The final version of PHP 5 was released yesterday, and is currently available for download.
Some of the key features of PHP 5 include:
- 
  The Zend Engine II
 with a new object model and dozens of new features.
- 
  XML support has been completely redone in PHP 5, all extensions are now
 focused around the excellent libxml2 library
 (http://www.xmlsoft.org/).
- 
  A new SimpleXML extension for easily accessing and manipulating XML as
 PHP objects. It can also interface with the DOM extension and vice-versa.
- A brand new built-in SOAP extension for interoperability with Web Services.
- 
  A new MySQL extension named MySQLi for developers using MySQL 4.1 and later.
 This new extension includes an object-oriented interface in addition to
 a traditional interface; as well as support for many of MySQL's new features,
 such as prepared statements.
- 
  SQLite has been bundled with PHP. For more information on SQLite,
 please visit their website.
- 
  Streams have been greatly improved, including the ability to access
 low-level socket operations on streams.
- And lots more...
Internet News is also carrying a story.
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