By Andrew Liszewski
It first surfaced last week, but today Peek officially announced the availability of the TwitterPeek, a version of their handheld device designed exclusively for accessing and publishing content on Twitter. Now Twitter power users might find the device a bit limiting since the lack of a web browser prevents you from following links, and the lack of a camera prevents you from uploading your own photos, but you can pretty much do everything else including viewing twitpic images, following other Twitterers and posting replies or direct messages.
At the moment the TwitterPeek is available in a $99.99 version that includes 6 months of service followed by a $7.95 per month fee, or the previously rumored $199.99 version that includes a lifetime of service.
[ TwitterPeek ]
I guess it's the premise of making money while you can but as I said before, Twitter is going to pass and I predict these things stacked up in a warehouse somewhere. Or maybe my garage….if I had a garage.
No Camera, for shame.
I know after Andrew pointed out all the short comings I'm a bit sad by the product. I didn't think about the fact that there will be links and you can't follow them… then there is the camera/upload issue. For $99 and a monthly fee, I'd take an iPhone.
That thing is too expensive to not have any other uses aside from Twitter.
I that is a smart choice.
I wish Twitter would go away.
No web browser means you wouldn't be able to share links very well either. Camera's can be put into almost anything now, why would they cripple this device?
Unless they're planning on coming out with Peek 2 in 6 months for half the price.
Twitter has one significant inherent value: it readily allows your most annoying acquaintances to identify themselves remotely so that you can appropriately terminate further relations.
This device though? Seriously? I can twitter from my computer with access to multiple searches, and all sorts of helpful add-ons for compressing links, cross-posting on Facebook or whatever. If I'm on the go I can tweet (a supremely silly term that really accurately reflects the importance of most twitter communication) from my phone, or my Kindle. If I become superglued to my couch I can tweet from my Wii's internet interface, and soon from my Xbox 360.
Why in the world would I want to pay a hundred bucks plus subscription fees (subscription? just for twitter access?) for something that the way things are going I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do from my kitchen refrigerator and car odometer within the next few months?
This reminds me of the lovely “email printer” device they had a while back that automatically printed out emails for the computer illiterate. What? You never heard of it? But it was such a great idea, I can't imagine why it never caught on…
This reminds me of the lovely “email printer” device they had a while back that automatically printed out emails for the computer illiterate. What? You never heard of it? But it was such a great idea, I can't imagine why it never caught on…