Groan! Apparently Mojang were aiming at releasing Minecraft 1.3 in late April. We better be waiting on something good! Turns out, we are...
Wooden Slabs are now available in Spruce, Birch and Redwood varieties,
Cocoa Plants are now found growing in Jungles, have a new texture and fall of Redwood Leaves,
Villagers spawned from eggs will now have a random profession,
Wooden tools now burn in furnaces,
'Large Biomes' world type for people who like things one at a time,
Mobs are less glitchy in SMP,
Silk Touch obtains Ice once again and also can retrieve Glass Panes,
Shift-clicking for Armour and Brewing Stands,
Dispensers can shoot Boats onto water and Minecarts onto tracks,
Powered Minecarts (Minecart with furnace) are now useful in Creative as it can feed of held Coal/Charcoal,
Flying is smooth whilst traveling through lava and water in Creative Mode,
Commands in SSP (no need for SPC!)
'Bonus Chest' mode available for World Generation, you will be given a chest next to the spawn containing necessities,
Demo modes to play Minecraft Full,
You can publish your own books in the game with the Written Book and Book and Quill (up to 50 pages! Much more than signs),
Sounds are fully functional in Multiplayer,
As are Fishing Rod Lines,
New Multiplayer Modes! HMP, Hardcore Multiplayer and Singleplayer worlds make a local and private server (Like Download Play on a DS, for example),
Faster chunk loading in Multiplayer,
Better Creative shift-clicking,
Wood, Saplings and other tree/wooden stuff is now named from it's dependent tree,
Empty buckets stack to 16, very handy,
Trading with Villagers by right-click and giving them...
EMERALDS!!! Found in extremely rare ores or obtained (again with trade) from the village Priest,
Better texture for Gravel (nice one Junkboy),
Ender Chests, which are portkey-style chests which create a link. Any Ender Chests in the world will feed off what you put in one of your own. Have one by your spawn point!,
Villages generate in more places and adapt to their habitat. Desert Villages are made of Sandstone, for instance,
The Golden Apple has remained the same, but if crafted with Gold Blocks will have longer, more and better effects,
Stars shine more but are slightly smaller,
Sandstone Stairs have been added,
Dispensers now eject Water and Lava from buckets (also works with blocks 8, 9, 10 and 11 if there is an empty bucket in there),
Dispenser shift-clicking,
New structure! Pyramids! Spawn in deserts and are made of Sandstone and Orange Wool. Under the single Blue Wool block will be a trap, if you can fall and NOT land on the Pressure Plate, you will survive and collect the incredibly good loot (Gold, Emeralds and Diamonds among them). They can generate above or underground but underground will have the tip above the surface,
The creative inventory is more user-friendly also including Potions at the end.
So maybe the wait is worth it,
AppleCor