The recently announced Xperia S is now available to pre-order in the UK. The Xperia S is the first phone to be released from Sony following their buy out of Ericsson from the joint venture and looks set to continue in the steps of the 2011 Xperia range.

Clove have announced that they will be selling the Sony Xperia S in black starting from March 5th 2012. The sim free price for the Xperia S is £467.99 through Clove, while Play have the release date down as March 6th and a price tag of £449.99. You can also pre-order the Sony Xperia S from ebuyer for £429.99 but, they have an expected release date of March 12th.

Several PlayStation Portable (PSP) titles for ‘PlayStation Certified Devices’ have appeared on the ESRB – Entertainment Software Rating Board that will add to the previously released PlayStation One titles that are currently available through the PlayStation Certified program.

Titles such as flOw, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, Daxter are listed along with a range of Pinball Heroes games inspired by previously released Sony titles including UnCharted, Hot Shots Golf, ModNation Racers and MotorStorm. The games should be available to play on the Xperia Play, Xperia Arc, Xperia Acro (and Acro HD), Xperia S and Xperia ion along with the two Sony tablets , the S and the P tablets, which are both PlayStation Certified devices.

Alongside the other two ‘hardware’ additions to the Sony Xperia Smart Extras range, Sony have also announced the arrival of exciting new product – Xperia SmartTags into the Smart Extras family.

SmartTags are basically tags that use NFC (near field communication) technology to communicate with any Android smartphone capable of using NFC. The Xperia SmartTags can be configured to change the profile on a mobile handset when the phone touches the tag. As an example, you could take one tag and configure it so that when you swipe it with your phone, the tag changes the phone profile to turn on WiFi, turn the phone onto silent, open an app and so on.

Hot on the heels of announcing two high spec smartphones at CES, Sony have now released details of two equally high specification smartphones that will be available for the Japanese market only.

The Xperia acro HD will be the ‘successor’ to the already released Xperia acro in Japan and will also be packed with the ‘made for Japan’ features that we saw on the acro such as Mobile TV and Mobile Wallet (via Felica).

Also released in Japan will be a variation on the smartphone released elsewhere in the world, the Xperia S. Entitled the Xperia NX in Japan, the handset will basically feature similar specs to that of the Xperia S.

Xperia acro HD Specifications:

• 4.3 inch HD display,1280 x 720

Well, NFC isn’t a fast food restaurant thats for sure. The acronym stands for Near Field Communication and is a technology that allows wireless communication between devices. Sony have added NFC technology to their latest range of handsets and have also designed a range of NFC tags to enhance the use of those handsets.

Fortunately for any of us in the dark about  what NFC can do for us and our handset that will make our lives easier/better, Sony have also gone to the trouble of explaining exactly how NFC integrates with their handsets (and indeed most NFC enabled mobile handsets to be fair) in their article on the Sony Ericsson Developers World blog. The article is well worth a read even if you aren’t intending rushing out to buy a brand new Xperia S as soon as it is released, NFC has for a while now been touted as the future of some forms of wireless communication and we do expect to see the technology used a lot more in the future so it might be time to swat up on where NFC is taking us before it arrives!

More new products from Sony have been announced, in the form of three ‘smart’ accessories that will not only be compatible with the new Xperia NXT range of handsets but, with any Android smartphone with bluetooth or NFC support enabled.

First up in the Smart Extras range is the SmartWatch which is basically a wireless display which can mount onto the provided ‘watch strap’ and allows the display of calls, messages and social networking updates in a similar (but better) way to the Live View accessory that Sony Ericsson brought out. Next is the rather exciting Smart Wireless Headset Pro, a bluetooth stereo headset that can also be used as a standalone MP3 player and FM radio or can connect to your phone and will also display call information, text messages and Facebook or Twitter updates. Thirdly, Sony have released a new Smart Extension SDK which will allow developers access to create exciting new applications to enhance and customise both the SmartWatch and the Smart Wireless Headset Pro.