In many ways, the Cybiko is representative of much that was wrong with the early 2000′s: crazy spelling, asymmetric designs, multiple fruity flavors of everything, and excessively high pricing.  Not surprisingly, Evan actually owns one of these (though he may not admit to it).  Let’s jump into the Cy-world and take a look.

There were two versions of the Cybiko before production ceased: the original Cybiko (sometimes called Cybiko Classic) and the later Cybiko Xtreme (which was among other things, more extreme).

The Cybiko ($130 when first announced) was a PDA-like device aimed at teens and tweens, in case you couldn’t tell from its general essence of hipness.  It’s frumpy design actually reminds me of the old bottles of Axe bodywash.  The Cybiko Classic came in 5 colors: blue, purple, yellow, white and ultra-rare black.  Not sure why, but they seemed to make a lot of purple ones.

The Cybiko had a decent library of games and applications to put on its 512KB of flash ROM and 256KB of RAM.  There was the requisite organizer, calculator, notes, etc.  The killer function of the Cybiko was its RF radio.  With that, through the plastic antenna at the top, you could sent messages to other Cybikos within a 300 ft radius of you.  Although given sales of the Cybiko, this feature was about as useful as the Social on the Zune (squirting songs back and forth).  Also, the Cybiko had an expansion slot at the bottom which took, among other things, an MP3 player that accepted SmartMedia cards (another thing that has gone the way of the dodo).

Probably the most ridiculous feature of the first Cybiko was that it came with a stylus.  However, it did not have a touchscreen.  The stylus was for pressing the miniscule buttons on its QWERTY keyboard.

The Cybiko Xtreme ($140 at launch) was smaller, faster, and had more features and storage than the original.  Amazingly, they were also able to make the design even more ridiculous with amoeba-shaped buttons and color patterns seemingly borrowed from a Gateway box.  Like its predecessor though, it was unable to gain a foothold in the market.

Honestly, the Cybiko was not a bad device.  It was just confused about whether it was a toy or a useful device.  Also, its high price put it into the awkward middle ground where it was too expensive for kids to buy for themselves but expensive enough for parents to think twice before buying one for their 10-16 year old child.

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