Sony has given a bit more detail in the packaging and the applications that will appear on the PS Vita's dashboard.

As well as the usual applications for looking at your Trophies, accessing the PlayStation Store, checking up on your friends, managing your music, taking and managing photos and taking advantage of the OLED touch screen to surf the internet there are some interesting communication apps.

Sony's take a big leaf out of Microsoft's book in the kind of features that they have built into the PS Vita. There is a Party app for getting together groups of friends to play online together, chat and even participate in cross-game chat. There's also an app called Near which will allow you to find out where your friends are and also look around for some PS Vita player nearby and make some new friends.

The PS Vita is out in on December the 17th with the European and North American releases due in the first calendar quarter of 2012.

Thanks PlayStation Blog.

By Ewan Aiton