We'll be straight with you, we have no idea if the linked document (that builds on the original) is authentic or not. Then again, why would someone go to the trouble of faking a 31 page PDF file showing Palm Pre inventories for every Best Buy in the US and Puerto Rico -- the internet just can't be so sad. Anyway, given the positive reviews received, we expected demand to outstrip the meager inventories on-hand at launch. As we figure it, anything that might help you sort out the mess on Saturday will be appreciated.

[Via Everything Pre, thanks John]

Read -- PDF share 1
Read -- PDF share 2

We don't want to incite panic in big box parking lots from coast to coast or anything (or do we?), but from the looks of things, Best Buy's Pre stock for launch day is meager at best -- and distribution is a little weird. A poster over on everythingpre's forums threw up a bunch of alleged inventory screen shots, suggesting that Florida and Texas stores are particularly well-off -- many stores are expected to get 18, 20 or more -- while Illinois stores appear to be getting hosed (a trip to the Hancock location downtown, for example, will result in success for just two people). The way we see it, this could be fake -- but it might just have to do with how close each store is to Best Buy's distro centers or a balancing act with proximity to Sprint locations in the area. Worst case scenario, we figure, you can just riot.

Update: A tipster tells us these "On Order" numbers are actually the number of Pres each store's manager has requested, which doesn't necessarily correlate to the number they'll actually receive. Of course, that still doesn't explain why downtown Chicago's Best Buy would request just two -- there have to be some other constraints involved that we're not privy to -- but it's an interesting tidbit nonetheless.

Pre fever's in the air, yes, but beneath the elation and excitement of Palm's mega-launch, there's a cold, hard reality: bills are piling up. To that end, the company is looking to queue up a "secondary offering" of its stock to the tune of 18.5 million shares, which -- thanks to a nice bump in value since the Pre's announcement -- should rake in over $100 million in capital. Some $49 million of that would be used to repay part owner Elevation Partners, while the rest would be funneled directly into Pre launch activities and future product development. Palm wants to wait until market conditions are just right for the offering to take place, but it'd like to have the stock sale wrapped up by the 31st; look for a hands-on from us shortly thereafter.

Virgin Mobile USA was one of the few outfits out there who managed to post a Q3 net profit, but even that couldn't help it avoid the unfortunate delivery of a non-compliance letter from the New York Stock Exchange. Just a few days before it slashed ten percent of its workforce, the company was notified by the NYSE that it was "not in compliance with certain listing criteria." More specifically, it's considered "below the applicable standards because the average market capitalization of its Class A common stock and substantial equivalents, over a period of 30 trading days, is less than $100 million." Now, it has 45 days to respond with a business plan that demonstrates its ability to get back into compliance within 18 months. Virgin Mobile USA has already texted (at least that's what we heard) the bigwigs on Wall Street with a confirmation that it would be working to get back on track, but even the best intentions fall through sometimes. Godspeed, VM.

[Via mocoNews]

Stock downgrades are nothing new for the boys and girls at Palm, but analyst Tavis McCourt of Morgan Keegan (which certainly sounds like an important and all-knowing firm) has painted a particularly bleak picture of the company's books today -- so grim, in fact, that it set off a 20 percent drop in the company's market cap. Apparently the big concern is Palm's cash burn rate, which has left a cash reserve of just under a quarter billion dollars through a series of delays and setbacks that have been partially offset by moderate successes like the Centro. McCourt figures that'll be down to a mere $75 million by the time Palm OS 2 launches, and that's assuming they don't run into any more slips in the schedule. He notes that Bono can always just flip 'em a few more mil out of his Joshua Tree earnings, but it'll end up diluting existing shareholders' stakes, hence the massive drop in value today. No pressure, Palm.

Your morning iPhone news fix: looks like Apple's seeded a beta of firmware 2.1 (not to be confused with the supposed 2.0.1 that will fix the myriad bugs and issues with 2.0), which may have some new GPS features that would imply turn-by-turn directions. No argument from us if Apple really is including new Core Location hooks for tracking your direction and speed, which would both be needed for doing proper GPS navigation.

