Sony's mylo 2 only available in refurbished form -- is the end near?

Sony's mylo 2 -- wait, you do remember what this thing is, right? -- could be headed for the grave... as if it wasn't already there in the minds of most. After Sony hacked a hundred bucks from the asking price during the run-up to Holiday Season 2008, we heard absolutely nothing further until now. Today, the very same order page shows that no new models are available to purchase, leaving prospective buyers with two clear-cut options: 1) walk away or 2) snag a refurb model in black or white for $149.99. So, is this the end for Sony's own Internet Device? Or is this just the calm before the sure-to-be-ferocious mylo 3 storm?

[Thanks, Ali]

[Flaystus @ Mar 26th 2009 3:25PM]

You know there was a time when if it would have also been a phone it might have been interesting.

[2fast4u @ Mar 26th 2009 3:47PM]

What is the point of buying a Mylo if you have a phone?

This probably would have been a hit in the 16th century.

[Flaystus @ Mar 26th 2009 4:04PM]

Did you even read my comment?

[Hedonismbot @ Mar 26th 2009 5:10PM]

Why not just get a refurb iPhone? they are only $149 and up...

I just bought 3 of them... oh my!

[John Doe @ Mar 26th 2009 3:25PM]

Yeah...chuck Mylo and get a toushscreen PSP which does the internet stuff too.

[rHrHrHrH @ Mar 26th 2009 5:24PM]

Yes. But no keyboard.
Amateur.

[ScOObyDoo @ Mar 26th 2009 3:26PM]

I expected the line to be canned after the useless Mylo 1, but then they went full speed ahead with Mylo 2. So it would not surprise me if we really do see a Mylo 3 - and it'll take all the bad parts of 1 and 2, and make them even worse.

In my opinion, the Mylo devices show everything that is wrong with Sony.

[YourMother @ Mar 26th 2009 3:27PM]

Add these features to a PSP 2 with touchscreen and watch the world explode. Or something.

[Ridgecity @ Mar 27th 2009 1:27AM]

it does almost everything my PSP does. Actually, everything my HACKED PSP does.

[crawdad689 @ Mar 26th 2009 3:27PM]

Hopefully they loose a MyloPhone, or PSPPhone. I just don't get it. Nobody's going to spend $300 on something, when their phone does the same thing.

[Fernando G. @ Mar 26th 2009 5:11PM]

lol mylophone

[zero @ Mar 26th 2009 3:30PM]

dude i bought my refurbished one 2 days ago!! your behind the times engadget!

[Kamokazi @ Mar 26th 2009 3:43PM]

Engadget is behind the times....

...says the person who bought a mylo....

[Cory @ Mar 26th 2009 4:28PM]

http://instantrimshot.com/

[Praveen Premchandran @ Mar 27th 2009 6:08PM]

well... i've always been interested in something like this coz I hate cellphones, but love gadgets (!) which is almost blasphemy nowadays... but the sony mylo kinda fit the bill for me... was almost about to buy the mylo 2 before engadget announced the mylo3 rumours...

might wait for the mylo3 coz i have a feeling it might come out soon... and also im broke :P

[William Claxton @ Mar 26th 2009 3:36PM]

I was going to try and get my hands on a mylo 2, but being from the UK that is slightly difficult, however, at the mention of 'Mylo 3', I shall wait and see what its like, and hold off the purchase of a mylo 2, as crawdad689 says, why buy something when a phone can do the same thing (G1 here). but you can never have enough gadgets tbh!

[Chris Wilkinson @ Mar 26th 2009 3:38PM]

Considering that I have never heard of this device before it can't be much of a loss. I agree with crawdad689, when my phone does the same job why do I want an extra device?

[daniel @ Mar 26th 2009 3:39PM]

I own a Mylo 2, I must say it's a great device.

However, i do think is a little bit outdated. Let me explain. Should that device include some sort of 3g network, would be a terrific device, but relying only on wifi makes it have very limited use (only for teens).


