It appears that the next Java update – Java SE 8 is just around the corner according to ORACLE’s website. The release date is currently set to 03/18/2014 or March 18, 2014 which will also include the JDK 8. The slowdown was for a very good reason which was for ORACLE to address security issues with Java and to speed up the work on getting Project Lambda out the door. They are still working on Project Jigsaw along with improving the Java ME platforms.
If you have never heard of Project Lamda or Jigsaw the following short summaries might help you a little more along with their JSR or Java Specification Requests status.
Project Lambda is JSR 335 which has the goal of adding Lambda Expressions to the Java programming language along with closures. Lambda expressions are anonymous functions that you can use to create delegates or expressions types that can be used to pass as arguments or returned as a value of a function call similar to other languages like JavaScript, C++, Scala and more.
Project Jigsaw has the goal of design and implementation for a standard module system for Java SE. They are currently experimenting with prototypes and other ideas which they will work towards making it a Java Platform Module System JSR in a future Java update.
So if you would like to find out more about the upcoming Java 8 release please take a look at the official project page at here.