Sony Ericsson has just added a new device to the Xperia line of mobile phones, the Xperia acro. This handset is designed specially for users in Japan and packs in a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and Android’s Gingerbread 2.3.

That’s not all. The phone also has an extra wide 4.2” screen, an 8.1 megapixel camera with Exmor R for mobiles, enabling users to capture low-noise, high quality images and HD video (720p) and there’s also TV-viewing, a mobile-wallet and more. Lucky Japanese.

Sony Online Entertainment is offering the DC Universe Online community a free Batman inspired mask as part of its “make good” plan after an attack on the system that has led to two weeks without service to the PlayStation Network. All players who were affected will receive both the Batman mask and a 30 day subscription credit plus one day for each day the service is unavailable. Not a bad way to say they are sorry.

In addition, SOE is asking for patience as it returns service. “Please bear with us as the complexities of the subscription server dictate how and when this will be available along with pertinent details,” But hey, free batman stuff.

Sony wants to apologize for the recent outage of the PSN network, and so during a press conference in Tokyo, Sony said that it will reward PlayStation Network users when the service is turned back on next week.

The “Welcome Back” program gives all existing PlayStation Network users 30 days of PlayStation Plus for free. Current PlayStation Plus members will receive 30 days of additional service at no extra cost. Sony will also provide “selected PlayStation entertainment content” for free to download. Details for each region will be announced later. Music Unlimited subscribers will also receive 30 days of free service. Not bad. At least they are trying to soothe gamers who have been affected by this.

Regarding the hacked PSN network, Sony now says that there is “no evidence” that credit card information had been taken and that the data itself had been encrypted. They can’t rule it entirely, but the security code for credit cards wasn’t compromised since it wasn’t in the system.

However, a password change will now be mandatory for everyone as soon as PSN comes back online and that is just good sense. A firmware update will address the issue when they are ready. Sony promises more details to come soon.

At the end of yesterday’s Sony presentation of the S1 and S2 Android tablets, a few slides were displayed showing off a couple more new Sony products, Namely, the “Ultra Mobile” PC and the “Freestyle Hybrid” PC.

The Ultra Mobile PC clearly looks like it is at least a 13-incher or over, while the Freestyle Hybrid PC was rumored as the Sony Vaio Slider, which was said to have a 9.4-inch display, Pine Trail Atom processor and Windows 7 and is due out in the fall, possibly October for $799. Unfortunately, we have no details on these guys yet.

Looks like things have just taken a turn for the worse as far as Sony’s PSN goes. The “external intrusion” was worse than we had last heard. Sony has confirmed that the PSN outage was caused by “malicious actions,” and now they are saying that there has also been “a compromise of personal information.”

Sony isn’t being very specific about what that means. For instance, we don’t know yet if credit card data for PSN and Qriocity users has actually been exposed, but the company says that “your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.” So apparently they are not sure. Best check with the bank if you are worried.

Sony has announced a pair of Android 3.0 tablets. The first is the 9.4-inch S1 media tablet (also known as the Qriocity focused) with a curved top similar to a folded book or magazine with both front and rear cameras. The S1 features a Tegra 2 SoC and customized “Quick and Smooth” touch panel UI with “Swift” web browser. As a bonus, it can also be used as a remote for your Sony gadgets, which is handy.

The dual-screen device looks like a sexed up 3DS. That’s the S2, which features a pair of 5.5-inch 1,024 x 480 pixel displays, Tegra 2 SoC, and a camera. It uses a custom book-style UI layout for the e-reader app, email and others. Both are PlayStation Certified and are WiFi and 3G/4G “compatible”. I can’t wait to see what Sony does with gaming on a tablet. How will these interact with the PS3? We should see a release in the fall, maybe sooner.

Sony has confirmed that a ‘External Intrusion’ is behind the ongoing PSN Outage. The outage has been happening since late Wednesday and Sony says that it is due to “an external intrusion on our system.” Patrick Seybold said that the service was taken offline “to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services.” That’s about all we know.

As of right now we don’t have any word on when the service will be back. Lets hope they can get it running quickly. PlayStation Network has 69 million registered accounts worldwide. Sony doesn’t want these users unhappy enough that they switch consoles.

We reported earlier that “Anonymous” was not very happy with Sony and now we have word that the PlayStation Network and other Sony websites are having problems. A widespread outage, which started in Europe last night has now spread to North America.

On one hand Anonymous is claiming responsibility for the attacks, but Sony says that “sporadic maintenance” may cause PSN service to be interrupted throughout the day. Has the group already started their campaign against Sony, or is this just actual maintenance? Have you had trouble?

The hacking group known as “Anonymous” has announced that it will turn its attention toward Sony for the legal action it has taken against hackers for hacking the PS3 console. Not good news for Sony as we saw what this group was willing to do a few months back over Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

Anonymous wrote to Sony, “your recent legal action against our fellow hackers, Geohot and Graf_Chokolo has not only alarmed us, it has been deemed wholly unforgivable.”

Remember the Sony tablets from a few months ago? This might be one of them. The news is that Sony plans to release a tablet computer by the end of this summer, according to Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer.

The tablet will run Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb software, and will be arrive in the U.S. market first. We don’t know for sure if it’s the S1 tablet or something else entirely, but we should know more soon since it’s hard to keep a secret these days.

According to the official O2 blog, things may not be running as smoothly as we thought for the Xperia Play. For one, it will miss it’s April 1st launch. This is due to having to work out some bugs and make it all stable so that we get a good phone, not a junk one.

They hope to have it all sorted as quickly as possible as they are “really excited about the Xperia PLAY” and will even be selling an exclusive white version. Maybe this is just them setting up an April fools prank, and on the 1st they will magically have it. We just don’t know.

Sony has launched a new professional grade camcorder in the NEX-FS100. The NEX-FS100 is equipped with an Exmor Super 35 CMOS Sensor that is designed for shooting commercials and music videos, as well as action scenes. The sensor shoots 1080p60 content at up to 28Mbps to SD, Memory Stick or an optional 128GB SSD. It can also output uncompressed 4:2:2 footage over HDMI and sports a 3.5in LCD display.

The NEX-FS100E uses the Sony E-mount interchangeable lens system and will also allow for the A-Mount lenses to be used with an adapter. This budget model only comes with the camera body though. The lens kit will cost you extra.

The MacBook Air is a real winner thanks to it’s super slim form and great battery life. Sony wants to roll out their own version with a Vaio notebook known as the Hybrid PC. It’s a fast ultralight machine with a Core i7 processor, a Solid State Drive, HDMI 1.4 connectivity and Wi-Di.

The whole package is less than 2.5 pounds. When you this machine, the Hybrid PC will is transformed into a full desktop replacement. Other specs include a Radeon HD 6700M graphics processor, a Blu-ray burner, Ethernet and VGA connections, and a connector that brings together USB with AC power. Battery life without the dock has been rated from 8 to 16.5 hours.

Sony recently demonstrated some new technology that lets different people see different images on a TV screen, depending on what angle they are viewing the TV from. They are calling it dual-view and the technology will allow users to compete in multiplayer games without having a split screen.

There are other potential uses as well, like the ability to watch 2 TV shows at the same time, on the same screen, even though audio would need to be split using headphones or something.