Well, it's about time! Sony Ericsson's backroom must have been full to bursting with new and conceptual handsets and this morning the S500 somehow snuck out. This winsome slider is a bit of an oddity in that it has most of the features expected in a Walkman-branded handset, but is not -- instead it's said to be inspired by "the materials and colors found in the natural world." Featuring quadband GSM plus EDGE (no HSDPA to be found here), a 2 megapixel cam, Memory Stick Micro expandability, nine hours talk and 370 hours standby, the goodness finds itself piled in non-traditional colored "Mysterious Green" or "Spring Yellow" housings. Unique to this handset is theme and external lighting effects that can be set to change with the season, as day turns to night or even at the beginning of the weekend; this seems like a fun idea, as long as the blinky lights aren't too bright. No word on carrier or pricing, but we can expect it to hit in Q3 this year.

Rounding out the rest of Nikon's gear at PMA was their four new S-series entrants, and three new low end L-series. The S cameras were, as usual, sexyhot, definitely gear we approve of (outside the folded optics); the L cameras are, of course, for newbs and your klutzy butterfingers friends / family that can't keep his or her gear intact for longer than a few weeks, so don't expect the all the same sweet feature hookups. Check 'em all out.

We've got a slew of new Nikon cams tonight, so let's get this thing rolling. First up we have the S50, S50c, 7.2 megapixel / 3x shooters with 3-inch screens, OIS, 1600 ISO, best shot selector, in camera red-eye repair, but the S50c has WiFi for email, image storage, and the rest of the fun stuff you can do with Nikon's Coolpix Connect 2 service. These will be available in April for $300 and $350.

The S200, and S500 are slightly less sophisticated, but look to be quality cameras all the same. You've got 7.1 megapixel / 3x optics, electronic image stabilization, up to 2000 ISO, 2.5-inch displays, best shot selector, in and camera red-eye repair. The S500 steps up over the S200's aluminum body with its own stainless steel finish (how DeLorean -- shown above), as well as an anti-shake button that engages high ISO mode, image stabilization, and best shot selector at the same time. These will hit in March for $250 and $300.

Read - Nikon S50, S50c
Read - Nikon S200, S500

Even though Sony already had a budget-oriented 6 megapixel Cybershot, it looks like they've been jonesing for a S500-titled model like all the cool manufacturers have. We are a bit proud of those creative minds at Sony for breaking the general "name predicts megapixel" mould and sticking a 6 megapixel CCD in their DSC-S500, but there really isn't a lot else going on here that we didn't see in this camera's predecessor, the S600. In fact, the S500 has less included memory (24MB instead of 32MB) lower-res video (QVGA instead of VGA) and a smaller ISO range (80-400 instead of 80-1000) than the S600. Still, the new 3x zoom camera does manage a half-inch larger 2.5-inch LCD, and is a bit thinner than the S600. No word on price, or if Sony is planning on selling these two side-by-side, but we're sure Sony's naming committee is high-fiving each other right now for sneaking this one through.