1.8 PREVIEW!

1.8 and 1.9 list of feature:
"Adventure Update"
Known as the "Adventure Update", meant to flesh out the game a bit and make exploration and combat more rewarding.[1][2] Note that this is not Adventure Mode.[3][4]
Fixes and Changes:
Shift+Click on items will work correctly.[5]
Labels for items will be added.[6]
Redstone circuits not working after /time set x glitch going to be fixed in SMP.[7]
User-placed leaf blocks won't decay.[8]
Clouds won't go through buildings anymore.[9][10]
Rain and snow will now render faster.[11]
Cloud movement syncs with the time.[12]
Ghast attack sounds will be fixed in SMP.[13]
Skeletons now hold full-size bows.[14] (found at 7:00)
Skeleton arrows originate from about their eyes to the bow, instead of above the head.
The snout on pigs will protrude from their head.[15]
Pressing F will no longer alter render distance/fog, but will still be adjustable from the options screen.[16][17]
Passive mobs will randomly flee if attacked by the player or other mobs (such as Wolves). [18]
More Mob-To-Mob interactions. [19]
Armor bar moved to above hearts, due to food bar.[20]
Features:
At least 9 new crafting recipes.[21]
Stone Brick.[22]
Stone Brick Slabs.[23]
Stone Brick Stairs.[24][25]
Brick Slabs.[23]
Brick Stairs.[24][25]
Fence Gates.[26] [27] (around 0:52)
The ability to place pressure plates on fences.[12] (around 19:55 in)
Different game modes.[28]
Creative mode.[12] (around 3:10 in)
Flying in Creative mode.[12][29]
Able to change time quickly and easily.[12] (around 6:00 in) Note:Notch is in debug mode[12] (around 5:36 in)
You will get unlimited resources in Creative mode.[12] (around 11:20 in)
A new screen, the Unlimited Item Selection screen.[30]
At least three new mobs.
New Enderman mob.[31][32]
They take damage from water.[12] (around 32:10 in)[29]
They emit black smoke particles.[29]
New Silverfish mob.[12] (around 13:10 in)
Very rare.[12] (around 13:10 in)
Will spawn rarely when mining a block.
New Blue Spider mob.[33]
They spawn in Abandoned Mine Shafts.[34]
Their attacks are venomous, and turn the player's health yellow upon being poisoned.[35]
Have a unique mob spawner.
They are smaller than regular spiders.[33]
Zombies drop a new item instead of feathers,[36][37] Rotten Flesh.[12] (around 11:40 in)
New features in the terrain generator; things which will only appear in new worlds/chunks.[38]
Optional[39] NPC Villages[40] with farms[41] and "town borders".[42][43]
Possibility of players to "claim" land in villages.[44]
Wells for villages.[45]
Made of: Cobblestone, Mossy Cobblestone, Wooden Planks, Wood, Torches, Cobblestone Stairs, Gravel, Fence, Glass and/or Glass Panes, Ladders, Wooden Doors, Crops, Farmland, Water, Lava, Furnaces, Iron Bars, Black Wool, and Pressure Plates.[12] (around 3:50 - 4:30; 19:30 - 20:00)
Contain "Smithies".[46]
Will spawn only on flat areas.[47]
Underground Ravines including canyons on the surface and ledges to walk on.[48][49][50] (about 24:00 in)
Strongholds,[51] consisting of 4 new blocks: Stone Brick, Mossy Stone Brick, Cracked Stone Brick, and Iron Bars.[52]
Abandoned Mine Shafts.[12] (around 13:55 in)[50] (about 25:55 in)
Naturally found Cobweb.[12] (around 13:55 in)
Totally new, fractal-based[53] biome code.[54]
7 new biomes.[12] (around 24:25)
New "Mushroom biome".[55] which will include Huge Mushrooms, both brown and red.[56]
Rivers flowing through/in between biomes.[57]
Ocean Biomes, that are deeper and larger than before.[58]
Mountain biomes.[12] (around 29:15)
Swamp biome.[59]
Possibly new rainforest biomes.
Possible Volcanoes.[12] (around 22:00)
Larger Biomes.[60]
New combat Mechanics.[40]
Hold-to-charge bows.[61]
3 different charged states; takes less than 1 second to fully charge.[12] (around 5:05 in)
Fully charged bows causes the player to walk slower.[14] (around 5:40 in)
Critical hits.[62]
