The Beta 1.2b update came yesterday. And a 1.2e patch came today to fix something unrelated to TM. But here's some info from Beta 1.2b release notes:

Click the link for full release notes which includes info about ShootMania updates:
http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic.php?p=118271#p118271

I've edited the quote with what I could see was applicable to TM or general MP stuff that TM players would be interested in.

"Gugli" says:
We are currently releasing Beta 1.2b. This update mostly contains bugfixes and some little improvements such as client bandwith optimisation.

Changelog :

General

• Added maniaplanet://#qjoin=server@title and #qspectate for "quick/quiet join" that skips the connection dialog.
  
• Manialink quads : new attribute "bgcolorfocus" of type Vec3, allowing to change focus effect color.
  
• Clouds and sprite animations were sometimes "not smooth"

Trackmania

• fixed the newly added tunnel blocks. warning: may break some maps, most notably the double checkpoint in tunnels is changed.

A recent English interview with Annki:
http://youtu.be/AqV55wTqRnw

Mostly she talked about ShootMania and the concept behind TrackMania and ManiaPlanet. Much of that we already know, but it's also interesting to hear again from the developers.

But there was some news about Valley:

TM2 Valley release by the end of the year.
TM2 Valley news at an event in 2 weeks.

The object importer was anticipated to come with 1.3 today. However, it's been postponed to 1.4.

We should hear some more information on how it will work before 1.4 though.

For more info: http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic.php?p=121844#p121844