by Scott on March 28, 2009
Over the past month or so I’ve had the opportunity to try out the Peek email device. This device is billed as the first email only gadget and retails for only $49.95. The best part is that there is no contract to sign. Service is a flat $19.95 a month and you can stop it whenever you’d like.
I have to tell you that I have been thoroughly impressed with this simple, elegant, and useful device.
As you can see from the images below the Peek is slightly shorter than the iPhone and thinner as well.
Setting up the device couldn’t be easier. I simply entered my Gmail account name and password and that was all that I needed to do start receiving emails.
The number of things you can accomplish with the Peek is pretty impressive. Here are some examples:
- Send text messages, just type the 10-digit number in instead of the email address.
- Download all of your contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or AOL.
- Check the weather by sending an email to weather@getpeek.net with your zip code in the subject line.
- Use Ping.fm to update basically any social network. This would work from any email account, but having this power at your finger tips at all times is great. In case you didn’t know, Ping.fm will assign you a custom email address that you can email with special prefixes to post to various social networks. For example, you can update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, create a post on your Wordpress blog and many others. For a complete list please visit Ping.fm.
The discussion board for the Peek is awesome and full of energetic users. Here is a link to a constantly updated list of services that can be used from the Peek: http://boards.getpeek.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=465&page=1#Item_0
I believe if you already have a device like the iPhone or a Blackberry, this isn’t for you. The purpose of this device is to strip away the costs and complexity of these other devices. The Peek does the one thing it was meant to do and it does it well, email.
One last thing, the latest Peek device has been introduced and will be available soon, the Peek Pronto. This device will allow you to have unlimited text messages (same as the original), push email support (with Microsoft Exchange), up to 5 email accounts, and the ability to view PDFs and .doc (Microsoft Word) files. This device is currently listed on pre-order at Amazon for $79.95.
by Scott on March 24, 2009
What is the Movie Wedge? It’s a simple bean bag with an area to hold onto your iPhone. The Movie Wedge is one of those “I didn’t realize I needed that” products that you really come to appreciate and miss when it’s not around.
This product is made to hold onto your device, whether it’s an iPhone, PSP, Zune, or iPod and give your hands a break. If you’ve ever watched a movie or even an episode of a TV show with an iPhone then you know how annoying it is to hold onto the device while you’re watching it. I usually end up trying to prop it up on something without a whole lot of success.
I used it on a recent trip (although the image above is from the Movie Wedge website) and was happy to be able to place my iPhone and Movie Wedge on the tray in front of me and eat my snack at the same time.
You can even wipe off the iPhone screen with the Movie Wedge since it’s made with a soft microsuede covering. This simple item costs only $9.95 and is well worth the price.
by Scott on March 16, 2009
TweetDeck, the most popular Twitter application, has added Facebook integration. This update allows you to use one simple application to interface with both your Twitter followers and Facebook friends.
After installing the application you can easily add your Facebook profile by clicking the icon shown above. After you enter your Facebook credentials the status of your Facebook friends will be added as a new column (third on the right below).
You can now post directly to Facebook or Twitter right from within TweetDeck. From the TweetDeck blog:
The other element is the ability to direct your tweet/update to post to twitter or facebook or both directly within the tweet window.
…following pretty much unanimous yes vote on whether to auto block message which start with @username from posting to Facebook, v0.24.1 has this functionality and is now available
In order to post to Facebook you must check the Facebook checkbox shown above and then confirm the “Allow Status Updates from TweetDeck” shown below.
Success!
This new version is considered a pre-release but can be found at the following TweetDeck blog post:
TweetDeck V0.24.1 Pre-Release: Facebook Integration
by Scott on March 14, 2009
Recently I was given the opportunity to review WordPress Plugin Development by Vladimir Prelovac. I just received the book this past week, but the publisher and author were kind enough to allow me to post an excerpt from the book that details how to create your first WordPress plugin. You can expect a full review from me within a couple weeks.
Chapter 2, Social Bookmarking with WordPress Plugin
In this article by Vladimir Prelovac, we will learn to create our first functional WordPress plugin and learn how to interact with the WordPress API (this is the WordPress interface to PHP) on the way. The knowledge you will gain in this article alone will allow you to write a lot of similar plugins. This article is extracted from the “WordPress Plugin Development” book.
Let’s get moving! In this article, you will learn:
- Creating a new plugin and having it displayed in the plugins admin panel
- Checking the WordPress version and control activation of the plugin
- Accessing API features—for example the title and permalink URL of each post
- Using WordPress hooks to execute your plugin code when it’s needed
- Using conditional tags to control the flow of your plugins
You will learn these by creating a Social Bookmarking type of plugin that adds a Digg button to each post on your blog
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by Scott on March 11, 2009
The latest version of Smart To-Do List has been posted to the server. If you’ve previously purchased Smart To-Do List you will be getting an email detailing where to download the latest version. This version adds the following functionality:
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