ESET has released NOD32 Antivirus 6 and Smart Security 6 to public beta, and is attempting to lure early adopters by offering a chance to win one of 500 one-year licences for Smart Security.

Top of the new feature list must be Anti-Theft, a web service which aims to help you locate missing devices. If you’ve enabled anything similar on your phone or tablet then you’ll know what to expect – you can log on with a browser, perhaps see the position of your device on a map, view grabs of the laptop’s screen, and so on – but it’s still a welcome addition to the packages. (Although it’s in NOD32 solely for the beta: normally Anti-Theft will be in Smart Security only.)

And even if you don’t plan on making use of Anti-Theft, protect at least one device with it and you’ll automatically be entered in a prize draw to win a full one-year licence of Smart Security 6. The contest runs between May 17 and June 17, 2012, and there will be 100 winners every week, with the company notifying the lucky ones via email.

ESET Smart Security 6 gains idle-time scanning and a new anti-theft feature

Elsewhere, the program’s new idle detection means it’s able to scan your system when you’re not around. Update rollback means you can easily revert to a previous edition of your database. And Smart Security’s firewall, along with the antivirus heuristics and cloud-based file reputation system have all seen notable improvements.

As ever, it’s important to keep in mind that these are betas, with some significant bugs. ESET report that the programs may current crash when restoring an object from quarantine, for instance, which could prove fatal if it’s a system-critical file that’s been tagged in error. Make sure you’ve a full system backup available before you install either package.

If that’s not a problem, though, first builds of Smart Security 6 and NOD32 Antivirus 6 are available now. Don’t forget to protect something with Anti-Theft right away to give yourself the maximum chance of winning a Smart Security licence.