I'm not sure when it came out, but it's out.
try it at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/

or check out what's new at http://tv.adobe.com/product/lightroom

if you have not used lightroom before, good time to try, as it is a free beta version good 'till April 2010. Though some features are disabled still.

My favorite new features (after the first few minutes)
The color noise reduction works better
panels have manual control override (so they don't fly open when you're trying to scroll) - accessible through right click.
vignetting is not just paint over images anymore, so it looks nicer
It looks like most of the changes done were in collection managing. There are quite a few new helpful changes that speed up managing the picture collections.

Also important is access to Lightroom Exchange. This (I hope) will allow you download camera profiles without having to wait for a new version of lightroom, as well as giving you access to plugins for lightroom. Lightroom 3 Beta came with the flickr uploader, so you can publish pictures directly to your flickr account.

it also looks like the sharpening is working better

Again, this is still a beta, and I found that I was unable to import a lightroom 2 database, and am not looking to convert my entire library to DNGs (though I should...) But it will be interesting to test it over the next bit, as time allows, to see what else is new.


Some of the new features included for you to play with in the Lightroom 3 beta are:

* Brand new performance architecture, building for the future of growing image libraries
* State-of-the-art noise reduction to help you perfect your high ISO shots
* Watermarking tool that helps you customize and protect your images with ease
* Portable sharable slideshows with audio designed to give you more flexibility and impact on how you choose to share your images, you can now save and export your slideshows as videos and include audio
* Flexible customizable print package creation so your print package layouts are all your own
* Film grain simulation tool for enhancing your images to look as gritty as you want
* New import handling designed to make importing streamlined and easy
* More flexible online publishing options so you can post your images online to certain online photo sharing sites directly from inside Lightroom 3 beta (may require third-party plug-ins)*