Update as of 8/9/2012
* Improvements:
  * Implemented "multi-file" scheduled import/export of customers, deleted legacy implementation
  * Ability to import amendments to complex product data, such as custom options
  * Ability to cleanup database before installation using CLI script (`dev/shell/install.php`)
  * Customer export feature performance optimizations
  * Ability to control `robots.txt` via backend (System -> Config -> Design -> Search Engine Robots)
  * Ability to create custom URL rewrites for CMS-pages
* Product editing and attribute set changes:
  * Ability to copy custom options from one product to another
  * Ability to create/change attribute set during product creation/editing
  * Ability to define default values for all system attributes
  * New "Minimal" attribute set which has only required system attributes
* "Google Sitemap" feature changes:
  * The feature is renamed to "XML Sitemap"
  * Reference to a XML sitemap file will be automatically added to `robots.txt` upon update. Controlled by "System -> Config -> Design -> Search Engine Robots", enabled by default
  * Automatic switch to multiple "sitemaps" when size exceeds Google limits
  * Support of images in sitemap
* Removed "HTML Sitemap" feature as such (not the one known as "Google Sitemap")
* Fixes:
  * Map of listed products in XML sitemap will list product last modification date, rather than current date
  * Incorrect timestamp of export file
  * Addressed WSI-compliance issues in SOAP API (V2)
  * Fixed incompatibility of Downloader tool with PHP 5.3
  * Fixed inconsistent behavior of importing duplicated rows in CSV files
  * Fixed message about successful registration not appearing if customer has previously logged out on the shopping cart page
  * Fixed minor configuration issues for "Cache on Delivery Payment" method
  * Fixed wrong order status in some cases when it is placed using PayPal with "Authorization" action
  * Applied Zend framework security hotfix against XML external entity injection via XMLRPC API
  * Fixed inappropriate displaying of credit card credentials to admin user after "reorder" action with Authorize.net and PayPal payment methods involved
Update as of 8/15/2012
* Refactored ACL functionality:
  * Implementation is not bound to backend area anymore and moved to `Mage_Core` module
  * Covered backwards-incompatible changes with additional migration tool (`dev/tools/migration/Acl`)
* Implemented "move" layout directive and slightly modified behavior of "remove"
* A failure in DB cleanup by integration testing framework is articulated more clearly by throwing `Magento_Exception`
* Fixed security vulnerability of exploiting Magento "cookie restriction" feature
* Fixed caching mechanism of loading modules declaration to not cause additional performance overhead
* Adjusted include path in unit tests to use the original include path at the end, rather than at the beginning
Update as of 8/26/2012
* Decoupled Tag module functionality from other modules
* Visual Design Editor:
  * Implemented tracking of user changes history and rendering the actions at VDE toolbar
  * Implemented compacting of user changes history. Compacting is done in order to save all the changes as a minimal layout update.
* Improvements:
  * Added Atlassian IDE Plugin configuration files to `.gitignore`
  * Relocated `add_to_cart`, `checkout` and `product_edit` performance scenarios from `samples` to the normal `testsuite` directory. These scenarios can be used for Magento performance testing.
  * Implemented verification of number of orders that were created during execution of `checkout` performance scenario
  * Removed usage of deprecated `PHPUnit_Extensions_OutputTestCase` class from unit tests
* Fixes:
  * Fixed MySQL DB adapter to always throw exception, if it was not able to connect to DB because of wrong configuration. So now the adapter's behavior is not dependent on `error_reporting` settings.