However, i do think that the concept will evolve. Perhaps Sony will use some mylo parts on PSP2, or walkman (what about a mp3 player with flash support, or a brand new pmp), or maybe use some soft parts in Sony Mobile Phones (no Ericson) ; )

Besides, Sony: If you no longer support this, tell us how to hack it, so we may run Ubuntu on it

[Parker Edwards @ Mar 26th 2009 3:48PM]

I think the Mylo line is a great concept. The first Mylo was pretty useless, but the Mylo 2 is a great device. I for one am glad it doesn't have 3g or any other type of cellular network, simply because their target audience (it seemed like teenagers but then again I could be mistaken), probably can't sign for or afford a monthly bill. I have wifi everywhere I go, except while driving, so the Mylo would make perfect since to me. The only reason I don't have one is because I snagged the Nokia N850 for the same price.

[Temmy @ Mar 26th 2009 3:50PM]

I remember what it is!

It's a chocolate drink. :)

[pika2000 @ Mar 26th 2009 3:50PM]

Why it fails:
1. Reliance of wifi inhibits the actual use of the device on-the-go
2. Really slow performance. Unresponsive "touch" screen. It has Skype and internet browser, but try browsing a webpage with it, and it's a painful experience. Even simply scrolling a webpage is slow.
3. Memory stick. Well, it's a Sony product, but considering SD is the standard, I wish Sony would just give up on plaguing their devices with memory stick.
4. Expensive.

[Stephen Lang @ Mar 26th 2009 5:32PM]

On top of all those fails, the keyboard really sucks. This might possibly have competed with the iPod Touch, if it was a million times better, significantly thinner, and had an App Store people cared about.

[Rudy @ Mar 26th 2009 4:15PM]

Please let's bury it and move on. This thing died the day it was released tweens would not be caught with this thing. So teens a college kids noooo way. They could put Hello Kitty on it then it might sell to the Hello Kitty nerds...

[L @ Mar 26th 2009 4:18PM]

They should've made the Mylo's part of the Walkman lineup instead of creating yet another small, portable device branding. Beef the media playback functionality a bit, voila....

[required @ Mar 26th 2009 4:40PM]

The PSP is and was the better buy.

[required @ Mar 26th 2009 4:47PM]

The PSP has Skype, DLNA, Remote Play, RSS, Internet Browsing (w/Flash), LocationFree,
Software Store, so on and so forth. Accessories like GPS, Camera, Etc. Memory is hot swappable (16GB @ $75). Only thing missing is a physical keyboard (which they once teased us with).

[Hey Ya @ Mar 26th 2009 4:57PM]

The PSP is fine for games, the few times a good one comes out.

As an internet browser, it's a complete piece of crap. It's not even in Mylo 2's league in that regard.

[required @ Mar 26th 2009 7:01PM]

The PSP has an excess of great titles, not just a few and its internet browser is not crap, it works, in fact there are a lot of free games that work fine within it here: http://www.psponme.com/

[jaydog @ Mar 26th 2009 4:45PM]

Rudy
I do think it does have some appeal.I have one i am in canada our cell phone plans are out of control.I was paying $140.00 per month and no thats not unlimited data and its a 3 years contract.So what i did was cut the data out of my plan so now i pay $50.00 per month and i use the mylo for all my data needs.

[propellerhead4 @ Mar 26th 2009 4:52PM]

a brand new mylo is $300 almost

http://12tb.com/lookup/Electronics/493964/B000HAQHXC/Sony_mylo_Personal_Communicator_COM-1_2.4-inch_LCD-Black

[FJ @ Mar 26th 2009 5:17PM]

Sorry but that's the Mylo 1.

[kiet @ Mar 26th 2009 4:59PM]

Maybe its the calm before the PSP 2 storm

[Cargojack @ Mar 26th 2009 5:32PM]

The Mylo seems like a useful device, on the surface, if you use Skype a lot, but then again, I do not understand how those Skype only wifi phones manage to sell. Post-pubescent gadget kids are more likely to have harangued their parents into getting them Sidekicks or conventional cell phones with IM and SMS. Mylo was way too expensive for what it did. 3 C notes can get you a netbook. At a buck and a half, it comes within range of Netgear's Skype phone. It was not a well thought out device in terms of its target audience.

