Along with the arrival of more cases for the Xperia range, Sony Mobile Japan have also decided to get in on the accessory action by releasing their own bizarre USB emergency charging device for their smartphones.

Due for release in Japan on June 20th and costing 8000 Yen, the CP-A2LAKS USB charger is a ‘wind-up’ device where users simply crank the handle for, as Sony recommend, three minutes to give a connected handset one minute of call time. Alternatively, the fitter user could carry on cranking that handle for five minutes and gain a whole minute of internet browsing through their smartphone.

Alternatively, by plugging the charger into the mains supply and ironically ‘charging it’, the device will store the power and can provide a smartphone with the equivalent of two full charges which is more useful, especially for travelling.

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With the market for mobile accessories becoming increasingly more popular worldwide, Sony have taken steps to ensure that they are more involved with the accessories that are created for it’s own range of Xperia mobile smartphones.

Sony has joined forces with a number of arguably the most notable mobile case manufacturers including CaseMate, Coptor, Orbyx, Krussel, Dicota, Muvit, Incipio, Shinnorie and RoxFit to ensure that Xperia owners have as big a variety of cases available for their Xperia handset as possible.The range of cases due to be released will be officially revealed this month along with cost details.

Of course, there is still a huge market for cheaper accessories on the likes of eBay so hopefully, Sony and it’s new case partners won’t price themselves too highly and will endeavour to encourage more users to opt for the better quality mobile accessories for what are becoming increasingly more expensive handsets.

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With the pending arrival of a number of Xperia handsets, Sony seem to have their hands full. Not so full that they can’t announce yet another new handset however. Next up is a snazzy little number, on the way to enter the Chinese market and known as the Sony Xperia Neo L.

We’ve already seen the Xperia Neo V and the Neo L is very similar. The Neo L will be slightly different in size to the Neo V but features the same 1GHz processor, 5.1 megapixel camera with 720p video recording and an LED flash plus a 4 inch LCD screen with 480 x 854 resolution. The Neo L will run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) at launch. The Neo L will also feature Xperia Timescape, Xperia Infinite botton, Xperia Local connectivity and Xperia home screen application software.

Sony are yet to advise on when the handset is expected in China or how much it will cost on release.

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One thing that has troubled Xperia owners is those who own Macs have been unable to update their Xperia handsets, as Bridge for Mac didn’t allow users to update the software and PC Companion and the Sony Ericsson Update Service were for Windows machines only.

With version 2.0 of Bridge for Mac though, users are now able to update their Sony (Ericsson) devices. Which will be important over the coming weeks as Android 4.0 has began rolling out for specific 2011 Xperia models already and the Android Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Xperia S will also be released shortly. You can download Bridge for Mac from Sony Mobile

Along with the 13 megapixel, 4.6 inch display toting Xperia GX, Sony are releasing another Japan bound handset in the form of the Xperia SX. Like the Xperia GX, the SX will feature LTE technology and lays claim to being the lightest LTE capable handset in the world. The Xperia SX weighs in at just under 100g. The screen size on the Xperia SX is almost an inch smaller. The SX featuers a 3.7 inch display but, will still have the Mobile Bravia Engine.

The Sony Xperia SX will feature an 8 megapixel camera, a 1.5GHz dual core processor as well as infra-red connectivity, Mobile TV and mobile wallet, specifically added for the Japanese market.

The Xperia SX, like the GX will come in both white and black, with Android 4.0 out of the box. Both handsets are expected to launch this summer in Japan.

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We’ve recently seen photos of a leaked handset going by the name of Hayabusa. Sony have now confirmed the existence of the handset by officially announcing it. The Sony Xperia GX has been designed specifically for the Japanese market. It will be the first Sony phone to launch in Japan with LTE and it should be capable of download speeds of up to 75mbps. The Xperia GX features a larger display than the Xperia S and is also slightly bigger than the Xperia ION with a screen size of 4.6 inches. The GX will also have a better camera than the Xperia S. The GX will come equipped with a 13 megapixel camera, compared to the 12 megapixel camera found on the Xperia S and will be capable of HD video recording. Other specifications include a 1.5GHz dual core processor, 16GB of internal memory and will run Android 4.0.

Three new applications have also been announced with the release of the Xperia GX, Movies, WALKMAN and Album. You will be able to browse and organise your photos and videos quicker with Album, while Movies provides high quality video playback and audio quality. You will also be able to get information about a movie from a new database integrated within the application. WALKMAN will bring ‘high quality audio technologies’ to the handset.

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Sony have began pushing the Android 4.0 update out already to some of last year’s Xperia models, including the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S but, one prominent question among consumers has been when will the update be released for the company’s flagship 2012 Xperia, the Sony Xperia S? Markus from the Xperia support team has confirmed that the update will be out sometime in the next three weeks.

There have been rumours that there could be a delay on the ICS update to July but, Markus has stated that a July date is just speculation and has said that a late May/early June release is what the company will be sticking too.

As with previous updates, the rollout will be a gradual process, so some regions will get in in late May, while other regions it may be in mid June. This will be the case for unlocked handsets any way. As always, if your handset is carrier locked there may be a slight delay in the Android Icecream sandwich update release from your carrier. On previous occasions though, we have actually seen carriers release an update before unlocked handsets received it.

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Another picture of the Sony Xperia Hayabusa has leaked out but, unfortunately is like wise rather blurry. What we can see from the image however, is that the LT29i features a similar design to last year’s Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. The photo only shows us the back of the handset where we can see the old Sony Ericsson logo which means this was probably an early prototype of the phone, before the Sony Ericsson split was finalised.

The Sony Hayabusa is rumoured to sport a 13 megapixel camera. The photo isn’t clear enough to see if the phone indicates the camera’s megapixels but, we can clearly see it’s located at the top of the handset near the chassis, again similar to the Xperia Arc’s design.

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Two unannounced Sony handsets have made shown up on the GL Benchmark website. The Sony ST23i is likely to be similar to the ST21i aka Tapioca. The ST23i could be known as the Tapioca DS, as it’s rumoured to support dual sims.

The other handset that has shown up, is the WT23i which will be a Walkman phone and another “low end” handset. The benchmark gives us a little  information about the handset. We can see that the WT23i, while not an Xperia handset will run Android with an 800MHz processor like the ST23i and both will have a screen with a resolution of 320×480. Apart from the benchmarks more information about either handset is currently sparse but, we don’t expect the handsets to have a global release.

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Another handset from the leaked Sony roadmap has shown up in leaked pictures. This time it’s the Tapioca, which from the roadmap we can see is the lowest priced handset on the least, which will more than likely make the Sony Tapioca an entry leverl Xperia handset. The Tapioca has along with leaked pictures, been given a model number of ST21i.

From the pictures, we can see that there are three capacitive buttons on the front of the handset and has a similar design to the recently announced Xperia Sola. Specifications of the handset look to include a 3.2 inch display, 800MHz single core processor, a lowly 3 megapixel camera with no LED and VGA video recording and 512MB of RAM. The handset is however, likely to launch with Android 4.0 straight out of the box when it is released.

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