If you read GW2 twitter account they say more news on the beta applications will be becoming soon. I'm guessing toward the end of this week-middle of next week then the beta can commence the second week in March as speculated.
>_<42/50 for me. I can't be bothered to go buy Obsidian Armour. I can't be bothered to finish off the Zaishen Title Track
I've been sat on about 97% for all the maps for years... just can't be bothered scraping. Such a waste of time.
Ohhh dear, sucks to be you. I put speculated as I'm almost certain it has been confirmed somwhere but I couldn't find the source. I may be wrong but something is bugging in my head that it has been confrimed as the 9th March.
EDIT: Definitely hasn't been confirmed, just saw this on twitter, posted 11 mins ago
@GuildWars2
Hi folks, just to confirm, the sign ups last week are for a chance at the next (end of march) and following beta events for #GuildWars2 ~AT
So there we have it, first public closed beta at the end of March (guessing 30th)!
Depending on how well the beta goes, what do you think the lead time is for launch? 2-3 months after?
I'd stick my money on the end of June. Form the press footage the game looks really polished for it being in beta phase, never mind closed beta. A lot of the press playign have said the same. Don't think it will take too long until launch. They have also commented that there are hardly any bugs they came across, although they did only get access to level 30. Also another reason to add to that prediction is this photo from the Arena Net offices:
SNIP
Yeah ok, it has been spoken about endlessly but I think it's too well placed and too coincidental to not be at least a hint.
As far as the next beta goes, they've said they are testing stress on their servers. So I'm expecting quite a lot to be invited. Trade off of that is that it will be almost definitely laggy as hell.

And the game is so polished already! Most other MMO's would have had a release even in its current state (yes, I know Arenanet are trying something above that... but bleh).