Here are all of Nate's blog posts up to this point with changes that will likely be shipped in 5.26 (some things might have gotten reverted or changed, so it's good to double-check if the changes in the blog posts are shipping in 5.26):

https://pointieststick.com/2022/05/27/this-week-in-kde-resizable-plasma-panel-pop-ups/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/06/03/this-week-in-kde-fixing-bugs-and-lets-fix-more/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/06/10/this-week-in-kde-the-analog-clock-changes-color/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/06/17/this-week-in-kde-non-blurry-xwayland-apps/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/06/24/this-week-in-kde-a-mad-bugfixing-spree/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/07/01/this-week-in-kde-and-now-time-for-for-some-ui-polishing/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/07/09/this-week-in-kde-big-things/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/07/15/this-week-in-kde-some-nice-improvements/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/07/22/this-week-in-kde-tons-of-ui-improvements-and-bugfixes/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/07/29/this-week-in-kde-lots-of-work-on-discover/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/08/05/this-week-in-kde-easier-samba-sharing-setup/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/08/12/this-week-in-kde-major-accessibility-improvements/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/08/19/this-week-in-kde-dolphin-selection-mode/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/08/26/this-week-in-kde-re-bindable-mouse-buttons/
https://pointieststick.com/2022/09/02/this-week-in-kde-day-color/

Also, here's a list with changes to 5.26:

https://invent.kde.org/groups/plasma/-/milestones/8#tab-merge-requests

Below I added some changes. Those are not all the changes, but only the ones in Nate's blog posts which I think are notable:

• The pop-ups of Plasma widgets in the panel are now resizable from their edges and corners just like normal windows, and they remember the sizes you set, too!
• It’s now easier to preview wallpapers: just click on them and the desktop will change to show you what the wallpaper would look like
• You can now click on a letter header in Kickoff’s “All Applications” view to be taken to a view where you can choose a letter and be zoomed right to the apps that start with that letter
• Plasma now supports wallpapers with different images displayed when using a light color scheme vs a dark color scheme
• It's possible to select if apps will be scaled by the compositor or by themselves to avoid having blurry apps on Wayland
• Animated images can now be used as wallpapers, either standalone, or even as a part of a slideshow
• In the Plasma Wayland session, it’s now possible to disable middle-click paste
• Ilya Pominov has added a feature to Gwenview 22.08 that lets you mark up and annotate images using the same annotation UI that’s in Spectacle
• Quite a lot of Plasma widgets have gained improved accessibility characteristics, after using them with a screen reader
• Support for keyboard navigation in more applets (this one is not on Nate's blog posts but many applets got support for keyboard navigation in this version. The merged changes can be seen on the 5.26 merge requests page).
• Typing in the Overview effect now filters windows when there are any matching the search text, in addition to doing a KRunner search when no open windows match the search text
• In the Plasma Wayland session, it’s now possible to adjust how a graphics tablet’s input area maps to your screen coordinates
• Kickoff now has a new non-default “Compact” mode that lets you see more items at the time.
• System Settings’ Night Color page now lets you use a map to choose a manual location
• Dolphin now has a selection mode to make it easier to select items on a touch screen.
• Elisa now has a Full Screen mode
• When using a horizontal panel, Kickoff can now be configured to display text and/or remove the icon
• Support for re-binding the buttons of a multi-button mouse
• On System Settings’ Night Color page, you can now set a day color in addition to a night color
• Discover now lets you choose the frequency with which it notifies you about new updates
• Discover now displays content ratings for apps
• Discover now lets you change the name used for submitting a review
• Discover now has a “Share” button on each app’s details page

Thanks, @Guilhermems !
From the top of my head the 4 main ones to focus on could be:

1. Day and night and animated wallpapers
2. Dolphin selection mode
3. Gwenview annotations
4. Better accessibility

Sounds good. This simplifies stuff a lot and that is much appreciated with everything that is coming up! Thanks @aronkvh and @Guilhermems !

