Here's another from the 2019 backlog...

This time it's a device that's not all that well known: The IXI Ogo. I remember when Cingular (now AT&T) was selling these internet communicators in 2004.  The device was a little too late in the market, or perhaps it was a device that innovated in one way, while smartphones were innovating in other ways that ultimately surpassed the need for this kind of device. This device featured something called a Personal Mobile Gateway (PMG), a Bluetooth-based technology from IXI Mobile. PMG allowed the ogo to connect wirelessly to other PMG devices nearby, such as cameras, watches, digital pens, and gaming devices. PMG could also link the ogo to a phone for voice service, which is not included in the device. ogo supports the e-mail and instant messaging functions of the AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! portals. The ogo also supports SMS and standard e-mail. The was dual-band GSM device which, in 2004, I think definitely limited it as triband, and I think even quadband phones were the norm back then.  The PMG never really took off either (as far as I know).

There are other devices in this category, such as Sony's Mylo, the Helio Ocean - which tried to bring some cool Korean phones to the US market, and the Nokia Internet Tablets.  I was going to write a separate post for each one of these, but after five years, I don't really feel like that long of a dive down memory road, so I am picking a few devices as exemplars. The Ocean featured CDMA connectivity with phone capability, while the Ogo had no phone capability; Sony's Mylo only had WiFi, which seemed to limit it a bit, and the Ogo had no wifi.  I loved my Nokia N800 internet tablet back in the day, but carrying two devices (or three, if you include my iPod) was a little much.  My Nokia N800 became my surf-while-watching-TV back in the day to look up facts, movies, and actors (and browse my RSS feeds). 

All things considered interesting device, bad timing!

Original Ogo

Ogo version 2