The main PHP.net page has posted an announcement about the latest Release Candidate in the PHP 7.1.x series being tagged and released: PHP 7.1.0 Release Candidate 5:

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 7.1.0 Release Candidate 5. This release is the fifth release candidate for 7.1.0. All users of PHP are encouraged to test this version carefully, and report any bugs and incompatibilities in the bug tracking system.

For more information on the new features and other changes, you can read the NEWS file, or the UPGRADING file for a complete list of upgrading notes. These files can also be found in the release archive.

As a reminder, this is a release candidate and is not to be used in production. You can download and test out this latest release from the PHP.net source QA site or the Windows QA site for the binaries. The next release candidate for this version will be released on November 10th with a goal of a final release following that.

The php.net site has posted an announcement about the latest Release Candidate for the PHP 7.1.x series: PHP 7.1.0 RC 3:

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 7.1.0 Release Candidate 3. This release is the third release candidate for 7.1.0. All users of PHP are encouraged to test this version carefully, and report any bugs and incompatibilities in the bug tracking system.

[...] For more information on the new features and other changes, you can read the NEWS file, or the UPGRADING file for a complete list of upgrading notes. These files can also be found in the release archive.

As a reminder, this is a preview release and is NOT designed to be used in production . The release schedule is provided on the wiki, the next Release Candidate will be coming in early October (the 10th) with three more following. The target release date for PHP 7.1.0 is sometime in the later part of November.

The latest (and last in the series) Release Candidate for PHP 7 has been released as mentioned on php.net today. This is a development preview release only and is not intended to be used in production.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 7.0.0 RC 8. This is the thirteenth pre-release of the new PHP 7 major series. All users of PHP are encouraged to test this version carefully, and report any bugs and incompatibilities in the bug tracking system. [...] PHP 7.0.0 RC 8 contains fixes for 11 reported bugs.

This release fixes several final bugs that were preventing the final stable release of PHP 7.0.0, some relatively major. You can download this latest release from either the QA download page or from the Windows QA site. If you're interested in what's changing in this release (and in PHP 7 overall) check out the NEWS file.

On the PHP.net site a new announcement has been posted about the release of PHP 5.6.0RC1, the first release candidate in the PHP 5.6.0 series.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of the first release candidate of PHP 5.6. As we entered the feature freeze with beta1, this is a bugfix-only release. All users of PHP are encouraged to test this version carefully, and report any bugs in the bug tracking system.

As this is a release candidate, it is not valid for production use but any testing that can be done is appreciated. There's several new features coming in PHP 5.6 including constant scalar expressions, variadic functions, argument unpacking, "use const"/"use func" and many more. Check out this page in the manual for full details and code example of each. As always, you can download this preview release from the QA downloads page or here for the Windows binaries.

For those out there hiring developers to join their team, you might read up on a few tips in this new article on LinkedIn for the "things not to do" during the interview process.

It has been my observation that most recruiters and hiring managers tend to make the same common mistakes. That is why I've decided to write this new series, "Dev Recruiting 101". In it, you will have the unique opportunity to view your industry from the perspective of a veteran developer. You'll learn the secrets that will win us over and the pitfalls that will make us run for the hills. My goal is to give you the "inside scoop", as it were, about how to attract the best talent in our industry.

The list it broken out into ten different points, each with their own descriptions and real-world examples from the author's experiences:

• Discourage the candidate by telling them how lousy the job is.
• Don't show-up for the interview or initiate the call at the agreed-upon time.
• Don't speak clearly.
• "Okay, now we'd like you to write some code. Here's some blank printer paper and a #2 pencil."
• Spend 30 minutes giving a detailed history of the company, then say you've run out of time.
• "As you know, our site is an adult-oriented webcam service. How often do you watch internet porn?"
• Make the candidate spend 6 hours interviewing with virtually every single member of the engineering department.
• Ask niche-specific technical questions that are neither part of the job description nor the candidate's skillset.
• "If a plane crashes on the border between Russia and Ukraine, where do they bury the survivors?"
• Judge the candidate based on whether or not they're a telepath.

