According to reports a few days ago, the PlayStation phone (or PSP phone, whatever floats your boat) was confirmed in a statement by SCE co-chief operating officer Jim Ryan speaking with The Economic Times of India.

Want to know what Sony has to say? Check the full article.

The initial quarter of the fiscal year 2007 shows a slowdown in shipment sale as 252 million handsets were shipped in the first three months. That's a 12 percent overall increase, but analysts say that the figures are significantly below expectations.

The trend in the past few years has been a 20 percent increase in sales per annum. This year saw a slowdown in Q1 because of Motorola's decision to hold back on shipments. It flogged 45.2 million units worldwide, which is a 1.5 decrease compared to last year's first period covering January to March.

Other mobile giants, however, have kept the uptrend alive. Market leader Nokia has shipped a total of 91.1 million units shipped, jacking up a 21 percent total increase.

Motorola, however, said that it plans to capitalize on growing markets in the two most populous nations in the world: India and China. The company said that the two markets may account to about 60 percent of the total new phones sold this year.

Nokia has been busy at the Game Developers Conference. They awarded the winners of the SingTel Multiplayer Game Quest 2006.

The contest gave out US$ 5,000 each in cash prizes to the following winners: G-mode from Japan with Chess Game in the cross-platform category, Mauj from India with Street Golf for the multiplayer gaming- male category, and Taito from Japan with Puzzle Bobble for the multiplayer gaming- female category. These games will now be sold by SingTel.

The mobile giant also launched SNAP Mobile Compliance Testing Program, a two-part testing program that ensures quality and functionality of the connected features in the mobile games that play on the Nokia platform. The two parts of the testing program include having developers test their games with a provided testing tool, and having the games tested in SNAP Mobile-authorized testing houses.

Nokia also announced its new games and new publishers at the GDC. Some of the new game titles are Gameloft’s Asphalt 3, Street Rules, Brothers In Arms, Hell’s Highway, Brain Challenge, Midnight Pool and EA Mobile’s FIFA 2008. New publishers include Glu Mobile, Indiagames and THQ Wireless. Says Indiagames, they believe that Nokia will give them a wider global audience.

Linux may not be on the top of the operating systems arena - but the open-source developed and free software is finding popularity in a very vital market, the second most populated country in the world - India. In fact, computer makers such as IBM, Dell, HP, and Acer have been cutting prices on laptops pre-loaded with Linux operating system thus they are gaining in popularity among Indian customers.

Laptops with Linux, which is a free software (that makes the deal sweeter), are so popular in India that Acer now sells its TravelMate TM 244FX laptop, pre-loaded with Linux, at less than 40,000 India Rupees (roughly $854). When asked why the pricing is as such, S. Rajendran, general manager of Acer India's Consumer Products Group, said, "we want to make notebooks more pervasive in the Indian market. We are looking at aggressively increasing penetration among small and medium enterprises, educational and finance verticals as there is tremendous potential in these markets."

HP is doing the same thing. Its Compaq Presario P2514 notebook "is specifically designed to cater to the needs of the small office home office, small and medium businesses, education and sales personnel, whose primary requirements are mobility and technology at an affordable price,'' according to a company press release.

These entry-level laptops have been gaining ground and hauling profits and it isn't really surprising - with so many costs nowadays, people even those belonging in the middle class are looking for more ways to save a few bucks. Life may be hard and you'd have to penny-pinch at times, but that doesn't mean that the quality of your needed equipments should be ignored.

We've never been to Chennai City in India and we don't know anyone from there. But based on this report, the good citizens of Chennai may be a little irresponsible with their mobile SMS messaging services. Something about spreading too many rumors via SMS. The situation must be that bad the Chennai City police had to step in.

According to the authorities, mobile phones used in spreading rumours through SMS would be deactivated. Meanwhile in the Indian city of Vadodara, police reportedly arrested 138 people last May for allegedly using SMS to spread rumours and instigate violence. If you should find yourself in either of the two cities and you have nothing good to say, remember its best to zip your lips, err, fingers!

Finnish cell phone magnate, Nokia, has recently announced that they would stop making cell phones using the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) standard. They also announced plans of scrapping CDMA cellphone-making with Japan's Sanyo Electronic Co. The reason behind this move is the allegedly shrinking market for CDMA cellphones. However, Nokia will still offer CDMA handsets in North America since that standard is still popular there.

CDMA, in case you're in the dark about it, is the less popular wireless telephony technology, used by 25 to 30 percent of mobile subscribers, and competes with the GSM standard used by about 70 percent of the world's 2 billion mobile phone users.

Nokia has been on top of the GSM standard but they are lagging behind in the CDMA standard. The reason for this poor CDMA performance is Nokia's refusal to use Qualcomm Inc.'s chips and because of that, the Finnish company had to pay significant technology licensing fees to the U.S.-based firm, which holds most patents to the CDMA technology.

With this announcement, a promising joint venture between Nokia and Sanyo is in peril of being welcomed to cellular phone heaven (or hell), since the partnership had been intended to develop and make mobile phones using CDMA, which dominates in the United States and is popular in parts of Latin America and Asia including Japan, India and China. The venture was announced last February of this year.

Nokia also mentioned that it will take a €150 million ($190 million) charge in its third-quarter accounts for restructuring its CDMA operations and expects the changes to boost its operating margins. It will end its own CDMA research and manufacturing by next April and is reviewing the options for its CDMA infrastructure and assets, after deciding against the Sanyo venture.