Diablo 3 Rune changes detailed and Patch 13

After months of speculation about Diablo 3’s rune system, Blizzard’s Jay Wilson finally revealed the changes during this evening’s Beta patch 13 update.
Runes are now no longer items and are automatically assigned at certain levels which can then be applied into skills. Jay Wilson released a lengthy post explaining why they have made the changes to the system which you can read here.
In other Diablo 3 news, the Patch 13 update (see notes) introduces the rune changes along with a whole load of game updates including art. Right now the Diablo: IncGamers team are digging deep into the game files and if you keep an eye on the site there will be continual updates throughout the evening highlighting changes that are not in the documented notes.
Interestingly enough, the new updater in this patch shows the icon as Diablo 3 Retail so could we be getting closer to a release date?