19/02/11 - Reason Notch has slowed down on Minecraft Updateds during Beta - xLicorice said, "Just asking, how come that you did usually have about udates every 1-4 day before, now it's barely 2 updates each month" Notch replied, "we're trying to focus on more stable updates during beta"

19/02/11 - Minecraft Update coming tuesday most likely - Notch said, "UPDATE COMING NEXT WEEK PROBABLY TUESDAY OH GOD I CAN SEE MY BREATH (he's cold)" he then said, "TUESDAY, IF WE CAN FINISH THE BEDS ON MONDAY, OTHERWISE WEDNESDAYS"

18/02/11 - Minecraft will let us chose were we install it soon - CMDBawb said," Let us choose where we can install Minecraft to! That would be win!" Notch replied, "i will! soon!"

18/02/11 - New launcher features - Notch said, "News in there: Only updates changed files, asks if you want to upgrade, shows update news, logs in via HTTPS, and is prettier."

18/02/11 - New launcher leaked on twitter! - Notch said, "Hmm, the new launcher is almost done, I think. I don't want to do a Friday night update, but I could "leak it" on twitter.."

17/02/11 - Update coming around tuesday - stephenphilp said, "Any idea then Beta 1.3 will be released?" Notch replied, "looks like about tuesday or so"

16/02/11 - No update this Friday - DonkeyKebab asked "Hey Notch, Wht you got planned for Friday? Notch replied, "This week? Nothing "

15/02/11 - Notch is back at work! - Notch said, "I forgot my hat at home! First day of office work since vacation, and I have to doit with an exposed top of my head."

11/02/11 - More mobs confirmed - Bentein said, "May we get a clarification? WILL there be dragons, or flying creatures in minecraft? And how about agressive water mobs?" Notch replyed, "I hope there will be dragons,yes and yes."

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No more infite burning logs
so probably a new block made of coal to compensate
wooden half blocks
cobblestone half blocks
new launcher (mostly for information from Notch and his teammates)
Jakob said in a dev diary :
"New block! This is a sweet one for you red stone junkies. A block that acts as a signal carrier, much like red stone. But on top of that, it also acts as a repeater AND a programmable delayer."
"various bug fixes" (I don't exactly know what)
"New save file format. With the new format, loading is now seven times faster. On top of that, the number of files for each saved world is drastically decreased. This new format will not destroy your current saves, as they will be converted the first time they are loaded."
"Secret update! Oh, yes. There will be that as well." (I assume some underwater thing maybe ? because Notch recently said on his blog "Im also half-way through finishing my Advanced Diver course. Expect more underwater content in Minecraft.")

and for the release date : I don't have any idea :]