NewsDude
09-12-2008, 03:20 PM
It's hard to remember now, but the first BlackBerry devices weren't phones. They were two-way e-mail pagers that couldn't be used for calls.
Now a New York-based startup is betting it can fill the niche the BlackBerry abandoned. It has made a sleek, $100 e-mail pager called the Peek that hits Target Corp. stores Monday.
The goal of the Peek is to reach the people who don't already have e-mail on their phones and may be intimidated by today's feature-rich "smart" phones, like BlackBerrys, BlackJacks and iPhones. The Peek does e-mail and nothing more: no phone calls, no Web surfing, no camera. The service fee is $20 a month, with no contract.
Conscious minimalism is rare in gadgets, and usually welcome. But it's hard to see the Peek being a big hit. If you do one thing, you're supposed to do it well, and I have a few too many reservations about the Peek.
But to start with the good, the hardware is tasteful. The tablet, 4 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide, is covered by rubber on the front and metal on the back. It has a full-alphabet keyboard with generous spacing between the keys for easy typing. The keys are backlit. The color screen is sharp and relatively large, with a 2.5-inch diagonal. It's not touch-sensitive, so you control the device with a scroll wheel on the side, just like older BlackBerrys.
It's reasonably easy to set up for the Web-based e-mail services of Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The service fee compares well to the data plans that are required for e-mail service on a cell phone. These are usually around $30 a month, in addition to the voice plan. Peek Inc. founder Amol Sarva assures me that there's nothing tacked on to the monthly fee, unlike cell phone bills,...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61822)
Now a New York-based startup is betting it can fill the niche the BlackBerry abandoned. It has made a sleek, $100 e-mail pager called the Peek that hits Target Corp. stores Monday.
The goal of the Peek is to reach the people who don't already have e-mail on their phones and may be intimidated by today's feature-rich "smart" phones, like BlackBerrys, BlackJacks and iPhones. The Peek does e-mail and nothing more: no phone calls, no Web surfing, no camera. The service fee is $20 a month, with no contract.
Conscious minimalism is rare in gadgets, and usually welcome. But it's hard to see the Peek being a big hit. If you do one thing, you're supposed to do it well, and I have a few too many reservations about the Peek.
But to start with the good, the hardware is tasteful. The tablet, 4 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide, is covered by rubber on the front and metal on the back. It has a full-alphabet keyboard with generous spacing between the keys for easy typing. The keys are backlit. The color screen is sharp and relatively large, with a 2.5-inch diagonal. It's not touch-sensitive, so you control the device with a scroll wheel on the side, just like older BlackBerrys.
It's reasonably easy to set up for the Web-based e-mail services of Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The service fee compares well to the data plans that are required for e-mail service on a cell phone. These are usually around $30 a month, in addition to the voice plan. Peek Inc. founder Amol Sarva assures me that there's nothing tacked on to the monthly fee, unlike cell phone bills,...
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61822)