The product is designed for people who use instant messaging as a primary form of communication and networking for their social life. The name mylo stands for "my life online" and the communicator lets users instant message, browse the Internet, listen to music, send emails and view photos concurrently.
Small enough for a pocket or purse, the slim, oblong-shaped device features a 2.4 inch color LCD with a slide out QWERTY keyboard for comfortable and quick thumb typing.
The device, available in black or white, comes embedded with popular instant messaging services: the Google Talk? instant messaging service, Skype and Yahoo! Messenger?. These services are free and the product does not require initial computer setup or a monthly service contract.
"The mylo personal communicator is ideal for people who want to stay connected to their online friends and family, but not be weighed down by a PC or buffeted by charges for IM and texting on cell phones," said John Kodera, director of product marketing for personal communication devices at Sony Electronics.
According to Sony, the pocketable design encourages users to get up and away from their desks and roam available wireless networks. The product includes JiWire's hotspot directory listing more than 20,000 Wi-Fi networks in the United States.
The embedded HTML browser lets users quickly connect to full Web pages on the Internet. They can also send and receive text emails with web mail services like Yahoo! Mail and the Gmail web mail service.
The communicator comes with Skype? software built into it, allowing registered Skype users to make free Internet calls with the 113 million other Skype users worldwide.
The mylo communicator also has a built-in speaker for listening to music.
Providing networking possibilities without a wireless network, the mylo personal communicator detects when it comes into the presence of other mylo units. With the ad-hoc application, users can share play lists and stream music between mylo communicators one at a time.
To support all of this functionality, the mylo device uses 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.
For more information about the product, go to http://www.sony.com/mylo.