Another bit which may or may not make it into 2.1 is copy/paste. We're still both hopeful and skeptical, but supposedly in the new version of the WebKit framework exists commands for "plugins," "copy," "paste," "cut," and some others. We can't confirm if these really exist (and if they do, we don't know how they've actually been there, or if they're simply holdovers from the desktop WebKit frameworks), so don't hold your breath. Also supposedly making its first appearance in the 2.1 beta code: Apple's push notification service.

Oh, and by the way, if all this has whet your appetite for the device, sounds like today will be a bad day to try and snag one. Apple's retail site shows absolutely zero iPhone availability in the US, so if you're jonesing then check out eBay or the seedy looking dude on the corner with the overstuffed trenchcoat.

Update: Looks like the stores have been updated in the last hour, many have stock. Game on!

[Thanks to Cameron and everyone who sent these in]

Read - Apple all out of stock
Read - New GPS features seeded?
Read - 2.1 getting background push?

Conspiracy theories tend to run rampant when a phone (or any object of desire, for that matter) that's produced in absolutely enormous quantities dries up in retail locations. Are they really sold out? Is the retailer trying to work prospective buyers into a frenzied lather? Is the CEO sleeping on a bed fashioned of gilded iPhone 3Gs? The answer to that last question is very likely "yes" either way, but for their part, AT&T and O2 have both come out to promise customers that they're putting handsets out in retail just as quickly as they possibly can, with AT&T additionally noting that it's shipping out direct fulfillment orders on a "first-come, first-serve basis" with lead times currently running around two weeks -- in other words, "ship us some more frickin' phones, Apple." Seriously though, how's Apple going to come even close to keeping up with the next round of national launches when they're so woefully behind on the existing ones? And more importantly, if these execs would just sleep on queen-sized iPhone beds instead of king-sized ones, just imagine how many more happy customers we'd have out there?

Read - O2
Read - AT&T

We imagine that entertainer-turned-investor Bono has enough cash banked so that Palm could croak tomorrow with little ill effect on his lifestyle, but still, it's gotta sting. UBS has now slapped Palm stock with a rather yucky "sell" rating, acknowledging that new products are on track for August and November but citing concerns over an "increasingly competitive landscape" from the likes of Apple with the 3G iPhone and RIM with the BlackBerry Bold, all combined with the knowledge that its Linux-based wares won't be hitting until next year. Could the schedule be tightened up at all if they were to adopt Android, and if so, would it be the right move?

[Via Palm Infocenter]

Hot on the heels of dismal news from the Helio camp comes word that frowns are all the rage over at Virgin Mobile, too. After warning that "current quarter subscriber growth would fall to a range of 5,000 to 20,000" (compared to a net gain of 210,000 in Q4) and expressing concerns that the weakness in the US economy would further harm its chances at having a stupendous decent year, shares of its stock sank some 54-percent to $2.30 (but did manage to recover somewhat). Potentially more worrisome, however, was the pessimistic views from analysts; for instance, Bear Stearns' Phil Cusick noted that after two disappointing quarters in a row, he felt that the "softening economy and increased competition had eliminated management's ability to forecast its business." Of course, when the street expects your revenue to increase by some 20-percent and you calmly explain that it downright "will not grow this year," we suppose the stock drop isn't all that shocking.

[Via mocoNews]

Lying in sharp contrast to Amp'd's less-than-stellar fortunes, Virgin Mobile USA -- a joint venture of Virgin and Sprint operated very differently from its European cousin -- is actually hoping to do even better than originally expected. The MVNO had said in May that it hoped to raise up to $100 million through an initial public offering of shares (stock symbol "VM" in case you're curious), but that figure has now skyrocketed up to a rather shocking figure of $508 million. Virgin Mobile hopes to use the cash to pay off a handful of debts it accrued in the process of getting its business off the ground, something Amp'd hasn't quite managed to do just yet.

We'll admit, anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention should have seen this coming a mile away, but the latest financial news from Palm is far from peachy. The firm announced a whopping 43-percent dropoff in profits compared to this quarter just one year ago, and the stock subsequently slid four-percent as a result. Of course, the perpetual delays of its modern-day operating system cannot be helping the cause, and considering the innovation that has surfaced in the smartphone arena over the past 12 months, it was only a matter of time before this happened. Interestingly enough, rival RIM was able to find a way to keep on keepin' on all the while, as it simultaneously posted a staggering 76.5-percent increase in revenue from the same quarter a year ago -- talk about salting the wound.