The Xperia Play has been officially announced for Verizon’s network when it arrives in the US this year, but according to some reports, this might not be the case after all. That’s because an Xperia Play recently passed through the FCC, but it doesn’t have any CDMA or 4G LTE radios that would allow the phone to run on Verizon’s network.

The phone packs radios that would allow it to work on UMTS frequencies (900/2100mHz), not what Verizon uses. However there could be a simple explanation. There may be a simultaneous release of the Xperia Play on multiple networks (in which case, the Verizon version of the phone hasn’t been through the FCC yet), or Sony Ericsson has decided to release the phone on a different carrier for some reason.

Looks like Sony has been working on a couple of tablets. Come on, you knew they had to get into the game eventually right? The first is a 9.4-inch Android 3.0 tablet known as the “S1″ (codename). Sony has been busy customizing Matias Duarte’s Honeycomb interface to its own specification. And Sony’s work is said to be cutting edge, created by an engineering team spanning Sony’s VAIO, Reader, PlayStation, and Sony Ericsson product groups.

Though the team is lead by the VAIO organization, it will probably launch without VAIO branding. It is also said that Sony’s custom-built transitions and UI elements have created a user experience that sometimes rivals and improves on the iPad’s. The tablet is 100 percent focused on Qriocity, Sony’s music, games, ebooks, and videos on demand service that’s just been launched in Europe.

Sony Ericsson has unveiled another addition to the Xperia line in the Xperia neo. This one is ergonomically designed to “fit perfectly in the user’s hand”. Not to qoute Neo from the Matrix and say “Whoa”. Taking photographs with it is said to be super easy.

It features Exmore R technology for perfect pictures in any condition you find yourself in. It also has a reality display with the Mobile BRAVIA Engine and HDMI output. Gingerbread (Android 2.3) is running the show and you get access to over 100,000 apps from the Android Market. The phone comes preloaded with the usual Google services that you know and love. Nothing on price yet, but we know that the Xperia neo will be available at the end of Q1.

According to Wirefly, the upcoming “PlayStation Phone” aka the Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson will be sold by Verizon when it arrives in the US. If that is accurate, Verizon customers have some tough choices to make. There’s the iPhone 4, Thunderbolt and now the Xperia Play all arriving on their network.

Decisions, decisions. This one does have a slide out gamepad, Android 2.3 and the PlayStation Suite. Which one do you get?

We have some new news on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. It is at last official. In fact, the Xperia Play will be one of the first devices announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Check out that beautiful front shot of the Gingerbread-running smartphone. Isn’t she lovely? She’s packing all the power of a PS3 in a nice tight body. Yeah, she’s a looker alright. I’d make her official too if I were Sony Ericsson. Reeeaaaal official….Gigitty.

A TV commercial for the Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson has surfaced online. It shows the Android mascot getting some stitched on thumbs so he can game with the PSP-style controls. It’s a bit creepy. This Playstation phone is expected to debut at Mobile World Congress later this month if you have thumbs with which to check it out.

Unofficial specs include a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, a backside touchpad and the PlayStation buttons and the ability to play PlayStation Suite games made for Android. Other specs may include a five-megapixel camera with 720p recording and a four-inch touchscreen that has technology from Sony’s Bravia HDTVs.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play was given its first detailed hands-on in our part of the world today. The PlayStation phone is fairly fast and runs a 1GHz Snapdragon. Engadget found that it now hits 59FPS in Qualcomm’s NeoCore benchmark and is capable of even tying the 43FPS of the dual-core LG Optimus 2X in NenaMark.

They discovered that the PSP Go-like controls mapped directly to regular Android navigation and could even be assigned to work in an emulator. The device won’t properly play games that need secondary shoulder buttons but the dual optical pads should replicate a game that would need analog sticks.

According to Asahi Shimbun, the PlayStation Phone is expected in the spring of 2011 for a North American and European release. That timeframe fits with what we have been hearing and while we don’t know what Sony Ericsson has for CES, they’re planning some new Xperia-branded models for MWC. I guess we will find out soon.

We also still don’t know how any of this ties into the standalone PSP2, or how gaming titles will be purchased. We still don’t know a lot of things, but hopefully soon we will learn.

Looks like Sony Ericsson will unveil the Playstation phone at Mobile World Congress 2011. We just learned that it will likely be called the Xperia Play. I guess we won’t be seeing it at CES 2011 after all, but that’s okay. We have plenty to look at there.

We can tell you that the Playstation Phone will not officially arrive at least until April of next year. Some reported specs include a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor, 512MB RAM, and 1GB ROM.

So what will the new Playstation Phone be called? Well, a trademark filling was spotted and it looks like Sony will call it the Xperia Play. Adding some credence to this, the company’s PR firm has registered various Xperia Play domain names, such as XperiaPlay.com, .net, and .org.

Sounds like a good name to us. Hopefully we will learn more very soon since CES is just around the corner. Until then just continue drooling. It won’t be long.

Just shortly after Google released the Android 2.3 SDK, developers have already spotted some new code that appears to be related to buttons on Sony’s PlayStation controllers. This discovery corroborates earlier rumors and leaks, including videos and images showing a PlayStation phone with a control configuration similar to the PSP Go.

The new code includes references to the L1, L2, R1 and R2 triggers found on PlayStation controllers, while Google has given generic labels to what looks like the Square, Triangle, X and Circle buttons.

The PlayStation Phone has been sighted. A video of the phone in action has surfaced from Greece. Sadly, we don’t get to see the phone showing off its slider game pad, but judging by previous pictures this seems like the real thing. It’s one half portable gaming console, one half Android smartphone.

It’s called the Sony Ericsson Z1 and is powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The 4-inch touchscreen has been said to offer great responsiveness. Check out the video below.

Sony Ericsson has started the first wave of Android 2.1 upgrades for the Xperia X8. Some of the mid-range smartphones will get the upgrades today and this should be followed by a “gradual” rollout to every carrier and country that supports the X8. We don’t have a solid timeframe since it depends on approvals from each carrier.

Some additional Xperia X10s are also getting the upgrade. The X8 updates are the same as for the X10 mini and mini pro, which didn’t get the full-size X10′s 720p video recording but did add support for media sharing with TVs, new versions of Sony Ericsson’s custom Mediaspace and Timespace layers, and the updated app and compatibility support inherent to Android 2.1.

We have a ton of features in today’s smartphones and sadly that means more drain on the battery. It’s just a fact of life. As we can do more, battery life is sacrificed. Well, Elecom wants to help.

They have come up with a pocket battery that was specially designed to recharge your smartphone. Inside, it holds a 1600mAh battery that will feature special tips for phones from various manufacturers including Apple, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. Hopefully this will hit the US market soon too.

At a Google TV press event in Tokyo, Sony TV division head Yoshihisa Ishida told reporters that the company is “thinking about using Android in more consumer electronics products.” Now, he didn’t specify exactly what kinds of products, so let your imagination run wild.

Word is that Sony Ericsson has an Android 3.0 mobile gaming platform in the works. Of course you are free to speculate on what else may be coming. Maybe a Sony toaster with some decorative toast burning apps. No, probably not.