Peek's email device tops voting for Time's gadget of the year, not that it matters
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Nov 3rd 2008 5:27AM
posted Nov 3rd 2008 5:27AM
[Thanks, Horatio]
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I blame the hanging chads...
Chad*
I blame Chad Everett.
http://www.thetelethonyears.com/chad.jpg
Surfside 6? -FEH!!!
Dude...why the hate?
That's ridiculous... a gadget that does nothing but check e-mails...?
What's next? An electronic deely that does nothing but read eBooks/text files?...
..oh, wait...
HEY CHAD, YOU'RE STILL A DINGDONG!!!
Peek what? Plz, Ogo 2.0. Just sayin...
Sorry, 3.0 ;^/...
http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/16/ogo-is-back-swiss-style/
Looks like someone just made a list of random devices and gave them numbers...
There are plenty more that deserve to be there and aren't.
And some are on there that shouldn't be.
I think the concept of email is still new and exciting to time readers probably :)
I base my thinking on that they still read magazines.
more like someone made a *non-random* list of products that paid them to be on it
Thomas, the hyperlink for the iPhone 3G also leads to the netbook page. Might wanna correct it. :)
And yeah, sheesh. I mean, it was fine when they made the Person Of The Year as YOU, but this is ridiculous.
"Looks like someone just made a list of random devices and gave them numbers."
^^ My sentiment exactly.
I will vote for the Sony Ericsson C905 cameraphone!
It takes off the clothes of every woman it takes a picture of.
If that's not revolutionary I don't know what.
Take that apple!
It's the usual arbritary list of nonsense, but I've got to ask why anyone thinks the G1 should be there at all, let alone in 6th place. It hasn't exactly changed the world just yet, has it?
WTF is a peek email device?
I had to look that up. Apparently you pay $99 for it and $20 a month to be able to get email anywhere.
it is to peek emails..isn't? hee
Wiki and Google are our best friends...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peek_(mobile_email_device)
I said the same thing - wtf?
I'm not an Apple fanboy, but can someone explain how the iPod Touch is on the list, but not the iPhone???
And there's a Macbook... not the Macbook Air or Macbook Pro, but the Macbook...
Time's readership is once again showing their stupidity. These are probably the same people that voted Rain as the most influential person of 2007....
iphone could be the second coming of jesus but @ that price, its still not worth considering.
Rain is awesome. Never doubt that.
most likely stirred up voters from the Facebook VoteForPeek group... or the Flickr VoteForPeek entry ... this is probably the first anyone with a decent gadget (too busy having fun using them) has heard about there being a Time Best Gadget ...
same size as any other handheld but only does email? so must be 80% air?
The dimensions (4.0 x 2.7 x 0.4 in (102 x 68 x 10mm)) appears to be way smaller and thinner than my BlackBerry Bold, beat up Curve. For all the Apple fans, it's even thinner than my old iPhone too.
surely some kind of netbook should be on this list like an eeepc or similar.
And don't call me Shirley.
om my, the title seems to be wrong..
I didn't think about it until now but I would actually like to have a device only for e-mail .... with multiple e-mail accounts, a simple interface with tabs for each account, pop and IMAP capable, HTML rendering. Form factor like Blackberry Bold, without phone, camera, music player, video recording, etc ...
wait a minute, wasn't that the blackberry in the beginning? Only e-mail? .... hmmm
Seriously stick to what you know. There's a lot of junk on that list and the peek as no 1- wtf?! 'TIME' to hire a new tech editor or stick to the pointless political and socio-economic blabber you're best at. Or maybe keep thinking about that Person of the Year Cover...
dude there not even good at that. im pretty sure they had a year which the 'man of the year' was a toss up between Bush and Bin Laden...
thankfully Bin Laden one.
(the lesser of the 2 evils) ... sorry.
Although I do not agree to this list, I still stand by Time's decision to make me last year's person of the year.
Who cares, who reads Time anymore?
I do.
This looks like a list that polled the average mom with teenage children
Looks like a media bias snuck into the list, perhaps a 'you have to have used it' rule? Or maybe someone bought their way on. That would never happen would it? I love the small of Payola in the morning. It smells like... money!
Meanwhile, if Time could just apply an IP filter, those Peek votes would thin down nicely (nice try, marketing department)
I'm pretty sure Time had set up IP filters and logarithms beforehand to prevent duplicate votes from the same IP... etc. After all, it's not the first time they've setup an online poll.
Either way, Peek's a pretty well designed device. It's slim, easy to use and at only 80 bucks, it's pretty affordable. It's not for experienced tech users or a corporation workhorse, but I think it's pretty good for the general public.
No, in case if you're wondering, I do not have a Peek myself.
The G1 and Canon moved up a slot each.
Those that live in glass houses, etc.
The Engadget awards were a farce too. Remember how a non-smartphone won smartphone of the year? Remember how a piece of software was declared to be a gadget?
