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Nokia has revealed the next in line N-series smartphone, the N9.

The Nokia N9 is billed as a “pure touch” phone, as it features a one-piece unibody design with a 3.9 inch WVGA AMOLED gorilla glass display completely covering the front. There are no buttons present, for a simple and neat appearance.

To unlock this swipe-centric handset you simply double tap the display. Apparently fashioned via “best in polycarbonate material engineering”, the N9 supposedly guarantees superior antenna performance and reception.

Other specs include a 1GHz Arm Cortex-A8 processor, 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, super-wide lens and HD video support, A-GPS, NFC and 16GB or 64GB of storage on board depending on which model you select.

The processor seems rather slow compared to cutting edge phones these days, which tend to hit 1.2GHz or even go dual-core, but the rest of the spec sounds pretty enticing.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, is the OS which will be MeeGo, a platform we thought Nokia had pretty much given up on with the incoming Windows Phone 7 deal.

Maybe this isn’t the case after all, and perhaps Nokia is planning on building MeeGo up alongside WP7 handsets, even though the Finnish company has admitted WP7 will become its primary smartphone platform later this year.

It should be interesting to see how MeeGo 1.2 (Harmattan) performs on the N9, and what buyers make of it.

Sony Ericsson has announced a pair of new smartphones, the Mix Walkman and txt pro.

The Mix Walkman is, unsurprisingly, a music-focused handset with features that include a karaoke function which when activated automatically lowers the vocal on any track so you can sing along (Lord preserve us).

There’s also a “Zappin” key (as seen on other Sony music players) which unfortunately doesn’t pulse out a laser beam to strike down friends making a very bad job of karaoke, but rather plays a preview of the chorus of the next song up when pressed.

You can then decide whether you want to listen to it. Not exactly revolutionary, but we guess you might find a use for it.

The Mix Walkman’s specs comprise of a 3 inch 400×240 display, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a microSD slot, bluetooth and wi-fi, plus of course a media player and other integrated apps such as Facebook.

The Sony Ericsson txt pro, as the name suggests, is just the right handset for avid texters who can’t be bothered with capital letters.

Basically, it’s got the same specification as the Mix Walkman, more or less, but with a full slide-out Qwerty keyboard for nippy messaging.

Sony Ericsson’s Global Product Marketing Manager, Quentin Cordier, commented: “We wanted to take advantage of our extensive Facebook fan base when announcing these phones, bringing the fans closer to both our products and brand.”

“We are really pleased that consumers liked them for their music and social media functionality and expect them to become great additions to our overall portfolio of entertaining phones.”

Both handsets are set for a third quarter launch, although there are no pricing details as yet. We’d expect they’ll be competitively pitched.

The HTC ChaCha is now available to purchase from Phones4u.

The social networking oriented handset which features a dedicated Facebook button will set you back £300 on PAYG (pricey compared to other pre-order tags we’ve seen).

Although only contract deals are currently available on the Phones4u site. These start at £20 per month on Vodafone, with the smartphone free, and a package consisting of 100 minutes and 500 texts.

The ChaCha has a compact 2.6 inch display with a full Qwerty keyboard nestled beneath it, along with a 5 megapixel camera (with LED flash), A-GPS, bluetooth and wi-fi. It runs Android 2.3.

The Xperia Play hasn’t exactly flown off the shelves since its launch, part of the reason for that being the rather lacklustre nature of the games available for the smartphone with a slide-out gamepad.

However, Sony Ericsson is hoping that over twenty new games will increase the allure of the gaming handset, the biggest of which will be a mobile exclusive on Minecraft, the free-form construction game and indie PC hit.

We can’t imagine that the Android exclusive on Minecraft will be a lengthy one, but who knows. It’ll certainly annoy a lot of Android gamers if it is.

Other new games which will be coming out exclusively on the Xperia Play include Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Shadow Vanguard. A new batch of PS1 classics is also promised, no names have been named yet, but hopefully these will be juicer than the existing library.

Massively multiplayer online games are also coming to the handset courtesy of Spacetime Studios with Pocket Legends and sci-fi MMOG Star Legends.

Tempted at all? At least the sim-free Xperia Play is now a bit cheaper than it was at launch, generally priced at around the £450 mark (Orange has it on PAYG for £430 for the exclusive white version).

A new study commissioned by National Family Week has revealed the amount of technological effort parents expend keeping track of their children.

Apparently an average parent sends 600 texts a year in an effort to find out just where little Johnny (or Jane) is, as technology increasingly becomes the method they use to stay in touch.

The research also pointed to 312 emails per year and usage of sites such as Facebook. One in five parents said the best chance they had of getting hold of their child was via such technological means.

While mobiles and suchlike help to keep tabs on the kids and are useful for emergencies, just over 40% of parents lamented the fact that when they do try and get the family together, it can be a difficult task despite these aids.

And instead of talking to each other when they are together, the family might all be texting friends or surfing YouTube on their mobiles.

Three-quarters of those polled thought that modern family life has suffered at the hands of technology. In that case, maybe don’t let younger kids have a mobile and a PlayStation in their bedroom, perhaps?