Tuesday, May 27, 2008, 09:55 am

iPhone deals for Nordic and Baltic nations; new Leopard seed hits

By Sam Oliver

Apple has signed on with TeliaSonera to sell its next-generation iPhone in the Nordic and Baltic markets. Meanwhile, a new pre-release build of Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard was pushed out ahead of the holiday weekend.

TeliaSonera to sell iPhone

In a one-line press release early Tuesday, Stockholm-based TeliaSonera said it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.


TeliaSonera, the result of a 2002 merger between Sweden's Telia and Finland's Sonera, is now the dominate phone company in those regions. As of last year, the carrier had over 106 million mobile subscribers, including those from its other markets in Central Asia and Spain.

Mac OS X 10.5.3 build 9D34

Apple over the long holiday weekend provided developers with yet another build of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard update for testing. The pre-release software, labeled Mac OS X 10.5.3 build 9D34, joins earlier builds in containing no known issues, according to people familiar with the matter.

However, the new build arrived with just a single addition to software's bug fix list of over 220 items -- an improvement to kernel performance.

Apple is also reported to have made some modifications to the areas in which developers should focus their testing efforts. Specifically, it asked that they thoroughly evaluate all audio- and video- intensive applications, but said special attention is no longer required in the areas of AFP, Audio, Dock, Finder, Spotlight, and Sync Services.

According to a recent report, Mac OS X 10.5.3 is likely on a similar developmental course as iPhone Software v2.0, both of which are now expected to surface on or around Apple's annual developers conference during the second week of June.