Oh my Mio!

No one single producer has come any closer than Mio to producing the über-machine for mobile gadgeteers and businessmen alike. Last year, Mio introduced the A701, which is a mobile phone that includes a PDA system (Windows Mobile 5) and camera and MP3 player and GPS. As to not to outdo its competitors too much and to keep the race open, Mio decided not to include wifi in it and make the design just stylish enough to reveal its inner tech potential.

This year, Mio launches a stylish feat of another kind. The Mio H610, displayed here, looks just great to use everywhere (car, bike, hiking, cityhopping). The absolutely cool thing is that it has all the maps of Europe on it, and it includes Outlook contacts integration for navigation as well. It also has video, photo and MP3 capabilities, but with 2 GB ROM available, the question is how much of that storage is already taken by the maps, or, how much is really avaible for multimedia.

Which brings us to the road to über-status, which would require 2 more additions, at least for this type of device. First of all, the H610 features an SD slot, so you can expect it to be your companion when you hit the road on vacation or any other big event where you'll use your camera. Then, you can imagine how this device is trully useful for dumping your pics on, and thne reviewing them. Of course, you may need more space than the current 2 GB, so the maount of storage space needs to go up.

The second addition is browsing capability, which you can achieve by adding by adding wifi, GPRS or UMTS functionalities to it. Rather than use your GPS console for listening to music or watching videos, you actually want to be able to browse on it and retrieve information that may be relevant to your situation or position. And while you're at it, shouldn't Tele Atlas design it's own Google/MSN/Yahoo Maps application with commercial links in it? Contextual ads based on your actual position, delivered in real time, now THAT is the holy grail we are still dreaming of.