Sony continues to come out with some pretty cool stuff for the PSP, and it looks like this PSP Cradle is a must for anyone that uses their Playstation Portable to watch movies. It would be especially handy for those in Japan that can get the 1seg TV signals, which is probably why this is unfortunately launching in Japan only, for now.

The cradle docks the PSP and holds it upright so you don’t have to hold it or balance it against something to watch videos, and comes with an IR remote control so you can set back and control the playback without having to get up and press the little buttons on the PSP. The PSP Cradle will also charge the handheld device when plugged in and docked, and optionally comes with AV cables to hook up a bigger scren.

Sony is only days away from releasing the availability of Skype on the PSP and the company has released an announcement saying that the January 24th launch will be delayed. In particular, Sony officials said that the microphone products they’ve created for the PSP to go along with the Skype service are what is causing the problem.

Both the Single Pack and the Double Pack microphones did not meet Skype’s specifications, and instead of going on without them Sony is going to hold up the whole works. A new solution and a new launch date for the Skype service and microphones for the PSP are being “sought after” and will be announced at a later time.

The good news is that this delay so far seems limited to Japan. It’s strange that they would come to this conclusion only a day before the launch. Are the microphones for Japan customers different and not up to standard while the microphones for the U.S. are acceptable, or is there some other force in Japan that doesn’t like the idea of free mobile VoIP minutes?