I picked up one of these after seeing it had 800x480 instead of the crappy resolution of the original.

I really like the keyboard, and I think the touchscreen is a little sharper. It's also a little stiffer, which I like.

But the OS kills this device. It's difficult to navigate and use bookmarks. And the permanent buttons on the side are easy to mistakenly press when you intend to scroll down. Since it doesn't have an integrated slot for the pointer, I end up just using my fingernail, which isn't quite precise enough.

Overall I like all of the Nokias, 770/800/810 better than the Mylo 2, which is going to sit in a drawer until I figure out a use for it.

How well does it play a standard video podcast?

New vs. review up at pocketables:

http://www.pocketables.net/2008/02/sony-mylo-2-com.html

looks like the n810 holds its own pretty well

Oooh, it uses Sony's proprietary memory sticks. That's just great, if you own another Sony device or you want to spend 3x the money on your memory.

Before I ever heard of the Nokia ITs (two years ago now?) I looked at the Mylo because it seemed like it had promise. But the specs just seemed flimsy to me. When I read about the N800 this past fall (I know, what rock was I under for the first 2/3 of 2007?) I got really excited for the first time. This was a device that did what I wanted a handheld to do!

Is the firmware still as barbarically locked as the Mylo 1?

- it's a Sony, need you ask?

:-)

(i think the PSP is more open than the Mylo; i love my open-firmware'd PSP)

isnt it running linux?

Yes, but it's closed source. You can't freely make your own ports or applications as far as I know.

closed source is probably the wrong term. I bet you can get them to honor their GPL obligations and give you the linux source that they've used.

But the add-ons (the GUI, the apps) those probably are NOT open source. And they're locked down. I'm told that they don't provide an open SDK, nor a means of loading in new Apps for their GUI app launcher to recognize.

Which is what ruled out the Mylo1 for me. I hear the Mylo2 isn't any better, in that regard.

Though, franklin has a Mylo1 model that they sell (re-tooled to act as a dictionary and learning tool for kids). It uses SD cards instead of Memory Sticks. That's an upgrade if I've ever heard one :-) But different software, and still locked down, as far as I've heard.

- and that's why we want developers to use GPLV3...

- no "Tivoization"...