The first "snapshot" for Minecraft has been released! It's a voluntary update, you have to download the jar files below and put them in your folder yourself. My guess is it's much less bug ridden than past updates, so I'm about to give it a shot.
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Hey hey
Finally time for the next snapshot! This snapshot has the following changes:
- New language translations. We changed from using Google Docs to a new system, so these may still contain a lot of errors or missing texts. Please check the Minecraft forums (language section) for more info.
- Slightly smoothed color transitions between biomes
- Reduced brewing time to 20 seconds
- Decreased randomness of Enchantment Tables
- Changed colors of spawning eggs to more represent the mobs they spawn
- Made biomes slightly more varied (hills in forests and deserts, beaches)
- Added world type options (currently only super-flat and default)
- Removed collision box from ladders
- Updated fence gate collision box to align with fences
Get the snapshot here:
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We are currently still preparing work for the mod API. The API is going to take some time to implement properly, so we ask for patience

Also, Jon is currently working on improving the AI for mobs to make it easier for us to add new behaviors. The first goal is to add breeding support to wolves, and then move on to more useful / interesting villagers.
// jeb and Jon
Aaand some pictures of the changes:
Swamp transitions:

Beaches:

Flat World:
