As of that update, they are now also able to swap tools in and out of their inventory at will. Prior to 1.6, turtles had to have tools manually attached via crafting. They're just like Advanced Computers, but with a smaller screen. Their exterior appearance is also of gold. The 1.55 update added Advanced Turtles - made of gold, are able to display color, and have mouse input available through their display.
The 1.4 update also included a new fuel system for the turtles. The update added 'Crafty Turtles', which have the ability to craft using their inventory - and part of this upgrade saw the number of inventory slots in the Turtle raised to 16 from the previous 9 slot inventory. Turtles are capable of using pickaxes, hoes, axes, shovels and swords. The 1.4 update was focused on turtles, and expanded their ability to use tools. The programs they run are stored in their internal memory, or on floppy disks. They have the ability to place, break and detect blocks, move around and drop items in their inventory via their access to the Turtle API. Turtles and Advanced Turtles are essentially robots, and were added in the 1.3 update. Normal Turtle (left) and Advanced Turtle (right).
