Google began inviting volunteers to a public preview test of their new Wave web-based collaborative email and document communications platform yesterday, which enables users to "communicate and work together in real time." Initial reviews this past May seemed positive. (Previously) [more inside]
posted by zarq on Oct 1, 2009 - 75 comments

Microsoft is giving away a nifty piece of software. It's the beta of Expressions 3 by Creature House, something I used to use back in my Mac days but hadn't heard anything about in a long time. Apparently MS bought Creature House last year. I downloaded it (after filling out a somewhat arduous survey/profile thingy) and think it a nice drawing program. Both Mac and Win versions are posted.
posted by bz on Jun 9, 2004 - 30 comments

Every drug dealer knows you give away the first hits for free. Earth & Beyong Free Beta & Magic : The Gathering Online free test drive. [details inside...]
posted by crunchland on Aug 5, 2002 - 18 comments

Beta Blues: Do consumers deserve protection when software companies sell bad or untested code? Is checking for a patch the first thing you do after you install new software? Aren't you tired of being a member of Microsoft's largest beta testing group...the consumer? Read this article and add your opinion to the poll.
posted by Spanktacular on May 16, 2001 - 9 comments

For all the early adopters out there, here's the early Netscape 6 beta which is 16 Mb and runs on Win32 systems. The real beta should be out April 5th, and I hear it will be around 5 Mb.
posted by mathowie on Mar 31, 2000 - 3 comments

Live Motion BETA by Adobe is open to the public. Looks like a nice tool.
posted by webshaping on Mar 6, 2000 - 2 comments

Odigo 2.0 is now out, and it fully integrates with ICQ. I just installed it, and it imported a bit too much. All the ICQ users on my ignore list showed up in Odigo, and my renamed friends showed up as their original ICQ names. The status indicators seem to be broken too, but it's beta so I guess that's alright. Of course, nobody uses it, so I don't see any other people when I'm surfing even the most popular sites, but if everyone starts using this new release, perhaps that will change.
posted by mathowie on Jan 24, 2000 - 0 comments

BetaNews is an interesting resource. It keeps track of beta releases.

I love the beta testing. I wear my Dr. Solomon's shirt all the time. :)
posted by tdecius on Oct 6, 1999 - 0 comments