Yes, I’m limited to open WiFi spots, but so far it hasn’t been that big a deal to me, using a Dell x50v around work and the open WiFi spots around town. I’d love to have more roaming capability with an actual data plan from T-Mobile, but as I said before, I don’t find myself out and about all the time needing to keep informed of any important e-mails or anything like that. It’s more like the hubby and I are out somewhere and want to find a nearby restaurant, or look up comparison pricing on a certain thing we want to buy, or look up movie times. I can sort of already do this with my RAZR and my $5/month T-Mobile T-Zones (I think that’s what it’s called?) plan, but it’s soooooo slow and unwieldy to surf WAP sites. I can’t even log in to my Gmail account using Google’s new mobile-formatted site. At least with the mylo, it’s like a PDA with keyboard and a decent browser that I can keep handy for the few times I need to browse something while I’m running errands. I often find myself around places that either have an open hotspot or has a T-Mobile hotspot where I could pay $6 for a daypass.

Aaron, thanks for pointing out the T-Mobile data plan pricing. I didn’t know that unlimited Edge + hotspots package is only $30/month; I have not seen that pricing on T-Mobile’s site. GPRS pricing is not bad, but surfing via GPRS is so freaking slow… I used to use my RAZR as a modem for my PDA a loooong time ago, just to play around with the functionality, but trying to connect and waiting for the pages to load was excruciatingly slow. So that’s why I’d prefer Edge or EVDO or whatever it’s called, because dial-up speeds are not for me. However, even $30/month is high for the occasional online activity; by occasional I mean maybe once or twice a month right now. At that price, I could just pay for a daypass at a T-Mobile hotspot for $6 and still come out ahead.

Perhaps in the near future, if I find myself needing to get online more when I’m away from my desk, I’ll consider a “real” mobile tech device like the MDA. But for now, I think the Mylo will suit me just fine.

Unlimited GPRS is only $20 on tmobile. No need to pay $50 for data. The unlimited Edge + wifi hotspot package (that you can get when you buy an MDA, for instance) is only $30/month.

But the lack of BT on this thing is what I find really cripples it’s use aside from campuses that are blanketed with wifi and/or city folk who are always near a starbucks/park or some other free wifi spot.

With BT, you could easily pair this up with a phone and do some IMing anywhere, leaving high-bandwidth tasks for when you hit a hotspot.

This is what I’d like to give to my son. He’s around enough WiFi to be able to use it connected a majority of the time but not (get this) while he’s in school. What a concept!

If Sony put a student agenda app on this puppy, I bet they’d sell a ton of them to schools. Even if they provision WiFi, they can do a little router magic and allow kids out to “good” content and keep them safe from “bad” content. AT least until some quiz kid figures out how to run exploit code from the mylo to take down the router.

This device suits my needs pretty well; it’s like my old Clie device (hopefully it can handle multitasking a lot better than Palm OS devices could) reborn. True, it’s not as flexible as a PDA, since there isn’t a touchscreen, and you can’t install your own software, but its base functionality is compelling for me. Truth be told, I miss my old Clie UX, and the Mylo reminds me of it quite a bit. :) I would probably not use the IMing capabilities much; it’s the mobile Opera browser and the notetaking app (for quick notes on the go, replacing my Moleskine) that interest me most. If T-Mobile, et al, would lower their data plan rates for people who are occasional users of wireless broadband, this device might be less compelling to me. But as things stand now, I think this would be a nice little companion device to whatever yet-to-be-purchased UMPC I get. :)

It is essentially the cheap, kid/teenager UMPC. I think the price point is about $50 to high but it will sell.

Specifically kids in a household where parents don’t want them installing spyware on the computer, or taking up the computer just to chat or whatever.

For adults? It’s pretty much useless as is. At least give it BT so we can pair it with a phone for mobile access.

But for in-house stuff? It’s neat. But way overpriced.