As noted on The Word of Notch, a new version 1.7 beta is now available for Minecraft, the sandbox adventure game. Here's word on what's new and different:

+ Added pistons
+ Fire or redstone is now required to trigger TNT
+ Fences can be stacked
+ Added shears
+ Shears can be used to pick up leaf blocks
+ Shears can be used to shear sheep without hurting them
* Sheep no longer drop wool from being punched
- Removed Herobrine