It’s a real shame that those outside of Japan won’t be able to lay their hands the Sony Ericsson CyberShot S001 at retail stores. It’s a real beauty of a camera phone. The Sony Ericsson CyberShot S001 features an 8.1 megapixel autofocus EXMOR CMOS sensor with LED flash, Smile Shutter and Face Recognition technology, Image Stabilization and auto exposure/white balance alongside sensitivity of up to ISO 1600.

Some other features of the CDMA/GSM slider handset include a 3.3″ OLED display with 854 x 480 resolution, Bluetooth connectivity, Integrated GPS, and 1Seg TV tuner. You can get it from KDDI in Japan in our choice of black, gold, green and pink this March.

The details are a bit sketchy, but the word coming out of Sweden is that some 35-year-old tech obsessed dude was brazen enough to steal several prototype phones from Sony Ericsson’s Lund offices on Monday or Tuesday. As you might expect, he was arrested on Wednesday when police found the prototypes at his home. Oh and he apparently also had a hundred other phones.

According to Sony Ericsson, the thief wasn’t employed by them, but had a “working relationship” with the company. They think he used a pass card to gain entry to the building. Police also got their hands on a laptop with some questionable content. They’re estimating the total value of the theft totaled about $90,000.

DailyMobile has some pics of the upcoming Sony Ericsson C510 codenamed Kate. It’s a successor to the Sony Ericsson K770 that packs in a 3.2 MP camera with face detection, LED flash, QVGA video, 2.2 inch QVGA display and 160MB built in memory.

Some other features include: Smile shutter, Auto rotation when viewing, Cyber-shot™ UI 2.0, Dedicated shutter key, Illuminated imaging shortcut keys, Direct blog short cut key, Blue illuminated imaging short cuts, Download and upload to YouTube. The phone is scheduled to ship in February 2009.

Sony Ericsson has turned their latest entry-level music cell phone into a pocket-friendly device. It measures in at 75mm x 44mm x 18mm. Known as the Xmini, the handset will be available from KDDI and as you can see from the pic above, it’s a slider that hides touch sensitive buttons.

You get essentially the same features of a basic normal-sized music phone, they just managed to squeeze into the small device. Some of those features include Bluetooth, basic messaging, MP3 ringtone support and audio playback. Not really that big a deal, but it’s really cute tiny. Chances are we won’t be seeing it here in the US.

It’s that time again. Greenpeace has released their new Guide to Greener Electronics. Compared to last year, there are many changes. Some you might expect, some you may not have foreseen.

Some manufacturers went up on the scale, while others went down. Nokia is the standout at the top, right at the 7 out of 10 mark, but poor Nintendo… The Big N is once again stuck at 1 out of 10. How did Apple fare? They fail once again and drop to the 14th position out of 18 companies.

Opera on Tuesday has announced the final release of the latest and greatest version of its mobile browser, Opera Mini 4.2. We saw the 4.2 version go into beta release only earlier this month sporting some new features including skins, additional servers and faster performance, video and Notes sync.

The final v4.2 release that we downloaded today appears to be very similar, if not exactly the same, as the beta version we got a couple of weeks ago. Opera boasts increased speed of as much as 30 percent, support for multiple languages, the ability to skin the browser to match your preference and of course the ability to play mobile-targeted YouTube videos (provided you have a newer Sony Ericsson or Nokia phone, for now). Users can also sync up notes between the mobile browser and the Opera desktop browser with Opera Link.

Opera has a beta version of the latest Opera Mini browser for mobile devices, boasting some cool new features for on the go, and faster connections for those in the Americas. For starters, Opera Mini 4.2 beta has brought back the skinning features from version 3, allowing a little customization to look of the browser. Users of the newest version of this browser who also have select phones such as a new Sony Ericsson or Nokia might also have some luck getting YouTube to run on it as well.

The new 4.2 browser will also make use of the new servers available in the U.S., making browsing faster for those in the Americas and Asia-Pacific areas. Opera says this will make things faster for those in other parts of the world as well since the new servers will off-load some work from the existing servers. Opera 4.2 also has a feature to sync your notes to your Opera Desktop with Opera Link.

