"Blender 2.44 was intended to be an upgrade release, mainly for plenty of bug fixes, but the developers took the effort of adding at least a few interesting new features."

Now there's an understatement.

They've done it again! Let's get right to the details:

This version now is fully 64-bits compatible, new modifers were added, a couple of composite nodes were added, and a revamp of the old mesh primitives was done. But most relevant to mention is Blender 2.44's new long-awaited but unexpected feature: subsurface scattering (SSS) support!

FFMPEG is now included in the Windows builds

Sculpt and MultiRes bug fixes and improvements

Subsurface Scattering is a new material option

There have been a large number of python script additions and updates, as well as API improvements

Two new Composite nodes have been added: Gamma and Bright/Contrast

Two new Modifiers: Smooth and Cast

The Action and NLA editors have now better control over visible channels. A new constraint was added, and a "preview range" option was added.

Blender now is 64-bits safe again. That safety is on two different levels.

The Bullet physics engine has had some changes which should give better reproducibility and precision/quality for physics simulations.

The mesh primitives have been revisited, improving their usability and pushing them a little beyond their previous state. This includes the addition of a new Torus primitive! 3D Window Animated view option (User preset) allows interpolation of view changes, set the "Smooth View" milliseconds above zero to enable.

Fly Mode: Holding Shift decreases mouse wheel and panning influence to a 10th. Fly mode now respects the objects location axis locking, so you can fly over land and look down without flying into it.

Snapping: Editmode snapping now works to snap to vertices in another selected object as well.

Hide and Unhide can be done in Object Mode by pressing H to hide, Alt+H to unhide and Shift+H to hide unselected. This was only accessible in the outliner for version 2.43.

Hook menu (Object Mode) to recenter or center cursor for all hooks used by a mesh, This is the same as accessing from the modifier panel but useful when making adjustments with menu hooks.

SubSurf can be enable/disable in linked Library data. The subsurf setting will not be saved but changing the setting is useful for previews.

Transform properties panel now shows Parent bone (Object to Bone) User Interface Running Blender in debug mode now prints the subversion of .blend files.

"File" menu: Option "Load Factory Settings" added. This shows the original .B.blend as compiled in Blender. It doesn't save over things.

the recently saved files list now has a user preset to define how many entries it has.

Switch screen hotkey, CTRL+Left/Rightarrow now cycles.

Menus now scroll with mouse wheel. Activate menu items only with Enter key.

Blender in X11 (Linux, Solaris and Irix) will start with window decorations by default. Various editors In Outliner, shift+click on item with [Li] icon, gives name of Library file

Sound Window now has option "lock view to other 2d windows" too.

Create/delete vertex groups now is possible in Object mode too (using the buttons in editbuttons).

Sequencer, Add new strips: Selecting multiple movie/audio files in filewindow now adds each of them.

UV/Image Editor: "Add New Image": you now can set alpha and color, "Pack Charts" in the UVs menu to pack selected groups of UV coordinates into a non overlapping layout.

Composite: Blur Nodes now react to ESC properly.

Curve editmode: Ctrl Alt H: Hide Point(s), Alt H: Show All Points

Get more details at the official Blender release log webpage.

Get Blender 2.44 (32 bits)

Get Blender 2.44 (64 bits)

Also, you may want to download the demo files provided. They provide a good reference for bug hunting, and also serve as a valuable demo overview for new users.

Demo Files: NL USA

(additional demo files are available at the bottom of the download pages, in the Regression Files section.)

IMPORTANT: Help spread the word! Digg It!

ENJOY and A Special Thank You to the Blender Development Team!