This might be Sony's last Y2K era product.

[Captain]

I forgot this existed. Sony Mylo COM-1. It's like one of the last Y2K futurist products. The last ounce of non-cellular communication gadgets before everything went iPhone and iPod Touch. Here marks the end of Y2K and its chasing of the dream of the future. It's all downhill from here. Even the 2nd gen version lost its charm. I wish Sony still did weird stuff like this.

 

[myrriad]

I miss those tiny physical qwerty keyboards on mobile devices

 

[grap]

I forgot this existed. Sony Mylo COM-1.

This is one of those things I have been trying to look up for years but can't find the right query. Thank you!

It is a really weird device.

The Mylo was interesting because it looked like a cell phone, but it did not have the ability to connect to cellular networks. The idea was: Everyone is using AIM, Google Talk (or whatever Hangouts was called at the time), Yahoo messenger, VoIP, and so on -- why connect to cellular at all when those applications are all free over wi-fi?

So it came bundled with a handful of messenger apps and a "streaming" mode where you could send music files to your friends P2P. I think also some version of Opera browser?

At the time it came out, I tried to tell me parents it would pay for itself, since they were still on a pay-per-text plan. Look mom, texting will be free and you won't need to keep me on the phone plan. They didn't understand what I was talking about.

If the iPhone hadn't come out the following year, could the Mylo have killed mobile? Probably not, but I'd like to think so.

 

[Captain]

This is one of those things I have been trying to look up for years but can't find the right query. Thank you!

It is a really weird device.

The Mylo was interesting because it looked like a cell phone, but it did not have the ability to connect to cellular networks. The idea was: Everyone is using AIM, Google Talk (or whatever Hangouts was called at the time), Yahoo messenger, VoIP, and so on -- why connect to cellular at all when those applications are all free over wi-fi?

So it came bundled with a handful of messenger apps and a "streaming" mode where you could send music files to your friends P2P. I think also some version of Opera browser?

At the time it came out, I tried to tell me parents it would pay for itself, since they were still on a pay-per-text plan. Look mom, texting will be free and you won't need to keep me on the phone plan. They didn't understand what I was talking about.

If the iPhone hadn't come out the following year, could the Mylo have killed mobile? Probably not, but I'd like to think so.

The iPhone was the death of everything. There was a large segment of non-cellular users emerging at the time...especially with Skype. The iPhone nuked that. I think it was because the carriers were sort of stalling software advances in the cellular market by demanding the manufacturers do what they tell them. That's where these devices came from. They were sleek and modern. Has all our messaging apps. Were super portable. This tied with WiFi going everywhere from downtowns to malls. I could be downtown and have WiFi everywhere. It was so ubiquitous at the time I had a dedicated WiFi only Skype phone. iPhone came and WiFi disappeared along with these devices. It's really a shame. Those were fun times.