Just announced at CES 2009, the Windows 7 beta, (x86 and x64 versions) will be available to the public on January 9 2009. (USA time)

So this means that early Saturday the beta will be available for download from one of four locations on www.microsoft.com

In the meanwhile you can read more about other announcements at CES through Microsoft PressPass, and also watch for the beta release using the Windows Team Blog RSS Feed.

Also in the news is the final release of Windows Live Essentials, which includes Windows Live Messenger 2009, Windows Live Mail 2009, amongst many other great tools. This can be found through http://www.windowslive.com/explore and although at the time of writing the download is not up yet, it should be soon. This, combined with the upcoming release of Internet Explorer 8 will complete the Windows 7 experience.

-Michael

Edit: Read this post on the Windows 7 team blog to find out more information about the upcoming beta http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/01/07/information-on-downloading-and-installing-windows-7-beta.aspx

Edit #2: My bad, 9th of Jan, aka the Friday in the USA.