Nokia's touch-screen "Tube" gets a name, not much else

The Finnish phone giant is making a splash with word of a touch-screen handset to take on the iPhone, but for now, all we have is a name—the "Tube"—and a single PowerPoint slide. Are we talking vaporware here?

Nokia's been known for trotting out high-minded "concepts" like its green "Remade" phone and the bendable, twistable "Morph," and now the "Tube"—an upcoming phone that Nokia clearly believes will eat the iPhone for lunch.

But for now, Nokia isn't letting journalists take the Tube for a test drive—and indeed, the phone maker doesn't even appear to have a physical phone to show us.

Instead, the Tube appeared in a single slide during a recent presentation in Redwood City, California, according to InfoWorld. Nokia execs called the Tube "our first touch device" and promised that it would come with features like Java support and the ability to upload photos.

Beyond that, details on the Tube are pretty much non-existent, and of course, there's no word on price or release date.

Nokia touch-screen aspirations are no secret; it showed off its plans for a touch UI (pictured above) last fall, and the "Morph" phone boasts plenty of cool-looking (if purely conceptual) touch-enabled features.

I've no doubt that Nokia will eventually come out with a touch-screen handset to rival the iPhone, but c'mon—it takes more than a cool name and a PowerPoint slide, folks. Show me an actual phone, some specs, and a release date, and then we'll talk.

Related:
Nokia readies iPhone response [InfoWorld, via Yahoo! News]