Sony mylo 2 has crazy name, better interface, free Wi-Fi: Sony's insanely named COM-2 mylo has a nicer looking design, a lower price ($300 instead of $350), and password-free no-cost Wi-Fi hotspots access at all Wayport locations, including over 9,000 McDonald's outlets, certainly a prime overlap with mylo 2 buyers (I refuse to use its proper name). The new version adds AOL Instant Messenger support on top of existing Google Talk, Skype, and Yahoo Messenger. It also allows Skype voice calls as did the first edition. A preview in PC Magazine notes that the Web browser is good--reviews of the first mylo excoriated a poor browsing experience. But the reviewer's browser ran out of memory regularly, especially when trying to use Flash heavy sites. There's only 23 MB of free RAM on the machine, quite low given that the reviewer notes 831 MB is available for music and video storage.

Linksys releases revised EasyLink Advisor: the new "LELA" is shipping with Linksys's just-announced inexpensive home 802.11n gateways (2.4 GHz only at $100 and $130 for 10/100 Mbps Ethernet or gigabit Ethernet, respectively). The revised software has scored rave reviews from those who have seen it already, noting that it includes an update agent that scans Linksys's site for firmware updates for any devices on the network, and can allow a Linksys tech to connect remotely to your network to examine and change configurations. There's also a plan by the end of this quarter to offer a graphical map of your network, something that's available in limited form with the current LELA. LELA will eventually deploy with all new devices. In the past, Linksys makes LELA updates available for many older products at some point in the release schedule.