Love it or loathe it, Wordpress is the engine behind over 25 million web sites. That's a lot of blogging. The beauty of the platform is the way that it separates layout from content.

Using standard HTML, JavaScript and CSS you can make a Wordpress site look any way you like. But there's no need to do all that coding from scratch when there are so many ready to use themes available for free.

And, to make it even easier, we've picked out 20 of the very best WordPress themes around.

1. Extreme Typewriter

Edgy, unusual and contemporary, Extreme Typewriter is a simple, eminently hackable theme that looks good and works well from installation onwards. There are few frills, but a tabbed menu for fixed pages is very welcome.

2. VeryPlainTxt

This clean, plain theme pays homage to hipster lit repository McSweeney's. VeryPlainTxt is a great theme for customisation - and it'll need it. Not because it doesn't look good, but because it's so popular.

3. Handgloves

Tastefully designed, Handgloves combines modular navigation tools with social media integration. By default, the text is styled using Helvetica - which of course only works if the user has Helvetica installed...

4. The Morning After

WooThemes is home to an extensive premium Wordpress design catalogue and The Morning After is one of their freebies. It's not a cut-down, commercial theme though. It's a fully featured magazine-style layout, well worth the download.

5. Vector Flower

EZwpthemes specialise in graphically striking layouts with colourful backgrounds. We're a fan of the site's more illustrative templates. Vector Flower's a popular choice - ideal for arty bloggers.

6. ClearPress

Fully widgetised, with three newspaper style columns and a dynamic dropdown menu for navigation, ClearPress is a good choice for news sites. Pages can still be quickly and readily accessed above the fold links.

7. Charlene

If you like your blog to be clean and readable, Charlene could be the template for you. With chunky headlines and clean sans text, it gives you a basic two column layout for straightforward blogging.

8. WPESP Portfolio

WPESP uses its two columns in a different way to traditional blog layouts, with the sidebar reserved for images rather than navigation. Ace for designers, photographers and cartoonists.

9. theSevenFive

Fancy using Wordpress like FriendFeed - but with complete control over the look and layout? theSevenFive theme's what you're looking for, with built in support for Flickr, Vimeo, Twitter and more.

10. The Side Blog

The second of Press75's freebies, The Side Blog is a simple but great looking black and grey blogging layout. With thumbnails in sidebar navigation and page links above the fold, it's professional yet simple.

11. Modularity Lite

Graph Paper Press are better known for premium themes, so the high quality of Modularity Lite should come as no surprise. Fully Wordpress 3.0 ready, with widget and menu support, there are built in image cropping tools too.

12. Neutica

We recommend this popular layout for design conscious bloggers. Striking and modern, you might need to hack the colour scheme to make sure your blog stands out from any other Neutica's around.

13. Cleanr

You can't get much cleaner than Cleanr, a simple black and white design with splashes of red. It's great for project blogging and Tumblr style scrapbooking.

14. Neonsential

Combining slick widgets with a clean lines, Neonsential is set to be a popular pick. Stuffed full of useful gadgets like drop down menus, related posts and ad blocks, all you have to do is a bit of tweaking to make it your own.

15. Color Paper

You'll find lots of scrappy, grungy themes if you look hard enough. Color Paper's the only one that really cuts it. Bonus points: you can download the original Photoshop file, for easier customisation.

16. Artarius

Artarius gets the blogging balance right with good looks and useful features. Our favourite; an AJAX powered slideshow of posts at the top of the page.

17. Delicate

Delicate's what it's called and delicate is how it looks. With widget support it's easy to customise and Flickr integration makes it a good choice for photography fans.

18. The Erudite

If you want your site to be all about the writing, give The Erudite a go. JavaScript powered menus make for a clean reading experience, with clever use of drop caps. It's easy to customise with dashboard settings too.

19. Retromania

Retromania's natural textures make it easy on the eye - and the Photoshop source images are available for theme hackers.

20. ComicPress

ComicPress gives you the tools to craft a site that places visual imagery up front and centre. Highly configurable, it's the best quality free Wordpress template we know.

An Apple iPad featuring FaceTime videocalling is due to be released in early 2011, according to reports from Apple's suppliers in Asia.

Display component vendors undergoing validation with Apple right now have revealed that the updated iPad will arrive at some point in the second quarter of 2011, suggesting that we could be seeing iPad 2 arriving at some point in the spring next year.

FaceTime iPad calls

DigiTimes claims that Apple suppliers expect that the updated iPad will arrive by the second quarter of 2011, featuring full FaceTime video-calling compatibility.

DigiTimes goes on to cite TPK Touch Solutions, Wintek, Cando, and Chimei Innolux as suppliers for Apple's next gen ultra-thin touch panels, set to feature reinforced glass.

All display components in testing are for a 9.7-inch screen size, so it seems like we might forget those rumours of a small-screen Apple iPad. At least for now.

FaceTime is already available on the iPhone 4 and the recently-released 4th-gen iPod touch