This site is a great source for Java related news. Also the discussions on the site can be worthwhile reading, although the discussion tends to get a bit relegious sometimes IBM Alphabeans . While Sun invented Java, IBM has been an early adopter and proponent of Java. This has resulted in various, high quality java products. A lot of it is available freely.
Any programmer needs an editor to type in sourcecode.
When doing Java, Jedit is all you'll need. I have given up on IDEs a long time ago, they are just too limiting for me. JEdit is one of the best editors I have encountered so far. Since it supports plugins, it hosts a lot of functionality. One of my favorite plugins is the one that can reformat sourcecode.