Skins are supposed to update more quickly and I quote: "It basically means that skins shouldn't go down as much (if they do it won't matter as much too), and changing your skin is more instan," - Dinnerbone. Also, the 1.7.6 changelog states that "Skin changes will no longer require client restarting, at worst re-logging will update the skin for everybody," - Minecraft Wiki. However, uploading skins requires me to restart minecraft completely, and I cannot just exit out of a world anymore and the skin will update. It worked up until 14w33c.