I think that date is pretty much it. I also remember while talking about this years summit plans, Quim mentioning about some sort of NDA to a bunch of developers regarding the release date. Now why would he say that if the release date was before the summit? So the only option would be that the rover is going to be released on or after October 9th.

I tried searching for that post from quim.. but could not find it.
But i assume that nokia will announce maemo 5 at the September event and create some buzz..

So is the pandora going to be released before that?

This is the post you're looking for.