I guess I read it somewhere either on SEOMOZ or DaveN about the Page Rank updation not sure about the source but according to that it was due on around 1st week of July..... my 2 cents Tirmizi
(And I sincerely don't mean this sarcastically...) It obviously matters enough to Google for them to put the time, energy, and finances into it that they do. I take that as a hint not to entirely ignore PR, as some recommend.
That is something i have never actually considered, perhaps its the whole social "riff" that Google Pagerank causes that makes it worth while. If anything its definitely free publicising.