Java Edition Beta

Beta is the current development phase in Minecraft. It was announced on Notch's blog on December 11 2010 and released nine days later, on December 20, 2010. As well as some minor updates, the transition from Alpha saw a 50% price increase (therefore making the cost 25% off the full price), a change in the disclaimer (Notch removed the line that said "all future updates will be provided free of charge") and minor updates to the main website. Beta 1.2 was released on 13 January 2011, it included Cake which was added after Minecraft won the Mod DB 2010 "Indie Game of the Year" award.

Features
Some of the new features in the beta phase are:
 * Server-Sided Inventory.
 * New leaf decay method.
 * Clan cloaks for Mojang members.
 * The player now has support to wear a cape.
 * Tooltips in inventory - When you mouse over an item, its name appears.

In the Beta 1.2 update new features included:
 * The introduction of Wool Dyes
 * Reeds were replaced by Sugar Cane
 * Cake
 * Squid
 * Sandstone and Dispenser