Sony’s game consoles are solidly built and super reliable, sure there’s the occasional issue, but they don’t exactly suffer the RRoD. Even so, things can happen. And if you’re willing to pay for peace of mind, Sony has a new service agreement.

The “PlayStation Protection Plan,” extends the full warranty on your PlayStation 3 or PSP for another year or two. Sony’s plan requires you to mail your system to Sony and wait for the repair or replacement system; GameStop’s warranty allows you to turn in your system and leave with a replacement. Apparently controllers and cables are included with the GameStop protection plan, while Sony only covers the system itself.

Well, that didn’t take long. ColorWare is bringing PS3 Slims to life with a rainbow of colors. They aren’t just colorizing the console, but the controller as well. You can customize the color of the PS3 logo, the top of the console, or the bottom. That way you can make it look super funky.

Once it’s been colorized, everything is high-gloss and scratch resistant, so it’s more than just a paint job. If you want to send yours in, it will cost you $149 or you can just buy one from them for $449.

We’ll leave it up to you to decide if this video is real or fake. It shows off a purportedly “stolen” PS3 slim at a street market in the Philippines. You decide.

If real, the PS3 Slim certainly looks like one sexy beast. Nothing too Earth-shattering here though. The video below suffers from glaucoma and shows a black plastic box with the new rounded-off logo style from the PSPgo.

Sure, the PSP Go! looks awesome. It’s slimmer, lighter, has downloads instead of UMD. But where’s the full QWERTY keyboard? Acidmods forum member folklord36’s PSP Laptop does have QWERTY, thanks to an Xbox Chat Pad. It also has relocated speakers, LED lighting and more.

The screen section is a modified Joytech visor that has the same finish as the PSP, and its sturdy hinge can be positioned at anything up to 180-degrees. We don’t know how long it took him to create this or how much it cost, but we wouldn’t mind having one ourselves.

Ars Technica has a “very well-informed mole” that says that the rumored flash-based PSP Go! will be announced at E3. Then, later it will be sold right alongside the current model. As for the PS3 Slim, it’s real. And slim. But we don’t expect an announcement next week. We aren’t sure when.

Just a regurgitation of rumors we’ve already heard? Ars seems confident about the info. Either their mole is right or dead wrong. Their source says that the new PSP will be lighter and smaller possibly even cheaper. The PS3 Slim is just Sony doing what they do. They always miniaturize their consoles.

According to Acclaim developer David Perry, the new Playstation Portable won’t feature a UMD disc drive.

“I hear Sony FINALLY has the PSP 2. And thank goodness, they’ve removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive. I’m excited!” Perry wrote on both his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Whether or not he has actually seen the rumored new Playstation Portable himself is not clear. He may just be hearing rumors through the development community. Ditching the UMD wouldn’t be a surprise as it would cut costs and make the device slimmer. It fits with the other rumor, that the new PSP will be a slider, but have the same guts as its predecessor.

If you have a PSP slim and you’re up to date with the firmware you may have been thinking about taking advantage Skype through the Wi-Fi connection on your PSP. One of the hurdles might have been getting your hands on a headset to use with the Skype feature, which seems to have taken an awful long time. In fact, you may remember that the Japan launch was delayed due to something wrong with the headset microphone.

Well, now SCEA has finally come around and yesterday launched the Skype compatible headset to make it easier to get some free VoIP calls from your PSP – one more thing that makes that portable game console just plain cool. The headset comes with stereo sound and a microphone for $30, which is more than we had heard, but at least its available now.

PSP Skype Headset via PSPFanBoy

Want your PSP to glow like it just set off the geiger counter? These replacement covers will give it an otherworldly glow. Just put your PSP in daylight for a few minutes, and then switch off the lights and watch your system glow.

The XCM Magic Night Glow face plate attaches to the front of your Sony PSP (slim model only. Sorry fatties.), and gives you a cool lights off look. They come in a variety of colors, including pearl, yellow, blue, red, green, and pink. Most of them glow in a different hue when in the dark.