Ilya Pominov has added a feature to Gwenview 22.08 that lets you mark up and annotate images using the same annotation UI that’s in Spectacle

Gwenview is not part of the Plasma release

Dolphin now has a selection mode to make it easier to select items on a touch screen.
Elisa now has a Full Screen mode

Neither are Dolphin and Elisa

Something particularly interesting for artists: Better graphics tablet configuration on Wayland, including mapping the tablet to specific parts of the display and binding keyboard shortcuts to tablet buttons

@nicolasfella good point... And nice contribution

Hello, I think the alternate calendar is worth mentioning.

https://pointieststick.com/2022/05/20/this-week-in-kde-we-dont-like-bugs-very-much/

and

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/112

Is this different from the "Event Calendar"?

Two more questions:

• Would this be installed by default or would it have to be downloaded from the widget store?
• Are widgets considered part of the Plasma release? (not against this notion, but would like to get the perspective from Plasma devs)

If so, what about the new "Contacts" widget in the system tray? That would probably be worth mentioning too, yes?

It's another calendar system which is different from Event Calendar, and Plasma should be the first desktop environment on Linux to add support for it (it's already available on Windows, macOS and Android long time ago)

It would be installed with Plasma Addons, and many distros ship it by default.

To answer the second and the third question, the default Plasma widgets are surely part of the Plasma release, see also Plasma 5.2.0/5.3.0/5.4.0/5.5.0... release announcements.

BTW, it's just a proposal, as most users in China already know the feature will be available in Plasma 5.26.

Cool! So what do you think of including the "Contacts" widget in the announcement too? Is that something you folks can see as noteworthy?

Edit: Any other widgets we could mention? It would seem we have a bit of a lack of content and we could supplement with that, some widgets.

I don't know where is "Contact" as it's not installed on my system, is it a mobile applet?

Speaking of applets, there are many usability/vdg changes. I selected some of them:

Workspace

1. Dismiss notification popup with middle click: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/2101
2. Animated Calendar Components: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/2042
3. Force activate virtual keyboard in any applications: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/2087
4. Song title and artist in panel: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/1892
5. Warn user before opening an executable file: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/1874
6. Digital clock font size setting: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/1809
7. Configure Activities menu item: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/1946
8. Configure volume step in media controller: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/1810

Desktop

1. Keyboard layout applet now shows the custom layout name correctly: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/1090
2. Kickoff now supports displaying text in panel: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/1004
3. Pager applet animation: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/1038
4. Show Desktop is renamed to Peek Desktop: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/1036
5. Keyboard layout applet has a new "label+flag" option: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/1131
6. A page to show all sections in Kickoff: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/941

Addons

1. Leave is now default to Log out in userswitcher: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/230
2. Remove single color item in color picker instead of clearing all: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/225
3. 15Puzzle is now playable with a keyboard: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/209
4. Fresh new timer applet: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/211
5. Notes applet now remembers the scrolling and cursor positions: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/108
6. Dict applet now supports more than one dictionary: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kdeplasma-addons/-/merge_requests/159

If so, what about the new "Contacts" widget in the system tray? That would probably be worth mentioning too, yes?

Contacts widgets is from kalendar so not related to plasma ;)

Leaving this here, so we don't forget it:

Plasma 5.26: It's all about the Plasmoids

plasmoid (noun)
plas·moid /'plæs-mȯid/

1. : a widget for KDE's Plasma desktop environment.
2. : any of the moving, optional and interchangeable parts of KDE's Plasma desktop that add features to the whole and make your life easier and more fun. E.g. clocks, calendars, launchers, weather forecast widgets, contact lists, desktop games, color pickers...

In T15806#280942, @ognarb wrote:

If so, what about the new "Contacts" widget in the system tray? That would probably be worth mentioning too, yes?

Contacts widgets is from kalendar so not related to plasma ;)

So you need Kalendar installed to have the "Contacts" plasmoid? It just popped up, but, yeah, I have Kalendar installed.

What about "Animated Wallpapers"?: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests/1831

Was this not a feature before?

Now if you set your wallpaper to be a GIF or APNG, it'll be animated. Before it would just show the first frame. Whether this is a bugfix or a new feature is up to you. :)

It doesn't work with video files though; just animated image files.

Sounds like a feature to me :-)

The widget explorer now supports using keywords to search for a widget.