Sony Ericsson has announced the arrival of a nifty little piece of kit, the LiveView, that lets you take a look at what's happening on your phone, without actually taking a look what's happening on your phone.

Confused? Well, read on and all will be revealed.

The Sony Ericsson LiveView looks a bit like the new iPod nano, and in a similar vein is designed to clip on stuff like a bag, watch strap, or be used as a keychain.

It weighs just 15g and has a 1.3-inch OLED screen. "But what exactly does it do?" We hear you cry.

Well, it connects to a compatible Android phone (the Sony Xperia X10 range, and also the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire) via Bluetooth and gives you a glimpse as to what's going on with your handset.

The micro display acts as a remote, giving you the opportunity to read texts and social network updates (Facebook and Twitter, of course).

You can also see incoming calls (and mute these if you wish) as well as getting event reminders and calendar updates.

Finally, you can use the LiveView to control your phone's music playback.

The LiveView will work alongside the LiveWare manager application which will let you browse the Android Marketplace for LiveView enabled applications.

It will be sold later this year as part of a Sony Ericsson Experience pack. No price details have yet been released.