Every once in a while, new technological trends produce a demand for an entirely new kind of device to emerge in the market. The widespread adoption of digital music, for instance, allowed companies to begin selling MP3 players.
Sony has begun shipping a product that fits this mold and is designed to capitalize on a changing digital landscape. The product is called "mylo" ($349, www.sony.com/mylo), and it's a personal communicator positioned to take advantage of the rapidly growing availability of wireless Internet on college campuses and in urban environments nationwide.
But what exactly is a "personal communicator?" In Sony's case, the mylo closely resembles T-Mobile's Sidekick 3, with a screen that slides up to reveal a hidden keyboard. It also comes in either black or white and looks extremely slick (especially the black one).
The mylo's capabilities are what make it unique. It can play music, display photos, show movies, browse the Internet, message your friends and - oh yeah - make calls. However, it is not a cell phone. It won't work on any cellular network, and you won't incur any monthly fees for the calls you make.
Confused yet? Then you clearly haven't heard of Skype. The brainchild of the same two geniuses that created Kazaa, Skype allows you to make calls over the Internet for free.
Skype comes preloaded on all mylos and works very well. Call quality is clear and loud, and registering for the free Skype service is quick and easy. There are also optional Skype features you can pay for, such as the ability to receive calls and use voicemail.
Yet the whole premise of using the mylo as a portable phone hinges on pervasive wireless Internet access. Unfortunately for Sony, such coverage at Brown and around Providence is not widespread enough to justify replacing your cell phone with a mylo. Aside from the problem of actually finding a network to join, once you join it you are essentially restricted to a 150-foot bubble that typical 802.11b networks cover. In other words, you can't walk around freely chatting on your mylo like a cell phone; once you leave the range of your current wireless bubble, the call is lost.
Sony, however, does chip in to provide you with as much wireless access as possible. All mylo owners receive free usage of the more than 7,000 T-Mobile HotSpot locations in the United States for one year. This means that you can connect your mylo to the Internet at tons of Starbucks branches, hotels, airports and other Hotspots at no cost.
You might be wondering, however, what you can do with your mylo once it's actually connected to the Internet. Sadly, not much. While the mylo would function brilliantly as an instant messaging companion with its sharp screen and comfortable keyboard, it's severely hindered by its lack of AOL Instant Messenger.
Yes, that's right. There is no AIM on the mylo. Instead, you get Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger. These are both highly usable applications, but the large majority of college students use AIM, so you just won't have too many people to talk to on them.
There's also no built-in e-mail client, although you can access certain e-mail accounts through the included Internet browser. And even though the mylo tries very hard to make viewing Web sites enjoyable with several zooming options, it's just not feasible on a 2.4-inch screen. One person who used the device gave up in frustration after unsuccessfully attempting to pan around the Web site for his Yankees.
On the multimedia front, the mylo plays music and displays pictures and movies well. It comes with 1 gigabyte of internal memory, which is expandable through a proprietary Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo slot.
Speaking of proprietary Sony stuff, the mylo has a ridiculous proprietary headphone jack that requires you to plug in a bundled microphone/headset piece. It won't let you plug your existing headphones directly into the device. Furthermore, you need to pay $19.99 for Sony's Image Converter 2 software to actually transfer videos in the correct format to the mylo. Finally, music and videos purchased on the iTunes Store won't work on the mylo, which isn't too surprising considering the competition between Sony and Apple in the music market.
There is a cool music feature that allows you to utilize the wireless capabilities of your mylo to connect to another person's mylo and share your tunes. Unfortunately, I was unable to test this feature alone, but if it works as advertised, it's a distinguishing capability.
Though it seems that Sony has jumped the gun with its assumption of pervasive wireless Internet access on college campuses, the mylo does represent a novel idea. After all, many of you may have recently noticed signs indicating the installation of wireless networks in your dorms. Brown's network is indeed expanding.
For nearly $350, however, the Mylo doesn't do anything particularly well enough to warrant a purchase by budget-conscious college students. Sure, it performs a lot of different functions and looks pretty cool doing them, but until the price is significantly lower, the mylo won't make any Brown student eager to open his or her wallet.
Have a technology question? E-mail Bart Stein '09 at tech.browndailyherald@gmail.com.
