Minecraft 1.8 was released to the general public today. The new version fixes a ton of bugs, and adds numerous new block types (including several special blocks), new mobs, new mob behaviour, a spectator game mode, new stats, new server rules, and much more. Client performance has been improved, as has the server list.

You can find all the details about the new version on the Mojang blog, the Minecraft forum, and the Minecraft Tumblr page.

Your client should update itself to the latest version automatically. The JDRGaming Minecraft server will be updated to the new version later today. The Minecraft page will be updated at the same time.