I just got my hands on the the Twitter Peek (AKA the Tweek) and I’m trying to figure out who, specifically, this is for. First, let’s consider this my review: this device is not very good if you’re a Twitter “power user” like myself or anyone else with maybe 100+ followers and a few hundred folks you follow. To be clear, this isn’t quite Peek’s fault as they’re clearly not interested in pleasing users like me. They’re looking for folks from a different aviary, presumably new Twitter users who haven’t quite gotten hooked, but are interested in the service enough to stick with it — and have $199 burning a hole in their pockets as well. If you know any of those people, please send them to Amazon to pick this up.
For the rest of us, this thing is pretty rough. I follow 2104 people and so this thing was buzzing and Tweeting all afternoon until I finally turned it off. Weird batches of tweets would come in, all from one person, for example, or weird messages like “Oh Hey, you’re Tweeting so much! We’re going to try to catch up” or something to that effect. It’s also really slow. You have to click twice to read a Tweet – once to bring up the menu and once to read the Tweet – and scrolling is really bad. And it makes a buzzing and a tweeting noise when tweets come in – which is all the time. And it’s $99 with 6 months free or $199 for life. And it only does Twitter. No email. No texting. I’m really selling this thing, aren’t I?
What Peek has done, however, is create one of the first standalone Twitter devices. This is kind of a big deal and I’m going to talk about this more later this week. I suspect the rise of Twitter as a service and as a cultural entity. As I just retweeted, Manischewitz is now on Twitter. Yeah, the guys who make a nice matzo ball soup.
While I’m sure this will be relegated to the dustbin of history, we can say we were alive at a moment when a service gained so much traction that it was made flesh. Interestingly, Peek clearly knows what they’re doing here and they’re small enough to make a few mistakes on the way – again, more on that later – but, and this is momentous as the moon landing, spotting the first Tweek in the wild will mean Twitter is finally mainstream.
My collegue nicknamed this the “Tweeper” today http://bit.ly/4bsWJW since it feels like an outdated beeper.
I don’t get it. It’s like offering a dedicated GPS device (but worse) in the face of what Google Maps Navigation is about to do via Android (http://bit.ly/3ddOg5).
Except a dedicated GPS device is useful.
Its like offering a dedicated GPS device, that uses Google Maps wrapped up in a pretty, custom interface.
My thoughts exactly, this is perfect for people who like to carry extra devices for no apparent reason, like GPS devices.
Why would anyone buy this if they have an iPhone (or any other smartphone for that matter) already?
Useless.
Well not everyone on the planet owns a smartphone yet.
I can understand your comment though that if you have $400 to spend (device + service) you can probably afford a nice Android phone.
Even a dumb phone is better. A dumb phone with a unlimited texting plan, makes it easy to get the tweets of the people you care about by just turning on mobile notifications for that person.
Those of us who use the Peek for email, rss feeds, weather and travel alerts, as a text messager, as a Google Voice transcript receiver, and as a mini e-reader know that the rest of the world has just too much money to burn on smartphones.
I detect sarcasm here.
+1.
Better get the 6-month plan because if you actually use twitter and don’t have a smartphone? That will change in less than a year.
Sadly, this is a company is desperate help.Their other devices showed little sales and they taken a shit load of vc money. Add Peek to the deadpool
you’d be surprised.
Really, VP Marketing was replaced or quit.
I had a Peek for exactly three weeks (the email kind) before canceling it and literally prying it open to salvage parts. Cute idea, cute design, but ultimately, clunky and useless.
P.S. I dig that last tweet.
“Interestingly, Peek clearly knows what they’re doing here”
Why exactly is that? I too blogged that the market for this thing is nonexistent. So why is building and marketing a physical device with virtually no market to sell into a good idea?
This is for tweens & teens who are Twitter addicts whose parents don’t want to let loose with an unlimited txt plan for fear of sxting, vxting or whatever other xting behavior goes on amongs them.
except that tweens & teens don’t use Twitter…
Twitter addicted teenager here.
Please don’t generalize, some teens do use Twitter.
Take an hour and search twitter for your fabled non-existant tweens and teens.
They are there, but you apparently don’t hang out in those circles (anymore?)
sensitive much?
Why is that vampire movie a trending topic if tweens aren’t on Twitter?
It only a miner problem for the Twiter to use the phone for coffee I go to Starbucks and the lady she tell me hey Momar if you thing about it it only make sense for Americans to use facebook with twitter so I have a sit and thing about it and I thing it not a miner problem because here in America your guys don’t use Twitter the same way we use twitter in my home country I speak my broken english but my new American girlfriend Michelle Zurawski she done like it when I text her 3 times every hour she say better if I twit her instead.
So, this Michelle – is she hot?
No she cool she very cool.
Does this thing even have a browser? It’s hard to see how it could be a good Twitter client otherwise, since so much of what gets passed around on Twitter involves hyperlinks.
you can view web pages and twitpics
Lots of “more on that later” but where’s the actual content to follow those up? Seems like there’s probably a paragraph or two missing from this.
I had the Peek device for e-mail for two months. Given my experience with that? Wouldn’t touch this. :(
Lol just noticed the tweet you typed on the screen.
I like this… Sure there is a ton of redundancy when you have two smartphones and a Mac Book…
However, there is room in the market for cheap ‘connected’ devices that offer a one time only payment and no ongoing monthly rates / bills etc.
This thing looks toy-ish. What Mobile OS does it have, anybody?
Probably doesn’t have a Mobile OS. Their software for Peek was their own. (And not very friendly.)
OK, thanks. I’ll definitely stay away from this thing.
I don’t think this will stick, the target market is just not clear at this point.
I can understand the potential market. If I had the money and had never used a Peek product before, I might be interested. I could see it for a few people but the hardware and software powering it are just not there.
I could see buying this for my grandmother or something.
‘cept thing is that the text is maybe 6pt courier. Don’t know about the TwitterPeek, but Peek Pronto’s solution to this problem was to, no joke, bold the text. How 1987.
I can’t picture the waiting time for tweets if it is at all like e-mail. :/
Not enough functionality in this day and age. Plain and simple.
Thanx for the valuable information.
This thing looks toy-ish. What Mobile OS does it have? keep posting. Will be visiting back soon.
“… this device is not very good if you’re a Twitter “power user” like myself … this isn’t quite Peek’s fault as they’re clearly not interested in pleasing users like me.”
So you’re saying they made a dedicated twitter device and it’s not suitable for people who use twitter a lot? That just doesn’t make any sense.
Yay! I can now carry my blackberry, ipod touch, kindle, netbook, and a dedicated twitter device everywhere! I am almost complete. I just need a dedicated facebook device and I will be set!
do I sense sarcasm? best comment yet.
Don’t forget your PDA for keeping track of all those other devices.
If this were a Google Wave Peek I’d be all over it.
This is a stupid product and the blog post wasn’t that great either…
Twhy twould I need one of tweeze?