  * Added the missing closing tag to New Order email template
  * Fixed `Mage_ImportExport_Model_Import_Entity_CustomerComposite` integration test issues
  * Marked several integration tests in `Mage_Adminhtml_CustomerControllerTest` as incomplete, as the tested functionality was not MMDB-compliant
  * Fixed issue with unit tests failure, when there was a Zend Framework installed as PEAR package
  * Fixed `advanced_search` performance scenario to fail, if the searched product doesn't exist
  * Fixed issue with non-escaped latest message link in admin backend
* GitHub requests:
  * [#48](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/48) -- fixed usage of a collection at the place, where just a single object was needed
Update as of 8/30/2012
* Fixes:
  * Fixed name, title, markup, styles at "Orders and Returns" homepage
  * Fixed displaying products in the shopping cart item block at the backend
Update as of 9/05/2012
* Implemented encryption of the credit card name and expiration date for the payment method "Credit Card (saved)"
* Implemented console utility `dev/tools/migration/get_aliases_map.php`, which generates map file "M1 class alias" to "M2 class name"
* Implemented automatic data upgrades for replacing "M1 class aliases" to "M2 class names" in a database
* Implemented recursive `chmod` in the library class `Varien_Io_File`
* Improved verbosity of the library class `Magento_Shell`
* Migrated client-side translation mechanism to jQuery
* Performance tests:
  * Improved assertion for number of created orders for the checkout performance testing scenario
    * Reverted the feature of specifying PHP scenarios to be executed before and after a JMeter scenario
    * Implemented validation for the number of created orders as a part of the JMeter scenario
    * Implemented the "Admin Login" user activity as a separate file to be reused in the performance testing scenarios
  * Implemented fixture of 100k customers for the performance tests
  * Implemented fixture of 100k products for the performance tests
    * Enhanced module `Mage_ImportExport` in order to utilize it for the fixture implementation
  * Implemented back-end performance testing scenario, which covers Dashboard, Manage Products, Manage Customers pages
* Fixes:
  * Fixed Magento console installer to enable write permission recursively to the `var` directory
  * Fixed performance tests to enable write permission recursively to the `var` directory
  * Fixed integration test `Mage_Adminhtml_Model_System_Config_Source_Admin_PageTest::testToOptionArray` to not produce "Warning: DOMDocument::loadHTML(): htmlParseEntityRef: expecting ';' in Entity" in the developer mode
* GitHub requests:
  * [#43](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/43) -- implemented logging of executed setup files
  * [#44](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/44)
    * Implemented support of writing logs into wrappers (for example, `php://output`)
    * Enforced a log writer model to be an instance of `Zend_Log_Writer_Stream`
  * [#49](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/49)
    * Fixed sorting of totals according to "before" and "after" properties
    * Introduced `Magento_Data_Graph` library class and utilized it for finding cycles in "before" and "after" declarations
    * Implemented tests for totals sorting including the ambiguous cases
Update as of 9/13/2012
* Implemented the option to enable the single store mode in the system configuration, which simplifies the back-end GUI:
  * Hiding scope labels from the system configuration
  * Hiding the scope switcher from the CMS management pages and the system configuration
  * Hiding scope related fields from the system configuration
  * Hiding scope related columns and fields from the sales pages (order, invoice, shipment pages)
  * Hiding scope related fields from the promotions
  * Hiding scope related fields from the catalog pages
  * Hiding scope related columns and fields from the customers management page
  * Hiding scope related columns and fields from the customer and customer address attributes management pages
* Implemented the history management for the Visual Design Editor
* Implemented the user interface for themes management, which allows to list existing themes and add new ones
* Replaced all usages of the old JavaScript translations mechanism with the new jQuery one
* Refactored methods with high cyclomatic complexity
* Converted some surrogate integration tests into functional Selenium tests
* Converted some surrogate integration tests into unit tests
* Fixes:
  * Fixed inability to install application with a prefix defined for database tables
  * Fixed displaying fields with model name in the payment methods settings
  * Fixed performance degradation of the back-end menu rendering
  * Fixed absence of the success message upon newsletter template creation/deletion/queueing
  * Workaround for occasional segmentation fault in integration tests caused by `Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Setup_Migration`
* GitHub requests:
  * [#51](https://github.com/magento/magento2/issues/51) -- fixed managing of scope-spefic values for Categories
  * [#56](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/56) -- removed excessive semicolon in the CSS file
  * [#60](https://github.com/magento/magento2/issues/60) -- fixed taking bind parameters into account in `Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Db_Collection_Abstract::getAllIds()`
  * [#61](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/61) -- relocated declaration of the "Google Checkout" payment method into `Mage_GoogleCheckout` module from `Mage_Sales`
Update as of 9/27/2012
* Refactoring Magento 2 to use jQuery instead of Prototype:
  * Implemented simple lazy-loading functionality
  * Converted decorator mechanism to jQuery
  * Moved Installation process to jQuery
  * Moved Home, Category and Simple Product View pages to jQuery
  * Moved all frontend libraries from `pub/js` directory to `pub/lib`
* Improved Javascript unit tests to be consistent with other test frameworks in Magento
* Added Javascript code analysis tests to the static tests suite
* Added jQuery file uploader for admin backend, cleaned out old deprecated uploaders
* Implemented fixture of 100k orders for the performance tests
* Fixes
  * Admin menu elements order differs for a cached page and non-cached one
