New Manual?

Anybody got any idea when the new manual will be ready?

Which one? You mean Essential Blender at http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/ ?

the wiki update for 2.44 is largely complete. Entire sections, like Character Animation, have been supplanted by the book by Bugman_2000. SSS is documented, etc. The to-do-list is off the main wiki page.