Apple’s iPhone, winner of Time magazine’s invention of the year, went on sale in France tonight allowing residents to finally officially get their hands on the popular media smartphone. There’s more to the significance of this launch, however.

After months of bouts between iPhone hackers and Apple developers trying to keep the mobile phone “locked” and restricted to approved carriers, the French law requires that the phone not be restricted to any single mobile operator. France is the second country having this requirement for the iPhone after it was launched in Germany earlier this month and both countries are offering unlocked iPhones.

Nokia launched a pretty cool product yesterday with the Nokia 6301 mobile phone. The device features a thin, sleek design and looks similar to many other mobile phones that are released these days, but it has a more unique feature you’ll probably be seeing more of going forward.

The 6301 phone is able to seamlessly switch between GSM cellular connections and Wi-Fi connections, allowing voice connectivity through each when needed. The phone can pick up standard cell coverage when you’re out and about like any other cell phone. When your indoors where you might not get the best cell coverage it can switch over and start utilizing your Wi-Fi network instead through Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology.

To complete the last part of Apple’s iPhone roll out to Europe, France Telecom announced today that its wireless company Orange will be the provide for the iPone in France.

The French company said that they would start selling Apple’s iPhone in November, but did not give an exact date. Both the UK and Germany have set an iPhone launch date of November 9, and a nearby date for France is likely. No word yet on the price of he iPhone in through Orange yet, either.

According to the Observer, Google and Orange are collaborating on making a Google Phone with built in Google applications for surfing the web, and getting email. This would be another big step forward for both of these two very powerful companies in the technology world, and could be a large benefit to consumers in mobile internet access and potentially costs as well.

Google has been working on different technologies to make information more accessible from mobile devices, such getting email on your handset, and having another medium to …