Push Notifications on the iPhone are dandy and all, but what about on the good old ‘puter?  Enter the Brando USB Mail Box Friends Alert.  When you receive a new email (Gmail, Yahoo, etc), a Facebook update or new Tweet this USB attached device lights up.  Keep in mind if you’re anything like me (I’m really popular and get a ton of SPAM email) this thing might be permanently lit.  I wonder if you can tweak it to represent just Facebook updates?  Now that might be a tad more useful.  You can grab it for $18.

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Whittaker says the teens are creating abbreviations that go beyond the commonly used Internet slang like those seen at the beginning of this post. For example, “Ownageee” means ‘to be strongly attached to someone.’ And here I thought it was for when you destroyed n00bs. Of course, the aim here is to confuse their parents so they can do their sexting, drunk pics, and other naughty activities in private. When will they ever learn?

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Continuing in the long line of clothes with electronics stuck on them comes this cool e-mail experiment. The t-shirt lights up when a new e-mail arrives, also displaying the amount  in your inbox. The device consists of a an Arduino Lilypad micrcontroller, conductive thread, LEDs, and a Bluetooth dongle that communicates with an Android-running smartphone. Geeky resourcefulness factor? High. Chance someone will actually wear this outside? TBD.

Video after the ‘leap’

[via Ubergizmo]

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Line 6 has just unveiled the new MIDI Mobilizer for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Effectively letting you use virtually any MIDI compliant device with your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can record in or send files out with the Mobilizer.  Looks like the iPhone is getting serious when it comes to a mobile recording device.

You can manage all your MIDI files with the Mobilizer and even email them across Mac and PC platforms.  Available this spring, the MIDI Mobilizer should be an interesting product for those looking to implement all things MIDI with their iPhones.  Sam Ash has the MIDI Mobilizer listed for $70.  Any takers?

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Amazon has the Peek Pronto Mobile Messaging Device for $79.99 – $40 instant savings + free shipping = $29.99 shipped! This device, which we reviewed a few month ago, offers unlimited emails and text messaging for one monthly low fee.

Wow, Peek just delivered a serious bitch slap to Microsoft/Danger!  They’re now offering disgruntled Sidekick users a FREE Peek Pronto device, that is assuming of course you can prove such.  Peek just asks that you “email sidekick@getpeek.com with proof that you own a Sidekick (photo of you and your Sidekick, a T-mo bill, or any form of hard evidence you can dream up).”   Make sure you provide them with your physical mailing address so they can send you the device.  This offer ends this Friday, the 16th, and keep in mind that you’ll still need to drop $20/month on service and the Pronto doesn’t make phone calls.

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There’s been a crap load of talk about Google Wave in recent, especially since they just invited 100,000 lucky folks to join the beta.  But if you’re like me, you’ve probably paid little to no attention since the product seems far from going public and is probably just another complicated tool that is designed to simplify our lives.  Well, not quite.  At the core of Google Wave is good old fashioned email (ha!, who would’ve thought email would’ve been ‘old fashioned’?).  But Google Wave is different.  Hit the video below, but in short Google Wave offers a very succinct way of managing email communication between multiple parties and then some.  There’s no public beta so I really can’t tell you more.

[via Giz]

You’ve already read about the Hero HTC phone here back in June, but what you don’t know is we’re not the only ones interested in the phone that uses Google technology was just elected Gadget of the Year by the 2009 Stuff Gadget Awards.

The Hero, which uses the Android operating system and features a five megapixel camera and 3.2 inch screen, can make calls, take pictures, and thanks to Android, check your email.  One of the judges at the annual Gadget festival declared that the HTC Hero is “as clever and as sexy as the iPhone”, which is actually pretty awesome unless you take him literally, then it just sounds like he’s hitting on it.

Further highlights of the Stuff Gadget Awards were the iPhone 3GS snagging Phone of the Year and Readers’ Gadget of the Year, Spotify for Audio Gadget, and the Sony KDL-40WE5 as Eco Gadget of the Year.

