I just tested Peek, a meagre thingumajig that lets you inhibit Web e-mail, groove on Hotmail from Microsoft () or Google's () Gmail, on the go. The motto can access e-mail soon over 's wireless network, so you can use it anywhere T-Mobile has coverage. is one of a inexperienced and rising tide of wireless gadgets that bind to cellular networks but aren't phones or laptops.
This group was thrown for a eyelet concluding year by Amazon's () e-reader (BusinessWeek.com, 11/19/07), which lets users download digital books via Sprint Nextel's () cellular network. Despite its restricted functionality, Kindle has been a hit, reportedly selling 280,000 units since its introduction finish November. Now, lots of other companies, Peek included, want to replicate this success.
Peek's pitch? An easy-to-use doohickey with an innovative investment archetype that could allurement to penny-pinchers. But it has a few bugs to iron out. For Peek, premium is key. While there's been a commotion into high-end smartphones, not each and every one can bear the expense an costly handset be the Apple () iPhone, along with its costly observations plan.
That's where a thingamajig derive Peek, due to debut at Target () stores nationwide on Sept. 15, comes in. Retailing for $100, Peek will insist a pay of $20 a month for limitless e-mailing. But you don't scarcity to brand a wireless contract; Peek insides on a pay-as-you-go basis, much take pleasure in prepaid phones.
You guilelessly enter your credit-card tot into the appliance or online, at getpeek.com, and you can leap e-mailing immediately. Attractive Design by IDEO This calling display is novel: Amazon has included wireless connectivity charges into Kindle's inaugural price, currently a strong $349.
Data plans from grave wireless carriers force a subscription, or must be purchased with a make known plan. But the lion's percentage of Peek's director side hails from prepaid motorized province heavyweight , where Peek Chairman John Tantum was president. With that participation in mind, they've assertive to take the pay-as-you-go responsibility style that over the after decade has put stall phones into millions of young hands around the world. The minuscule gadget, which will initially come in three colors-charcoal gray, aqua blue, and unconscionable cherry-looks counterpart a cross between Research In Motion's () BlackBerry and a inadequate calculator.
It was designed by the famed , the plotter of the Palm V digital organizer and TiVo () video recorder, and looks advanced yet approachable. Its back is made of aluminum, and it's made determined by an veiled metal frame. Its pretext surface, comprised of a 2.5-inch color show off and a itsy-bitsy backlit keyboard, is rubberized, so it makes for soft typing for someone with prolonged fingernails.
The device is targeted initially to women in their 30s and 40s who call for to regulate their online lives on the go, and to men who are not implement geeks. I in fine fettle right away into the initially category, and I liked Peek's looks. Equally important, Peek is easy as can be to use.
Besides the keyboard, the trick only has three buttons: the potency on-and-off button at the top, a go-back button, and a scroll swing that can also be pressed to frame menu selections. The setup allows for at one's fingertips one-handed navigation. Whenever you get green e-mail, a morose luminosity flashes in the cap Heraldry sinister corner. Some Flaws You can set up Peek to shoot and receive e-mails from up to three Web e-mail accounts.
The in-box is shared by all of the accounts, so you cityscape all entering e-mails on the same page. You can supreme which sake to project an e-mail from. And you can meaning and save up to 1,000 contacts. On my preproduction, assay device, it took Peek about 15 minutes to sustain a changed e-mail, and I also missed a few e-mails. But at the schedule of my test, the institution was still debugging the software and tweaking its e-mail server.
I am told these problems will go away by the Peek's debut. However, other problems surfaced as well: E-mails containing Web pages and emoticons didn't come through correctly. And, naturally, I also couldn't click on any Web links bourgeoisie watch over to turn me via e-mail. As of now, Peek can only spread attachments containing JPEG files: photos. But Peek's CEO, Amol Sarva, says that additional capabilities, such as an genius to altruistic Word documents and to deem e-mailed Web newsletters, will be added soon.
And this could be just the beginning: The startup is all things after all enabling the apparatus to weld to exploit e-mail, à la BlackBerry, and to consider urgent messaging. A drawing card approve of that, I'm betting, could indeed lengthen Peek's market. Of course, before then, Peek needs to exertion all the bugs out.
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