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Sony Mylo Challenges Nokia 770
An anonymous reader writes "Tomshardware says Sony's Tiny Mylo Internet Communicator is out. "The first page of MobilityGuru's July 2006 review of Nokia's 770 WiFi powered Internet based communicator was titled "In A Class Of Its Own." One Month later the title is no longer correct. With the recent announcement of its Mylo (for My life online) personal communicator Sony joined the battle for the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of people whose major means of communication is instant messaging and Web based phone calling."" I've got a 770 on my desk right now (review forthcoming) so I'm curious to see other takes on the genre.
More informative article at Tom's Hardware
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
I thought that both the Nokia 770 and the Mylo were wireless information access devices, not phones?
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
Well, if you want to hack around the nokia has an sdk so you can write your own software. I'm betting the sony is a closed system, where you can web browse but I bet you can't run your own software on it. The same problem the ps3 will have, now that MS is releasing an sdk for making games on both xboxlive and pc, with a system for sharing. But the nokia is even better, its all for free, so you have not just a gadget, but a software platform.
No really, no cellular phone ability...
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The Nokia 770 is, from what I can tell, just short of incredible -- runs Linux, nice big screen, and they've just released a new firmware. Only trouble is, for some mysterious reason, despite advertising the 770 on CNN, Nokia has strangled the supply of them. I'm absolutely baffled why they'd do this, but check Froogle -- the only place in the US that has them in stock for a non-inflated price is TigerDirect (the AdminPal link on Froogle is misleading), and for a price of $380+shipping, a bit steep for a tablet that's more than a year old now. I've looked in vain for a B&M store carrying them. CompUSA had them listed previously for $350 with free shipping, but they were never ever in stock for either delivery or in-store pickup anywhere in the country.
Even Nokia's USA page has listed them as being out of stock for at least the past few weeks. I'm a bit baffled why Nokia would do this to a product that has such huge geek appeal and a lot of grassroots FOSS software ported to it. My only hypothesis is that the US cellular companies that Nokia's in bed with are trying to push their bullshit data plans, and aren't happy about the emergence of tablets with WiFi that cuts them out of $50/month subscriptions.
Nokia, if you're listening, I'd been dying to snatch up a 770 for a reasonable price for the past few weeks, but due to your incompetence I'm settling for an Axim which is cheaper, faster, smaller.. but with Windows Mobile bullshit that offsets those advantages.
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What *is* clear is that you don't have a 770 because nearly every comment you made about the 770 is false.
6 /2/
You can play videos at CIF.
http://www.internettablettalk.com/content/view/15
You can use the 770 like a speaker phone quite nicely with the Gizmo software.
It doesn't have a lot of built in memory but it is sufficient. You can also expand the flash memory via the RS-MMC port.
You can also connect it to a specially powered USB hub and connect USB media/peripherals not to mention Bluetooth peripherals.
But the real beauty of the 770 is that the platform is open and Nokia encourages people to hack away on it. They *want* people to customize it and make new apps for it and help devs along with a development platform for your PC (Scratchbox) and a forge-based software repository (garage.maemo.org).
These are things I don't see Sony doing any time soon and this that add real value and lifetime to the 770.
Here's a short comparison I made between the two products with a side by side specification chart of them both. The Sony comes out somewhat weaker in many areas.
The Nokia store on Michigan Ave in Chicago has several 770s in stock.
There is no way I'd buy one of these... the screen's about half the size of the 770, the whole thing is laid out like a game console, and it's made by Sony. Three strikes in my book... I'm keeping rebekah (my 770), thanks.
Oh, and RTFA says that it's got about a third the functionality of a 770, to boot. Ugh.
Need a Linux consultant in New Orleans?
Ummm, not adding features or fixing bugs?! Have you been living under a rock? The Maemo project is extremely active. The new Internet Tablet 2006 OS release for 770 has quite a lot of new things - GTalk among other things. Also Gizmo Project has also released their client to the new OS release.
http://europe.nokia.com/770
Your question was: What ISN'T it good for? Well
- You're not going to do a lot of gaming on it, but you can do more than you could on a mobile phone.
- If you're out of WiFi range, make sure your phone has a Bluetooth DUN support and a compatible data plan.
- The RS-MMC card is a bit of a limiting factor, but I still have three full-length movies re-coded for my 770 on my 1GB card.
- The addition of swap native to the 2006 OS is a great improvement, but don't expect to have a couple Flash heavy sites, the VOIP client, and the RSS reader all open at once.
In short, the Nokia 770 is not a REPLACEMENT for a laptop - it's a much more mobile EXTENSION to one. Does that answer it? I hope so.For very small values of "year". The 770 was released in Europe last November, and arrived in your side of the pond in late December/January.
Short supply / inventory dumping are usually good indications that new model(s) are about to be launched, you might want to hold off getting that axim for a while.
I fully admit that what I described is not a selling point for the vast majority ... there a dozens of other selling points that would appeal to the general public. I was just answering your question. If you need something that acts as a USB host out of the box for most devices then the 770 is certainly not ideal. You are best to look elsewhere. However, you likely won't find it in Sony's offering and it will likely be 4-5x the cost like the OQO. However, if the market was big enough, it would be a no-brainer for a company to offer, to those people who don't want to deal with that stuff, something 770 specific to power USB devices and software to support many common devices.
The 770's strength is in its flexibility and openness. Some people need to be given one option to choose from and that defines what they need if the marketting is strong enough. Other people want a tool that is a good fit for most jobs and want something that will evolve beyond what it was initially built for to fit future needs. I would say the 770 is an affordable tool that fits most jobs well and you can stretch its functionality quite far.
I use mine regularly for:
- SIP voice chats and IM
- quickly checking my Gmail or a web site
- portable digital photo album for friends
- mp3 music player
- Bluetooth GPS compatible map viewer
- jotting down some notes
- drawing a sketch for later drafting
- viewing a calendar and recording appointments
- ebook reader (its high pixel density and button layout makes it *fantastic* for this)
I am very happy with the functionality during the tasks above and I find having this funtionality (that *does* fit in your back pocket) great. I find that $400 is a reasonable amount for the above list. Others may disagree.
Flamebait? Take a look at this /.article. How about thisthis article on the UX180P: "The machine runs Windows XP Professional, service pack 2 (no Tablet OS for Sony, they seem allergic)".
That last point was weak, but I think I've made enough of a case here: Sony makes cool hardware, and then they screw it up with the software that they ship with. If anyone is being flamebait, it's them.