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Much like Tivo, Peek has gone the route of lifetime service.  Exclusively available at Amazon, you can now purchase the latest Peek, the Pronto, for $299.95 with lifetime service.  Assuming that the company is around longer than 16 months from your date of purchase, you should be in the clear.

We reviewed the Peek Pronto, and for the most part like what we found.

Note: Since there is a 2 to 5 week ship window, we can only assume that this promo is going off like gang busters.

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Those of you stupid enough to incriminate yourself – either with your significant other, your boss or the government – over email probably deserve to be caught, but just in case you don’t practice ‘better safe than sorry’, continue reading this post.  A small, albeit annoying bug in the iPhone 3.0 software allows deleted emails to be pulled up using the phone’s Spotlight search function.  In other words you can be safe, but you still might be caught.  I personally don’t see this as a glaring security flaw, but that hasn’t stopped Apple fanboys from stating so – I’d guess they live in fear of ‘big brother’ more than me.  Props to Matt Janssen for making the video.

Of note, there are a few caveats to this bug.  For one you have to know the subject line of the email to dig it up.  And two, you have to ‘crash’ the search on your first attempt and then try again to see the email.

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Late last week I received the Peek Pronto, Peeks newest and latest. This model boasts improvements over the first iteration of the device which includes an all around faster machine (50% faster), support for up to 5 email account (3 more), support for Push Email and Microsoft Exchange, unlimited text messaging and the ability to search your inbox as well as view images, PDFs and Doc files.

Right out of the box I noticed how simple and elegant the Peek Pronto was. Finished in all black with a silver metal back it could be easily mistaken for a Blackberry. Front and center is a rubberized chicklet QWERTY keyboard, while the right edge of the device sports a clickable scroll wheel and back button just below it. The power button is located at the top of the device and is recessed to prevent unwarranted powering ups or downs. Lastly, the lower left side contains a charging port concealed by a rubber flap that is attached to the device.

Setting up an AOL, GMAIL or Yahoo account couldn’t have been easier. All I had to do was enter my email address and password and the Peek Pronto figured out the rest. After your email box has been added you can start emailing right away or if you so opt download your stored contacts; the Pronto doesn’t have Bluetooth so you won’t be able to sync your computer’s address book. Unfortunately, and probably like many people, I don’t keep my contact list updated on my gmail account so I’m not sure how useful this feature is, but of note the Pronto ‘sucked down’ the few hundred contacts I had stored in a matter of seconds and even sent me an email notifying that the process had begun. Adding another email account was simple enough, but once added I wasn’t able to view the account individually or tell which email was to which account from the inbox screen. A frustration some will surely feel, especially those who like to keep business and private separate. Fortunately, when sending out an email, selecting the alternate account(s) is just a quick click away.

I’m an iPhone user (in case you haven’t heard) and as a result typing on the chicklet rubber keyboard left my right hand a bit cramped. But as with any miniature QWERTY keyboard, iPhone included, it takes time to adjust, so be patient. The overall responsiveness of the keyboard is reasonable given its style, but I couldn’t help but notice how the space bar felt as though I was depressing two keys at once. Again, something that probably takes some acclamation. Additionally, the space bar, as with the secondary functions of the numeric keyboard are not backlit, which limits the overall usefullness of the device in dark or dimly lit situations.

Composing an actual email was simple enough, but a few drawbacks had me scratching my head. For instance, Peek failed to add the double space bar tap period function and in order to navigate to, say the middle of the paragraph after an email is written you’ll need to use the scroll wheel while holding the shift button. With that said, the Peek Pronto seemed to be void of a spell check, which to me seems like a must especially if this particular device is intended for the business user.

