App Store checks for updates by itself?

[Mr. Brown]

I was just customizing my Home screen (wiggling icons) and suddenly, the iPhone made a connection to the Internet via GPRS. 3G and WiFi were both off when this happenend. I pressed the Home button to save the icon arrangement and looked for any changes on my Home screen.

The App Store icon showed a small “1″ which means that there was a new update available for a certain app. The update was for Air Hockey. How is this possible? I can’t believe Apple would allow unwanted connections to be made on the iPhone, even if it’s for a couple of seconds.

Has anyone encountered the same thing? Or is this a known feature?

Edit:

Whenever you access the App Store, it checks for updates to applications you’ve installed. By default, the App Store also automatically checks for updates every week. The App Store icon shows the total number of application updates available.

My bad. I should really read the user's guide.