Java SE 6 Beta offers the first feature complete version of next major release of the Java SE platform. Sun expects to ship the final release of Java SE 6 in the fall of 2006.

The key new features (I care about) are:

  • New Smart Card I/O API
  • New Client and Core Java Architecture for XML-Web Services (JAX-WS) 2.0 APIs
  • New custom deployment facilities
  • Improved desktop performance and integration

Are you convinced yet? You can download the beta here.