Yesterday Sony announced the NGP or Next Generation Portable (working title for the PSP2) at their press conference. No price was announced at the event but an estimated release at end of the year 2011 was announced. The NGP will feature a 5" OLED screen, front and read cameras, a read touch pad which supports multi-touch (capacitive). I am not sure what the rear touch pad is capable of but I am sure it will bring a whole new experience to gaming including controller customization etc. The front of the NGP is also full touch which will allow for more precise control of your games.

NGP incorporates a beautiful multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display. A high-performance CPU / GPU combined with OLED enables rich, visually striking graphics never seen before on a portable entertainment system, for both games and other digital entertainment content. The new system also incorporates a unique multi-touch pad on the rear, and together with the front touch display, NGP offers new game play allowing users to interact directly with games in three dimension-like motion, through “touch, grab, trace, push and pull” moves of the fingers.

Official specs from Sony below:

• CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
• GPU: SGX543MP4+
• External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
• Rear touch pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
• Cameras: Front camera, Rear camera
• Sound: Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone
• Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
• Location: Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support
• Keys / Switches: PS button, Power button, Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), Shoulder buttons (Right/Left), Right stick, Left stick, START button, SELECT button, Volume buttons
• Wireless communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）

Some rumored official shots of the upcoming PSP2 have surfaced. The PSP2 is set up for presentation like it would be shown on an advertisement or promotion. We cannot tell what is being cut off on the side of the screen, but if it is authentic it may be Sony's non-disclosure text or copyright information. There are some discrepancies in the photo that may render it fake. For example, the D-Pad and buttons on the controller appear to be blurry and not crisp. However I understand that this photo could have been captured through a scanner or another device that could have made them more blurry. With the fact that the copyright information is cut off on the side of the screen makes it fishy as well. We will find out more when the PSP2 is announced my Sony on the 27th which is also rumored.

A video has surfaced on YouTube which shows the new Playstation Phone now called the Zeus. Rumors had surfaced that the phone would be announced on December 9th but with this leak the rumors have now been made fact. The phone is called the Sony Ericsson ZEUS (Playstation Phone). The demo video shows the phone running Android 2.3 codename Gingerbread. The video also shows the phone with the standard Playstation buttons along with a touch pad in the center. The controller for the phone is placed normally where a physical keyboard would be. The phone looks pretty nice and might be fun to play with, we will have to see if we can get our hands on one of these.

Earlier we announced the possibility of a new Playstation phone announced on December 9th. Now more details have been found about the details of the new phone. Check out the new details below:

• The display is "mind-blowing" and on-par (to the naked eye) with the iPhone 4's Retina Display. Sony has introduced some Bravia technology into it and leverages on the brand when highlighting the display
• Won't ship in time for the holidays and might be aiming for February
• Off-contract price to be around $500 with 5 free games included
• Games to be priced around mobile gaming prices, such as sub-$10, unlike the higher price for PSP games
• The Z-System name is still being thrown around, and while specific details on it aren't available, it has been used to describe both the gaming platform and the distribution center

The details are quite interesting if proven to be true. We will keep an ear out for more information as soon as we get it.

The Playstation phone may be closer than we thought. A french technology blog called Nowhereelse has a photo of an invitation to a Sony event. The invitation hints and the unveiling of the Playstation PSP phone per the phone symbol in the bottom left. The top of the invitation reads "the most awaited event of the past 10 years" which if this invitation is indeed real removes all doubt. With Christmas around the corner this may be a very wise move for Sony.

There was a news update On Sony Ericsson’s news blog written by Rikard Skogberg from Sony Ericsson. In his news article he confirms that on Monday, November 1st the Xperia X10 Android 2.1 update will start to go forward. This push for updates could take a few weeks to get the update to all of the phones. As I have stated in my Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 review that the X10 will get.

Xperia X10: • HD video recording with continuous auto-focus for high quality videos • Upgrade of the Android platform to Android 2.1 • New back up and restore application, with extended content back up • 5 homescreens for apps, widgets, shortcuts and folders • Social phonebook which automatically syncs contact pictures from Facebook and shows when your friends are online

Your phone will automatically let you know when your update is available with a notification to update and then you will be guided on how to perform the update using the PC Companion software. Because is a big update, you will be guided through some steps so you can backup your personal data before the update and then restore it when the update is finished. To see what phones have received that update notification you can go to Sony Ericsson’s blog and they have a article on what phones have received the notification.