We heard the other day that Sony’s buyout of Ericsson from the joint venture had been approved by the European commission. The process was due to be complete in January but, it’s taken slightly longer than anticipated but, Sony Ericsson is now known officially as Sony Mobile Communications.

Existing handsets will continue to bear the Sony Ericsson branding but, future handsets including the Xperia S will only carry Sony’s name on them.

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Back in October Sony bought Ericsson out of the 10 year joint venture for €1.05 billion acquiring Ericsson’s patents and allowing Sony to integrate their phones more with their own products. At CES we saw the Xperia S which dropped the Ericsson branding but, all images of the Xperia Ion and Xperia S came with the disclaimer “Use of Sony brand subject to regulatory approval”.

In Europe the buyout has now been approved and the Sony Ericsson brand will no longer be used. Future mobiles will instead be branded under Sony Mobile Communication.

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Sony [Ericsson] have unveiled a swanky range of 3 new accessories for NFC or Bluetooth capable Android-running smartphones. The ‘Smart Extras’ include NFC tags (which will also come bundled with the Sony Xperia S handset) called Xperia SmartTags, a SmartWatch and the Smart Wireless Headset Pro.

SmartTags will work with any NFC enabled Android smartphone and will enable the user to change settings on their phone to a pre configured ‘profile’ simply by swiping the phone against the tag. It is also possible to configure the tags to open apps on touching the phone. For example, it is possible to use a SmartTag to switch a handset to a configured night time profile where by on swiping the tag, the phone automatically turns an alarm on or perhaps turns the phone to silent mode, all done by touching the SmartTag with the handset using NFC technology.

Anyone that has used the Sony Ericsson LiveView will recognise some of the features of the SmartWatch. The watch displays updates from social media outlets such as  Facebook and Twitter, shows emails and text messages and can show caller ID. The SmartWatch can also play music and is scratch proof and ‘splash proof’ too making it ideal for using in the gym. TheSmartWatch also features multi touch on the display.

The Smart Wireless Headset Pro is a bluetooth headset that can also be used as a stand alone FM radio and MP3 player when not connected to a mobile handset. It features a crisp black and white OLED display which shows call lists, caller ID, media information and can display text messages too.It will also be possible to download apps from the Android market to customise the headset.

Full specifications and details of all three of the Sony Smart Extras can be found on the Sony Ericsson website.

The Xperia MT27i looks quite similar to the Nozomi which we’ve seen but, with the black and silver two toned design, to some the handset is reminiscent of the Sony Ericsson T610. If this was intentional, it would seem very fitting as it’s possible that the handsets that will be officially announced today, could be the last phones to carry the Sony Ericsson branding.

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The benchmark results give us some more information about the handset and confirm some of the rumored specifications. One such detail is that the LT26i features a HD screen with a resolution of 720×1280 and a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 1.5GHz processor. The processor is dual core but, the screen shots only show the one core in use.

Also confirmed is a 12 megapixel camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal memory and Android 2.3.7. Unfortunately there is no microSD support which limits the storage options and in turn, if there is a 16GB or 32GB Nozomi model, will increase the prices of such handsets, more than buying a micro SD card separately. Also confirmed is a microSIM slot. Currently the Apple iPhone 4 and 4S support MicroSIMs, along with the Nokia Lumia 800 and Motorola Razr.

How many models Sony will announce though, is currently unknown. As is whether it will be a Sony Ericsson announcement or, just a Sony announcement as the company bought Ericsson out of the joint venture a couple of months back. Leaked photos we’ve seen of handsets suggest that the handsets will still carry they Sony Ericsson branding.

You can watch Sony’s press conference over on the Sony CES blog here.

If you’ve purchased a Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray handset, an Xperia Arc or an Arc S handset after December the 12th this year, or intend purchasing one before December 31st, Sony Ericsson are offering you an end of year ‘gift’ of £25 cashback. All customers that have made one of those purchases in the qualifying period need to do is fill in this form (PDF reader required) and send it off to Sony Ericsson, along with your proof of purchase before January 31st 2012.

Sony Ericsson will then send out a cheque for the £25 within 28 days of January 31st.

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Over on the Sony Ericsson blog, news was released that a deal with cloud-based storage company Box had been reached and that an application was available to download from the Android Market exclusively for Xperia owners which would give them 50GB of free storage on the Box network. However, Sony Ericsson later retracted that story and the app was nowhere to be seen, despite many users searching for it.

The latest news is that the blog post was made in error as Sony Ericsson aren’t quite ready to go live with the deal although, they are aiming to bring the free 50GB of storage through Box, to Xperia users, soon. A spokesman for Sony Ericsson explained the error and indicated that the promotion will be available in the near future and advised Xperia owners to ‘stay tuned’ for further information. I’m sure many of us will be doing just that for 50GB of free, secure storage.

We recently reported that Sony Ericsson had reduced the price of their LiveView device to only £25, down from £45. Now, online UK retailer Play.com have reduced the price from £40 down to only £17.99. Delivery is even free with them, unlike through Sony Ericsson.

With the Sony Ericsson LiveView, you can connect your phone over bluetooth and view incoming calls, events, Twitter and Facebook updates and more on the 1.3 inch LiveView display, instead of taking your phone out of your pocket. It comes with a strap that enables it to act as a watch while showing you your events.

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However, over at XDA-Developers, the PlayStation Store apk has been ported from the Sony tablet for the Xperia Play. The Xperia Play’s controls and resolution is already supported in the apk which, has led many to question whether Sony will actually be updating the Xperia Play to include the PlayStation Store.

Whether they are or not though, you can download the PlayStation Store apk and install it on your Xperia Play. You do need to be running Android 2.3.4 on your Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and the app only supports Japanese PSN accounts. The post on XDA indicates that you need to have your Xperia Play rooted but, Xperia Gamer have confirmed that you can just install the apk with no problems, rooted or not.