Rants And Ramblings About Mobile Technology

mylo stands for My Life Online and is functionally a PDA / web-pad like device that includes IM/email (Yahoo!, Google Talk, Skype) and browsing, and connects via Wi-Fi. You can also use it as a phone by calling via the Skype network, still via Wi-Fi. Supposedly you can browse any web site using the integrated browser. You can also use it for playing music, and it's got a sizeable 1 GB of Flash memory for that.

This device is clearly addressed to the younger crowd in urban locations. You can also use it at home or at the office if you have such a connection without WEP or similar (which to me sounds a bit limiting).

It's not extremely small. The M600i is actually smaller, yet mylo comes with a full keypad (as in one real key per letter; see my M600i review for an explanation), and the display is in landscape format, which should make messaging very easy. You can also use it with the keypad stowed away, as the navigation keys are on the same part as the display.

The mylo is sold as-is without any monthly subscription. You just need an open Wi-Fi hotspot. "Just" is very relative to where you are located, but in my opinion this is a much better attempt at a mass market Wi-Fi Communicator device than e.g. Nokia's 770.

The price is a bit high ($349) in my opinion, if you consider that you also need a mobile phone. With that in mind, a possibility to hook the mylo up to a phone would be nice, to get better coverage than with Wi-Fi. That wouldn't add much cost to the mylo. Nothing such is mentioned on the site though.

Sony - mylo™