Java Edition Beta

Beta was the sixth and the final development phase that succeeded Alpha and preceded the full release of Java Edition, and was the fifth and final Minecraft development stage to have some of its versions released to the public. It was announced on Notch's blog on December 11, 2010 and released nine days later, on December 20, 2010.^[1] 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", though the statement still applies to users who bought Minecraft before Beta was released. Both Alpha and Beta buyers got the full game free of charge) and minor updates to the main website.

Features

New Minecraft logo and launcher.
New Animated background for Main Menu.
Achievements and statistics.
Server-side inventory.
Creative game mode.
Weather effects: rain and snow.
Rewritten biome codes.
More variety in trees.
New lighting mechanics.
New graphical effects, including improved sunrise/sunset, water bubbles, explosions, and Void particles.
Naturally generated structures such as strongholds, mineshafts and villages.
New mobs including squid, endermen, silverfish, cave spiders and tameable wolves.
New health mechanic using hunger and stackable food items.
New combat mechanics such as critical hits, charged bows, experience orbs, sprinting and blocking.
New mechanisms (redstone repeaters, note blocks, dispensers, powered rails, detector rails, trapdoors, Improved redstone look, pistons, sticky pistons).
New blocks and recipes, such as sandstone and the lapis lazuli block.
New farming elements: Melons and pumpkins.
Maps
Beds for skipping through the night and resetting spawn point.
Wool dyes.

Major updates

Beta 1.0: The first version of Beta, which added server-side inventories and inventory item tooltips.
Beta 1.1: Added support for special events on specific dates during the holiday period.
Beta 1.2: Added many new blocks, squid, sheep variants, and new trees.
Beta 1.3: Added beds, repeaters, and new slabs.
Beta 1.4: Added locked chests, cookies, wolves, and a new Minecraft logo.
Beta 1.5: Added cobwebs, new saplings, new rails, charged creepers, and weather.
Beta 1.6: Added variants of tall grass, trapdoors, and maps.
Beta 1.7: Added pistons and shears.
Beta 1.8 (Adventure Update): Added many features related to adventuring and the removal of the far lands.

Trivia

Some sound effects in Beta will no longer play the old sound effect, instead they will play the newer sounds because sounds are not stored in the minecraft.jar file.
The first version of Xbox 360 Edition was the same as 1.6.6.