Orange, which is already the exclusive iPhone provider in France, has inked a deal with Apple to offer the iPhone in more than 10 other markets.

Pocket-lint reports that, by the end of the year, Orange customers in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Africa will be able to buy an iPhone.

The agreement adds Switzerland to the growing list of areas where Apple is abandoning its single-operator model. Swisscom has also been granted rights to offer the iPhone in Switzerland, which joins Italy, Singapore, India and the Philippines in having more than one carrier offering the iPhone.

Swisscom has joined the ever-growing list of telcos promising iPhone availability "later this year." According to an iLounge report, Switzerland's largest wireless operator has posted the news on its Web site along with a message that it will inform interested customers personally "as soon as we have more news."

Reuters is reporting that Time Warner's HBO cable network is expected to start selling shows in Apple's iTunes Store, and with flexible pricing, sources familiar with the discussions said on Monday.

The report said that episodes of some HBO shows are likely to be sold at the standard price of $1.99 per episode or higher, these sources said, marking the first time Apple has agreed to selling television shows at different prices in the United States. An official announcement may come as early as today. Like all shows sold in the iTunes Store, they'll be playable on iPhones, video-capable iPods, the Apple TV set-top box, and on desktop PC and Macintosh computers.

The lack of flexible pricing was what NBC claimed drove them away from the iTunes Store in the first place.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has confirmed that the iPhone, both the 8GB and 16GB models, are sold out on its US and UK Web sites. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris told the news organization that "We're currently out of stock," but didn't disclose when (or if) the phones will be available on the sites. Kerris also declined to comment on the iPhone's availability in Apple retail stores.

Along with most everyone else, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that the lack of iPhones suggests the imminent release of a new model. The expectation is that Apple chief Steve Jobs will unveil the next model during his keynote at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference on June 9. Of course, with so many media outlets reporting on this expectation, we can only imagine the fallout if the announcement doesn't happen as anticipated.

Four additional wireless operators have announced deals to offer the iPhone, two of which will result in multiple carrier markets, Telecoms.com reports.

Optus has been granted permission to sell the iPhone in Australia, SingTel in Singapore, Bharti Airtel in India and Globe in the Philippines.

Last week, Vodafone said it would be selling the iPhone in 10 countries by year-end, including Australia, India and Italy. Also last week, Telecom Italia Mobile also said it would offer the iPhone, marking the first time Apple has agreed to more than one carrier in a country.

The article presumes that the reason for allowing multiple carriers is that all three countries have high markets for prepaid mobile users, making it necessary to offer iPhone service with a prepaid plan as well as on the usual subscription basis.

If you've got a very old iPod and live in Canada, listen up: Apple has agreed to settle a pair of class-action lawsuits in Canada alleging it misled customers about the staying power of their iPods, the Associated Press reports; it's the latest courtroom truce over the dwindling battery life of early generations of the device:

"According to a court document, the Cupertino-based company is offering credits for its online store of about $44.75 to people who live in Canada and bought certain iPods there on or before June 24, 2004. To be eligible, the battery life of their iPods—while continuously playing music—needs to have dropped to five hours or less for the first and second generation of the device and four hours or less for the third generation."

Back in 2005, Apple did something similar for U.S.-based customers, offering $50 store credits or $25 in cash refunds for owners of early iPods who said their batteries didn't last as long as they should.

A reader with an iPod touch was kind enough to set us straight on those episodes of "The Office" and "30 Rock" that NBC is making available for the iPhone and iPod touch via a special mobile site.

Apparently, there are ads, and you don't download complete episodes. Rather, the episodes are broken into chunks that you watch as streams on your iDevice. And each segment has an ad attached to it, either at the beginning or at the end.

NBC Universal might have pulled its TV shows off of iTunes after failing to come to an agreement with Apple on terms, but it looks like the network hasn't abandoned iPhone owners.

IntoMobile is reporting that NBC is making full episodes of "30 Rock" and "The Office" available for free viewing on the iPhone and iPod touch. That's free, as in no cost and no ads. According to the post, users can only download the episodes through the Safari browser using Wi-Fi, and once they close the browser they'll need to re-download the episode if they want to watch it again.

The report comes just two days after Microsoft's announcement that it was getting a slew of movies and TV shows, including a collection from NBC, to sell for download to the Zune portable media player.

Welcome to the latest installment of "Guess Who's Getting the iPhone." Today's winner is America Movil, which has secured iPhone distribution rights in Latin America. Cellular-news reports that America Movil, the region's leading mobile operator, has more than 159 million subscribers in Latin America.

Like Telecom Italia, Canada's Rogers wireless and Vodafone, with its mega-deal for 10 countries, America Movil expects to start selling the iPhone "later this year."

With all of these new distribution deals, it's no wonder analysts are starting to predict that Apple will sell 14 million iPhones this year, up from original projections of 10 million.

Vodafone and Apple have inked a deal for the world's largest mobile operator to bring the iPhone to 10 countries later this year. The news should make Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey quite happy, if they've been coveting the popular device that is.

It's looking like Italy will be the first market to see Apple abandon its exclusive carrier policy. Telecom Italia put out an announcement that it will also begin selling the iPhone by year-end, iLounge reports.