I’m curious about the capabilities of the UI that we can expect when it’s first released. Specifically, I’m thinking about aligning the print to the object that I want to cut/engrave. Suppose I have an object that I want to engrave, but I only have one of those objects available (an example would be a smartphone). Let’s say that I place the phone in the glowforge at a slight angle. Will the UI give us the ability to rotate the print in relation to the print surface? What about any automated help to do so? Will it be able to “snap” to straight edges (like the edge of the phone)? What about automatically being able to detect the edges of an object (the 4 corners of a piece of acrylic for example) and positioning the print in the exact center of the print? I have a bunch of other examples of things I can see myself or others needing to align the print vs the object in various ways. I’m curious what (if any) of these capabilities will be available at launch vs available later vs never going to be available (or no current plans for).
Realizing that this doesn’t specifically answer your questions, it may still be useful to point out that the camera registration can be used to view the design over the target, allowing you to adjust the target object until it’s “just right.” I get that you’re asking the flip side – can the software align to your object instead of vice versa.
@dan has said he is anxious to show off the new software features at the faire!
We are all on edge 
Rotate is done. Lots more is in the hopper but we won’t be showing it until it’s done. 
At the moment, our alignment is optimized for a sheet of thin cardboard, so material that’s thicker (like 1/8" acrylic or 1/4" plywood) has an offset between the preview and where it actually engraves by 0.1-0.2" or so. That, and many more things, will be polished in the vision system in the next few months.
–dan