Email composing issues aside, the Peek Pronto’s screen is bright and easy to read in any lighting condition. It’s backlight length can be adjusted as can the the theme of the overall menus, which are limited to 3 relatively simple colorful patterns. Although the screen is bright and crisp, the device itself can’t display HTML emails and will result in a blank page with no description as to why; you might be left wondering if there is an error in the email or if its encoded with HTML.

I’m not sure what protocol Peek has used for automatically setting up email accounts such as Yahoo or Gmail, but expect to read emails twice or keep tracks of what you’ve viewed on your computer as the two don’t sync up. The Peek Pronto is compatible with Microsoft Exchange, so for those using this on the corporate level won’t have this concern.

Battery life for the device is very solid. Depending on use, I’d expect to get at least, and I stress at least 3 days out of the device. This is probably one of the significant advantages of having a stand alone email device over an all in one, which tend to be battery hogs.

Like all good handheld devices the Peek Pronto features a keypad lock button, but I would have preferred if the dedicated back button also performed this feature when held down. Also, the Pronto lacks a dedicated switch for muting the device, which is something any respectful person could take advantage of.

This particular Peek Pronto contained an early build of the software and as a result I wasn’t able to text message and the scroll wheel was God awful slow, things that should be fixed in the final build. But unlike the multiple email accounts, text messages are denoted by a ‘T’ next to the message. The company does promise unlimited text messaging, which for some might make the $20/month service plan with email well worth it.

At just $30 more ($79.95) than the original Peek, the Pronto brings sexy back to the email only device and is worth every penny.

Pros:

• Sleek and sexy
• Solid battery life
• Bright and crisp screen
• Ultra easy to use and setup (i.e. Mom friendly)

Cons:

• Chicklet style keyboard will take some getting use to
• No dedicated mute/vibrate button
• Only one ‘inbox’ for all emails

You can grab one here for $80

In the last 4 months Peek ran about 3 or 4 different promotions to help move their email only device supported by the T-Mobile’s network.  And now we know why: today they announced the Peek Pronto.  It’s an updated version of the original Peek and like its name sake suggests its speedier to the gate in a handful (pun intended) of ways.   Here’s how:

• 50% improvement in speed
• works with Microsoft Exchange
• works with up to 5 accounts (original Peek worked with just 2)
• unlimited email and texting
• push email
• ability to search the for emails
• view PDF, DOCs and Pics

Unlike the original Peek, the Pronto is only available in one color (gray) and will cost slightly more at $80 a pop – service is still $20/month, though.  Right now you can get grab one exclusively from Amazon, or wait until April when the email/text device will go on sale on their website or Radio Shack.

[Peek]

The Peek, which we’ve featured a few times now, is once again on sale.  This time they’re honoring our 44th President with an ‘inauguration special’.  So, for the next 44 hours the Peek is $44.44 + $20/month or free + $20/month if you live at a 1600 address any where in the World.

Get it here

Remember the Peek, the device that is purely dedicated to email and text messaging?  They’re hitting the headlines again and this time they’re offering their device and lifetime service (it’s usually $20/month) for $300.  The deals good for today only, and if you ask me, this makes them look desperate.  And by desperate I mean ‘going out of business’.  Your gamble, but I’d just go ‘berry or iPhone.

Still interested?  Go here

Perhaps you miss the days of Blackberry handsets that were email only?  Or maybe you just want an email device so you can stay in the know during business school exams and other sorted affairs that are sure to transpire during moments of vacationing?  If so, then do I have a deal for you.  Peek is offering their handheld email only device for $50, today only!  You’ll still have to drop $20 a month but that’s 50% off the regular retail price. Go ahead, you deserve it.

Available here

By: Daniel O

Peek made it’s email-only handset available for pre-order today. It should be arriving with a $100 price tag at Target on Monday with a choice of three colors. Its functionality is key to it’s design. So for those of you who are considering buying a smartphone, but are worried about the small keypad then you might want to consider purchasing the Peek, which features a spacious QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately, it comes with a $20 a monthly fee, which may be a bit steep for some.