When the player hits a mob while jumping.
When the bow is fully charged.
Player blocking attack animation and hostile mob attack animations, possibly more player animations.[63][64]
Block "stance".[29]
New farming options, more interesting farming.[62][65][66]
The Cocoa Bean tree Jeb was talking about could be implemented.[40]
Plantable pumpkins and melons, each with a central stem that grows to max size and spawns a fruit next to it.[67]
Melon Seeds.
Pumpkin Seeds.
New Food System.
There is now a food meter.[68][69]
Food no longer heals directly but indirectly.[68]
If the food meter is above a certain point, heals about every 5 seconds.[12] (around 31:00)
Food will be stackable.[70][71][72]
Food takes 1.6 seconds to consume.[68]
There is now a food eating animation.[12][68][73] (around 5:30 in)
5 new food items.[74]
Cooked Chicken.[75]
Raw Chicken.[76]
Has a chance to "give you a disease".[77][78]
Raw Beef.[72][79][80]
Steak.[72][79][80]
Melon Slices.[81]
Cooked Porkchops have a different texture.[72]
New achievements.
Kill a skeleton with an arrow at 50 meters.[82]
Possibly attempting Shoot the Moon with an arrow.[83]
Sprinting: By double pressing the forward button, the player will move faster.[84]
Sprinting will be limitless, but will deplete your food bar.[85]
Hitting a mob while sprinting sends them flying[86] about 8 blocks.[12] (around 7:50 in)
Jumping while sprinting boosts the jump to a length of 4 blocks.[85][87]
Sprinting makes particles come up from the ground.[88]
Glass Panes.[89]
Can be mined and picked up without breaking.[90] (about 1:45 in)
Possibly Spike blocks, Jeb initially considered Spike Pistons, but then pondered making a Spike block that can be pushed by the Sticky Piston.[91]
Arrows will get stuck on mobs when they hit.[92]
Vine blocks.[93]
They will not be climbable.[94]
Player can walk through them.[95]
Improved chest model with a 3D lock and an open state/animation.[96]
The ability to convert Creative worlds to Survival worlds ingame.[97]
Graphics / UI / Audio:
C418 mentioned new Minecraft music.[98]
New improved lighting — day/night cycles will not require chunk updates.[99] Lighting will be updated via a texture, whose coordinates are the block's sky light and block light levels.[100]
Warmer light from torches.[101]
Moonlight is blue.[12]
New texture for Moss Stone.[102]
Sliders for field of view and Brightness in video options.[103][104][105]
Redesigned HUD, including two new features, food and experience bars.[106]
Killing a mob gives you tiny flashing Experience Orbs that add to your experience.[12] (around 19:35)
New launcher.[107][108]
Possibly a web Applet launcher.[109]
A lot of new sounds and some changes, such as minecart sounds and shear sounds, also a change in the sound of rain.[110][111]
New bow sounds (including hits), new door sounds, big slimes sound, and walking skeletons sound more skeletony.[112]
New particle effects.[113]
Performing a critical hit on any mob will cause 'sparks' to fly.[12] (around 4:45 in)[50] (around 18:54 in)
Explosion particles are now shockwaves instead of smoke.[12] (about 21:54 in)
The ability to see the world seed when pressing F3.[114]
A new main menu background.[12] (around 2:10 minutes in)
The version in the main menu will be in the lower left, instead of the current upper left.[12] (around 2:10 minutes in)
Multiplayer:
Multiplayer server list.[115][116]
Improved server join screen: The server join screen will feature a list of servers.[117]
Player List - Press tab in multiplayer and player list comes up.[85][118]
The ability to allow moderators to enter creative mode in SMP.[119]
Modding:
Modding Support.[62]
Including easier changing of the max level (map) height.[120]
The terrain generation code is tidier.[121]
"The new "good guess" for a Beta 1.8 release date is 12th of September". [122]



