A tipster tells us that Palm, the troubled smartphone maker, is laying off 10 percent of its staff. I called a spokeswoman at the company, who confirmed the layoffs but not the number of employees affected; Palm, at last count, had about 1,050 employees. She also said the company would make "program cuts" — Valleyspeak for dropping some future products. Palm has been hammered by competition from Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry; it is in the midst of a turnaround led by its chairman, Jonathan Rubinstein, a former Apple executive and Steve Jobs confidant. Rubinstein, left, has hired many former Apple employees at Palm — so much so that, rumor has it, Jobs called Rubinstein up to scream about it. But the layoffs and program cuts suggest he may not be able to complete his ambitions for a complete revamp of Palm's product line.