Android-powered “PlayStation phone” gunning for March release (Ben Patterson)

One of the worst-kept secrets in smartphones and/or gaming—the Xperia Play, a.k.a. the PlayStation phone—is finally official, and it's reportedly coming to a U.S. carrier near you in a matter of weeks.

Armed with a four-inch display, a five-megapixel camera, and a set of slide-out gaming controls that had been leaked from one end of the Web to the other over the past several months, Sony Ericsson's Android-powered Xperia Play will get a worldwide release next month, Sony execs said Sunday at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. Gearlog says the new handset will arrive Stateside on Verizon, potentially as an exclusive.

Engadget had already spilled most of the beans about the Xperia Play in an early hands-on report a few weeks back, and Sony had been heavily hyping the phone through a series of teasers and an incredibly creepy Super Bowl TV ad.

But we didn't have the official specs until Sunday, much less a lineup of initial games.

The 6.2-ounce, 16mm-thick handset will arrive with a four-inch, 480-by-854-pixel display, says Sony, along with stereo speakers, a five-megapixel camera (no sign of a front-facing lens, unfortunately), on-demand media via Sony Ericsson's PlayNow service, and a microSD slot for memory expansion. (An 8GB memory card will come bundled in the box.)

The Xperia Play will run on Android 2.3 "Gingerbread," Sony confirmed, and will arrive with a 1GHz Scorpion ARMv7 processor with an embedded Adreno CPU, good for 3G gaming at 60 frames per second.

We've already seen the slide-out gaming controls from every possible angle, but they're worth summarizing again: we're talking the standard D-pad on the left and a quartet of PlayStation buttons (triangle, square, circle, and "X") on the right, with a pair of analog touchpads sitting in the middle. A pair of shoulder buttons will double as triggers, similar to the controls on the DualShock controller.

One of the key questions about the Xperia Play is how much gaming you'll get out of a single charge; the answer, Sony claims, is about five-and-a-half hours worth. Whether that estimate holds up under real-world testing remains to be seen, of course.

The Xperia Play will mark the first "PlayStation-certified" handset, and as such will get access to games via the coming "PlayStation Suite": a new Android-based gaming platform that Sony announced last month alongside the upcoming NGP portable gaming console.

Among the first titles to arrive in the PlayStation Suite will be The Sims 3, FIFA 10, a "Guitar Hero" game (the franchise lives, at least in the mobile world), Assassin's Creed, and Splinter Cell, according to Sony.

How much will the Xperia Play cost? No word on that yet, unfortunately.

— Ben Patterson is a technology blogger for Yahoo! News.

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Farc rebels release more captives

11 February 2011 Last updated at 23:23 GMT Hostage Armando Acuna appealed for reconciliation on his return from captivity Colombia's Farc rebels have released two hostages, bringing the number released so far this week to three.

The hostages - a local politician and a marine - were handed over to a humanitarian delegation in the jungles of southern Colombia and flown out on a Brazilian military helicopter.

The rebels have said they will free two more captives on Sunday.

The Colombian government has made the release of all hostages a condition for any peace talks with the Farc.

The two hostages - municipal council member Armando Acuna, 48, and marine Henry Lopez, 25 - were released in separate locations in the southern department of Caqueta.

The guerrillas handed them over to a delegation that included officials from the International Red Cross and the ex-Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba, who helped mediate their release.

Political weapon

Mr Acuna, who was kidnapped in May 2009, emerged from his jungle ordeal in an incongruous suit and tie, clutching the shirt of his local football team.

"It is time to move forward on the road to peace and reconciliation, seeking with dignity a solution to the Colombian conflict," he said.

He also urged an end to the use of kidnapping as a "political weapon" in Colombia and called on the Farc to stop attacks on local government officials.

Marine Lopez - who was captured in May 2010 after an ambush in which nine other marines were killed - did not appear before the media.

Earlier this week the Farc freed another local councillor, Marcos Baquero.

The Farc has been describing the releases as a unilateral "gesture of peace" to the government.

The rebels are still holding at least 15 police and military personnel, who they have been trying to exchange for captured guerrillas.

Some of the hostages have been in captivity for more than a decade.

President Juan Manuel Santos has made the release of all hostages a condition for opening peace talks with the Farc, along with an end to attacks and the use of land mines.

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Colombia rebels release hostage

9 February 2011 Last updated at 19:43 GMT Brazil provided the helicopter that collected the released hostage Colombia's Farc rebel group has released the first of five hostages it had promised to free as a gesture of peace to the government.

The hostage, local politician Marcos Baquero, was collected by a Brazilian military helicopter from a secret location in the Colombian jungle.

He had been in captivity for 19 months.

The Colombian government has demanded that all hostages be freed as a condition for any talks with the left-wing rebels.

Mr Baquero was released to a humanitarian delegation led by ex-senator Piedad Cordoba, who played a role in previous hostage releases but was also banned from the senate for her alleged links to the rebels.

"My first words are for my family and my wife who I love very much. Thanks be to God I am now coming out," he told Colombian broadcaster Caracol as he was being flown to the city of Villavicencio, where the rescue operation is based.

"We have to keep working hard for the liberation of the other hostages," he added.

Mr Baquero was kidnapped in June 2009 when Farc guerrillas ambushed a group of local politicians on a road near the town of San Jose de Guaviare.

Continue reading the main story Jerry McDermott BBC News, Bogota

Nobody is getting their hopes up just yet, but there are indications that both the Farc and the government are ready to sit down and talk.

The government of President Juan Manuel Santos has said it would be prepared to start a dialogue when the Farc have released all the hostages they hold, something Ms Cordoba said could be completed within six months.

There have been peace talks before, the last round ending in 2002, but there have been some significant changes to the 46-year civil conflict since then, foremost among them a series of defeats for the rebels who have seen their number halved to 8,000 fighters and many of their top commanders killed.

Last December the Farc announced that it was prepared to free him along with another politician, two soldiers and a policeman, but agreement on security arrangements for the release has required lengthy negotiations.

Brazil has been acting as a neutral facilitator along with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Colombian military temporarily suspended operations across a huge area in the south of the country to facilitate the release.

The Farc has been describing the releases as a unilateral "gesture of peace" to the government.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Bogota says there are growing indications that the two sides may soon be prepared to open a serious dialogue.

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