diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index cd9138ee3c..b38508d339 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,4 +1,13 @@
 
+Version 0.8.1 - March 22, 2011
+
+- Make --user, --pass actually work
+
+- Add User-Agent HTTP header to requests, so that server operators may
+  more easily identify the miner client.
+
+- Fix minor bug in example JSON config file
+
 Version 0.8 - March 21, 2011
 
 - Support long polling: http://deepbit.net/longpolling.php
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0271eb3f28..730b0d7b73 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-AC_INIT([cpuminer], [0.8])
+AC_INIT([cpuminer], [0.8.1])
 
 AC_PREREQ(2.52)
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([cpu-miner.c])