501derful.org
A couple of small announcements this week caught my attention. One is Sony’s announcement that they’re coming out with mylo (my life online). "The mylo is a mobile instant messenger device that doubles as a Skype phone, web appliance, and media player." It all depends on wi-fi so you have to be in proximity to an open "hotspot" the take advantage of its features. It’d help to live in the growing number of cities toying with sponsoring full wi-fi coverage. But what’s interesting is that mylo is billed as a "personal communicator"–all you need to stay in touch in the palm of your hand.
Not too exciting…until I read today that Nextel/Sprint has announced they’ll build the first Wi-Max system in 2007. What’s Wi-Max? It’s wi-fi on steroids. It’s a data and hardware standard promoted by Intel that kicks PC-based data exchange up a big notch. A few WiMax transmitters are supposed to cover a whole city instead of just a couple hundred feet for wi-fi. So the Skype VoIP on the next generation mylo might be as good as a cell phone–maybe better.
