Kris77

I'm not sure actually, not many tend to say where they are from. We do have some Aus users for the R1.
If your username/email for this forum is the same as the Netgear community/signup details then nothing, we'll just try and get you bumped up.
The people who are using it are posting there rather than here about any issues they may have. If we gave an untested firmware to 1000's of users at once, for a product that controls their internet connection there is the potential for a lot of chaos there. More calculated beta waves is the best way to go to make sure we're on top of any issues. We will continue to expand the groups and eventually it will roll into an open beta.
There will be an announcement, you'll have to wait and see what it is about.
It's in beta right now, people are using it. It's not like typical betas for other things you may have tried, this is a proper beta used for feedback and bug fixing. We will increase the group sizes to ensure stability.

To all of you asking about when you'll be added to the beta:
I'm going to get you all moved to the front of the queue, expect to hear something within the next few days.