Some day, your cellphone might be able to read you as well as your best friend or significant other, though not if you have a poker face.

Sony Ericsson filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trade Office earlier this month for technology that would allow a device to create MP3 playlists based on a user’s facial expressions.

It may not work out for the strong silent types, but the premise of the technology is that a cellphone would take a photo of the user’s face, analyze his facial characteristics and tailor a playlist to suit his mood.

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The Al Jazeera Network has announced a partnership with Sony Ericsson, where RSS feeds of its news content will be preinstalled on four models of its mobile devices in both the Middle East and North Africa.

The new initiative is part of the news organization’s development Labs in an effort to reach out to more readers through new media.

In addition to services like podcasts, a YouTube channel, Facebook account, an iPhone application and multiple Twitter news feeds, Al Jazeera recently launched a Twitter account and an interactive map of citizen-submitted reports to follow the developments in Gaza.

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Global mobile phone unit sales grew a disappointing five percent in the third quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. It was the weakest quarter for the industry since 2002. The firm noted that four of the top six vendors grew at a five percent rate or less; Apple (AAPL) and Samsung outpaced the market.

• Nokia (NOK) shipped 118 million handsets, up five percent. The company lost market share in all regions, with smartphones “a major weak spot.”
• Samsung shipped 52 million handsets, up 22 percent. Its market share reached an all-time high at 17 percent, up from three percent in 1998. The company was strong in North America and Western Europe, weaker in emerging markets.
• Sony Ericsson (SNE, ERIC) shipped 25.7 million handsets, down one percent. With a five percent sequential increase, the company passed LG and Motorola (MOT) to become the the third largest company in the industry by units.

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The global mobile handset market grew 15 percent in the second quarter to 297 million units, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Nokia (NOK) continued to dominate the market, with a 41.1-percent share, up from 40.9 percent in the first quarter, shipping 122 million phones. Samsung followed with a 15.4-percent share, with Motorola (MOT) holding onto the third spot at 9.5 percent, followed by LG at 9.3 percent and Sony Ericsson at 8.2 percent. The research firm noted that Apple (AAPL) had just 0.2 percent of the global market in the quarter, as it prepared for the launch of the iPhone 3G.

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Trouble in the mobile phone business continues to mount.

Following up on disappointing results this week from both Research In Motion (RIMM) and Palm (PALM), Sony Ericsson (SNE, ERIC) this morning said that sales and pre-tax net income in the second quarter would “continue to be negatively affected by moderating demand of mid-to-high end mobile phone,” as well new as product delays.

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