Hopper

The Hopper is a block planned to be added in the Redstone Update. It will connect to the face of another block. If an item falls on top of it, it will store it in its own internal inventory of five item slots. However, if the block the hopper is attached to is a container with inventory slots (like a chest), the hopper will transfer items from its inventory to the inventory of the attached block at rate of about 1-1 1/2 items per second. This does not completely work for automating furnaces. If a hopper is placed going into a furnace, it will fill the furnace as expected, but if place going out of a furnace into a chest, it will take all the items out of the furnace, instead of just the product.

The hopper also recognizes minecarts with chests and minecarts with furnaces. For example, if a furnace minecart is directly under it and the hopper has items in its inventory, it will try to put them into the furnace minecart, but it actually deletes them.

The hopper can be used for substitute pipes. If you were to place a chest or other block with an inventory above a hopper, then connect the hopper to another block(even another hopper), it will transfer the items between the two blocks. However, this method is expensive and items cannot travel upwards.

Trivia

 * A hopper is a type of chute used in industrial processes that incorporates a limited storage capacity.
 * Hoppers will not connect to Ender Chests.
 * Currently, hoppers do not automatically connect to the nearest storage block. Instead, you must place it against the storage block by holding shift and right clicking.
 * You can make a hopper "Net" to have a higher item catch rate. Make sure hoppers point to each other!

Bugs

 * Sometimes, hoppers will not connect to chests sideways.[This bug is only effective on some versions. It can be fixed by placing a hopper into the direction you want it to go to, as hoppers do not automatically connect]

Gallery
Trichterblock Embudo Entonnoir 漏斗