A couple of days ago we heard that Nokia will be launching the Tube on October 2nd. If it was only a rumored piece of news then, it has just been confirmed by Reuters. The date for the Nokia Tube or the 5800 XpressMusic is October 2nd.

Everything will happen in London, just as we heard before. That means next week we’ll have more news about the actual specs of the Tube and official pricing. Hopefully the first Nokia touhcscreen phone will be more than just an mid-range phone with a cool screen.

October 2nd seems a bit more closer now, but that shouldn’t stop us from foraging for any small detail that we can find for you guys about Nokia’s much-awaited touchscreen device, the 5800 XpressMedia aka the “Tube.” Mobil.cz was lucky enough to come across a press photo that must have been meant for the upcoming official announcement and shows the Tube clad in dark, brooding red with the usual black bezel, a nice color combination. For those who have forgotten the specs, here’s a refresher: Quad-band GSM, UMTS 2100, and HSDPA support, aGPS, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, 3.2-inch 16-million color touchscreen display, 3.5 mm headphone jack and TV-out feature, 150MB internal memory with microSDHC expansion for up to 16GB, and a 3.2 megapixel camera with dual LED flash with Symbian S60 Taco 5 as the operating system. There you go, all that juicy enough to hold you until the announcement?

So… A Nokia touchscreen phone! Where do I sign up for it? Who do I have to sleep with to get one? I had my share of Nokia phones and they have always turned out to be very dependable devices. The Nokia Tube might be is Nokia’s touchscreen idea and it’s rumored to arrive on October 2nd in London.

I am sure it will be a very successful phone although it might be overshadowed by the G1 released yesterday and the expected BlackBerry Storm. The photo above looks like a press photo, but there’s no press release filled with hot details to confirm the Nokia Tube.

While other companies have long put in their entries for the ongoing touchscreen competition, Nokia is still yet to formally release the much-awaited Nokia “Tube” or more officially, the Nokia XpressMedia 5800. But it looks like we may not have to wait long as Pocket-Lint has a secret, vaild source that whispers a launch date of October 2nd. According to the source, Nokia’s first full touchscreen cell phone is planned to be launched at a London event together with the arrival of Nokia Comes with Music service. October 2nd is not too bad, but you should know Nokia that we have moved on and fallen for the Touch HD instead!

We’re constantly checking on Nokia to see when they’re finally going to release their fist touchscreen phone. Usual rumors say the 5800 Tube will be ready by the end of the year but it looks like we might have an earlier UK release. October 8th is the date people say the Nokia Tube will come out for the public.

Besides the introduction of the touchscreen, this device will be the first to run on Symbian S60 5th Edition. Is Nokia going to have it done in exactly one month from today?

The iPhone has been through two generations already while the largest handset manufacturer in the world seems to be waking up to the call at last, albeit a bit groggily. Nokia has now confirmed that the Tube aka 5800 XpressMedia touchscreen cell phone will be launched before this year is up. We pretty much know everything there is to know about the 5800, but an official nudge in the right direction of a price and a proper release date was missing.

Devinder Kishore, Nokia India’s marketing director had this to say about the upcoming device:

With the acquisition of Symbian, we will be able to offer our customers more innovative products and the latest technology. We have been working on the Series 60 platform for touchscreen user interface and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end.

If we go by this statement, we still have to wait at least another three months before it is launched and at the rate the other companies are churning out touchscreen devices, it might even be too late for the Finnish manufacturer to play catchup, let alone climb up to the top spot, which the iPhone currently holds.
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Their last tease still hasn’t materialized, but Nokia is determined to plough on with yet more announcements this year. Come August 18, the Espoo, Finland-based manufacturer will unveil the latest members of the Nseries family, most likely to be the N79 and N85, in a closed online event before the public announcement on August 25th. The ever elusive XpressMedia 5800 or Tube seems not yet ready for the limelight though, and the N96 is still MIA more than a year after it was announced. We already know some tidbits about the handsets in question, like the dual-slider N85’s 5 megapixel camera and Symbian S60 FP2 operating system, and the N79’s 2.4-inch display and its own 5mpx lens. The event is only four days away, so look for us to get you more on it pretty soon!

People say that the Nokia XpressMusic 5800 Tube is the phone in the Batman new movie. Nokia says it isn’t. Either way, the 5800 has been spotted in the open and it pretty much looks like the one in the movie.

We’ve talked about the Tube before but we have a few more specs available:
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