Sony Ericsson Idou is official, PS3 streaming phone too

Sony Ericsson put our worried minds to rest on Wednesday, finally announcing that its concept phone Idou is to be released and renamed to Satio. At the same event, the company announced two new handsets for the second half of 2009, a gesture-controlled gaming phone and a slider that can control and access media on your PS3 remotely.

Idou debuted at the Mobile World Congress expo in Barcelona earlier in the year, but at the time Sony Ericsson would only refer to Idou as a concept design which made us very anxious. After reading its spec sheet, which told us it will have a 12.1-megapixel camera, a 3.5-inch touchscreen and running the latest Symbian platform, we wanted to see one immediately. Now that it's official, we can play the waiting game.

Moving away from touchscreens, Sony Ericsson also announced the Aino; a neat looking slider with an 8-megapixel camera and the ability to stream media from your PS3 over the air. It will come bundled with Sony Ericsson's upcoming Media Go software, which can sync the media on your PC over Wi-Fi to the phone, but in addition, you'll also be able to control your PS3 remotely using the handset and access your media over both Wi-Fi or the internet. This sounds to us like you'll be able to watch a video stored on your PS3 on your phone while on the bus to work, though time will tell how smooth that experience is over a 3G network.

Lastly, the Japanese-Swedish manufacturer showed off the Yari, a follow up to last year's F305 with a focus on gesture gaming controls. The F305 used an acceleromter to control games, like 10-pin bowling with a swing of your arm, but while the F305 was a prepaid model, the Yari is a mid-range product with a 5-megapixel camera and assisted-GPS hardware. It will also sport a function Sony Ericsson calls Music Call, letting you play a track from your music library to a friend during a phone call to them.

Sony Ericsson says these three new handsets will be available in the fourth quarter of the year.