As you can see, a lot of new and useful stuff is packed into the Fireworks public beta. If it can speed up my workflow, is easy to learn, and boosts my creative options, I'm very interested.
In addition to my 10 favorite new features covered here, the Fireworks public beta offers export support for Flex skins and Air applications, and panel and overall UI improvements. That said, some things are still missing: Support for Photoshop filters, improved bitmap and vector editing tools, advanced color management, and the ability to work easily with grouped elements are some of the items yet to be addressed. But remember that this is only a beta. Who knows what surprises may be around the corner when next version Fireworks is officially released?