Screen grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.

Though we're breaking slightly from our typical Screen Grabs format (movies, TV), we could never live with ourselves if we didn't share these shocking gadget appearances from Metal Gear Solid 4. That's right, despite being on some kind of deadly spy mission, Solid Snake will find time to bro down with a fifth-generation iPod (above), while some lovely cohort of his dials up for pizza on a Sony Ericsson W62S clamshell. More pics after the break.

[Via iLounge / CellPassion]

Enough of these overly pixelated, totally fuzzed-out captures of something supposed to Sony Ericsson's Paris -- we're looking at the real deal now. This definitely sexy slider has somehow fell in front of someone without hands a-shakin', and a smattering of distinct images are waiting just below in the read link. If you just like to be teased, the snapshots show a 5.0-megapixel camera and confirm that the keypad touts a two-character-per-button layout similar to the P1 -- but really, there's nothing like seeing it for yourself.

[Thanks, Kevin]

In a move meant to, uh, distract investors from its announced 48% profit downturn (compared to Q1 of the previous year), Sony Ericsson just announced a pair of mid-range handsets. The Z780 clamshell -- now official -- is the global sister to the announced Z770 for Europe. As such, she comes packing UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radios. While it comes loaded with Google Maps for Mobile and aGPS navigation, you won't get much use from it on that itty bitty 128 x 160 pixel display of unknown dimensions. Hell, that bezel chews up an equivalent amount of real estate. The G502 candybar also features Maps but lacks aGPS. No worries for US Americans though as it's likely to stay put in Europe with UMTS/HSDPA 2100 and GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900 radios. Both will feature M2 memory expansion, Bluetooth, and 2 megapixel cameras when they launch in "selected markets" come Q2. Sorry Sony Ericsson, but we're not seeing a lot here to distract investors (or consumers) for very long. Xperia X1 please?

Update: Sony Ericsson has published conflicting information about the Z780's resolution. It's 2.2-inches and 320 x 240 pixels in the press release but 128 x 160 pixels on the product page.

Read -- Profits
Read -- Phones

What the heck is going on here? Despite the overwhelming popularity of gizmo-heavy mobile devices in Japan, working with megacarrier NTT DoCoMo must be a losing proposition for many of its manufacturing partners, because just days after Mitsubishi's announcement of its withdrawal, a fresh Nikkei report indicates that Sony Ericsson is raising the white flag as well to divert attention and resources to less saturated and more profitable markets. Apparently, DoCoMo will bear the brunt of the downsizing, while Sony Ericsson's partnership with KDDI -- a CDMA carrier -- will continue. [Warning: subscription required]

Update: It turns out that Sony Ericsson intends to continue working with DoCoMo by initially delivering new models through mid '08, at which point it will start buying handsets from other manufacturers and rebranding them. In other countries this would be truly egregious, but as our Japanese bureau points out, DoCoMo lays out very strict requirements for each of its lines that would probably make it difficult to distinguish a true Sony Ericsson model from a rebranded model sourced from, say, Sharp or Toshiba.

Update 2: Sony Ericsson's Japanese PR folks have denied Nikkei's report, although they did mention that they are "reevaluating" their DoCoMo line without going into any detail. Whether the report was actually false or Nikkei just managed to out the info well before Sony Ericsson wanted it out, though, remains unclear.

Update 3: The official Sony Ericsson response, and while it says that they're taking a good, hard look at their DoCoMo business, it also mentions that they'll continue to develop new handsets for the carrier. Clear as mud? Good!

Read - Nikkei report [subscription required]
Read - Sony Ericsson response

It's nice to know that Sony Ericsson is plugging away on making our crazy, dare-to-dream fantasies a reality. The latest proof that someone up there (and by up there, we mean Japan) likes us comes in the form of a new patent for a touchscreen handheld that forgoes physical buttons for a haptic-feedback scheme. The design mandates that the phone / game device would be free of the pesky clutter of regular buttons, and would instead by configurable to any number of forms (PSP, phone, MP3 player, digital camera) by arrangement of on-screen controls. The device would vibrate in accordance with button-presses, though it's unclear whether this will just be a standard vibration, or a more advanced, location-specific feedback system. Even with a little buzz, we're not quite sure you can replicate the feeling real gaming controls provide -- and that could seriously interfere with our typical success in games.

[Via Unwired View]

So it seems the X1 being shown off at CeBIT following its MWC debut last month is equipped with a particularly curious panel in its software load. Anyone care to take a guess? No cheating and looking at the one we've circled now. Yeah, okay, it's that big AT&T logo front and center, which makes an appearance in several of PHONE Magazine's shots of the interface. We'd like to believe that means that AT&T is a lock to pick up one of the hottest Windows Mobile devices ever manufactured, and indeed, it probably does -- its 3G radio is certainly ripe for the job -- but it's entirely possible to think that Sony Ericsson is still in the process of selling carriers on the device, and is simply trying to get 'em to crack a smile by loading their logo. Keep your fingers crossed, ladies and gentlemen.

[Thanks, Jake]

A table of release dates dug up on Sony Ericsson's own site suggests something powerfully depressing, which is that the XPERIA X1 has been pushed all the way out to February 10, 2009 (notice that the date is in European format -- we'd just give up now if it were actually October 2, 2009). While the presence of the page on the company's very own domain is pretty damning evidence, we're still holding out hope that it's a typo or an oversight; late Q2 of '08 was mentioned at MWC, and we really don't see how it's possible to push out a phone nearly three-quarters of a year just weeks after its initial announcement. Please tell us we're right on this one, Sony Ericsson. Please.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

The gaming community is buzzing this morning from some supposedly leaked scans of a possible PSPhone would give it a full 480 x 272 display, mini-analog stick, and drop UMD in favor of playing full PSP games via M2. Turns out they're scans from Stuff magazine from months ago, which seems to have passed under everyone's radar (including our own, initially) because so few people seem to actually read it.

[Via PSP Fanboy, with help from Engadget Español]

If you're tired of shelling out laptop prices for your WiFi smartphone browsing, Boingo's got help on the way. At Mobile World Congress the company announced Sony Ericsson and iPhone / iPod touch versions of its connection client software, with the SE version to show up in the second half of the year, and the iPhone software to hit as soon as Boingo can get a hold of the SDK. Boingo already has Nokia and Windows Mobile-compatible versions of its software, but with 6 percent of users attempting to connect to Boingo already rocking an iPhone, it looks like this software can't come soon enough.

Sorry Microsoft and Apple, you may have had some fancy smartphone sales this year in your cute little American way, but globally there's no question who's the real leader in this segment: the Symbian OS shipped on 77.3 million units in 2007. That's a 50% growth over 2006 sales, with over 141 different phone models from eight licensees. If the new hotness from Nokia this year at MWC is any indication, those numbers aren't going to go away very soon, but Sony Ericsson's adoption of Windows Mobile for its flagship XPERIA X1 certainly spells a modicum of trouble for Symbian land. Of course, there are many more low-end Symbian smartphones than there are cheap Windows Mobile phones, and Apple's iPhone is still a premium product , but the line is becoming increasingly blurred.