
Startup failed, giving away free Qwerty Arm7 mobile devices for cost of postage - jeffwidman
http://www.peek.ly/blog/news/old-peeks-testbeds/
======
bri3d
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)

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angusgr
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.

~~~
joshu
Did you ever do anything interesting with one?

~~~
angusgr
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>

~~~
joshu
Yeah. I have a terrible urge to get all these low-end machines and they
inevitably are not terribly useful.

I did just buy a TP-Link 703n which seems pretty useful for a low-end box.

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

~~~
amolsarva
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

~~~
amolsarva
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...](http://www.peek.ly/blog/news/hacker-meetup-get-a-peek-to-try-hacking/)

~~~
adavies42
how long will it run, i'm unlikely to get out of work before 6

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rdl
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).

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switz
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

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bokonon
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.

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

~~~
amolsarva
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

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

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

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

~~~
schiffern
Lithium batteries installed in devices are OK.

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

~~~
gcb
thanks. TIL.

they don't mention this on the huge banners they have at the post office that
teaches you about not sending batteries and TNT.

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dotBen
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?

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

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mrbill
... 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.

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zokier
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

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

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AmazingBytecode
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?

~~~
bri3d
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...](http://elinux.org/Peek#External_MicroUSB_Charge.2FUpgrade_port)
for more information.

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

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

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

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anoother
Anyone got recommendations on shipping to the UK?

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samstave
So does this thing only have a mail application?

~~~
bri3d
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.

~~~
amolsarva
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

~~~
bri3d
Ah - sorry! I thought your more recent cloud offering was something totally
new. Thanks for the clarification!

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

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russfrank
are these still available?

~~~
Zircom22
I hope so, just bought a label and sent it to them.

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

~~~
Shank
As am I.

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drivebyacct2
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.

~~~
LearnYouALisp
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...](http://www.peek.ly/blog/news/old-peeks-
testbeds/%20http://peekhack.posterous.com)

