Mobile carrier Orange will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone in France, the two companies announced Tuesday. The iPhone will be available to customers in France on November 29, confirming a date previously disclosed by Think Secret in September.

  Multiple sources have confirmed that Apple will set Leopard loose on the 26th.

  Work has already begun on Apple's first retail store in Australia, which is planned to open in Sydney in mid-2008.

  Apple is set to introduce updated MacBook laptops following the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard later this month, sources report. With Leopard on track to hit stores October 26, the updated MacBooks could be consumer hands by the first half of November, if not sooner.

  Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard remains on track for an October release on or around October 26, sources report. That date, the last Friday of the month, is similar to the release date of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

  Donald Rosenberg, Apple's general counsel, is leaving the company and will be replaced by Daniel Cooperman, Oracle's general counsel.

  Apple released the first substantial update to the iPhone's software Thursday and warned customers who have modified their iPhone software may find the update "results in your iPhone becoming permanently inoperable".

  Apple's newest build of Mac OS X 10.5 distributed to developers is showing signs of nearing completion, but Leopard has not yet reached release candidate status with build 9A559.

  A new build of Leopard emerged for developers Friday evening just days after Apple released an update via Software Update for the previous build. Build 9A559 follows on the heels of 9A528d, and comes roughly one month after Apple delivered 9A527.

  Apple recently seeded developers with yet another build of Mac OS X 10.4.11, destined to be the final update to Tiger.