I don’t get the Sony Mylo, but then again, I’m not a 14-year-old.
Sony introduced at CES 2008 a successor to the first Mylo called the Mylo COM-2, which addresses many shortcomings of its predecessor released in September 2006. It now supports the most popular messaging program in the U.S., AOL Instant Messenger, and it can playback Flash movies, making YouTube accessible.
Mylo COM-2 (see it in action via ubergizmo.com) will go on sale this month and is expected to cost about $300. Billed as a “personal communicator”, it still has a slide-out keyboard and Wi-Fi connectivity, but the screen resolution has been improved to 800 by 480 pixels and it includes a 1.3 megapixel camera.
But no phone.
Originally, the Mylo was targeted at college-age kids (18- to 22-year-olds), although they largely ignored the device as they already used cell phones with cameras and many owned, or had access to, laptops for mobile Internet access.
Mylo users could place “phone calls”, but they had to use Skype with a cumbersome plug-in microphone/headphone adapter. Skype-to-Skype calls were free, with Skype Out (at an additional cost) needed to call friends on regular landline or cell phones.
Sony now says the Mylo COM-2 is aimed at 14- to 18-year-olds, and the device makes a little more sense. These kids may not own, or have access to, laptops for mobile Internet access, but many of them do own cell phones.
While it appears that the Mylo COM-2 is for the MySpace, Facebook generation, kids definitely want first and foremost voice, text, and a camera (either still and/or video). Mylo COM-2 takes adequate care of text and a camera, but to use AIM or get messages from MySpace and Facebook forwarded is largely accomplishable on existing cell phones, with more models with these features (and YouTube accessibility) coming all the time.
And as far as using the Mylo COM-2 as a phone, how many 14- to 18-year-olds use Skype to call their immediate friends or have Skype Out accounts?
Speaking of Skype, Sony also announced — as expected — that its Playstation Portable (PSP) can now make Internet-based telephone calls and send messages over Skype’s network.
PSP owners need to download Skype’s software, available later this month. The service is designed for the most recent PSP models (PSP-2000 or later).
No word if Skype functionality will be enabled in-game, which would be the compelling reason to use Skype on an Internet-connecting PSP.
Sounds awesome but ha anyone used the Sony Mylo ….any good feedback ??