketTheme is also careful to point out that RokPad is not a WYSIWYG editor, but more of a desktop-style editor specifically for Joomla developers.

The new version of Phoca Gallery, version 3.2.1, is designed specifically for use with Joomla 1.7 and 2.5. There are a number of fixes and enhancements in this latest version, including a new cURL option for connecting with Picasa and a new parameter for filtering Parent Category ID.

ChronoEngine, creators of popular form building extension ChronoForms, has released a new Joomla forum extension named, as you might expect, ChronoForums. The extension requires the installation of both ChronoForms and ChronoConnectivity to function.

Brand new component JEDchecker is aimed at the Joomla developer community, and promises to provide a quick and easy check of common possible problems an extension might have before submission to the Joomla Extensions Directory.

Many Joomla users have already made installing JCE a habit with each new website build, and after this latest release, they may have a much better time managing code tweaks and overall article management.

RSJoomla has released an update to their Joomla firewall extension, RSFirewall, that now allows users to block ip addresses by country as well as automatically blacklisting "repeat offenders."

AdminPraise3 is a customizable Joomla Administrator template that provides users and admins the ability to tweak their admin panels to fit the way that they use Joomla in their daily activities.

There are many Joomla extensions that provide voting and polls for a website, but Code Haiku has produced one that can be used via email as well.

Mike Reumer's popular Googlemaps Plugin has been updated to include version 3 of the Google Maps API, providing several new features including Streetview. There are several Google Maps extensions in the Joomla Extensions Directory; however, Reumer's is one of the stand outs.

JoomlaPraise has updated their database query extension, PraiseQuery, for use with Joomla 2.5 and recently added it to the Joomla Extensions Directory, giving users an easy way to "run any database query and display the returned rows in a table on your Joomla site."

Envato, parent site of both ThemeForest and CodeCanyon which are publishers of Joomla templates and extensions respectively, has announced a competition to encourage the development of Joomla resources. Envato notes that Joomla templates and extensions are among their "most wanted file type."

Open Source Excellence has released a new matrix comparison extension that allows Joomla owners to easily create and implement a feature table on their websites. The extension is called OSE Feature Table for Joomla.

AddThis, a social sharing tool that is available for Joomla now includes four new follow tools. Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram and FourSquare have all been added.

Magic Toolbox makers of other popular website imaging software including Magic Magnify and Magic Zoom have released their latest imaging solution.

JoomAce has released a new extension that makes it much easier to manage a Joomla database, right from within Administrator. AceSQL is a lightweight solution and a free version is available. 

The Professional version of Akeeba Backup has provided administrators the ability to backup to cloud storage, including Amazon S3, for some time now. With the release of Akeeba Kickstart Professional 3.5.0, administrators now have the ability to restore from the cloud as well.

The Joomla Extensions Directory, or JED, has been one of the most affected areas of the Joomla community after the adoption of the new Joomla release cycle which began last year. This of course directly affects users as well, as it has become difficult to know which extensions are supported in the new versions of Joomla in some cases. And when critical pieces of a website are clearly no longer supported, site administrators feel a definite strain when needing to upgrade.

With yet another major development, Mobile Joomla! is adding support for Kunena forums to its Joomla website platform for mobile devices. When used in conjunction with their Elegance template and JQuery Mobile, administrators can provide clean forum access no matter what device is being used to access the site.

The newly integrated K2 community forum, which is featured on the recently revamped K2 main website, has become the permanent home of all official member communications. Plans are to take down the old community forum on March 30, 2012.