NotepadPeek
Take notes on the go! Never be without your shopping list again! Doesn't sync with anything on your normal computer. $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

YelpPeek
Find restaurants and businesses around you, and leave reviews of those you go to. How convenient! No GPS. $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

TimeZonePeek
What time is it in various time zones? Now you know with this Peek! $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

ClockPeek
What time is it? Never ask such a stupid question again! No alarm function. $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

CalendarPeek
Always have your appointments and schedule on hand and update your schedule whenever you make new plans! $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

CalculatorPeek
It's a calculator! $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

LotteryPeek
Check the results of last nights drawing wherever you are. Maybe you'll be a big winner! $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

RainPeek
Is it raining outside right now? This Peek will tell you! $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

PeekPeek
Keep track of all your other Peek devices with this simple gadget! $99 for six months of service or $199 for lifetime use.

The original Peek, which just runs email, is something I would never buy in a million years. But I could understand why some people might like it. It's simple, its inexpensive, and it lets you run email without paying for a fancy smartphone plan. That's fine. Email is important and universally useful.

But this? Twitter only? Twitter is something that you can do easily on a smartphone, yes, but it's also something you can use easily on any phone. It's a service based on text messaging, for god's sake! In practice, you could use Twitter on your phone no matter what phone you have. Hell, even StarTacs supported SMS and could use Twitter, if you happen to still be using one.

Maybe they expect this to be used by people without cellphones at all? Why would anyone carry a device that does only Twitter instead of getting a basic free cellphone that can call friends and restaurants and companies with phones (all of them)?

And really, if you're so hooked on Twitter than you want to have it on you at all times, the chances are good that you're also hooked on email, IM, texts and probably the services that a few other apps would provide. This is a device built around an app, basically. The iPhone, BlackBerry, Pre, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android all have great Twitter apps. But do they deserve their own devices? What's next, a dedicated Fieldrunners or Yelp device? How about a batman utility belt full of like 20 devices each doing the equivalent of one app, for seven bucks a month, each?

Sure, one could argue that it chooses to do one thing and to do it well, with simplicity and affordability. You could compare it to the Flip, for example, which makes shooting video easy and cheap. But the Flip does far more, for the money, and decent video isn't something you find on most smartphones. The Flip beats camcorders by doing 90% of what they do for 20% of the cost. This does 1% of what smartphones can do for 25% of the cost. It's just not a good value, despite it being cheap.

The real kicker? This thing has one single function, and it can't even do that very well. PC Mag just gave it 1.5 stars! This is totally damning:

But as soon as I started handling the TwitterPeek, I knew something was wrong. This handheld is painfully slow. Scrolling through button selections or on-screen lists, the cursor is always a bit behind your trackwheel.

TwitterPeek also fails at the most basic function: reading tweets. The main list of tweets only shows the first three and a half words of each message; to read more, you have to dig down by hitting the 'return' key. Then you can step through tweets, slowly, one by one, with the 'n' (for next) and 'p' (for previous) keys, or jump back up to the unreadable full list of truncated messages. The whole process is slow and annoying.

Not everybody wants or needs a smartphone, such as the iPhone or Droid. They're relatively expensive and cost more per month than a dumbphone. But the fact of the matter is, if you're looking to have a lot of mobile functionality, it makes way more sense to consolidate your needs on one well-designed product than to clutter up your pockets with a dumbphone, a TwitterPeek, a digital camera and a GPS unit. This is a device that is built on flawed logic and executed poorly. I can't think of a single person in a single situation where this would make sense.

I just can't believe this thing exists.

