Just saw this report today. Looks like an interesting competitor to the N770/870.

7" screen with 800x480 resolution. AMD geode CPU @500 Mhz, 512 Megs and 40gig hdd. Oh yeah has a key board too :-). No info on when it will appear stateside.

kohjinsha Sub notebook

DaScud

Discussed here.

No touchscreen. What's the point of the tablet mode with the screen folded ontop of the keyboard?

On the sides on the screen are a joystick, mouse buttons and scroll buttons.

Reminds me of the S**y PSP,
where you also have to navigate with some keys.
Entering an URL was painful.

That was one of the main reasons to throw the PSP away,
and get a 770.

On a normal PC with a real keyboard,
there's no need for a touch screen IMHO,
but when the keyboard has been folded away,
a touch screen will soon be very useful...

Ray

Why is there still no true 770 competitor?

I think there are a lot of people that still don't "get it". I won't go back into that unwieldy discussion about how the 770 is or isn't like a UMPC, but I think it's safe to say that the Internet Tablet is very much a mobile Linux computer. Sure, it doesn't have a keyboard like many other similar mobile devices, but it does have a couple of realistic options for text input.

How are you gonna use that keyboard while standing or walking for example?
The full screen "thumb" virtual keyboard is perfect for situations like this.

And wouldn't you rather have a full sized keyboard for typing anything longer than a quick text message anyway?
That's where the USB and Bluetooth features shine. Connect to a "normal" sized keyboards for tasks that require them.

I think this is also one of the reasons Nokia was able to keep the cost of the device so low.

Secondly, mobile Linux devices are still fairly uncharted territory, and previous attempts have been either "half-baked" or just didn't gain the momentum needed to sustain growth of the given platform. In either case, manufacturers dropped support at the first sign of stagnancy.

I also think the time is just right for mobile Linux as competitors like Palm, Toshiba, Sony, HP, and others have moved out of the mobile computing landscape or just haven't moved at all.

I spend most browsing sessions without entering any URLs.
Surfing in tablet mode by clicking on links with the "joystick" mouse, and scrolling pages with the up/down buttons, certainly sounds like a reasonable proposition, not much different from the stylus+buttons of the 770...
But then you can twist the screen again and use the keyboard if you need to do text entry -- sort of like a big Sharp Zaurus.

The PSP drove me nuts when it came to entering URLs. The 770's better, but it has its flaws.

1) Keyboard. The Mylo has one, and it definitely make a difference.
2) Performance. I've used similarly powered PCs (Toshiba Libretto 110CT, for one,) and when pared down to the 770's functionality, they were snappier.
3) Email. I'm not even going to get into how much the 770's email client upsets me.

However, it's $350, has WiFi AND Bluetooth, and runs a ton of Linux apps, which is great. I have to ask, though, how often do you need to pair the 770 to your phone to do something that your phone can't already do on its own? Many BT-capable phones are acceptable IM clients in a pinch, WAP sites aren't great, but again, they can do the job. There just aren't a whole lot of uses for the 770 when there's no WiFi, which may justify the Mylo's lack of Bluetooth. Of course that allows some of the cost to go to the keyboard, even if that doesn't excuse the screen.

Simply enough, the 770's a little too much for what it can do comfortably. Trim out the BT, add a slide-out keyboard, ditch the bells and whistles and third-party app capability, and it's closer to a marketable device, but then few of us would own it. I adore the hackability, as it's rapidly become my digital Swiss Army Knife, but while I'm okay with a Swiss Army Knife, other people just want a decent pair of scissors.

As for audio, it can't hold enough MP3s for my tastes, nor is it trivially simple to dump video onto it. (Yes, I can drag and drop, but my iPod syncs automatically, whether iTunes is loaded or not.) It's not an ideal PMP unless it can hold a 1.8" HDD, or support something closer to 8GB of flash. It's not a perfect mobile web browser for my forum-hopping needs unless it has a solid integrated keyboard. The control layout isn't great for games, for that matter. It can do all of these things, but it doesn't necessarily do them well.

It does, however, start up VERY quickly, sip very little power, and pack a hell of a lot of display in a very portable package. I can't carry a Libretto with me at all times, or a Vega UMPC, or the Kohjinsha submini laptop. I can, however, bust out the 770 on a whim, check on gmail, zip through a few forums, and even stream some audio in no time flat.

If I were less of a geek, I wouldn't bother with any of this. Luckily for Nokia, I'm exactly that much of a geek, and have no problem looking past the obvious warts of the 770 to take advantage of what I *can* do with it. Unfortunately for Nokia, I don't think there are enough geeks to support the device without some major updates in the next iteration of the hardware.

sony - a true competitor

Totally not true for me - I use Bluetooth dial up networking to surf the web on the move all the time (eg. on the way into the office, settling arguments in the pub etc.)

A device without Bluetooth is a non starter for me. WiFi hotspots are plentiful, but they're all run by different ISPs requiring upfront accounts and you can bet when you need to connect to the net, you're going to be near a hotspot for which you don't have an account.

Until the advent of city-wide free WiFi (I'm in the UK), when I'm not at home it's actually WiFi that is irrelevant and not Bluetooth.

Not really sure why the Mylo lacks Bluetooth - perhaps because it's aimed at teenagers who will have access to WiFi at home and at school/college?