1.9 is an upcoming update to Minecraft with no set release date, currently only listed in the bug tracker as "Far Future Version - 1.9+"[1], as well as mentioned by the Minecraft Developers. It has been announced that 1.9 snapshots will begin being published in January of 2015.[2]
A 15/16 block tall grass-like "path"[12] possibly used for either construction, tilled dirt or a naturally generated block in a biome. It features a similar texture like the grass block.
A new bar for when there are two withers. It looks like you can have up to 3, but you can split the bar into sections, so now you can have some sort of timer.[17]
MC-14525 – Name tag doesn't work on entities with right click ability.
MC-16204 – New creative GUI showing detailed effects does not show on some potions. Neither to bows.
MC-28479 – Chest interface not closed when chest is blocked from opening.
MC-42841 – Incorrect creative instant health damage value.
MC-52802 – Mob head takes a fraction of a second to change to selected head.
MC-54486 – Glass panes and iron bars don't connect to graphically opaque blocks that are registered as transparent. e.g. slime blocks, ender portal frame blocks and monster spawner blocks.
MC-55942 – Nether Wart hitbox is incorrect on multiplayer. (Untested on singleplayer.)
MC-67163 – Damage value for objective stat.mineBlock is missing.
MC-68062 – Boss health bar only visible when looking at boss
MC-75082 – End music will stop every time the ender dragon loads out of view.