Beta 1.9
"Nether Update / Second Part of the Adventure Update".[123] (around 7:40 in)
Finished Biome code and New Biomes.[124]
NPCs in Villages.[125]
Use for experience (skills) will be added.[126]
Boss Mobs in Strongholds.[125][127]
Animal breeding.[128][129]

---

followed by the full release on the 18 of november, 70 days away

oh, and here is a list of all the feature possibly coming to minecraft (not 1.8) when it is released and afterwards
Please note that this is from the wiki and may not all be true
Animal Persistence Jeb mentioned on twitter that all animals will be more persistent "soon"[132]
Wool Regrowth on Sheep Jeb mentioned on twitter that once animals are persistant, wool regrowth on sheep will be necessary[132]
Capture the Flag Announced on Notch's Blog.[133]
More Mobs More mobs have been confirmed for addition into Minecraft.[134][135]
Bow Enhancements Announced on Notch's Twitter.[136]
Improvements to Combat Notch replied to a comment on Twitter, saying that combat is currently very "lacking" and needs to be more fun.[137] Jeb stated during his Dreamhack presentation, that critical hits will be added, and such things as doing double damage when attacking from above.[138]
Modding API Official modding support,[139] with full, unobfuscated[140] source code, for free.[141]
Mounting/Controlling Mobs The ability to mount and control mobs (possibly horses). Notch confirmed it was planned but will take time at Get Satisfaction.[142]
Recent SMP Server Connections Menu A menu to be implemented to allow players to see what servers they have connected to recently, so they may reconnect. Notch said "WILCO" meaning "will comply" on Get Satisfaction.[143]
Rain Re-grows Flowers A community member asked if rain would grow flowers back. Jeb said that yes it will and he wants to implement it.[144]
Minecarts as lava boats Notch has suggested making minecarts act like boats when placed in lava.[145]
Ingame Way to Acquire Apples Jeb mentioned on twitter that he'd like apples to spawn in the game world somehow.[146]
The ability to write in Books Notch has hinted that with the use of location in Maps he might be able to enable writing in Books in the future.[147]
Custom Paintings Notch has said that Custom Paintings may feature in a future update.[148]
Stereoscopic and/or Green/Magenta 3D Notch said he would add more options for the 3D mode.[149]
More Powerful Powered Minecarts Notch indicated on Twitter that he wants to make Powered Minecarts better since Powered Rails made them relatively useless.[150]
Audio Loops Audio loops have not yet been added to the game, but may be played when the player is in a specific location (In caves, woods, sea and beside a waterfall).[citation needed]
Sky / Floating Island Dimension A floating island dimension in the sky that currently "performs well, [but] looks ugly" (The sky dimension's terrain renderer will be improved). However, he said he had to fix the Nether first.[151] Confirmed to be in a future update.[152]
Friends list The Minecraft documentary team of 2 Player Productions filmed a Keynote roadmap, also containing this line.[153][154]
Multithreading The Minecraft documentary team of 2 Player Productions filmed a Keynote roadmap, also containing this line.[153]
Limited maps The Minecraft documentary team of 2 Player Productions filmed a Keynote roadmap, also containing this line.[153]
Creative mode The Minecraft documentary team of 2 Player Productions filmed a Keynote roadmap, also containing this line.[153]
Video Support The Minecraft documentary team of 2 Player Productions filmed a Keynote roadmap, also containing this line.[153]
Special biomes Jeb stated during his Dreamhack presentation that they were planning on adding more reasons for going to specific biomes.[138]
Stronger tools Jeb stated during his dreamhack presentation that he was working on something stronger than diamond tools. He did however say that this was not a new set of tools, but rather something that could be used to enhance your tools to make them stronger.[138]
More content for The Nether During his dreamhack presentations, Jeb stated that Notch thinks The Nether "isn't interesting enough",
and therefore wants to add more content to it. Notch also hinted to this on twitter.[138][155]
Flying The ability to fly.(Confirmed)[156][157][158]
NPC Villages First stated in a Tumblr post by Notch, since then confirmed to be released in Beta 1.8.[40]
Official Support for High Resolution Texture Packs Described by Jeb as "on my to-do list".[159]
FOV Slider FOV (or Field Of Vision) will be able to be adjusted using a slider in the options screen.[160]
Dual-wielding Jeb stated that Notch is working on dual-wielding of items.[9]
Stronghold Bosses Jeb said that stronghold bosses were a possibility.[127]
Fireplaces Jeb responded in favor to a tweet about the ability to make fireplaces on the players travels [161]
Items/Blocks

Feature Description
Lanterns Originally planned to be introduced in the Halloween Update. This feature was delayed because of the lack of time and will be implemented in a future update.[162] Lanterns were "on hold,"[163] though Notch may be working on them again.[164]
Food Jeb tweeted that he will add more food, but golems, tents, elevators, emotes, "critters", dragons, class leveling systems, and unicorns are unlikely to be added.[165]
Cobweb blocks These blocks were added in 1.5, but can currently only be obtained through inventory editing. These can be found in the wild in 1.8.
Display cases/racks Notch has stated several times on Twitter that he intends to add some way to display items such as armor and weapons.[166]
Fence gates Notch has stated he wants to add proper gates for fences. Fence Gates are added in 1.8.[167]
Additional Music Discs When Beta 1.6 was released, Notch stated that he had added support for over 15 new songs for the Jukebox, but had not yet made the records for them.
The ability to name Chests Notch has stated he will add this feature.[168]
Cocoa Bean plant Jeb Said during his Dreamhack presentation that cocoa trees are pending.[138]