The KDE team continues to deliver a powerful, user-centric desktop experience. This week’s Plasma development update introduces exciting new features in **Plasma 6.5** and valuable bug fixes and polish for **Plasma 6.4.3**. From creative-friendly input enhancements to intelligent theming, there’s something for everyone.
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## 🎨 Dial into Creativity
If you use a **drawing tablet**, Plasma 6.5 brings a long-awaited feature:
**customizable rotatable dials**.
You can now assign your tablet’s dials to trigger actions like zooming, tool switching, or adjusting brush size. This makes Plasma even more appealing to artists and designers who depend on intuitive workflows.
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## 🌅 Smarter Day/Night Wallpapers
Dynamic wallpaper switching gets a major upgrade!
Plasma can now **automatically change wallpapers based on sunrise and sunset times** in your location.
There’s also a new **“Day/Night Cycle” settings page**, separate from Night Light, where you can manage which wallpapers appear during light and dark modes.
> 💡 *Pro tip: Choose matching light/dark wallpaper sets to create beautiful transitions throughout your day.*
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## 📶 Easy Wi-Fi Sharing
No more awkwardly reading out long Wi-Fi passwords.
With the latest changes, **Plasma now includes the password** when sharing a Wi-Fi network via QR code or connection link—making it much easier for guests to connect.
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## 🎥 Better Screencasts
Plasma’s **screencast recording** now includes the full window context:
– Titlebars
– Shadows
– Window frames
This makes your screen recordings **look more complete and professional**, especially when sharing tutorials or bug reports.
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## 🧰 User Interface Enhancements
Plasma 6.4.3 continues to refine the overall experience:
– **Welcome Center** improvements: Enhanced accessibility for all users.
– **Magnifier effect**: Now capped to prevent it from behaving like full-screen zoom.
– **File transfer notifications**: Now show raw byte counts for greater accuracy.
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## 🐞 Bug Fixes You’ll Appreciate
Several long-standing and recent issues were squashed this week:
– Fixed crashes when using **Alt+Tab during games**.
– Resolved issues with **tablet pen gestures** that caused unexpected window closures.
– **Window focus** now behaves correctly after switching Activities.
– Multiple other fixes:
– GTK4 popovers
– Wayland click handling
– Resizing bugs with scaling
– X11 minimize-all widget
– Alt+Tab overlay display
– Lock screen prompt timing
– Spectacle’s app launch behavior
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## ⚙️ Performance and Power Tools
Some nice technical touches have also landed:
– `kioclient mkdir`: New CLI command for creating folders using KDE’s KIO system.
– Memory leak in **KWin** resolved.
– QtQuick-based apps like **Discover**, **System Settings**, and **Spectacle** are now faster thanks to improvements in **KDE Frameworks 6.17**.
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## 🚀 Plasma 6.5 Is Shaping Up
The KDE team continues to push boundaries with each update.
With **tablet dial customization**, **dynamic wallpapers**, and **smoother screencasts**, Plasma 6.5 is shaping up to be a release you won’t want to miss.
Whether you’re an artist, power user, or just love a slick desktop, there’s a lot to be excited about.
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