It's been a few months since Nokia's X6 hit the scene, but the touchscreen-based, S60-lovin' smartphone is just about ready to ship out to those who've managed to avoid all of the other stellar options that have launched since early September. It seems as if Nokia is gearing up to ship the phone in at least some parts of the world exactly a week from today in concert with a Rihanna release party. And if Expansys is correct, folks in the UK will see their orders ship out on November 12th. Too bad that £529.99 ($891) price tag is darn near debilitating, but hey, awesomeness has its price.

[Via Brighthand]

Read - Rihanna / Nokia shindig
Read - Expansys order page

You know, we admire Palm's patience. We knew a GSM Pre was in the works about 8.43 minutes after its CES presser ended in January, and we've been waiting all this time for some carrier in some part of the New World to grab hold of a GSM version of the world's first webOS handset. If you'll recall, we last heard that O2 Germany would be giving its loyal users the chance to get that very handset before the holiday season, but now an updated image on the site clearly indicates that it's coming this fall. As in, before winter. As in, within the next few months. As in, not nearly soon enough.

[Via PreCentral]

It's not like we didn't know this already, but Sony Ericsson has now officially confirmed an October UK release for its latest pair of handsets. The half-Swedish, half-Welsh mobile empire has set the seventh day of the tenth month of whatever year this is as the date for a nice little corporate get-together and unveiling of whatever little details haven't been seen or pored over by now. The Aino slider hopes to capture fans with its slender looks and PS3 Remote Play skills, while the Satio (formerly known as the Idou, pictured) works the multimedia phone crowd with a 12.1 megapixel cam and a 3.5-inch 16:9 display. The latter was recently handled by Engadget Spanish, who found it underwhelming and somewhat sluggish -- but rest assured, we'll be getting a lot more fingerprints on these touchscreen devices in the coming weeks.

When the teaser went up, we knew the hotly anticipated BlackBerry Tour for Sprint was right around the corner, but the only hint of a release date was "later this summer." Lucky for us, the, um, insiders at Inside Sprint Now have clarified the vague window for all of us mere mortals. They confidently state that the Tour will be available on July 20th, just over a week after the purported release date on Big Red. This hasn't yet been confirmed by Sprint, but we're sure they want this baby out sooner rather than later, so quasi-mark your calendars, quasi-set your alarms, and get your $199.99 ready.

Guys, guess what? The Palm Pre is really, seriously, totally coming out, like, super soon. How soon? Well the New York Times, one of the most respected newspapers of our age, claims The Smartphone That Saved Palm (despite their denials) is due in the first week of June, which means the countdown to destruction just got a little shorter. Unless the Times is making stuff up. And let's be honest -- at this point, maybe they are. We can say this, however, the Pre is due, and it's due soon, and if we don't see it before WWDC, we'll be pretty surprised. Our call? We've got a sneaking suspicion that all this speculation will be over before you know it. Like, tomorrow.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We've been waiting on pins and needles for confirmation, but it looks like an all-too-vague Reuters report actually is referring to the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60. After a senior company official noted that a "Linux-based operating system" would be used in one of its two smartphones, we pinged Garmin directly to cut through the mystery and get down to the meat. What we were told was this: "The Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 has a proprietary Linux-based OS, and we're still working towards delivering the nüvifone G60 in the first half of 2009 in limited markets, which haven't been named yet." Of course, the tandem is quickly running out in months in that window, so we're pretty jazzed to be all up on top of an imminent release. Now, if only we knew where those patience pills made off to...

[Via Boy Genius Report]

We've been made privy to some Sprint planning documentation that implies that the carrier is looking to get all its Pre ducks in a row by May 16, which would suggest that there's no way in hell it's launching any earlier than that. Ultimately, that could mean we're looking at a launch on the 17th -- a Sunday, as Sprint launches often are -- or any time after that, but since Palm continues to reaffirm its first half commitment, we'd say that we're now down to a window between 5/17 and 6/30. Awesome.

Check it, Vodafone UK users -- Samsung's sultry Tocco Ultra Edition, which is better known as the Ultra Touch S8300 'round these parts, will be shipping your way real soon. According to the same "Coming Soon" page that tipped us off to the impending debut of HTC's Magic, the Tocco Ultra will be arriving in March for an undisclosed amount. Hit the read link to register for updates, and good luck avoiding the Magic while you're there.

