New Yorkers are still on edge from the swine flu outbreak but never fear. We’ll march on and keep communicating, ignoring all crosswalk signals that may get in our way. If you happen to own the Peek email device, stop by Gallway Hooker in NYC today and the Peek crew will upgrade your device to the Peek Pronto free of charge. Not a bad deal if you’re someone who emails a lot. A terrible deal if you own a Blackberry.
We’re no strangers to Peek here at Gearfuse. The original device has gained somewhat of a cult following and has generated enough revenue and buzz for a new device. Today we have that device and it’s called the Peek Pronto. What’s so special about the Pronto? Exchange support and Push email. This is a huge move from Peek that’ll allow it to dive into the business sector and compete against devices like the Blackberry.
Peek has also included a development environment with the Pronto, though I don’t see how far you can an email-only device. Look for the Pronto in stores soon for $80. For all the details, hit the jump.
News agencies from around the world are reporting that Google’s ultra-popular Gmail service has been down since this morning. You can still send and receive mail using a third-party program, like Mail.app or Outlook, but apparently, for most international users, the web service isn’t working. I tried logging on at 9:30am here in New York and had no problems. But it seems that the major outages have occurred in the UK and Australia mostly.
Keep updated with Google’s official Gmail blog and support team. We’ll see how Google handles this fiasco. Maybe some extra storage for free?
Google continues to inspire and amaze. The Mountain View, California-based company unveiled yesterday the ability to read and compose Gmail while offline. It’s available through the Google Labs feature within Gmail and when activated, starts downloading 10,000 emails to the user’s hard drive using Google Gears technology. Once finished, you’ll be able to search for emails and read them, as well as compose emails to people in your address book. And yes, your contacts will auto-complete even when offline.
Of course, some things will not be available when offline, such as the ability to manage your contacts. All you need is a ‘net connection and you’ll be able to sync your email, keeping you in touch with that woman you’re having an affair with. Ah, Google. Paving the way to Heaven through technology.
If you haven’t heard of Peek, it’s a small, thin device with a QWERTY keypad that only does email. Yup. It just emails and uses the T-Mobile network to send and retrieve messages. You pay $20 a month and you get unlimited email service. Not the best deal. However, today only, Peek is offering a $300 one-time deal where you get the device and unlimited service all in one package. Not bad if you’re seriously considering Peek, but still, with such limited functionality, it’s hard to understand if there’s really a market for it.
Again, the $300 unlimited package is today only. Get on it.
Every year, around the end of November up until CES in January, PR flacks email me and other writers constantly, begging for them to stop by their booth at CES so they can show off some shitty product. There are exceptions of course and there are a few good PR people left thank goodness, but let me show you what I mean. The above image? That’s a screencap of what I woke up to this morning. Six emails in a row from one Les Goldberg from D-Link. Yes, the same D-Link that makes your shitty dorm room router.
This isn’t PR. This is a spam. You spammed me, douchebag, and now we’re going to spam you. Everyone, spammers included, may I present you with Les’ email address: les.goldberg@dlink.com. Got it? One more time: les.goldberg@dlink.com.
Email Les and tell him we don’t appreciate his spam nor his shitty company’s spam. The last time D-Link made a usable product? Never.
These adorable little devices called Poken are used to exchange social networking info among new found friends who have their own Poken. No one cares to jot down email addresses, user IDs and screen names when they’re in a rush. So, the Poken have been created as a quick way to exchange such information in a matter of seconds. All it takes is a ‘high five’ from your Poken to your new found friend’s Poken. RF technology then sends the info between the devices. The next time you log on to your favorite site, your profiles are linked.
Poken are just $20 dollars and are capable of storing up to 64 contacts before each upload. Each time you add a new contact, your Poken’s hand will light up green. When you approach your limit for contacts, an orange warning light will show from the Poken’s hand, warning you that you’re being too much of a social slut. When all is said and done, you can use your online Poken account to choose which of your profiles you want to share. A precaution in case you want to prevent a shady new friend from accessing personal information. Goodbye business cards, hello Poken!
We love the Arduino, it’s true. Here’s a neat little project that combines Python and the Arduino to create a Gmail notifier. When you receive a new email, an LED will light up to alert you. It’s more of a software project than a hardware project but it’s still a great way to dive into the Arduino. I still have an unused LCD display I bought to interface with my Arduino. I bet with a little hacking, this project could be used to feed info the the LCD. One weekend I’ll have to give it a try.
As the Beijing games kick into high gear, Internet watchdogs are warning against a rise in Olympic spam. SANS Storm Center, an organization dedicated to monitoring and analyzing spam attacks and computer virus threats, says computer users can expect to receive spam emails with Olympics-themed subject lines and text encouraging readers to click external links where they can be asked to give out their personal information or hit with malware.
There’s already been one high profile incident of Olympic spam involving news update emails purporting to be from CNN that actually led to fake codec updates packed with a nasty Trojan. Personally, I don’t fall for any spam schemes that don’t promise nude pictures of Hollywood starlets, but all you sports fans out there should be on guard when perusing your inbox this week.