Analysts who I won't name in order to preserve their most holy humility said that Windows 7 will help PC sales. We've been under the impression that this kind of prediction would fall into the "yeah no shit" category, but it's hard to prove, because a) Christmas is coming and b) the economy may be on the mend. Of course, on the not-so-outside chance that the economic Sarlacc is still slurping us toward its thousand-year stomach, Microsoft and the major PC makers refuse to predict what Windows 7 will mean for sales. So in the end, this "news" is just a chance for some stock brokers to make recommendations to rich speculators, and for analysts to get their names in the paper (whoops!). [WSJ]

Peek, the mute man's BlackBerry, was spotted today at Best Buy with a box proclaiming its Twitterificness to all the world in bold new packaging (shown at left). But we were under the impression that Peek users got Twitter last month. Update: So you're telling me this piece of %&#;$%& only does Twitter? Well then good day to you, Peek Incorporated. I said GOOD DAY!! [CrunchGear]

From the younger, fresher (but paradoxically Mossbergier) quadrant of Mr. Murdoch's Journal comes the startling declaration that the iPhone might overtake the BlackBerry in US market share. The evidence is a graph by a research firm called ChangeWave. At the moment, BlackBerry accounts for 40% of the nation's smartphones while iPhones account for 30%, with stronger upward momentum. But in the next three months 36% of some relevant cluster of Americans plan to buy an iPhone, while 27% plan to buy a BlackBerry. I love a good stat as much as the next guy, but in the end, they don't mean a lot, and these mean even less when juxtaposed. If I were an analyst, this would be my soundbite: "I won't be surprised if iPhone overtakes BlackBerry, but it may not happen." (I think you know why I'm not an analyst.) [AllThingsD]

If Google launches something called Social Search, we pay attention. But what the hell is it? Google's own blog's headline includes the baffling declaration "I finally found my friend's New York blog!" Wouldn't good old-fashioned Google show you your friend's blog? And more importantly, what kind of a friend is it who doesn't tell you how to find his or her New York blog?

At the outset, it sounds dumb, and digging deeper it sounds dumber: Though it proclaims to give you "relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results," all it gives me are links to stuff already in my RSS feeds. Because despite the fact that I'm logged into Google all day long, I haven't manually inputted my Twitter and Facebook information into my public profile, nor do I have plans to. Without heavy user input, it becomes a social with no people, hence my Zune 1.0 reference in the teaser. [Official Google Blog]

If that's all a little committal for your tastes there's another tier, at $229 for just one year of service, Pronto included, matching the price points for prior, similar trial deals with the original Peek.

To put this into context the latter deal, less the cost of a Pronto, averages out to about $15 a month over the course of a year, compared to the regular $20. On the other hand, the lifetime subscription has a monthly cost approaching zero, assuming very specific circumstances: That the Pronto represents the pinnacle of consumer technology for the next few hundred years, and that medical science on on the verge of extending the human life indefinitely. It's possible!

And for those of you with no imagination or optimism, and a sense that you'll probably give up on this thing after about two years, max, it's still a pretty great deal, averaging out to about $10 a month for unlimited texting, emailing, and now, even semi-apps. [Peek]

Dubbed PeekSocial, PeekMaps, PeekFeed, and AskPeek, the current applications cover the cornerstones of any app store: Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps, and good old-fashioned news.

While it's great that Peek is now offering applications, we're still wondering exactly why someone would carry an email (and texting) only device, especially with all the low-priced smartphones on the market. If one device does the trick, why should you carry two? Cheesily named apps or not. [Peek]

But wait, doesn't the Peek already run some kind of stripped-down Linux? You'd think so, but no: it's super-simple variant on TI's in-house Nucleus operating system, designed specifically for the OMAP processor used in the Peek. It's confusingly called "Peekux:"

TI's underlying real-time OS is Nucleus (by Mentor). Its a widely-used RTOS. TI has compiled in device drivers, and other stacks and turned it into their own platform. We then wrap it with our own proprietary GUI and network libraries to create Peekux, and then our email app sits on top of it. All of it is built together as a single image, so there is no distinct OS vs app on our device.

So that's the software situation, which Peek understandably wants to change to something a bit more versatile. In trade for a successful port, they're offering a "mini-consulting gig," the terms of which are unclear, so successful candidates may or may not be paid in piles of Peeks. [Geekypeek via BoingBoing Gadgets]

For any of you in NYC, we are upgrading Peeks in Midtown at the Gallway Hooker [from 6-8pm tonight]. If you have an older version of the Peek software on your device, we are upgrading customers to the Pronto version.

