The spread of the iPhone across the world continues. A bit more than a week after a deal was announced to debut the phone in 11 countries, Orange, Apple's iPhone partner in France, announced a deal to bring the iPhone to 10 new countries. Under this deal, Orange will be the carrier in:

Austria
Belgium
the Dominican Republic
Egypt
Jordan
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Switzerland
Orange’s African markets (no word on what countries yet).

Interestingly, Vodafone will also be offering the iPhone in Egypt, marking yet another country to have two carriers.

In other news, T-Mobile, the iPhone's German carrier, announced this week that it has sold over 100,000 iPhones, with over 30,000 sold since February.

This week's set of free iTunes downloads includes two audiobooks - an unusual number in a single week. Enjoy the listening!

Music
Dangerous, by Akon & Kardinall Offshall (single of the week)

Liegara ese Dia, by Leny (latin single of the week)

Audiobooks
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspain, by C.S. Lewis (excerpt)

Life Beyond Measure: Letters to my Great-Granddaughter, by Sidney Poitier (excerpt)

Video
Episode 1, from Dr. Danger, Season 2

Chile, from Three Sheets

HBO has brought its original series - including the hits The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, and Deadwood - to iTunes. Episodes from the series are available for purchase now, though some series only have one season's worth of episodes. The HBO shows are the first to exhibit variable pricing. Previously, all TV shows on the iTunes Store cost US$1.99 an episode, but some HBO shows cost US$2.99 per episode. This pricing flexibility may open the door for NBC to bring its series back to iTunes, since pricing issues were one reason it pulled its content.

Speculation has long been that the new version of the iPhone - one with more storage, fast 3G Internet connection, and other new features - would be released this summer, around the time of the first anniversary of the original iPhone's release. But new details seem to indicate that the new phone may appear sooner than that.

First off, there are no iPhones to be had at Apple's online store. This comes after widespread iPhone shortages in retail stores and a temporary sell out of iPhones in the UK last week.

Then, yesterday, AT&T's website very briefly listed a device called the "iPhone Black." An AT&T spokesman offered a somewhat weak explanation for the listing, saying that that was just a placeholder used in system maintenance, but given that rumors hold that the next iPhone will be all black, this doesn't seem completely credible.

So, maybe we'll have our hands on the new iPhone before Memorial Day?

And if not, June should be it. Telecom Italia's executive vice president for technology and operations says his company will be selling a 3G iPhone in June.

In all current arrangements, Apple selects a particular carrier for the iPhone in a given country and then makes that carrier the country's exclusive iPhone partner. In the U.S., AT&T is that carrier, so if you want an iPhone, you have to go to Ma Bell. Of course, not everyone likes this arrangement and there's long been grumbling about it.

That grumbling could change soon, though, since it's been confirmed that later this year Italy will be the first country without iPhone exclusivity. Italy will soon have two carriers offering the iPhone, Telecom Italia and Vodafone.

Here's hoping this practice spreads to the U.S.

ITEM: A class-action suit in Canada affecting Canadians who bought 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation iPods before June 24, 2004, has been settled. These customers get a $45 credit. Think you might qualify? Check the settlement page.

ITEM: Remember how NBC and Apple are at odds over digital rights management and TV shows and the cost for purchasing them at iTunes and all that good stuff? Well, NBC is pursuing your eyeballs in another way: direct streams of its TV shows to iPhone and iPod touch owners. Not quite as cool as owning them, but at least you can still watch the shows on you mobile device.

The International roll-out of the iPhone is picking up substantial speed. In just the last few weeks, 11 new countries have come on board with the device. Now, America Movil says it will be selling the new iPhone, expected to be released this summer, in Mexico later this year.

On the other side of the Atlantic, France Telecom, whose subsidiary, Orange, is the iPhone's carrier in France, is looking to secure contracts to bring the device to Spain and Poland.

On the new iPhone front, though speculation continues to peg the announcement of the new phone at the mid-to-late June timeframe - perhaps to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the iPhone - the New York Times reports that the new, faster version of the phone should hit Europe in August.

An unusual event this week: the single of the week and latin single of the week are the same song - one is in English, the other in Spanish.

Music
Losing Me, by Diego (single of the week)

Perdido En Ti, by Diego (latin single of the week)

Two Times, by The Blakes (discovery download)

Video
Bartending, from I Bet You

The Mona Lisa, from The Riches

Episode 1, from Start-Up Junkies

The Flop, from The Riches

Kensington has announced a pair of extended life batteries for the iPod and iPhone. Both work with any iPod with a dock connector and the iPhone. The larger device costs US$69.99 and adds up to 6 hours of talk time and 100 hours of music playback. The mini device adds 3 hours of talk time and 30 hours of audio.

If you're interested in iPhone extended life batteries, check out my new review of the Mophie Juice Pack, a device that claims to add 8 hours of talk time and 24 hours of iPod playback.

The international spread of the iPhone continues. Vodafone, one of Apple's overseas carrier partners, has announced that the iPhone will be making its debut in the following 10 countries in 2008:

• Australia
• The Czech Republic
• Egypt
• Greece
• Italy
• India
• Portugal
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Turkey

No word yet on whether those countries will get the new iPhone or not.