Startup failed, giving away free Qwerty Arm7 mobile devices for cost of postage

http://www.peek.ly/blog/news/old-peeks-testbeds/

by jeffwidman • 14 years ago

92 52 14 years ago

bri3d4• 14 years ago

For what it's worth, these are based on the TI Locosto chipset which also integrates GSM/GPRS. We'll see if the released development platform includes enough TI blobs to actually use the radio (I suspect it won't, but I can always be pleasantly surprised).

Locosto has a 104Mhz ARM7, no MMU, and I think in the configuration on the Peek has 4MB of RAM and 16MB of flash. In the Peek email/Twitter client configuration, it runs TI's embedded RTOS (Nucleus) with Peek-internal code (called, fittingly, PeekUX) on top.

http://elinux.org/Peek is the best source for data on the hardware, and http://www.geekypeek.com/ is the blog of one of the engineers on the project - if you go back a year or two there are a few interesting tidbits about the device.

(edited: 8MB of flash -> 16MB of flash per the eLinux Wiki)

redthrowaway• 14 years ago

Really cool, but unfortunately USPS won't let me create a shipping label from outside the US.

gcb2• 14 years ago

also, they specifically tell you not to include batteries...

schiffern• 14 years ago

Lithium batteries installed in devices are OK.

http://pe.usps.gov/text/pub52/pub52apxc_040.htm

amolsarva6• 14 years ago

UPS? Fedex? Those work

pavel_lishin• 14 years ago

I wonder if they'll let me just stop by and pick one up, since I work about three subway stops away.

switz• 14 years ago

How much should the shipping label be for?

EDIT: From posterous:

- a mailing label for a 0.5lbs envelope from Peek at 33 w 17th st, NY NY 10011 to you

- maybe mention some of your mobile dev qualifications out of interest

- maybe mention what you want to make

dpmorel• 14 years ago

hey - we didn't fail! We are "pivoting".

amolsarva6• 14 years ago

Fail, pivot... what's the difference? Our failed technology just won the most prestigious nomination in the mobile industry

http://www.peek.ly/blog/buzz/gsma-best-technology-award/

Amol from Peek

samstave2• 14 years ago

Failing is falling on your face; Pivoting is turning right before you walk into a wall. :)

zokier• 14 years ago

It's a cool looking device, and nice for them to offer them for free. We'll see if the community can invent some interesting uses for it. I couldn't begin to guess what you could do with such hardware

bokonon• 14 years ago

I walked out of my math class to go upstairs to the computer lab and buy a postage label to email them. I'm really hoping to get one. It will be fun to play around with.

samstave2• 14 years ago

So does this thing only have a mail application?

bri3d4• 14 years ago

It's got nothing. The mail application was a (relatively) thin client to a service that ran on AWS, and that service was shut down in January. The idea is that you'd write your own embedded code to make the device cool.

I posted http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3544436 with a bit more info on the hardware.

amolsarva6• 14 years ago

We still run the cloud-based mail service; these devices stopped working because of plumbing stuff mostly. There are tons of devices with thin clients hitting the cloud -- that's actually what we spend all our time on these days...

But you are right about what someone would try to do with it

drivebyacct2• 14 years ago

It's really a disservice to yourself when there is no way to see a picture of your product or get to a proper landing page from your blog without having to Google or manually manipulate the URL.

melvinng• 14 years ago

Here: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/08/peek-l...

LearnYouALisp• 14 years ago

When trying to follow the link here:

> Use this site to coordinate your discussion – http://peekhack.posterous.com

It gives a 404 Page Not Found error.

Edit: Okay, the link from the site is actually:

http://www.peek.ly/blog/news/old-peeks-testbeds/%20http://pe...

yan• 14 years ago

I'm like three blocks away from that address.. Can I just come by and pick one up? I'll bring you coffee :)

adavies422• 14 years ago

same here

JJMalina• 14 years ago

I live in NYC and also wouldn't mind just stopping by and grabbing one if possible. :)

ilyvak• 14 years ago

ditto.

veyron• 14 years ago

add me to the list of pick-ups

slug• 14 years ago

I'm uptown, but wouldn't mind to go down there to pick one up. So, what's the next project?

amolsarva6• 14 years ago

You are invited to drop by for a beer on Friday a 5 and you can take a Peek with you when you go

:) 33w17fl9

ashishgandhi• 14 years ago

Now it looks like all of NYC HN is going to be there. Anyone wants to coordinate?

yahelc2• 14 years ago

Is that an open invitation?

amolsarva6• 14 years ago

This is a legit invitation: come by, bring a few beers, we'll give you a Peek and show you some tricks...

