WordPress version 2.7 public beta 1 is now available for download. According to the news posted by Ryan Boren:

As previously mentioned on this blog, 2.7 is bringing a new visual design.  This design is almost completely implemented, but there are still a few areas that aren’t quite finished in Beta 1.  There are also several glitches in certain browsers.  Beta 1 provides the best experience in Firefox and Safari. Don’t worry, we are working on IE and Opera and will have those looking good in time for the final release.

Related to this release is the updated time-table for the official release of 2.7. The development team admits they are about 2 weeks behind and because of this, the November 10 release date is no longer accurate. The explanation of what they hope to expect follows:

Our plan is to keep working as if Nov. 10 is still the release date.  However, instead of releasing the final 2.7 on the 10th, we will make a release candidate available instead.  The release candidate is intended to be a high-quality, almost-finished release that we are comfortable recommending for broad use

WP Junkie is slated to go live on January 1, 2009.

2009 is going to be a great year, especialy in the sense of WordPress News.