Last week, I bid farewell to one of my favorite tech toys, my Peek9. The Peek began as a $50 gadget solely dedicated to email with awesome battery life. The original model was called the Peek Classic. It was shaped similarly to a Blackberry and came with its own dedicated Internet connection that ran off of T-Mobile’s data network.
In the beginning, a monthly service fee for a Peek ran about $20 a month for unlimited email. Soon, the company added various other service plans, including a lifetime service for about $300.
My favorite plan came when they offered their $80 Peek Pronto devices. I got in on a special where I could get unlimited email and texting for only $9.99 a month. It was great because there was no contract and, if needed, I could stop or start service at any time and keep the same plan.
The Peek Pronto devices were faster than the original Peek. The Prontos supported up to five different email accounts. The Pronto also offered search, push email, compatibility with Microsoft Exchange and, in addition to photo attachments, it also supported PDF and DOC attachments.
Peek also launched a custom hardware device for Twitter called the TwitterPeek. The device wasn’t very well received by consumers and ended up having an extremely short lifespan.
In 2010, the backend to Peek services changed and it ended the lives of its Peek Classic and Peek Pronto devices. It launched its best product, the Peek9, with a great offer for its current customers. Basically, it gave the hardware to users for $1.
Peek service had its ups and downs, but the Peek9, when working properly, was simply awesome. The Peek 9 basically was a supercharged Peek Pronto with better speed and stronger cell reception.
The Peek 9 enabled users to email, send text messages and SMS to cell phones. It also could interact with Facebook and Twitter social networks.
Peek 9 could connect to Microsoft Outlook and Exchange to deliver company mail and sync calendar appointments. It could receive RSS feeds, display your local weather and display PeekMaps. Users also could view attachments such as photos, Word documents, PDFs and spreadsheets, and take notes. All of this was included in the low monthly fee for unlimited service.
In the last year of the Peek9’s life, things dwindled down to the mere basics. There was no more Facebook or Twitter interaction, weather maps would no longer load, and there was no more cleanly displayed SMS texting to cellphones.
The worst part of the final ending to Peek9 was actually the method of delivery. January 29 was the last time users received mail. Then, out of the blue, on Feb. 1, the Peek9 users received an email informing them the last of the Peek devices have been removed from its service.
As a dedicated Peek9 user myself, I am quite disappointed in how the death of the Peek9 was handled. It would have been greatly appreciated if a bit of warning had been given instead of the abrupt cutoff. Peek sent several emails about the new things they were working on. See www.peek.ly/index.html. No mention was given that Peek9 users would be terminated at the end of January.
Read an article posted on The Verge, where it spoke with Peek’s CEO Amol Sarva at http://vrge.co/xYOvII.
I am grateful for the cheap texting and convenience my Peek devices gave me as a subscriber. I stuck with the Peek through thick and thin, and it saved me a bundle of money.
Goodbye Peek9; I’ll miss you!
E-mail me at sheila@amnews.com; fax me at (859) 236-9566; or write me snail mail at The Advocate-Messenger, P.O. Box 149, Danville, KY 40423-0149.
