Sony Ericcson reveals Playstation phone

Sony Ericsson publicized in Barcelona its hotly-awaited PlayStation phone, the Xperia Play, which is the company’s counter to a raft of sophisticated game-playing smartphones offered by rivals.

Just hours before the Mobile World Congress trade expo opened in the Spanish city, the Xperia Play was put on show. It is optimized for gaming and instead of the usual pullout keyboard offers a set of thumb-driven, PlayStation-style controls.

Sony Ericsson announced that the gadget would go on sale worldwide from next month. In the United States, Verizon is to lead the rollout. No details were given related to the European launch. The company is to offer with it many of the classic games played on the PlayStation and PSP (PlayStation Portable).

The company said more than 20 games design companies including Gameloft and Electronic Arts were currently devising new games for the Play and they would be sold via the Playstation Suite platform.

It added that the games would also run on other makers’ Android phones. The PSP and its rival, the Nintendo DS, once reigned supreme as the distraction of choice for children and teens, but have faced rising competition in the past year from smartphones with high-resolution displays that offer similar fun.

Sonos unveils New Android App for Wireless Music Control

Sonos' stable of wireless music offerings allow listeners to have a stereo system that covers every room in their home, and to control the whole system simply and wirelessly. Sonos makes a hardware remote control for the system and apps for iOS devices, and today the company publicized that Sonos owners can now also use their Android devices to control their music.

The Sonos Controller for Android is a free app that can access and play all the music available through the Sonos universe, which includes everything from computer-based media libraries to services like Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, Pandora, and Napster.

Choose a song, and a room, and music at once begins to stream wirelessly to your Sonos ZonePlayer. The Sonos Multi-Room System can play one song across the whole house, or different songs in different rooms—the whole system can be controlled with a single Android phone.

The app is a remote, but it's not actually handling the music stream, so you can make phone calls or surf the Web without interrupting the music stream. All the streaming and Web connectivity is managed by the Sonos devices. Users can interact with the app by typing or with voice commands, and the app works seamlessly in tandem with all the other controller options for Sonos devices.

The Sonos Controller for Android will be available in March for devices running Android 2.1 or later, and will be displayed publicly next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Mad Catz grabs exclusive rights to Xbox 360 wireless headphones

Although there are ample of surround sound headphones for the Xbox 360, none have been graced with Microsoft-sanctioned branding; until now. Mad Catz has finalized a fairly sweet agreement with Microsoft for exclusive rights to produce wireless gaming headphones for the Xbox 360. 

Those powerful headsets will be equipped with Dolby 5.1 technology. Mad Catz will also be working on other headsets for the Xbox 360 that are tied down by wires within the Tritton series, but no exclusivity there. Little else is known about the headphones currently, but it is expected to hear more at E3 2011.