They even encourage customers to buy a Peek classic and score the free Pronto upgrade today if they'd like ($30ish value). [Geeky Peek via bbGadgets]

Hardware
It's boxy, whimsical minimalism done right. Its unfussy shape and the front's bubbly keys are friendly and inviting. But its chrome back, and its slimness—thinner than the BlackBerry Curve 8900, the thinnest BlackBerry you can buy—infuse it with the sufficient gadget allure.

The screen is bright—a little dimmer than blinding Curve 8900 screen—and just large and crisp enough to make a text-only device nice to use—a mite higher resolution would always be better, but everything's clear and readable. The markedly ugly themes are actually the screen's real undoing.

Whether or not you'll like the keyboard is largely a matter of taste—I'm usually not fan of chiclet-style keyboards that sacrifice button surface area for spacing between the keys, but even though I don't particularly like typing on the Peek, my pinpoint accuracy consistently astounds me. I think that this is because the strike point on the keys is deceptively larger than it appears to be, and the way the keys are shaped prevents half-misses from becoming whole misses. They're are easier to press than on the original Peek—since this is by no means a squishy keyboard, frequent users of the original who didn't wear iron gauntlets must be afflicted with crippling arthritis by now. The rubber coating is a perfect consistency—not too sticky for your nubs, but you won't slip off either.

Your primary method of navigation is the scroll wheel, a throwback to the old-school BlackBerry days. Which, in theory is fine, since you're merely navigating in cardinal directions, not across a plane (like with a trackball) but in practice, I miss the speed of a trackball. Also, considering you have to use it as a button a lot—to bring up the menus that you use to do anything, it's a bit too thin, making it a harder than necessary target. The back button, which sits just below it, could use some steroids too—obviously, it shouldn't be too easy to hit, but it should be easier to mash without accidentally hitting the scrollwheel too.

Software and Experience
It's a simple, minimal experience. I get that. But why does it have to be ugly too? The three color schemes—Slate, Tangerine and Spring are seriously gross. BlackBerry's latest OS makes a text-oriented screen look pretty snazzy, for the most part—especially in media menus—so I know the Peek guys can do better.

Starting up really is easy: Enter your email account info and name and go. (Yes, you can do multiple, up to five.) And for the people Peek is aimed at, that's how it should be. When you power up, it takes you directly your inbox. It took a couple minutes before mail started pouring in, but everything flowed in perfectly.

So, the big thing about the Pronto over the past Peek model, as far as the average user is concerned, is that the UI is less sluggish, it uses Push for email, so all of your email arrives automagically, and you get unlimited text messages.

Push indeed seems to works just fine—not much more to say about it than that. Text message implementation is a bit messy—it's essentially an email converted into a text message, so it's not a very clean solution, with headers and stuff to wade through on the Peek.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time with the original Peek, so I can't say how much faster precisely the Pronto moves—BoingBoing's Rob and others have complained about its sluggishness—but for the most part, it's fast enough. Some things are slower than they should be—deleting an email takes about three seconds, though deleting a whole bunch (hold shift and scroll down) takes about four.

While the Pronto adds Exchange support, it still lacks, for instance, IMAP and custom folders. The tricky thing about critiquing something like the Peek, which wears its minimalist monofunctionalism as a badge, is finding the line between missing feature (custom folders) and pointed omission (IMAP?). What exactly should it add? If it keeps adding features, when does it move beyond itself?

Should You Peek?
The Peek Pronto is $80 for the hardware plus $20 a month for the service that rides on T-Mobile's service. It's a bit much on the monthly end—$10 would make it immensely more attractive. If you have to ask why you would buy it when you could get a BlackBerry, whose data plan isn't much more than that, this probably isn't for you. It doesn't organize your email (much less your life), browse the web or do anything else but let you—wait for it—peek at your email and execute only the most essential and defining functions of email. It does this pretty well, for the most part.

