Nokia has pulled out of the Japanese cellphone market, sources indicate. The global giant has decided to exit Japan, where they occupy only 1% of market share, because of dwindling sales. Nokia Vice President Timo Ihamuotila says, "We have judged that we cannot continue to invest in product development just for Japan amid the current tough economic conditions."

The company will continue to sell its luxury Vertu brand in the country though.

Nokia’s entry into the widescreen, touchscreen superphone market has finally arrived. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, or the Tube, the device will soon be available in Russia, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Taiwain and Finland.

The phone boasts a 3-2.inch, 16:9 resistive touchscreen, a 3.2-megapixel camera and 8GB of hard drive storage. Nokia has offered no word on pricing or phone plans, but we expect both shortly.

File this in the "overheard at a dinner party but may actually be true" category. Nokia’s chief designer, Alastair Curtis, was at one such dinner party chomping on foie gras and sipping wine when he he was asked why Nokia’s N-series of multimedia devices have yet to receive the multi-touch treatment. Curtis responded with "We’ve not launched what we think is right for N-series in a touch product. You’ll see in the coming months, years… what we feel is right." He then proceeded to make a series of hand gestures meant to suggest a Wii-like interface for the N-series.

This could have been chalked up to some rowdy dinner guests, but a patent for a similar device was just found online. It looks like Nokia may have something up their sleeves after all. It’s a good thing Alastair Curtis hasn’t been gifted with sensitive national secrets. He gets loose lipped after a glass of Pinot or two.

Below is a speculative video of how one such device could work:

Nokia has aimed to please Martial Arts fans worldwide with the release of their Bruce Lee edition of the Nokia N96 smartphone. The phone has a picture of Bruce Lee on the back along with his signature. The phone also comes bundled with a bunch of rare photos of the Dragon as well as accessories and best of all, a Bruce Lee doll.

The Bruce Lee Nokia N96 retails for $1286. Check out the awesome promotional video!

ZOOZ Mobile has just released a Nokia N95-compatible version of it’s ZOOZBeat application. The app turns your phone into a gesture-based mobile music studio. The application is already available for iPhone and the Nokia release comes as quite a surprise.

It makes perfect use of the built-in accelerometers of the Nokia N95. Pick an instrument, and tap or tilt to create your own songs. It’s really that easy. A lite version of the program is available for free with the full-fledged program costing $2.99.