I just emailed Al-Eds and this was the response I got when I asked about the mid next week shipment date:
"We have not heard anything new, so I am not sure where the mid
next week date came from. Since the firmware fix is ready, I would
hope we will see units soon. all they need to do is start updating the
units they have in their warehouse.
They have not told us how may we are getting, but we have more
than enough on order to cover everyone. They may end up doing
small releases so they can start getting units out as they fix them. If
they do this, we will ship units out based on who ordered first.
I wish we could tell you more, but Pioneer is not saying anything.
al-eds.com Customer Service"