Sony Ericsson has officially launched the nice looking W705 Walkman phone today. The W705 will feature Clear Bass/Clear Stereo audio quality, DLNA-certified Wi-Fi connectivity, Shake control, SensMe music control, 2.4″ display, Bluetooth connectivity, 3.2 megapixel camera, Built-in accelerometer and Integrated FM radio. The device will come bundled with a 4GB memory card with each purchase.

Sony Ericsson brings us some spy love with the special edition Sony Ericsson C902 Titanium Silver aka James Bond’s Quantum of Solace mobile phone. Just like the Sex In the City phone, it’s all about tying your phone in with the movie.

The handset will come in a special promo-box along with exclusive content on the phone including a Quantum of Solace trailer, behind the scenes videos, Special Quantum of Solace phone themes, five wallpapers, two animated wallpapers, Quantum of Solace java-game, plus music and voice ring tones. Great for James Bond fans who already have some villain watches.

To celebrate the success of the movie, and solely to appeal to the ladies, Sony Ericsson has announced the W350i, Sex and the City edition. It’s a limited edition white W350i that comes with a memory stick preloaded with the movie’s soundtrack, three wallpapers, and the video song, “Labels or Love” by Fergie.

Other specs are the same like the 1.9 inch high-res screen, 1.3 Megapixel camera, GPRS and dedicated music controls on the flap. It won’t make you Sarah Jessica Parker, or any of the other women on the show, but maybe it will give you some fashion cred with your fellow ladies.

Here’s Sony Ericsson’s GreenHeart concept. The handset was made using bio-plastic casing and keypads that can be easily recycled. The GreenHeart even comes bundled with a new charger that is smart enough to turn itself off when the phone is fully recharged. Environmental concerns even extend to the user’s manual which is entirely HTML-based to save paper, thereby saving trees. Add in environmentally conscious packaging, and some hippies might let go of the tree they’re hugging in order to get one. The Sony Ericsson GreenHeart is only a concept, but it shows a new greener direction.

Sony Ericsson launched this week its first collection of Bluetooth watches for women. Looking not geeky at all, you’ll find the MBW-200 range of watches available in select global markets by the end of the year.

The MBW-200 watches offer what Sony Ericsson describes as “three different sophisticated designs to match your personality.” They were designed in conjunction with Fossil and are labeled the Sparkling Allure, Contemporary Elegance and Evening Classic Editions.

Sony’s just gave the official word on its new G705 slider handset, and it’s pretty nice looking with attractive mid-end features. It features a 2.4 inch TFT with auto-rotation, A-GPS, DLNA, quad-band GSM and AGPS, Bluetooth 2.0, FM radio, 3.2-megapixel camera with flash plus a Java-based OS. Some other features are a full HTML browser, Exchange ActiveSync for email, Google shortcut key for Google Maps, and YouTube viewing and direct upload. It gets “turbo 3G speeds,” thanks to a Tri-band HSDPA. The European and Asian versions of the phone will be available in October, while we in America will have to wait for early 2009. No pricing details yet.

With this concept Sony may be able to have just one gadget that does almost everything for you. It would serve as your phone, still-camera, video recorder, PDA, and music player all in one sleek little package. To lock it or to use it, you’ll need to twist the movable base. It features a 5 MP camera and has dual mode. You can use both the keypad or a stylus for input. It also gives you WiFi and music/video broadcasting capabilities as well as handwriting recognition. If it ever sees the light of day, it would be a runaway hit. We are all looking for that magic all-in-one device to lighten our load. But as cool as it is we don’t expect to see it for quite a while.

Sony Ericsson is struggling to gain market share in the mobile phone arena. Sony Ericsson has not enjoyed much success in the market and is out to grow its business. Launching cool handsets is one way to grow its market and another is to make its handsets available on more networks.

Sony Ericsson announced today that it is producing its first handset built specifically for the AWS spectrum 1700/2100 network that T-Mobile operates in America. The handset is the first from Sony Ericsson to support T-Mobile and is called the TM506. The TM506 connects to T-Mobile’s 3G network.