Sony is extending its Playstation compatible accessories portfolio with a digital media hub. Not just gaming consoles, the new device is compatible with PCs, tablets and smartphones. The device, called Nasne, is a networked recorder cum digital media storage device.

Nasne is a successor to Sony Torne, which is an external TV tuner available in Japan for Playstation gaming consoles. In Europe, the company provides another TV tuner to Playstation 3 owners called PlayTV, which is identical to Sony Torne. But this device depends on the gaming console for storage. On the other hand, Nasne has its own storage and is more like a stand-alone product.

Nasne mainly acts as a digital terrestrial and satellite broadcast tuner with recording capabilities. The device features a built-in hard disk offering 500GB of storage. For additional storage, users can attach another hard disk to Nasne though USB port. Users can record TV broadcasts along with watching different TV channel simultaneously.

To start using Nasne, users will need to install dedicated software which is also provided by the company with the device. Nasne will be compatible with Playstation 3, Playstation Vita, PCs, Sony tablets and Xperia lineup of android smartphones. Nasne is also compatible with Vaio TV. It also allows other devices to access Nasne's built-in hard disk as a network drive as the device supports DLNA sharing, so that users can view live TV shows and recorded broadcasts on up to two devices on a home Wi-Fi network.

Sony Nasne will go on sales in Japan from July 19 with a price tag of 16,890 Yen (about $210). The company has no current plans to release this device outside the Land of the Rising Sun. Looking at Sony's history, we have little faith that Nasne will ever hit Europe and U.S. shores. But based on the success of AppleTV, we could see Sony releasing Nasne in U.S. by the end of 2012 or 2013.

(reported by Johnny Wills, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)