I haven't seen any threads about this yet - so I just through I would give a heads up.

Adobe had recently provided Lightroom 3 Beta for free download

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/

Has anyone checked it out?

I just found out about the Version 3 beta today, so I downloaded and installed the 64 bit version (yay 64 bit version!).  I still use version 1.4 and have been waiting for 3x to come out for upgrading.  I really like the gradient tool for getting rid of too dark a sky from over-polarization.  I noticed however that in the noise level controls the luminance slider doesn't work, but the other two do.  So far I think it'll be worth the upgrade for me.

do you like lightroom 3?
i don't know but i find it slower.... 
especially the import dialog is really a heavy load as it is preloading all the raw photos.....

I can concur the program is large, and yes importing photos take forever. I have had to give up on using it a few times especially when the file folder contains large # of RAW files

What I found most useful is the Watermark tool, where one can create/edit watermark, save as preset and export with the preset.

for the watermark, what I do is when I have an image ready for export, I select Edit -> edit watermark, type in the text u want, and save as a preset, give it a name.
then when u export, when the export menu pops up, scroll down and under the section titled "Watermarking", select the  yr watermark file you want and hit Export, the exported image should have the watermark on it.