Great Interview with Michael Stuart on .Net Rocks Show. He's the main guy behind the Microsoft Application Blocks (Data Access, Exception Managent) and he talks about the future blocks (named 'blue bricks') that will arrive. Some cool stuff is on the way:

- UIP (User Interface Process) which encompasses the model-view-controller pattern

- Caching : Not just in ASP.NET anymore

- Updated Data Access Blocks - Now the data layer is completely decoupled of the database type. You can now choose Providers to be used with the blocks

- Secure Configuration Blocks .Save settings securely to config files and even using the safe storage facility in windows

- Application updater (using BITS protocol!)