Product review – Peek personal email device (Part 1)

by Scott Carmichael on


In this product review (part 1), I’m going to introduce you to Peek. Peek is a handheld email device powered by a nationwide mobile network (T-mobile). For $99.95 you’ll soon be able to pick up a Peek at your local Target store, and setup your own email account without the hassle of a contract or any other paperwork.

When I say Peek can do email, that really is the only thing the device does. For $19.95 a month, you’ll get unlimited access to three different email accounts from most major providers (Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL and more).

Don’t let the low price fool you; Peek is not a toy, and I found that it felt more like a high-end smartphone or Blackberry.

The device has a 2.5″ QVGA color display, a rubber QWERTY keyboard, a scroll wheel, a back button and a power button. Each aspect of the device actually impressed me. The screen is extremely crisp and in the last hour of sunlight we had this evening, I had no problem reading it outdoors. The keyboard also took me by surprise; despite the rubber keys, I’m actually able to type faster on the Peek than I am on my Blackberry Curve. The keys are well spaced and have a nice tactile feedback (click). The only minor complaint I have about the keyboard, is that the spacebar seems slightly harder to press than any of the other keys. In addition to the QWERTY buttons, the Peek also has a dedicated row of number keys.

As I mentioned earlier; the Peek only does email. When you turn the device on, you are prompted for the credentials of the email account you want to use. In my case, I entered one of my Gmail accounts. The total time for setting up the device was under 4 minutes. As soon as my information was verified, I was able to send and receive email.

Of course, the number one question everyone will have, is whether it really is worth paying $100 for the device, and $20 a month just for email. But I’m really not the right person to ask; I’m already liking Peek a lot, and I’d certainly be willing to pay the price for this kind of convenience, despite already having access to several email devices on the go.

I’ll post a more comprehensive review of Peek in the coming days and put it through a more rigorous test. Before you head out to your local Target store to pick up a Peek, the device won’t be on shelves till September 15th, so that gives me some more time to introduce you to it.

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Grand Canyon tourist spot closed for six months

by Jeffrey White on

The Supai village, a popular tourist spot for visitors to the Grand Canyon, was hit hard by recent flooding.

Now, the Indian tribe overseeing the village and surrounding network of trails says the area will not open again this year.

The Havasupai tribe had wanted to open the area back up next month, but said the flooding — from nearby Havasu Falls — was more extensive than initially thought.

The Supai area is famous for not only its village but for a network of trails and camp grounds that lead thousands of tourists every year to spectacular — and hard to reach — waterfalls.

Read this Associated Press story for more.

Can’t visit the Supai area? Maybe check out some of these weird hotels instead?

Underwire bra dispute causes woman to miss her flight

by Anna Brones on

First it was loose change in your pockets, then it was jewelry, and then it was shoes. For Jet Blue passenger Nancy Kates, it seems like bras might be the next thing to go in the airport security line. A big-busted woman, Kates was wearing a large underwire bra as she went through the security check at Oakland International Airport but when it set off the metal detector she was pulled aside by a TSA agent.

Kates accuses the agent of getting a little too personal. “The woman touched my breast. I said, ‘You can’t do that,’ ” Kates said. “She said, ‘We have to pat you down.’ I said, ‘You can’t treat me as a criminal for wearing a bra.’ “

Refusing to be fondled, Kates asked to see a supervisor and then the supervisor’s surpervisor. Kates reminded the TSA agents that the Constitution bars unreasonable searches and that “scrutinizing a woman’s brassiere is surely unreasonable.” She was offered a private room to have her pat-down, but Kates refused. Instead she asked if she could simply remove her bra, to which the TSA agent agreed. This isn’t the first breast related TSA incident, but the whole escapade took 40 minutes and caused Kates to miss her flight. Jet Blue was nice enough to put her on another one.

Being a woman, I myself have had the bra pat-down several times, and I’m sure there are other fellow females on the Gadling team that have gone through the same experience. Normally such pat-downs are off limits to fingers; TSA agents only use the side of their hands. But all the same it’s still a little unnerving. As Kates said, “If I was carrying nail clippers and forgot about them, I wouldn’t have gotten so upset. But here I was just wearing my underwear.”

What are your thoughts? Is it humiliating to get a pat-down to make sure the underwire in your bra is what’s setting off the metal detector?

10 tips for smarter flying


London notes: Some UK airports up for sale soon

by Jeffrey White on

There’s been a couple of big stories in the London newspapers this past week. One is the full fledged anticipation of the 2012 Olympics after the so-called “hand off” on Sunday, as Josh wrote about recently. Another is the fact that shamed pedophile (and former British pop heartthrob) Gary Glitter is back on British soil after being released from jail in Vietnam (he served three years on charges of sexually abusing children).

But another story, which hasn’t been as hyped, could impact you as a traveler more.

BAA, Britain’s largest airport operator, is expecting a ruling from the country’s Competition Commission that will order a break-up of its airport holdings, on the grounds that one company owning so many of Britain’s major airports is not good for the country.

The result? BAA is likely to have to sell two of its airports, maybe more.

BAA owns giant Heathrow, and also Gatwick, Stansted, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton.

Most pundits are speculating that Gatwick or Stansted are on the block (and perhaps both), as are Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Obviously, holding onto Heathrow will keep BAA a powerful market player.

What does this mean for you?

Any time competition trumps monopoly the consumer could win, in terms of better and more varied service and better prices. There are rumors flying around that a group of airlines is thinking of pooling its money and buying a BAA airport. Ryanair is one airline denying that it’s looking into buying an airport (in this case, Stansted, a major hub for the carrier). With airlines in control, they could save on costs and, in theory at least, pass that on by way of lower fares.

The BAA isn’t buying the competition argument, however. It says that owning Heathrow really doesn’t translate into a competition issue with other British hubs because Heathrow isn’t vying against them for business. Heathrow is going up against other European and International hubs, like Paris, Amsterdam and Dubai.

FAA systems outage causing nationwide delays this afternoon

by Scott Carmichael on

If you are heading to the airport this afternoon, then you may be in for a nasty surprise. The FAA’s “NADIN” system based out of Atlanta, is experiencing an outage. This system (National Aerospace Data Interchange Network) is the big computer responsible for processing flight plans from every flight in US aerospace. Delays are increasing all across the FAA map.

At the moment, Chicago Midway is seeing delays up to 90 minutes, O’Hare is almost at 75 minutes, and most other East Coast airports are all at 60 minutes or more.

As the delays increase, the systems outage will have a severe knock on effect for the entire country, and things are bound to get worse.

This is not the first time the FAA has had an outage in its NADIN system, last year the system grounded flights across the country for close to 6 hours, and the FAA has not been able to trace the cause of the problem. The NADIN computers were designed back in the early 80’s, and are slated for replacement later this year. Of course, none of that will be of any help if you are sitting in a departure lounge reading this.

As with all delays, I suggest heading to the airport on time as well as contacting your airline. Chances are that your plane might still leave the gate on time, but you may end up being held in a holding pattern on the tarmac for several hours while controllers manually process flights. Be sure to pack something to read!