[bigplrbear @ Mar 26th 2009 5:52PM]

I owned the original Sony Mylo, and I thought it was the bees knees. I posted a review of it on youtube about a year back- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65nTivJ93eo

Mylo 2, however, never really appealed to me. Instead I bought a PSP, hacked it, and now I play Super Mario bros. on it :]

[Broo @ Mar 26th 2009 6:23PM]

I thought these were discontinued by Sony in Feb: http://www.myloforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2922

Fry's has had the Mylo2's on closeout for $169 for the past few weeks. I bought one, played with it for a few days and took it back; a complete waste of time.

I guess it was a good idea in its time- but now pretty much useless as most phones can do everything the Mylo2 can do. Both of the Mylo devices were handicapped by not having Bluetooth or a Cellular; personally, I don't want to have to pull into a McDonalds/Starbucks if I want check my email...

..and the fucking proprietary headphone plug just pissed me off- Sony; can't you just put in a normal 3.5mm connector?

[thh420 @ Mar 26th 2009 7:20PM]

every mylo i ever saw was in the hands of army brats that came from japan. if i remember right the ones they had were like sms/instant messenger dealies

[AoMoe @ Mar 26th 2009 8:36PM]

The Mylo 2 has stop selling in Japan on December 17, 2008. Who knows what Sony is planning, time will only tell.

[dbam987 @ Mar 26th 2009 8:45PM]

My brother just got his from Ebay. He called me yesterday saying he read somewhere that Sony discontinued it. Intrigued, I started looking on Sony's site to confirm, and found that they were only peddling refurbished units. It might be that they are working on a Mylo 3, but this finding ain't looking too good.

[Barbaric @ Mar 27th 2009 1:12PM]

Well, maybe if it gets cheap enough, I'll buy one to hack around with. If I can find a way to get some decent emulators on it, it wont be a total waste. maybe find a way to play PSP or PSx games...
I prefer doing hardware mods, & I really like the slider. I bet I could add some cool controller hardware, psp analouge sticks are cheap, hack in a bluetooth Tx (under $20 for a A2DP) or plain 3.5 and scrap the proprietary plug...
stuff in some gsm or 3g parts from the plethora of odd phones I have...
Now I really want one!! my own frankenstein psp2

[Anna @ Mar 27th 2009 4:37PM]

Yes: Mylo is dead. As is Nav-U.

Or so I've heard from my internal sources. Cost cutting measures etc. They'd have probably told somebody if they thought anybody cared.

[Miss Julien @ May 3rd 2009 3:37PM]

Okay, so PLEASE everyone TRY and understand... the Mylo was NOT meant to be a PHONE. No. Mylo does NOT = Phone. It wasn't supposed to, ever. The Mylo was made to eliminate monthly bills for people like me who are broke and can't afford an $80 bill on top of EVERYTHING else to use the internet on their phone. So yeah. I have a very basic and cheap phone plan and to surf the net, without having to turn my life into dollar bills, I grab my Mylo and use wireless. Easy as that. So STOP saying "Why would I get a Mylo if I have my phone?" I don't know. I don't want to know... all I know is that I'm not going to pay for a phone service that costs more than I do when I can use a mylo. BAM. And, I could just get a PSP... but as someone else said, it does NOT have a KEYBOARD, which I need. I need buttons. Or at least the options for buttons (since the Mylo 2 is touch screen). [I'm not sure if there is a touch screen keyboard on the Mylo 2 since I'm still too broke to afford it but whatever, point is, it has a keyboard for me if no one else likes that.]. Now, the Mylo might not be "OMG AMAZING" it's good enough. It gets the job done for me so I'm satisfied and not mesmerized. Humz. I'll deal. Oh, I already did. Hehe. Anywayz, the Mylo is something. It's not everything, but it's something and I needed something, cuz I know everything isn't an option. I'm not telling anyone to be satisfied with it, by no means, but come on, be reasonable with the reasons as to why you hate it so much. It's not a phone. So don't give me, "...phone... mylo sucks" That my friend is not a response or anything at all. Thank you. 8D Enjoy your mylo bashing or loving days.