Mojang Specifications released the beta 1.2 patch for Minecraft today, introducing a long list of changes and additions to the game. Some of the highlights include:
New Features
* Note blocks (right click to tune, trigger to play)
* 15 wool dyes
* A new water dwelling mob
* New tree types
* Reeds magically turned into sugar canes. They still make paper.
* A bunch of new crafting recipes
* One secret useful block
* One secret pretty block
* Cake
Bug Fixes
* Paintings work in multiplayer
* Disconnecting while riding no longer keeps the player in the world
* A bunch more state is properly synched in multiplayer
* Fixed colors going weird on PowerPC
* Fixed a horrible chunk reload loop in singleplayer
* Fixed most lighting bugs in newly generated SMP maps
* Falling sand behaves better in SMP
* Fixed a few crash on load level bugs
Source: http://minethe.blogspot.com/2011/01/minecraft-beta-12.html
New Features
* Note blocks (right click to tune, trigger to play)
* 15 wool dyes
* A new water dwelling mob
* New tree types
* Reeds magically turned into sugar canes. They still make paper.
* A bunch of new crafting recipes
* One secret useful block
* One secret pretty block
* Cake
Bug Fixes
* Paintings work in multiplayer
* Disconnecting while riding no longer keeps the player in the world
* A bunch more state is properly synched in multiplayer
* Fixed colors going weird on PowerPC
* Fixed a horrible chunk reload loop in singleplayer
* Fixed most lighting bugs in newly generated SMP maps
* Falling sand behaves better in SMP
* Fixed a few crash on load level bugs
Source: http://minethe.blogspot.com/2011/01/minecraft-beta-12.html