The latest APOC release has made several significant improvements, including easier installation in Neo4j Desktop and enhanced functionality for data manipulation, indexing, aggregation, and path expansion. The new release includes features such as support for S3 URL loading, HDFS URL writing, and compound labels in label filters. Additionally, the release adds new text functions like `apoc.text.code()` and `apoc.text.hexCharAt()`, as well as data integration capabilities with MongoDB and generic XML import. Other notable additions include graph refactoring improvements, collection functions, and a new code of conduct for contributors. The release also includes bug fixes and performance optimizations across various APOC modules.