It looks like the new 17" MacBook Pros won't actually begin shipping until the first week of February. That's the impression I get from reading the official Apple support forums. People mention though that they've been known to ship sooner on new products, so who knows.
I put in my order on Amazon, as best I can tell, within an hour of when it appeared there. And I can still cancel. Now that the initial holy crap has worn off, I know that a 15" model would actually be adequate for the most part, but there are two features I have a hard time overlooking. The bigger screen at the ridiculous resolution is great for coding (I know this from the 24" screen at the same resolution I'm sitting at). And the other thing is obviously that battery. Eight hours is a long time. Heck, even if real world is only six hours, that's still a hell of a charge.
And of course, this is gonna have to last three years, much as the previous one has. I do get frustrated with the old one because of the RAM limitations, but other than the random shut-off issues that were fixed, it has served me in a remarkably reliable fashion. It continues to be the best computer I've ever had.
I'll keep the order in, for now.