I can't imagine someone who really wanted email on the go would want something this simple from the outset. But if I wanted to a ditch a full-featured device to more completely untether myself from the world when I get away from my desk, but can't give it up completely, Peek would be a solid form of Nicorette. [Peek]

The Pronto shares the same $20 monthly plan as the original Peek, but on top of unlimited push emailing, that plan also supports unlimited text messaging. The Pronto's software is also a bit more advanced, including the ability to check out documents and PDFs, as opposed to just pictures.

The Pronto is available now, but unlike the original, it's only in black (they call it gray). [Peek]

UPDATE: Over on the Peek messageboards, one user claims that the old Peek will receive the same software soon. Consider that unconfirmed, but it seems likely enough.

UPDATE 2: Future Peek Classics will no longer have SMS.

A BoingBoing Gadgets tipster adds that it's "going to undercut even the cheapest BlackBerry, and deliver cheap push e-mail." Cheaper than a BlackBerry, with menus that load twice as fast as before to stamp out the pokiness of the original, Pronto could be a winner, even if it doesn't have 3G. [Geeky Peek via Gadget Lab]

Actually, the Peek currently does do more than one thing—it sends SMS messages as well as email—but this is the first non-messaging application seen for the strange little device. Adding capabilities like this would be a boon to Peekers for sure, but would also blur its identity a little bit. The Peek is meant to be extremely simple, and adding a suite of mobile data apps would essentially make it a sort of bizarre smartphone-sans-the-phone, albeit one that significantly undercuts its competitors prices for the services it offers. UPDATE: Some commenters see a weather map here, which is even more bewildering. Perhaps a web browser? Or just a misinterpreted email picture attachment, as the Peek has supported for some time now? [Slashgear]

Cellphones
• Apple iPhone 3G 8GB Phone (Refurbished) for $149 with 2-year AT&T agreement (normally $200 with 2-year AT&T agreement).
• Apple iPhone 3G 16GB Phone (Refurbished) for $249 with 2-year AT&T agreement (normally $300 with 2-year AT&T agreement).

Navigation
• Garmin GPS 18 Deluxe for $29.99 (normally $70 - valid today only).
• Garmin nuvi 250 3.5" GPS System (Refurbished, Pink) for $89.99 plus free shipping (normally $130).

Portable Devices (Digital Cameras, Audio Players, and Etc.)
• Casio EX-Z85 9MP Digital Camera for $109.99 (normally $150 - valid today only).
• Philips PET708/37 Portable DVD Player with Dual LCD Screens for $79.99 (normally $130 - valid today only).
• Peek Mobile E-mail Device [2-Pack] for $79.99 plus free shipping (normally $160).
• iPod Silver 4G Nano 8GB for $125 (normally $150. Other colors are available).

Snookumsmodo
• Hand-Dipped Strawberries (1/2 Dozen) for $24.99 (normally $37.99).
• Sterling Silver Double Heart Swril Emerald Pendanthah for $49 plus free shipping (normally $155).

Hobomodo
• Desktop3D for $0 (normally $14.95 - valid today only).
• HeartSAFE Aspirin Pill Tote for $0 (valid until 3/31).
• Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny's for $0 (valid only on 2/3. Must stop in between 6 am and 2 pm).

For the next 44 hours, those at 1600 houses (White or otherwise) can get said free Peek, and everyone can get the email-only handheld for $44.44. Are they doing this to rub Barack's nose in his loss of the superior email device? The cleverness is just too much.

Anyhoo, if their lifetime service deal didn't get you, maybe this will. [Peek]

But! How good of a deal is it? Pretty good, as it turns out. Even assuming you're pretty hard on your gadgets, you should get your money's worth on this one. The traditional plan, with handset purchase, will cost you $300 after just ten months, so if you plan on keeping your Peek for any longer than that you may as well dive in.

Unless, of course, this is the beginning of a death spiral. This deal is just the latest in a line of heavy discounts and significant feature-adds from the company, whose niche device might not be gaining as much traction as it needs to survive. A lifetime subscription to Peek isn't much use if the company flatlines. [Peek]