The Sony PSP 1.5: The Mylo Personal Communicator

Sony's virally attractive gadget, the Mylo (which stands for My Life Online) skirted by the radar screens of major technology magazines and websites. They missed out on a gadget guru paradise. When the new WIFI device appeared in late 2006, many lined up to purchase the hybrid PSP that touted a full QWERTY keyboard, Skype, Gmail, Yahoo, web browsing, and video/audio playback. All this was strapped into a device that literally fit into the palm of your hand, unlike competitors such as Cingular's Sidekick. These features made the Mylo socially seductive to the college student.

The design of the Mylo is sleek and industrial. When in full view of the public eye it caused heads to turn and people to ask "What is that?" I actually own a Mylo and have used it in a variety of settings that included a college campus. People always seem fascinated with the latest in gadgetry and the Mylo is a breath of fresh air in a world dominated by white iPods. The Mylo comes in white and black, and features a screen that slides up to accommodate the keyboard on the bottom.

Where the Mylo exceeds all expectation is in the arena of social networking. It features a "What's Up" tab that can hold up to 90 profiles of contact information (Yahoo Messenger, Gmail, and Skype). The Mylo comes with 1GB of internal memory and room for expansion for up to 4GB with Sony's ProDuo memory stick. The music player supports both DRM and non-DRM music files, but it is not compatible with Itunes. Custom wallpapers can be loaded from a PC onto the device. A smattering of test produced results that were on par with Sony's estimate of "3.5 hours of talk time in Internet calling, up to 7 hours Web browsing and up to 45 hours of music playback".

There is one little known feature that makes the Mylo stand out from the rest of the crowded MP3 player market. It is one of the first devices to allow direct uploading of music, pictures, and video to the device through a WiFi connection. No cables needed! Grab the latest Youtube video or Linkin Park song and make sure that it is in the correct format supported by Sony. Next, upload the files through Skype's transfer feature and play the files through the device. Go to http://www.myloforums.net for more information.

There are certain downsides that a potential customer should be concerned about. One is that the Mylo has no direct headphone jack and instead requires a supplied converter. If that converter is lost, the only way to listen to music is through the speaker (this happened to me and it was annoying. Another problem is that the Mylo portable communicator can only truly shine in an area with ubiquitous wireless internet access. It has no cellular service coverage or a built-in camera which are common on most phones. It does come with Skype, which offers extremely low rates but can only be used in an area with Wifi access. Typing on the Mylo is cramped at times and so is web browsing, but it is satisfactory for an on-the-fly solution or for contacting a friend. Converting multimedia to the Mylo can also be a pain and might require third-party software.

The last problem is the $350 price tag. Aside from these quirks, the Mylo is an effective way to reduce phone bill charges through Skype and it is a good alternative to the $80 a month traditional cellular access plan. Sony moved in the right direction with Mylo and is expected to improve upon this concept with the upcoming PSP2.