With the opening of a posh new store on W. 14th St. in New York on Friday, Apple has opened the doors of seven new retail stores since its fiscal year 2008 started on September 30. Apple's jobs posting pages disclose that the company is recruiting employees for future retail stores at a number of other locations.

  Apple and AT&T are being sued for patent infringement on account of the visual voicemail feature the iPhone employs.

  Apple has been on the receiving end of five new lawsuits in recent months, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal, but has seen another six lawsuits dismissed or settled during the same time.

  T-Mobile has started selling an unlocked iPhone in Germany for 999 euros in response to a preliminary injunction rival Vodafone recently received.

  T-Mobile is facing some heat in Germany after rival carrier Vodafone received a preliminary injunction regarding T-Mobile's sales of the iPhone in that country.

  Two days after Think Secret sources reported that Mac OS X 10.5.1 was nearing release, Apple has made the first Leopard update available for download.

  Apple debuted Thursday a new version of Final Cut Express, its video editing software positioned between iMovie and Final Cut Pro.

  Apple released a number of software updates Wednesday, inlcuding the long-awaited Mac OS X 10.4.11, although missing from the group was the first update to Leopard.

  Office 2008 may offer a wealth of new features, not the least of which is Intel native code, but those looking for more impressive features will have to look elsewhere than Entourage, which stands alone as the sole Mac-only component of Office.

  Apple is ramping up to deliver the first update to Mac OS X 10.5 to customers, sources report. The update, which has seen two builds released to third-party developers (9B13 and 9B16), has been deemed fit for release with build 9B18.