It came out 10pm GMT +8.
There probably won't be a new Minecraft update for a long time because of the "Pretty Scary Update".
No. Updates are free. Just buy the game once.
well minecraft 1.3 comes out some time today and 1.4 probably wont come out for several months and to update you just log in to the launcher and download the update.
1.3 has come and gone, but just to answer your question, it came out on the 1st of August 2012.
Minecraft 1.3.1 has already been released worldwide on August 1, 2012. A second update to it, which is also the current version of the game at the time of this answer, 1.3.2, was released 15 days after 1.3.1 on August 16, 2012. It only fixed a couple of bugs, and made sideways logs naturally generate in large trees.
Minecraft does not update on any schedule. For further information on updates and such, you can use social medias like Twitter to see how their progress is.
IF it's your first time getting Minecraft, you have to pay $26 for the launcher. If you have Minecraft before, then no.
Every Minecraft update makes Minecraft better. So, yes. Minecraft will always become better all the time.
The possible time to submit it and have apple approve it will be probably at 12:00 pm midnight. (POSSIBLY)
No your have to wait for the mods to update which may take some time.
Early August.
If you log in it will ask if you want to update. If you press yes then it will load up the new update on your computer. If you press "not now" then it will be the same as the art update and next time you login it will ask again.