Here is a tentative release schedule for v1.7. As in any software project, these dates are tentative and subject to delays. UPDATE: I've updated to our latest dates

We're pretty excited about the cool new features in the upcoming 1.6 release (now in Alpha) - and want to encourage folks to check out / play with these features on the Public Sandbox. So... open the sandbox in a separate window - then login (user = demo, password = demo) and try these out...

• The quick "Contact Search" block in the left column uses a suggestive search widget which finds contacts as you type in letters. Try typing in "ada" and see what happens.
• Site Administrators no longer have to struggle with editing civicrm.settings.php to set and modify site configuration. Most settings are now controlled from the Admin Control Panel » Global Settings section.

This installment of our architecture series will introduce the templating system used by CiviCRM as the presentation layer (e.g. to actually render forms and pages). Every CiviCRM screen is "composed" from one or more template files. These files contain a combination of HTML tags, text, variables and (often) some code to control presentation logic. CiviCRM uses an open-source templating engine called Smarty. If you are planning on examining, debugging and/or and modifying CiviCRM screens - you'll want to spend some time reviewing Smarty's online documentation.