Java 7.0 Now Available For Download

Oracle has announced that Java 7 is available for download. This is mostly news for developers because the new Java 7 features obviously aren’t implemented in code that you’re likely to encounter for a while. There are some new networking and security features listed briefly but the bigger new features seem to be aimed toward developers.

Java SE 7 delivers:

Language changes to help increase developer productivity and simplify common programming tasks by reducing the amount of code needed, clarifying syntax and making code easier to read. (JSR 334: Project Coin)
Improved support for dynamic languages (including: Ruby, Python and JavaScript), resulting in substantial performance increases on the JVM. (JSR 292: InvokeDynamic)
A new multicore-ready API that enables developers to more easily decompose problems into tasks that can then be executed in parallel across arbitrary numbers of processor cores. (JSR 166: Fork/Join Framework)
A comprehensive I/O interface for working with file systems that can access a wider array of file attributes and offer more information when errors occur. (JSR 203: NIO.2)
New networking and security features
Expanded support for internationalization, including Unicode 6.0 support
Updated versions of numerous libraries
Strong backward compatibility of Java SE 7 with previous versions of the platform preserves the skill sets of current Java software developers and protects Java technology investments.

Developers interested in getting started immediately with the Java SE 7 release can leverage the NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 7.0, Eclipse Indigo with the additional Java SE 7 plug-in or IntelliJ IDEA 10.5, which support the latest features of the Java SE 7 platform. Oracle JDeveloper support for JDK 7 is intended for a release later this year.

You can download Java 7, build 1.7.0-b147 as the Java Development Kit or the Java Runtime Environment from the Oracle download page.