There is nothing more important in hiring the right candidate than conducting an effective interview. Not only does it help you narrow down your choices, but it's also an opportunity to show the candidate why they want to work for you and not someone else.

The PHP development group has released the latest Release Candidate for the PHP 5.5 series - Release Candidate 3. This is a development preview, so it's not to be used in production but all testing is appreciated.

To get the full changelog, please, check the NEWS file attached to the archive. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.0RC3 please visit the download page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/qa/. We were pleased if you could test this release candidate against your code base and report any problems that you encounter to the QA mailing list and/or the PHP bug tracker. Thanks you helping us making PHP better.

Bugs fixed in this release include issues causing segfaults, buffer overflows and truncation of data when hashing with hash_pbkdf2.`

On PHP.net today they've announced the release of the latest Release Candidate in the PHP 5.5.x series - PHP 5.5.0RC2.

The PHP development team announces the availability of the second release candidate of PHP 5.5. This release fixes some bugs against RC1 and improves overall stability. [...] Please help us to identify bugs in order to ensure that the release is solid and all things behave as expected. Please test this release candidate against your code base and report any problems that you encounter to the QA mailing list and/or the PHP bug tracker.

Issues corrected include a segfault when memory was used up, an issue with mbstring in PHPT tests in Windows x64 and a problem with custom exceptions. You can find the full list of changes in the NEWS file. Please download this latest release candidate (Windows here) and test it out on your systems.

Brandon Savage has a new post to his site today showing you how to compile and install PHP 5.5, the next major upcoming release for the language (in RC status as of the time of this post though).

There’s always a lag behind new releases of PHP and releases of packages for operating systems such as Ubuntu. This lag time means that you could be kept from upgrading to the latest and greatest PHP for a year or more, unless you use an outside repository like Dotdeb. [...] Instead, I roll my own version of PHP. It’s simple and easy to do, and something that any developer can do. Here’s my instructions for doing so on a fresh Ubuntu installation.

He gives a reason or two why you might want to "roll your own" installation and helps you get the environment prepared via some "aptitude" install commands for supporting software. Commands are included for installing needed dependencies, configuring/building PHP and updating Apache to use this new install. He finishes it up with a few smaller things to do like making the php.ini and enabling the Zend opcode caching extension.

As is mentioned on PHP.net today, the first release candidate for the PHP 5.5.x series, PHP 5.5.0RC1, has been released for testing:

The PHP development team announces the availability of the first release candidate of PHP 5.5. This release fixes some bugs as well as some possible leaks from our last beta. This is a development preview - do not use it in production!

Some of the more major changes in this release include an update to the FPM SAPI for QUERY_STRING, a fix for a build issue with libgd, bugs in SNMP and a problem with stream_select on Windows x64 systems. You can find the full list of changes in the NEWS file. Please download and test (Windows binaries here) this latest release to help the development team find issues and move along with the PHP 5.5.x releases.

The latest Release Candidates in the PHP 5.3.x and 5.4.x series and are available for download and testing - PHP 5.3.18RC1 and PHP 5.4.8RC1:

We've released PHP 5.3.18RC1 and 5.4.8RC1. This is a regular bugfix release, the full list of issues fixed can be found in the NEWS files. Please test and report if anything is broken. If no critical issues is found in this RC, the final version will be released in two weeks.

Bugs fixed in this release include issues with is_callable, the catching of an exception in an __autoload call, fixes for the SOAP an dSPL extensions as well as updates to the CLI server (501 response, PATCH support) and changes to the DOM, FPM and cURL extensions. You can download these latest Candidates and get testing here:

5.3.18RC1:

• http://downloads.php.net/johannes/php-5.3.18RC1.tar.bz2
• http://downloads.php.net/johannes/php-5.3.18RC1.tar.gz

5.4.8RC1:

• http://downloads.php.net/stas/php-5.4.8RC1.tar.bz2
• http://downloads.php.net/stas/php-5.4.8RC1.tar.gz

Windows binaries for both as always are at: http://windows.php.net/qa/