Next Tuesday, Apple will introduce the next version of the iPhone operating system, along with new tools for building iPhone applications downloaded from the company's App Store, according to an Apple invitation issued Thursday.

One thing to watch is how many of the changes take into account the , where Apple has traditionally been weak. 

The last major upgrade to the OS, version 2.0, was released in July, 2008, along with the new iPhone 3G.

A Dow Jones Newswire story quoted one Wall Street analyst, who envisions Apple offering a universal search capability -- letting a user easily sift through e-mail, contacts, and documents on the phone or on the Web, similar to a feature being touted by Palm for its upcoming Palm Pre phone.

But here are some other possible, and certainly hoped-for, changes: