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Sony launched a search service called MYLO for its ill-fated Clie PDAs way back in September 2001. Nostalgia aside, neither have been brought back with the re-introduction of the mylo name today. Mylo stands for "my life online," and it is now a Wi-Fi-based personal communicator that looks vaguely like Sony's Play Station Portable.

The new phone-sized handheld doesn't play games, however. Instead, mylo uses open Wi-Fi (802.11b) networks for sending instant messages via Google Talk, Skype or Yahoo! Messenger accounts - all free, no monthly fees involved. It glaringly omits the most popular IM client of all, AIM from AOL, as well as MSN.

It can handle voice-over IP calls using Skype as well - and Skype is allowing calls from the SkypeOut service to any phone in the U.S. or Canada for free (usually it's only free from Skype user to Skype user), at least for a while, after which you just pay for SkypeOut minutes.

The mylo has a 2.4-inch color screen for browsing JPEG photos, reading e-mails (using Yahoo!Mail or Gmail) and Web surfing, or watching movies in MPEG-4 format. It's an MP3/WMA player (via a built in speaker or headphones), and will playback the ATRAC audio format that Sony likes but no one else does. That 1GB of flash memory will probably fill up fast, but you can add more with MemorySticks-up to 5 GB.

Mylo's QWERTY thumb-keyboard is revealed when the top of the handhelds slides upward. Put it close to another mylo and they seek each other out for an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection so you can IM or share music and photos.

It comes in black or white and has a database provided by JiWire of 20,000+ hotspots in the United States you can use to get mylo online.

The battery supposedly runs for 45 hours of music playback, seven hours when online, or three hours when talking with Skype. Microphone, headphones, USB cable and a neoprene case are all included. All that (but no camera?!) for $350 at SonyStyle and retail dealers starting in September.

Mylo is certianly not the first device in its category. There's also Nokia's 770 mini Wi-Fi for example. Messaging and VoIP are central to Nokia's handheld as well.


                       Nokia 770

The 770, unlike Mylo, has no keyboard, however, relying instead on a touch screen for input. And it is larger. The 770, which weighs 8.3 ounces (230 grams), measures a less pocketable 5.1 x 3.1 x 0.75 inches (141 x 79 x 19 millimeters) than mylo's 4.9 x .97 x 2.5 inches (123 x 23.9 x 63 millimeters) and 5.3 ounces (150 grams).

Nokia's device is also a more powerful and full-featured device that has functionality beyond just being a communicator, as one reader points out.

Sony has T-Mobile's Sidekick in its sights as well. The carrier recently launched the most recent version of the popular thumb-keyboard smartphone for the young and hip. The Sidekick 3 - as with past models - has the same IM and e-mail focus as mylo, but not Wi-Fi, and it is a cell phone; offering users access to the Internet through a cellular connection.


                         Sidekick 3

Mylo is Sony's second recent stab at a handheld in as many months for the American market, after being gone from the scene for more than two years since the demise of the Palm-based Clie line. As with the mylo, the VAIO UX Micro PC, introduced in June, isn't your typical PDA.

The VAIO UX Micro PC is a full-fledged PC that runs on Windows XP platform and not Windows Mobile. It has a retractable QWERTY thumb-keyboard, and is a bit larger than the usual handheld, but much smaller than the new ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) tablets Microsoft and its partners have been touting.


                                                         VAIO UX Micro PC