For those unaware, the fun and revelry that was this year's MineCon has ended. Held at Disneyland Paris, even non-attendees have felt the touch of the convention, whether they know it or not. I'm referring to Minecraft 1.5, otherwise known as "The Redstone Update."
Announced from the convention by Minecraft's lead designer and developer Jens Bergensten, the update will include an wide array of improvements to the titular ore, and its behavior. There is also said to be improvements to minecarts as well.
Improvements and Additions to Redstone
* more predictable behavior - redstone will be more like analog signals, and signal strength will be a factor
* a new block, the capacitor block, is planned, which will work like a repeater
* a manner of transporting items between containers (likely a revised form of the Allocator idea)
* weighted pressure plates
* possible Daylight Detector
* new ore, likely to be found in the Nether, to be introduced to craft new redstone devices
* other Redstone bug fixes
Minecart Fixes
* new ways of transporting items
* new rails to be introduced, for emptying of storage minecarts, and unloading mobs or players
* possibility of linking minecarts together
Other changes include support for higher resolution textures, faster overall rendering, lighting fixes, and fireworks for New Year's Eve. Further more, Mojang is also fixing a few bugs, including the south-east rule, allowing for a better object distribution.
Minecraft's Redstone update is due to arrive to PC versions of Minecraft Jan. 2013.