Crap-Gadget Part Two: Peek9, the accessories and other Peek news

Yes, folks, that's right: Peek has a store full of Peek accessories.  Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are, but if you go here, you will see them.  Just as with any cell phone, the likable device has holsters, cables, car chargers, screen protectors and slip-proof pads (aka sticky pads.) 

A couple of weeks ago, Peek suffered from a network outage. Apparently, the outage only affected older devices since, according to Peek, newer devices (the Peek 9) use a different carrier.  To make up for the lost time, Peek was offering to replace the older devices (original, Pronto and, presumably, the Twitter Peek) with a new Peek 9 for a buck. Yes, one dollar.  You paid the buck and $6.95 for shipping and you got a new, shiny Peek 9. 

While this is a nice gesture and one that other companies surely would not follow, I suspect the seeming incompatible Peek 9 upgrade has had just as much to do with the generous offer, though I do not know that for a fact.

It is difficult for a Peek user to explain to their smartphone carrying friends just what the Peek does and why you'd want one.  Well, one reason is the customer support.  I am highly critical of the device but I cannot deny how far they go to make their users happy.  

Good for them.

Crap-Gadget Part Two: Peek9

So, Peek upgraded the software to 'Peek9'.  Peek 9 is supposed to be nine times faster, better, etc.  It is supposed to support Facebook and Twitter. It is supposed to have better battery life.  It is supposed to include Google Maps and weather.  There are a lot of things it is supposed to do.  So far, from what I can see, about all it does is email-which, by the way, is all it was originally supposed to do.  

For the last week or two, however, Peek have been teasing all of these new features, plus faster mail delivery.  I was able to play with a beta version of the software a few weeks ago and, unfortunately, didn't see much then and I don't see much now with the shipping version of the software. 

About the only new thing I see, aside from some menu changes, is that when you get an email with a link-provided the link 'looks' correct-you will get a textual representation of the web page that was the target of the link.  NO IMAGES or formatting because, you know, that would be useful.

Sadly, it appears more bait and switch than anything else.  While I am sure that the intentions of Peek are on the up and up, the actual execution is not.  

Twitter integration simply is not there which is funny since this is, essentially, the same product as the TwitterPeek.  And, I might add, people who have bothered to post on the company forums say that they've not had Twitter service ON THE TWITTERPEEK since Twitter switched to OAuth.  That's pretty bad.

Facebook integration, however, does work to a point.  You can see some of your Facebook stream, but you cannot post and for me, however, I  seem to be missing parts of the stream.  Weird.

Peek also talks, but without details, about 'PeekTop' apps. Apps that, from what is inferred, run on the Peek that you design.  However, while they mention this feature, they conveniently leave out ANY information on this.  Being able to put custom apps on the device would make it infinitely more useful.

Now, to be fair, the software upgrade is free.  Peek wants everyone on the same version and have made this easy to do...provided you have an interface cable OR you send the device to Peek for upgrading.  The cable has a USB connector, but is not USB.  I had the cable already, so I performed the upgrade. To do so, though, involved enough sleuthing that it would have made Sherlock Holmes give up in frustration.

The advertised features LOOK great on paper (or screen, rather) but the actuality falls way short.  That is not to say it isn't a good email device. It is a very nice and inexpensive email device. However, since most people already have a cell phone, even that use is under fire.

Maybe Peek will eventually get this stuff to work or take it off of the device menu or, well, stop saying it does something that, clearly, it does not do.  Or just stop it.