Indeed. Besides traditional bug fixes (more than 700) the new IDE introduces some new features that will please many users. First of all there is the arduino-builder that brings compiling and linking fom the command line to the user. This tool will baffle newbies (remember? They were the initial target audience of Arduino.), but should be a great help for advanced users that up to now had to fight the IDE to get their thing done. But then again, these users should move on to more powerfull tools that were designed for doing just that.

Two other major features are the pluggable USB core and the the serial plotter. The latter enables the IDE to display in real time graphs of data received over the serial port and . The pluggable USB core is an extension that opens up the USB port of many Arduino boards to allow them to be used as something else than just a serial device.

Arduino IDE serial plotter

The new Elektor Platino board v1.4 integrates seamlessly into the new IDE thanks to the board manager. A simple installation of the Platino Board Package is enough to unleash the power of Platino in Arduino 1.6.6, making all its processors and peripherals available at the click of a mouse.

BTW, did I mention that there exists also an IDE version 1.7.7? This is the IDE maintained by the other Arduino, arduino.org. Oh yes, Arduino is getting more and more complex every day.