Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

It appears that Sony has launched one of their first well thought out products in a long time. As part of their restructure the company is aiming to offer products that consumers are looking for and their is a current market. We know that people want to be connected, use VoIP, are often in internet hotspots, and are already buying the Nokia 770 and other internet devices. Now enter the Sony mylo short and trendy for, “my life online.” It is designed for people who use instant messaging as a primary form of communication and networking for their social life.

Read the specs and my take on whether the Sony mylo will turn the company around or just be another flop.

The mylo personal communicator uses 802.11b wireless to instant message, browse the Internet, listen to music, send emails and view photos concurrently. It has a 2.4 inch color LCD screen, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, hosts JiWire’s 20,000 hotspot directory, is loaded with VoIP programs (Google Talk, Skype, and Yahoo Messenger), has a HTML browser, 1 Gb of internal flash memory, plays MP3, ATRAC, secure/unsecure WMA music files, can play MPEG-4 videos, is a JPEG viewer, has speakers, and can be used in ad-hoc to stream music and communicate mode when there is no Wi-Fi hotspot but it detects other mylo units.

The mylo personal communicator boots up in seconds and can scan for available wireless networks right away. A “What’s Up” screen stores up to 90 of your friends’ avatars so you can quickly see who’s online as well as letting you choose between nine online identities--can anyone say MySpace problems all over again.

A lithium-ion battery that offers up to 45 hours of music playback, around seven hours of chatting and web surfing and more than three hours of continuous Skype talk time. It comes with a microphone, stereo headphones, a USB cable and a neoprene case.

mylo will be available in black or white for $350 in September.

Will it sell?
Sony tries to get with the times and everyone crashes their party saying it won’t work. It is true that though there are a lot of hotspots, they are not everywhere yet. Until that happens it will be hard to make this as prevalent as the RAZR. I am neither here nor there on whether this should have been sold as a Sidekick competitor via Sony Ericsson. Many homes, colleges, coffeeshops, airports are already wireless and the number is increasing. Though you can’t do much with this when in a car (unlike the cellular capabilities of the SK3) it can still be used as a music player. If Sony can drop the price to $299 or even $199, then you will see mylo everywhere.

Via [JKontherun]

A screen shot from the eBay developers conference shows that you will soon be able to send people money via Skype. eBay, if you do not know, owns Skype and PayPal. Until now there has been very little integration of the VoIP service into the two other clients--making the acquisition appear to be a poor decision.

eBay also announced its pilot integration of Skype. Beginning yesterday, US eBay sellers will have the option of adding a SkypeMe button to individual item listings in 14 select categories. Prospective buyers will then be able to contact the sellers by voice or instant messaging. Users can currently add a SkypeMe button to their personal profile, but not to individual items for sale.

With this new integration you can essentially live your life without ever leaving your home. You can buy whatever you like on eBay, resell it for more, chat with sellers and buyers, and then pay and accept payments via PayPal.

Ahh, the life of an internet junkie.

Read [Random Good Stuff]
Read [TechCrunch]