Consumer reviews on the newest gadgets and gizmos
Peek Pronto Mobile Messaging Device with Lifetime Service Included (Grey)
My Peek and the fine folks at Peek-they call themselves Peeksters-have introduced a whole new side of the Internet to me which is revealing and disturbing all at the same time. I, as well as everyone else on the planet, have long suspected what highway robbers the major wireless carriers are and this was only truly understood by me when I first started to work with my Peek.
A text message is just an e-mail that is limited to 140 characters. You can send a text to your daughter or your husband or anyone by simply typing in their 10 digit telephone number in the to: box of your gmail or yahoo or hotmail account and pressing send. Chances are that you are now sitting at your computer: try it right now to your own cell phone. If your carrier is in compliance (and most but not all are) you will at this moment be freed from the hokey, shadowy, slimy world that are the wireless companies.
This is the premise that the folks at Peek have based their business model upon. They are the counter culture mobile e-mail and text message based company. But there is a price that you as a consumer must pay. If you own an iPhone or a Blackberry then you must play the Internet game under their rules and pay them money to do so at a hefty price.
With Peek the price to play the Internet is minimal but the learning curve to use text based e-mail can be a bit steep. Need to know movie showtimes, or traffic issues, or directions, or the weather picture off the satellite, or sports scores, or breaking news? You can do all of that in e-mail. You can even, in a very limited but useful way, surf the internet with e-mail, but you need to learn the language. You need to know what words to send to what addresses and once you accomplish that the Peek can do the absolute critical things that you really need in a mobile device.
The folks at Peek pride themselves in the fact that their gadget is bone simple, and it is. Your grandma can use a Peek in about two minutes. But you, the clever, savvy consumer, can take that simple gadget and turn it into a highly sophisticated information and communication device. All you need to do is learn the language of e-mail.
Buy this lifetime deal. It will start to pay you back in less than a year. You will be freed. You will never go back.
For more information on this product visit Amazon.com
Peek Pronto Mobile Messaging Device (Grey)
I’ve owned my Peek for eleven days so far, and I like it so much that yesterday I picked up another one at Target for $15 to give to my girlfriend.
So far, my user experience has been excellent. I purchased an upgrade cable directly from Peek and upgraded both of my cheaper, “Classic” devices to the speedier “Pronto” firmware right away. The interface is generally snappy, the email delivery is quick in both directions, and the long battery life has surprised me on multiple occasions. (Two whole days of medium-heavy usage without a charge!)
In my opinion, while the low monthly cost is a very attractive aspect to the Peek, its greatest asset is the fact that it focuses on doing mobile email right. Email is the oldest and most mature Internet technology in wide use today, but people often overlook what it’s capable of.
1) Obviously, emailing back and forth with individuals is very valuable for staying in touch – especially when you have your inbox in your pocket.
2) Peek’s automatic Email<->SMS bridging can be incredibly useful for getting in touch with people who are stuck with SMS.
3) In my case, my phone service (an unbrand VoIP provider) automatically emails me all of my voicemails, so with my Peek I receive instant voicemail notification in my pocket. (Now all we need is a software upgrade to listen to the WAV attachment!)
4) I use Google Calendar, which provides event notification via email. Now, with my Peek, I can be reminded of my upcoming calendar events no matter where I am.
5) With email and a little bit of set-up, you can post to Twitter, your blog, and just about anywhere else. And with a Peek, sending that email has never been so convenient.
6) The Peek maintains a basic contacts list in its database, meaning you can easily store critical contact information (email and phone) for any or all of your contacts.
7) Note taking is quite convenient too, as you can email yourself a note or just save it as a draft.
Peek Pronto now comes with a number of AskPeek.com email services which allow you to request a map, perform a local search, see the weather forecast or traffic alerts for your area, and even request news headlines – all directly from your email only Peek!
9) … And more. (System notifications, information system integration, whatever. Email makes it easy.)
So before you overlook this simple device because it’s only capable of Email, remember just how powerful Email is.