If Sony were to partner with Apple for their next portable, all-in-one gaming device, the result might look something like this beautiful and sexy droolworthy beast called iWish.

Mat Brady made this mockup, and says that he calls this the iWish because he wishes Sony would get it’s act together and improve the PSP. He makes a good point about many companies doing amazing and innovative things these days, yet sadly, the only innovative thing to happen to the PSP since 2005 was that it got a little slimmer. Can’t argue with that.

If mint green is your color scheme of choice, prepare to feel the cool menthol sensation of this model, now available in Japan. If you absolutely must have it, you can always import one.

Japan’s Vis-a-Vis has a new PSP controller accessories do give you a better grip on your PSP or PSP lite. The “Flexible Hand Grip Pad Advance” mounts onto the back of the PSP to give a hand-hold similar to that of a Dual-Shock controller to avoid any of that cramping up during hours of remote play.

The flexible handgrip appears to still keep access to all the controls including the power button and Wi-Fi enable switch on the sides, and when it slides apart for use it even exposes the UMD tray on the back. When not in use the grip slides together to be a little more compact, but is still a pretty bulky accessory compared to the PSP itself.

The folks over at T3 did a pretty nice job with a mock up of a Wii Phone last year at about this time and this year they’re creating another stir. They’ve posted images today of what they envision as a lighter, slimmer Sony Playstation 3 which is reportedly heading for shelves as soon as this fall.

Sony does have a history of slimming things down just like they did last year with the slimmer PSP but it seems like an unlikely move from a company that’s trying to cut costs and increase the market for their latest game console, but maybe with Blu-ray pulling ahead they feel they have it made? T3 also is speculating that this new slimmer model would have the rumored 160GB hard drive in it as well, and of course a slim Blu-ray player.

We’ve been checking daily for that next firmware update we told you about earlier this month that is to include Skype VoIP calling, and looks like it hit today. Version 3.90 is available for download from the Network Update menu on the PSP and will bring support for more PlayStation Network titles to the PSP along with the ability to make and receive free Skype calls on your Playstation Portable. The announcement comes today from Sony Europe but the update appears to be available for download here in the U.S. as well.

Unfortunately this feature is available only on the newer, slim PSP 2000 models and will require you to get a PSP headset and PSP remote control or Go! Cam to operate the Skype features. The 3.90 firmware with Skype lets you make free internet calls through the PSP Wi-Fi connection much like you would from a computer and will even let you setup a new Skype account on the PSP. If you have some Skype credit you can also make SkypeOut calls to landlines for a fee.

Sony’s Playstation Portable handheld gaming console has been trailing in sales to the Nintendo DS since the DS’s inception, but Sony is a far cry from giving up quite yet. Last month we saw a pretty cool upgrade with the version 3.80 firmware for the PSP which brought internet radio through the systems WiFi connectivity. Now Sony is saying that they are partnering with Ebay’s Skype to bring VoIP Skype phone service to the handheld system.

The new firmware is slated to be available for download to the PSP by the end of January and will add a Skype icon and functionality to the Network portion of the PSP’s menu. When connected to the internet users will then be able to log into Skype, manage contacts, view who’s online and of course make calls through their PSP to other Skype users or other PSP owners with the Skype feature installed. Owners will even be able to create a new Skype account right on the PSP.

Firmware upgrades for the Sony PSP usually don’t have changes that are incredibly drastic but for some reason I still get pretty excited any time they come out. It’s almost like getting a slightly new gadget each time, even though I still have the older, fat PSP. Anytime I hear of any upgrade on the way I’ll check for it using the utility on the PSP daily, since most of the time I can get it there before it’s officially released.

Version 3.80 however does promise to bring something pretty cool – streaming internet radio. The update will allow the PSP to pick up streams of online radio broadcasts in the same format that it supports such as Shoutcast MP3 streams. The upgrade will also expand its feed-reading capabilities the ability to pick up “photocasts” from RSS feeds. It will also allow users to import OPML feed lists from other feed readers to import the same feeds on the handheld console.