  * Typos in System > Configuration > General Tab
  * Wrong elements positions on "View Order" page
  * Impossible to configure checkout on store scope
  * Warning message in `system.log` when using GD2 image adapter
  * "Preview" link is absent for managing CMS Pages in single store mode
  * "Promotions" tab is missing on Configuration page
  * Wrong format of performance tests config
Update as of 10/09/2012
* Performance Testing Framework improvements:
  * Added ability to specify fixtures per scenario
  * Implemented Magento application cleanup between scenarios
  * Implemented support of PHP scenarios. The framework distinguishes type of the scenario by its extension: `jmx` or `php`
  * Added ability to skip warm-up for a certain scenario
  * JMeter scenarios are run with `jmeter` command instead of `java -jar ApacheJmeter.jar`. It's impossible to specify path to JMeter tool now, it should be accessible from command line as `jmeter`
* Implemented fixture for Performance Tests with 80k products distributed among 200 categories
* Tax rule management UI simplified:
  * Added `Jeditable` jQuery library
  * Added multiselect fields for customer tax class, product tax class and tax rate
  * Added ability to add/edit Tax Rate directly from Tax Rule page
* Simplified product creation workflow:
  * Added product types dropdown to "Add Product" button. Default attribute set is used for product creation
  * "Add Product" button opens form for Simple product with Default attribute set
  * Attribute set can be changed from product creation form
* Implemented auto-generation of product SKU and meta fields. The templates can be configured in `System -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Catalog -> Product Fields Auto-Generation`
* Added ability to unassign system attribute from an attribute set, if it's not "Minimal" one
* Specified UI IDs for base Backend elements. UI ID is represented as HTML "id" attribute intended to identify certain HTML element
* Refactored `Catalog_Model_Product_Indexer_Flat::matchEvent()` method - reduced cyclomatic complexity
* Updated DB structure to make possible to store Themes' and Widgets' layout updates
* Migration to jQuery:
  * Replaced Ajax, Dialog and Template mechanisms with jQuery analogs
  * Added jQuery loader for translation process
  * Migrated Inline-Translator to jQuery
* JavaScript improvements:
  * Implemented `editTrigger` jQuery widget intended to display "Edit" button for elements it is attached to
* Fixes:
  * Incorrect title for "Currency Symbols" page on Backend
  * References to website, store and store view aren't displayed on Backend, if Single Store mode is disabled
  * "Store" column and dropdown are displayed on `System -> Import/Export -> DataFlow-Profiles` page, when Single Store mode is enabled
  * Options are absent for `'tax_class_id'` product attribute
  * No exception/error message is produced, when attempting to commit/rollback asymmetric DB transaction
  * Links are not copied during downloadable product duplication
  * PayPal tab is absent in `System -> Configuration -> Sales` section
  * "Edit" link in wishlist opens Product View page instead of "Configure Product" page
  * Default value for a product attribute is not saved
  * Escaped HTML blocks with `Mage_Core_Helper_Data::jsonEncode`, where necessary
  * Impossible to add new Dataflow profile
  * Impossible to specify default option for new product attribute with "dropdown" type
  * Unable to send the email when creating new invoice/shipment/credit memo
  * "Segmentation Fault" in Integration tests
* GitHub requests:
  * [#36](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/36) -- added ability to force set of "Include Tax" option for catalog prices
  * [#63](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/63) -- removed obsolete "args" node in event subscribers
  * [#64](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/64) -- fixed EAV text attribute validation for "0" value
  * [#72](https://github.com/magento/magento2/pull/72) -- fixed collecting shipping totals for case, when previous invoice value is 0
Update as of 10/11/2012
* Removed unused `Mage_DesignEditor_Model_History_Compact_Diff` class
* Fixes:
  * Incorrect title for Manage Products page
  * 'Element with ID 'wishlist_column_qty' already exists.' error on Manage Shopping Cart page
  * Incorrect redirect on "Print Shipping Labels" action, when shipment without shipping label selected
  * Error message is displayed twice, when restoring admin password with captcha enabled
  * Impossible to retrieve admin password, when captcha is enabled
Update as of 10/16/2012
* Introduced block arguments to the layout syntax:
  * Introduced the "object" block argument type to specify a grid data source
  * Introduced the "options" block argument type to accommodate key-value pairs
  * Introduced the "URL" block argument type to represent a URL with parameters
  * Introduced block argument updaters for the block arguments, which allow to customize the original grid arguments
  * Implemented extraction of translatable strings from block arguments in layout by the Translation Tool
* Declared the Customer Wishlist and Sales Order grids through the layout instead of the PHP classes
* Implemented the block `Mage_Backend_Block_Widget_Grid_Massaction` to encapsulate grid mass actions
* Moved grid columns and mass action management from the base grid `Mage_Backend_Block_Widget_Grid` to the `Mage_Backend_Block_Widget_Grid_Extended`
* Introduced the column set block `Mage_Backend_Block_Widget_Grid_ColumnSet` responsible for grouping columns in a grid
* Updated the grid rendering template to render a column set instead of rendering columns
* Eliminated dependency between the grid column block and parent blocks
* Denied the public access to the `pub/cron.php`
* Fixes:
  * Fixed the broken Billing Agreement View page
  * Fixed absence of the Default and Minimal attribute sets in the Manage Attribute Sets grid, if the total number of records is 22 and the view of 20 rows per page is chosen
  * Fixed typos on the Sales Order page
  * Fixed typos on the Sales Order's Packing Slips printed to PDF
  * Fixed preserving selected rows after searching in the Sales Order grid
  * Fixed "column not found" SQL error while sorting by the "Product Name" in the Catalog Pending Reviews grid