This news is just about to fire up more theories regarding the much-desired PSP Phone. Sony has just been awarded patent rights for a "hand-held [sic] device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels." While there's nothing in it to clearly indicate this is for a PSP Phone, it still feeds our imaginations something mighty, don't it? Read more after the jump.

Keeping tabs on the prospect of another Castlevania game in the works? Then here's another tidbit that Konami Digital may have thrown our way: another registered trademark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been found to be bearing the title Castlevania on it. Castlevania Judgment, to be exact. All the details in the full article, so you'd better hurry.

We never know what Capcom has up its sleeves - one day it'd be announcing Street Fighter 4, and then revealing a Bionic Commando remake the next. An intriguing tidbit just came up, which is a trademark filing for "Spyborgs" that may hint at the company's next project. More details after the jump.

Here's something that may get all Castlevania fans excited: A new Castlevania title has been spotted as a newly-filed trademark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Titled as Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, there's still no word if the game is the new Nintendo DS Castlevania that Koji Igarashi has been hinting about, or if it will be released for other platforms. More details in the full article.

(Editor's Note: From highs and lows, and everything in between, QuickPeek 37 is going to hit you hard - and it's going to hit you good.)

Time to grab your trusty QuickPeek walking stick, because there's lots and lots of catching up to do. The gaming industry's taken the high road, and that's our cue to help you guys out. Time for the weekly roll call of the hottest items that dropped in during the past seven days! It's one heck of a landslide, folks!

Want to see another patent detailing a PSP Phone? Well, we have one for you today that has just been recently unearthed. It was dated year 2006 but it's amazing how the patent talks of a touchscreen display with vibration functions. Know more after the jump!

Sony is coming out with Mezone - what seems to be a brand new television and home entertainment system that features a broad list of entertainment media. It's all so exciting, except... no one knows what it is yet. Sony has patented the trademark but the Mezone website won't let anyone with the proper IP address take a peek inside. What could Sony be up to? More on Mezone in the full article.

If you got excited by reports of a PSP Phone patent and you drooled over the prospect of getting a Bravia mobile TV in the UK, you'll be a little disappointed that Sony Ericsson senior marketing director Richard Dorman has shot down the rumors.

"It is not a focus for us with the UK and western European market at the moment," says Dorman. "I've seen our road map for the next 12 months and neither of those two handsets will feature in it."

This is contrary to Sony Ericsson gaming chief Peter Ahnegard's statements during the GC 2007 gathering in Germany a few months ago. Ahnegard said a PSP Phone was in the works and that it should be around before this year's Christmas.

That's a confusion yet to be cleared by the people over at Sony Ericsson. Is this another case similar to the Dual Shock 3 controller rumors for the PS3 which were vehemently denied by management but was later announced? We'll see soon enough.

(Editor's Note: We bring you Issue # 06 of our weekly online magazine, QuickJump QuickPeek! As usual this beefy issue contains the week's events in the videogaming industry, as well as some hair-raising discoveries in the field of science and technology (no small thanks to the geeks of QJ). Of course we've got another comment featured in this week's issue, and it's been tough picking one with all the raving discussions going in our boards. It's also come to our attention that some of you are having a hard time going over the links we put up to our previous issues, so we've designated a "Link" area right below each preview's text. Here's your quick peek, happy reading!)

It's our sixth issue and the big updates just keep piling up. We've got everything covered, from homebrew developers making a comeback, surging console sales, and the arms race of our favorite consoles. Our writing teams are ever hard at labor to bring you the best news as they happen, and we owe you no small thanks in keeping our work fruitful. To show you our gratitude, we bring you another top-notch collection of the hot stories inside and outside the world of gaming. Once again, we bring you this week's movers and shakers:

PlayStation Portable
For the sixth straight week, we bring you great news from the PSP front! For this issue, we have huge updates on both homebrew and commercial gaming. If you've been living under a rock the past seven days worry not, we'll be giving you the highlights of the past week.

For starters, Ahman - father of arguably the best organizational application for the PSP - has surprised the community with another release of iR Shell. Along with numerous new features, iR Shell v3.6 now incorporates support for Team M33's custom firmware. This news was welcomed warmly by everyone familiar with Ahman's work because 1) any update on iR Shell is highly anticipated and 2) this could only mean one of the pioneers in PSP homebrew coding is once again actively developing for our handhelds.

Link: [iRShell v3.6 released]

The full QuickJump QuickPeek issue awaits after the jump!

Now we could have reported this as another rumor, but then many things we would state here are factual to the extent of the patent filing, except for the actual implementation of the technology. Anyway, a recent filing for a PSP-related patent turned Sony's name up again, but this time it involves an idea to dock controllers to the PSP.

If the image provided to your right wasn't apparent enough, the idea is that a controller, such as the PlayStation 2 (PS2) controller, would be made dockable onto a PlayStation Portable handheld by way of a "control docking apparatus." So if a PS2 controller was made attachable to a PSP, PSP games can be made playable with Rumble and with the classic control feel of the dual-analog stick gamepad.

We know we're being specific here, but then it's also considering the fact of where Sony can immediately apply such technology, and the mention of "portable processing unit" and "controller" brings four options to mind: the PSP, the SIXAXIS controller, the PS2 controller, and a general controller which includes keypads and a keyboard-like interface. And since the patent mentions the integration of keypads and a "plurality of keypads" on the controller, we won't rule them out.

We haven't ruled out SIXAXIS either, because at one point of the patent, there is a claim that unveils further compatibility with the wireless SIXAXIS controller. It states the inclusion of an accessory port on the control interface module that "comprises a wireless receiver," of which the accessory port was made to be "configured to allow coupling an external device with the portable processing unit."

The control docking apparatus is a particularly curious object here, because it won't require Sony to touch the PSP at all. In fact, the control docking apparatus was claimed as a separate body coupled to the portable processing unit (PSP hugger, we can assume), with a few user controls itself.

Two possibilities exist for its future form, however: it either could be a mini-unit designed to let external controllers interface with the PSP, or it can be the external controller itself with built in mechanisms to communicate with the PSP. Claims 25 and 26 highlight these two possibilities. How it turns out may or may not be the same as claimed.