1. The barrel scene has gotten a descent amount of air time in this video, as well as past ones. This seems to confirm that it will be in the first movie.
2. The barrels in said scene will be topless for at least part of the journey. This isn't to say that they didn't have tops at one point, they may have been knocked off.
3. As I speculated in a thread a while ago, Gloin's weapons are the same as Gimli's from the trilogy.
4. There are trees on fire, most likely the ones that the company is rescued from.
5. Alan Lee is shown in the makeup chair with a wig on. Most likely another cameo. Citizen of Laketown perhaps?
6. A short of Alan Lee with the infamous "bunny-sled" aka Radagast's hare-powered mode of transport.
7. John Howe sitting on a giant wooden chair in an unknown location. I would hazard a guess and say that it is from Beorn's house.
8. Luke Evans and Billy Connolly make their first appearances in the blog.
9. We are taken to "a scene in the troll cave". If you look carefully, a guy walks by with what appears to be Orcrist and Glamdring. This leads me to believe that Glamdring's origin will be from the troll-hoard, as it is in the book. (Some people had speculated that Gandalf would always have his sword in the films.)
10. An interesting shot inside of Weta Workshop of someone riding on top of some hairy, white thing. I have no idea what this is.
11. A great twist at the end. I won't blow it for you if you haven't seen it yet, but I will say that an old friend makes an appearance.