"but seriously, not a single industry re-defining netbook, multi-million selling iPhone 3G,"
Agreed on the netbook front but do you really think the iPhone 3G deserves to be on that list? The original iPhone was obviously a big leap forward for the industry and Apple. However, the iPhone 3G is an evolutionary device with only a few upgrades on the original design. And if biggest sales equals best gadget then surely the Nokia 1100 deserves to win?
The 3G is Apple's real breakthrough device though - the added Exchange support and connectivity have sold many times more handsets, and the Appstore has revolutionised mobile software development and marketing (witness the Android Marketplace and a similar project that Microsoft are working on for WM). The first iPhone was massively overhyped for what it was, but it's the second that's really justified all the attention.
"The 3G is Apple's real breakthrough device though - the added Exchange support"
How is this worth mentioning? Apple added a standard smartphone feature
"...and connectivity have sold many times more handsets,"
They added 3G (feature that should have been on the first one) and sold the phone in more markets.
"the Appstore has revolutionised mobile software development and marketing (witness the Android Marketplace and a similar project that Microsoft are working on for WM)."
The real innovation is that they can profit from every piece of software due to the closed environment. It's great for Apple, carriers and software developers, but a step down for the customer. I certainly prefer the WinMo system. I can transfer cab files to my phone, or download them directly from the website, without paying extra to Apple or the carrier. Were I to use an app store, I would have a great one-stop place to get software, but I would be paying more for it and I don't see that as a revolution more than a poke in the eye.
@ Mike - your comments about the Appstore just confirm you've never used it, and don't fully understand it. The Appstore is a stroke of genius, and one of those rare win-win situations for everybody. Developers benefit from a direct channel into every device, and absolutely no piracy, meaning their prices are far better value than the equivalent stuff on WinMo or Symbian - the end customer pays *less*, not more, because they're not paying for every hooky copy on Rapidshare. There's still plenty of freeware (since Apple charge nothing for hosting, advertising, and distributing this through the store) and for the end user, finding, installing, or updating any of these apps is many times easier than the usual WM process.
As for Exchange being a standard feature on every smartphone, try telling that to Google, who have completely omitted it from the G1 (and no, it's not in the marketplace either). It's only quite recently become standard on most of Nokia's Symbian line too. So unless by standard on every smartphone you mean "standard on every Windows Mobile phone", then you're quite wrong.
The Peek is a slick little device, although with a limited market. They're on sale for $79.99 at Target this week.
That's the same font that they used in Call of Duty one and two. Oh, yeah and the list is cool too. =)
They put the iPod touch on there didn't they? As much as Apple fanboys like to sweat over it, the iPhone isn't really that significant to the wider market. A phone with less than 8 hours' battery life, and with a non-user-replaceable battery? That's not a phone, it's a £30/month kids' toy.
I know you're probably just going for the soundbite there, but just in case you're interested, my iPhone's battery life easily outlasts the WinMo-powered Tytn II it replaced. As a business device (rather than a toy) it's a lot, lot less likely to let you down.
As far as significance to the wider market goes - well, its share of that market is growing exponentially and it's already outselling RIM, I'd say that was fairly significant.
So when it's time for "Invention of the year" will it be the iPhone 3G? Because we all know, El Jobso invented 3G.
No, he invented the Internet, the cellphone AND 3G.
I can imagine whose voting and I guess it makes sense...... How many people here read Time? I stopped after leaving middle school and I only read it because I had to....... Im sure the iphone would have hit the top of the list if it had been the plain middle section of todays citizens.....
Lots of people still read Time and will read the mentioned article. It just won't be for another two years, when this magazine issue finally shows up in doctor's/dentist offices around the country.
Thats a good point too..... I just havent met people that actually read time and rarely see anyone reference the publication before now.... when I was a kid it was a staple in alot of modern media.
nah, somebody is up to something. Some website is beseeching its readers to hijack the list and vote for the most pointless device for whatever reason.
"Dude, did you see my new gadget? It grabs email anywhere even when you're not at home on a computer."
"Sorry I was reading an email on my 4-year old phone, what was that?"
Sooo... Anything with a battery is a gadget these days?
I loved the time only small special electronical novelty devices were called a gadget.
But it seems like even my laptop is a gadget now, just like a macbook.
WOW. What a list guys. I usually dont bother commenting on these things but jesus. A cell phone that can only check your email? And costs 19.99 a month??? I dont even see anything about the SSD on there. Which in my opinion will hae the largest impact in the upcoming years. Poo on this list.
It's not a phone.
Whats interesting is that even though the G1 only came out a short while ago it still managed to make it onto the list: kinda shows just how much of an impact it has on the community doesnt it?
No, on these kinds of list people vote what they heard about recently or bought recently, it's not really related to the whole year, this kind of thing isn't science, it's a gimmick to sell the magazine.
thanks noyp, that was kinda my point
Seems we have evidence that oprah is losing her grip on the people, kindle isn't #1