Other miscellaneous points:
1) Peek’s customer service has been astounding so far. They have been prompt, helpful, and courteous. I have bugged them a LOT to help me set up connectivity with my personal domains and my work’s Exchange server, and they have been able to help every time.
2) Peek is incredibly progressive from an openness perspective. The device itself comes with a serial debugging/reflashing port, and Peek offers the special cable for $15 on their site. Much of the inner workings of the device are clearly visible and Peek actively encourages people to play around with them! In fact, they just posted a blog entry two days ago asking if anybody could help port Linux to the Peek hardware platform: http://www.geekypeek.com/?p=344
That spirit of progressiveness can also be seen in the number of firmware upgrades and feature enhancements they’ve released in such a short time, it can be seen in their approach to sharing uptime and infrastructure struggles with the public at large, and it can clearly be seen in their excellent customer support.
3) Over the past 11 days, my email connectivity with Peek has been very good. It’s been reliable and prompt. Today, however, it’s been slow and a little glitchy. Everything has made it through eventually, but I’ve observed some pretty crazy waits. (2+ hours at times.) Customer service admits that they’ve been having server slowdowns due to maintenance last night which apparently did not go exactly as planned. Presumably these service brownouts will not be the norm.
In all, I give the Peek five stars, primarily due to the quality of the hardware, the usefulness of the service, and the customer-oriented attitude of the company. There are (of course) minor glitches, but my enjoyment of the Peek has not been impacted by them so far.
For more information on this product visit Amazon.com
Palm TX Handheld
This is, quite simply, the best gadget I have ever owned, and a miracle of technology. Who needs a laptop, an ipod, and a PSP when you can do it all with one device??
NOW WAIT – Before you think I’m just advertising for Palm or something, let me tell you this: After I bought the thing, I got so frustrated I almost returned it. Strange things would happen: programs would be corrupted, icons would disappear, and it would constantly go into an infinite reset loop, which is a common complaint around here. After checking with Palm, and searching around, the consensus seemed to be that it was a software conflict (Unlike most older Palms, the TX uses non-volatile memory, so info is not lost if the unit loses all power. But the creates conflicts with some older software). But I didn’t think it could be a software conflict, because the problems happened even when I wasn’t using any software.
Finally, I found a website that saved my sanity. It has a list of software which conflicts with the TX (something Palm should have put out). Previously, I put the link in my review, but Amazon erased it. I guess I’m not allowed to put hyperlinks here. Anyway, do a web search, it is worth it. In my case, it turned out the problem was my AOL palm software. Incredibly, AOL worked fine but was causing conflicts with everything else, even when I wasn’t using it! I deleted the AOL and everything has been just fine ever since!
Some comparisons:
I am currently in Iraq and wanted a portable device to keep me entertained. I almost bought a PSP, but I’m glad I didn’t. Yes, the TX costs $100 more, but it is still cheaper in the long run because many great games for the Palm are free, and even the ones you pay for don’t cost as much as PSP games. Some of my friends who got PSPs are jealous of my TX, since it is far more versatile, smaller, batteries last just as long, I can wirelessly surf the web, and it also has a bright beautiful screen. But unlike a gaming unit, I can also do office work on it.
I also considered the Lifedrive, but it is more bulky than the TX. Plus, with 4gb and higher SD cards now becoming available, the extra memory on the Lifedrive is not quite so much of an advantage anymore. The only real thing the Lifedrive has over the TX is the voice recorder, something I had no use for myself.
Some essential software that’s free:
TCPMP (The core pocket media player) will play movies much better than the Media player included with the bundled software. To use it, you will need software to convert your DVDs. If you google, you will find dozens out there, but VEMode is the best of the free ones. If you pay a little, you will find ones that are better at copying encrypted DVDs, and some other tasks.
Blackborder by Canuck – This simply puts a 2 pixel black border around the screen (as opposed to the default white border). Suprisingly, this small change greatly improves the look of the screen and makes the colors stand out better.
FileZ – A file management program, that works like windows explorer. It is much better at managing files than the file manager built into the Palm. Its absolutely necessary for seeing everything on your memory card.
For more information on this product visit Amazon.com
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