A lawsuit filed against Sony over two years ago by Agere Systems has finally been settled, according to a Thursday report, with Sony ordered to pay $18.5 million for infringing on eight patents held by Agere. The jury ruled Sony willfully infringed on the patents, which dealt with wireless local area network apparatus that Sony uses in its PSP portable gaming system, Network Walkman and mylo portable Internet device.
Sony has quietly updated its Mylo COM-2 comunicator to version 1.1 with new features alongside normal stability fixes. The refresh adds a native ability to play Windows Media Video as well as the original MPEG-4 format; users can also tune into ShoutCast MP3 radio stations whenever on Wi-Fi by using a separately downloadable widget. Access to Flash-based games is also made easier with a dedicated top-level menu item.
Sony today launched the Mylo COM-2 developer community, a website for Mylo developers to meet and learn about creating widgets for the communications device. The Mylo COM-2, announced January 6th, allows users to communicate over various social networks, such as Facebook and YouTube, and is customizable through the use of official and user-created "widgets". The service will give users a place to meet other widget developers, as well as upload and discuss their own projects.
Sony this evening is hoping to rekindle interest in its Mylo communicator with its completely overhauled COM-2 model. The new version has a much sharper 800x480, 3.5-inch touchscreen display and comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera for snapping photos to upload and share with friends. It also recognizes the reality of Web 2.0 content, according to the company; it now supports basic web browsing with Flash video and includes widgets for Facebook, Google, YouTube, and RSS reading. AIM instant messaging is added to the original mix alongside Skype calling.
Sony is in the midst of developing a sequel to its Mylo communicator handheld for the near future, says a new FCC filing. The device is largely faithful to the original's design with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard but adds a camera on the back for taking photos likely to be uploaded and shared later; while likely to be simpler than a dedicated Cyber-shot camera, it will include a macro mode switch and likely a flash for nighttime shooting. Wireless testing also reveals the addition of 802.11g wireless, though whether it will be used for new features or just for supporting modern networks is unknown.
