ArsTechnica reports that Microsoft is preparing a third beta of MSIE 7.0 to be released some time in August. The extended beta period seems to have been prompted by compatibility issues that users have found with the first two IE 7 betas. One such issue, described in great detail on Microsoft's IEBlog, involved a problem where the browser would sometimes reload CAPTCHA images (character recognition tests used to fool spambots) when a network connection was idle. The Beta 3 release isexpected to fix problems with some of the new features, such as the integrated RSS reader. Beta 3 will add an ability to control whether or not an article is marked as read. However, don't expect any major interface changes. According to an interview with IE 7 developers, there will be no new abilities to customize the interface, for example to put buttons and menus in customizable locations.