E3 is coming soon, but if rumors are to be believed the PSP 2 will not be unveiled just yet. The PSP 2 which is said to have exciting specs is expected to hit stores only in 2011. Sony Computer Entertainment remains defiantly tight-lipped on the matter.

Sources say the PSP 2 comes with a touchscreen and will have physical buttons as well. It has two cameras, one of which is forward facing while the other is at the other at the back.

Many retailers currently offer extended warranties on the consoles they sell to their customers. Not everyone likes them but, for those ‘little accidents’ they can be useful to have, giving ‘peace of mind’ to console owners.

Sony themselves have now set up their “PlayStation Protection Plan” in the US, offering PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP) owners what they call a “simple and cost-effective protection plan” which extends the warranty on the PS3 or PSP for an extra 12 or 24 months and offers direct access to  ”PlayStation support specialists”.

Pricing is as follows for the plans:

Sony’s PlayStation Portable first made it’s entrance to the market five years ago, on the 24th March. It become available in the US then and saw release to other parts of the world shortly after. Since then, the PSP has seen several make overs. The original 1000 series is now referred to as the “phat PSP”, ever since the PSP 2000 series, aka PSP Slim was launched in 2007 making the portable device 33% lighter and thinner. Shortly after, in 2008, we saw the release of the PSP 3000 series, aka “PSP Brite”, which had an LCD screen with five times the color contrast ratio. Sony’s latest PSP offering came in the form of the PSP Go in Fall 2009. The PSP lost it’s UMD drive and instead, titles can be downloaded from the PSN Store. Currently there are more than 520 UMD titles and over 300 titles on the PlayStation Network.

You can view the full press release from Sony after the jump.

It’s seems to be that time again when the PlayStation Portable phone rumours are hitting the interwebs. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony is currently working on a smartphone that can “download and play Playstation games.”

I might be tempted to buy a PSP Smart phone. Might, being the key word. But let’s see where these rumours lead.

The Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and European editions.

SCEA SVP of PR Rob Dyer has said the PSP will expect a pretty “robust” third-party line-up for 2010.

He stated that, despite admitting to problems with piracy on the handheld, there will be a great range of games in first and third-party line-ups.

And went on to say:

“I think we had a great lineup last year,” said Dyer. “The biggest problem that plagued PSP was piracy; we have not been able to slow that down. We think we have some answers going forward, but we’re not ready to talk about that publicly at this point.