The WordPress Development Blog announced Wednesday that the second release candidate for the upcoming WordPress 2.5 is available for immediate download.

The developers also release a video screencast as a sneak peak of what users can expect with 2.5.

“2.5 is coming along thanks to the fantastic feedback you guys provided on RC1 (over 580 pingbacks and counting),” said WordPress developer Matt Mullenweg “We’re now ready to show you a bit more of a peek with a short screencast covering the new dashboard and uploader and Release Candidate 2.”

WordPress is the software that powers BlastMagazine.com.

One of the major additions to WordPress 2.5 is the gallery feature. Which will be the first attempt by the popular blogging and content management platform at a built-in photo gallery system. Plugins and third party services like Flickr had been used by many users in the past.

In our own case, we built a gallery module and will continue to use it, but Blast will also look carefully at the new WordPress gallery. We see applications in bulk video game screenshots and art galleries.

WordPress 2.5 was supposed to be released several weeks ago, but it suffered development delays.