5pm 33 w 17th st, 9th floor Peek NYC HQ

RSVP here http://www.peek.ly/blog/news/hacker-meetup-get-a-peek-to-try...

yahelc2• 14 years ago

Same. I'm at 20th and 5th.

twodayslate• 14 years ago

I requested one. Should be interesting. What is everyone going to do with theirs?

daimyoyo• 14 years ago

I still have my original Peek and I'm going to try and get a version of Linux to run on it.

amolsarva6• 14 years ago

Very doable. You just need to put something interesting on top of that

rdl• 14 years ago

I wish those things had some kind of signed bootloader and smartcard; they'd be awesome for a secure password management device.

When I first saw the Peek, I was wondering what it would take to turn it into the ultimate drug dealer/activist/etc 2-way text device; everything proxied through a secure multi-stage relay (like Tor), anonymous flood-fill messaging (like posting an encrypted message to a usenet group; the key is the address), etc. Something with a hacked baseband to let you change the IMEI periodically would be better, though (or wifi with MAC rolling).

AmazingBytecode• 14 years ago

I have an old peek and a charger. Do I already have what I need to start hacking away when the dev environment tools are available?

bri3d4• 14 years ago

You'll need the "flash cable," which looks like a standard MicroUSB cable but actually provides 1.8V TTL serial to the Peek (the Peek doesn't support USB but rather exports its serial RX/TX ports over a MicroUSB connector).

Peek themselves sold one for a while and you might be able to get an official one - otherwise they're not hard to build.

See http://elinux.org/Peek#External_MicroUSB_Charge.2FUpgrade_po... for more information.

angusgr2• 14 years ago

For anyone interested in a similar, slightly higher specced, hackable ex-consumer device for next to nothing: ZipIt Wireless have been clearing their old "ZipIt Z2" messenger range for some time now. http://linux.zipitwireless.com/

ARM9 ~300Mhz, 32MB RAM, wifi, QVGA display, keypad, mainline linux kernel support, etc.

Decent sized hacking community: #zipit on freenode & sites like http://mozzwald.com/

Believe prices are as low as $18 for a single one, or $10/unit if you buy 16. We bought around 20 in a group buy at our local Hackerspace. Not quite cost of postage, but still pretty cheap.

joshu2• 14 years ago

Did you ever do anything interesting with one?

angusgr2• 14 years ago

To be honest, not as much as I'd initially hoped.

- Fitting a USB interface is possible, but it's a bit fiddly, so not many got added.

- I ported OpenWRT, as a good Linux distribution, but I haven't used it for anything after! :/

- There have been some cool projects made by others though, like the zipitbot: http://justinbox.aresgate.net/html/make_page.php?n=zipitbot

russfrank• 14 years ago

are these still available?

Zircom22• 14 years ago

I hope so, just bought a label and sent it to them.

antonID• 14 years ago

I'm waiting for confirmation if there are any left, I'd love to get my hands on one

dotBen• 14 years ago

I think it's great they want to open the system and let developers play around with these.

But I'm just wondering - I don't believe there is a wifi chip in them and it isn't clear whether its possible for the customer to get the device onto the GSM network (is there a real sim card that is accessible, etc).

With that in mind, I'm wondering if the functionality and possibility of these devices is rather limited?

mrbill• 14 years ago

... I threw away two still-new-in-box Peeks a couple weekends ago when I ran across them while cleaning out a closet. Used the service for a few months in 2009, it was pretty neat but finally moved to a real smartphone when I started bumping up against limitations.

EricDeb• 14 years ago

Have you written a post on why you guys failed? I'd be interested...

wazoox• 14 years ago

OK, how hard would it be to get enyo running on one of these? Doesn't that sound like a nice hack to do? ;)

anoother• 14 years ago

Anyone got recommendations on shipping to the UK?

Startup failed, giving away free Qwerty Arm7 mobile devices for cost of postage

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