[Thanks, Shattered Ice]

At long last, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has a firm date for its launch into the topsy-turvy US market. Those who've been holding off time and again in anticipation of this WinMo 6.1 powerhouse can finally pat themselves on the back, as those rumors of the handset slipping into next year were greatly exaggerated. In fact, SE's doing itself a huge favor by getting this gem into the market place prior to the holiday season, and better still, on Black Friday proper. You heard right -- while most folks are frantically scouring B&M floors for door buster deals, those with copious quantities of disposable income can waltz on over to a Sony Electronics outlet or any of its authorized retailers on November 28th and pick one up. Wondering if this marvel is worth $799.99? Check out our review for a little insight, and peek the full release just after the break. Oh, and before you ask, there's no word yet on a subsidized version for any US carrier.

RIM's BlackBerry Bold wasn't technically supposed to have launched already -- that's the magic in being all vague about a release date, we guess -- but we can safely say we're absolutely relieved to finally have something out in the open here. Even if it's not carved in stone, per se. An internal AT&T e-mail discovered today notes that the "latest ETA" for the release of the Bold is October 27th (with a price TBD), though we'd feel a lot better about that if it said "definitive release date." At any rate, we'll find out in just ten days. Ten. Days.

This shouldn't be surprising at all to anyone even remotely familiar with HTC's tendencies, but the Touch HD is officially not ever shipping to America (unless you import, obviously). The news was dropped via a Tweet (of all things), but evidently, the outcry over what we figured was common knowledge has caused some windows to be rattled in the penthouse offices. Another official Tweet followed to thank everyone for "expressing their desire for the HD," with the author noting that "US management now knows there's a grassroots demand for high-end HTCs here." Really, HTC? You needed a flood of angry Twitter comments to understand that Americans would give their second born for a phone like the Touch HD?

[Via WMExperts, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We've received official word from HTC that they've been really overwhelmed by the "strong" demand for the HD in the States and other markets where no launch has been planned (with that insane display, it seemed like a no-brainer to us!). Sadly, due to the engineering time required to get a North American 3G version in the pipeline, they say they're better off just waiting until the next round of products launches -- hopefully with some extra bands in the radio this time, eh?

Read - Touch HD not coming to the US
Read - Thanks for the concern

Let's do a quick recap, shall we? So we pretty much know everything there is to know about Verizon's forthcoming BlackBerry Storm save for the price and release date, and so far as we can tell, Verizon's version of the Touch Diamond is still expected to be totally underpowered compared to Sprint's iteration. Now that we've rounded the tables, let's have a look at this image above. This here is Verizon's internal training schedule, and given that employees have to complete their Storm courses before November 2nd and their Touch Diamond courses before December 3rd, we'd say you now have a pretty good idea of when these two will be landing. Hey VZW -- think you could make that "Blocking Features Assessment" available to the public? We're guessing it'd be a real hit.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Okay, so first we heard that Nokia's Comes with Music service would be good and ready by October 2nd. Then we heard October 17th. Now, a certain "anonymous industry source" has revealed that the long-awaited XpressMusic 5800 (or the Tube, as it were) will be launching on the 2nd of next month. With so much conflicting evidence out and about, we're firmly in "wait and see" mode at this point, and considering that "launch" gives no indication of a ship date, we reckon you're better off doing the same.

[Thanks, Mikkel]

A recent Reuters article doesn't mention a specific model (although we have our hunches), but one thing's for sure: some kind of Comes with Music handset is launching on October 17th. We had previously assumed that October 2nd would be the go-live date for the intriguing music bundle, but retailer Carphone Warehouse has now made clear that Britain won't be able to buy in until a few weeks later. As predicted, a Nokia spokesman declined to comment, so we'd go ahead and pencil (key word: pencil) this one into your increasingly crowded datebook.

[Via MobileBurn]

We're not sure if "October xx" will translate into "October 2," but it's pretty safe to say that RIM's BlackBerry Bold is making its way over to AT&T next month. Based on the above pictured internal release, we can see that the 3G-packin' handset will soon be in the carrier's retail stores "for as low as $299.99." As predicted, the PR goes on to gloat about all the wonderful features we already know about, but if you're into that stuff, the full spill is just down there in the read link. Have fun!