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

If you hadn't heard, hundreds of people were turned away from Apple Stores last night, iPhone 3G-less. However, being gluttons for punishment -- and having nothing to do over the weekend -- they've returned in droves to Apple Stores, with reports of lines longer than 200 people stretching out from The Cube, Apple Store Chicago (pictured) and even a store in Durham, NC. Apple offered up vouchers last night, at least at some stores, to anyone still waiting in line, so those folks can show up whenever and jump the line for a phone -- about 30 of them are lined up at The Cube currently. If you don't mind you can let us know in tips what the current status on the line / stock is at your local Apple or AT&T store is, and we'll try to keep track of this mayhem through the weekend. Good luck out there!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this stuff in]

Details are fuzzy right now -- and what details there are have been officially denied -- but the Japanese press is having a bit of a field day over the possibility of a Sanyo selloff to Matsushita / Panasonic. Apparently Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo, and Daiwa own some 67% of Sanyo's equity, and as Japanese paper Yomiuri reports, are looking at the possibility of transferring said equity to or otherwise forming a partnership with Matsushita. Again, both Matsu and Sanyo are denying the report as of now, so it's all still up in the air as the salarymen figure out whether to combine both companies to make a corporate entity larger than even Hitachi (which currently sits at the top of Japan's heap).

Update: Panasonic (aka, Matsushita Electric Industrial) just issued the following statement: "These reports are not based on any official announcement by MEI, and there is no fact that MEI is considering on the alliance." Not exactly a denial is it?

[Via Engadget Japanese, thanks Theirry]

Although the market as a whole has taken a beating lately, the rollercoaster ride has been particularly harsh on Apple stockholders, who've seen their shares fall from a high of $202 earlier this year to just over $130 today. Of course, among the hardest hit was Steve himself, who has over 5M shares of the company -- which is why he may have sent out an email today advising employees to "hang in there." Calling the past week "a remarkable last few days," Jobs pointed to Apple's product pipeline, people, strategy and -- perhaps most importantly -- $18B of straight cash in the bank as reasons to have faith, and said that factors "larger than ourselves" were taking their toll on the stock price. That may be so, but it's still pretty unlike Jobs to comment on things like this -- we suppose taking a $377M hit on paper would probably cause us to say a few things as well.

Hey, you can't announce a new iPhone every year.

Whenever stock traders gossip, there's usually a lot of disinformation, and there's always an element of plausible deniability: both are the case here, with stories about a possible buyout of Sprint by British firm BT apparently circulating. Sprint's recent stock boost is one of the consequences of the rumors, so whatever's going on, it's good news for stock holders of Sprint. For the rest of us, however, this is just another unpredictable aspect of the stock market: and lets face it, if a deal does go through, it'll be months or even years until consumers see any perceivable difference in services (if any.) Until it does, we'll remain blissfully unaware of all those big money discussions taking place behind mahogany doors on both sides of the Atlantic.

Earlier this year, Inventec Appliances (spun off from Inventec Electronics) was raided as prosecutors began looking for evidence to support charges of alleged insider trading, and now it looks like nine of the firm's employees could be headed to the slammer. Taiwan's Banciao District Prosecutors Office "alleged that nine executives and one lower level employee failed to publicly reveal a steep drop in iPod orders until after they had sold off nearly $22.4 million worth of stock," and although the employees knew of the order cuts as early as January 19th, nothing was publicly revealed until mid-March. Purportedly, prosecutors "are seeking the stiffest penalties against the two top executives," and if the evidence sticks, we have all ideas that Inventec will be huntin' a new Chairman (and President, too) in the not-too-distant future.

[Via TUAW]

If you want an iPhone, you haven't gotten one yet, and you operate in slow motion, now would probably be a good time to start worrying about availability. We've been hearing wide-scale reports since yesterday from AT&T stores across the country that locations have been unable to keep the device in stock, with some selling out in a matter of minutes after launch all video game console-style. For folks within driving distance of an Apple store, that hasn't been a problem so far because Apple's own retail locations seem to have been supplied with many, many units -- and that, friends, is what's starting to change. According to Apple's iPhone locator, there are still plenty of locations with stock -- but unlike last night, it's not difficult at this point to find stores that have sold out as well. Think there's any chance Apple's gonna let the pipe run dry?

While Apple's surely enjoying the perks of having a monumental amount of iPods unwrapped just days ago, everything's not exactly kosher in Cupertino. Aside from the mysterious mouse the firm just patented, the company is facing another bevy of off-the-wall lawsuits, all while trying to fish its CEO out of potentially hot water. After the Securities and Exchange Commission found that ole Steve was granted 7.5 million stock options without the proper authorization of Apple's board of directors in 2001, there was widespread speculation that Mr. One More Thing may suffer the same fate as Apple's former CFO Fred Anderson, who resigned after a similar debacle in 2004. It seems, however, that things just might work out okay after all, as Apple finally filed its required forms with SEC, recognizing a "total additional non-cash, stock-based compensation expense of $84 million after tax, including $4 million and $7 million in fiscal years 2006 and 2005, respectively." Aside from taking the lofty charge, the company also stated that while Jobs was "aware of the favorable grant date recommendations, he did not financially benefit from these grants or appreciate the accounting implications." So all those out there holding your breath to see if Macworld would ever be the same if this went south, it looks like we'll be seeing jeans and a black shirt all over again in just a few weeks.

There's been a lot of speculation that Sony won't hit its PlayStation 3 launch targets for 2006 (which includes 2 million units at launch, and another 2 million units by the end of the year), but it sounds like they were dealt a pretty severe blow by Japanese brokerage Mitsubishi UJF Securities. The Japanese investment firm predicted major component shortages that would hamper sales by as much as a million units (trust us, that's a lot of units), and lowered its rating, causing Sony's stock to drop 3%. It's a harsh day in the office for Hirai, Kutaragi, and Stringer, but there's no doubt about it, and Sony's once again going to have to seriously prove itself come this holiday season.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]