I was discussing with my hosting provider how best to publish some of the geographic data I have gathered. We came to the conclusion that a WCF service would be the best solution. So we sat down and got the database set up, the webservice set up. Everything looked fine until we published it (to the beta server, fortunately). Big fat exception. It turns out that WCF and IXmlSerializable are not mutually compatible. So if you are using the SVN server for code updates, you will notice that pretty much every single file has gotten an overhaul. This is because the control previously used the IXmlSerializable interface to define how the map objects' state was serialized. Other people have written rants about the lack of mutual compatibility between IXmlSerializable and DataContracts, so I won't repeat that. The code based was changed to use IStateSerializable and presto, it now works with WCF.
So unless you are thinking about using the control in WCF services, you don't really need the upgrade.
If on the other hand, you would like to start integrating external geographic data into your application get in touch with DNNHost. They can help you hook into a large database of geographic information, or they can help you get your own data, whether you are using shapefiles or KML, into a hosted database and start analyzing it and generate reports and maps.
I don't normally do sales pitches, but this is actually a good offer for anyone who wants access to either dig more information out of their existing geographic data or simply get access to more data for a richer application. And did I mention that their service level is 5 star?