The current Home link does provide the new and recently updated posts, similar to how the plugin before worked, just in a different place.
Also, if click on your name in the upper right of the page, the drop down has the links for "View New Posts" and "View Today's Posts".
And, just to stir the pot a bit - why does the forum need to be built on CI? I love CI, don't get me wrong, but you should always use the best tool for the job, not just always a framework because you're used to it. That said, a forum is something that I've always wanted to write and have done lite versions of projects, so you never know what we'll see in the coming months.
