Can your email be smarter?
Bit.ly coder creates yet-another-miracle-email-cure — we love to see these!
Getting tons of emails is a constant chore. The more busy you are…the more busy you are.
We have noticed at Peek that there are a few schools of thought on how to manage the flow. How to “get things done” without going crazy.
We liked reading about this plug-in to Gmail called Email Classifier today. It tries to use intelligence to organize your email, so you know which ones are really important and which ones you can ignore till later.
We are natural skeptics about this kind of intelligence. After all, we often use our own human intelligence to organize our daily to do list…and then go ahead and ignore it for days. Don’t we all?
But we big believers in one important thing is universal: make it easier to look at, handle, from anywhere, any time, and the task gets easier. Take your Peek with you, in other words, and you shall be free.
Writing Short Emails. And Saving Time.
The founder of Digg.com has a post up today about email — namely, he hates it. Who doesn’t? A necessity but one that is so often overused that it makes life drag sometimes.
We wake up daily to 100s of new mails in our inboxes here at Peek, and bad habits can leave you in Kevin’s situation — crossing 1000+.
In addition to his tips, we’ve got a few for managing email better:
1. Go mobile! Of course. No more sitting at your PC because of emails. Be at the game…at home…anywhere and be sure nothing urgent has popped up.
2. Respond fast if it’s a fast response. Don’t leave things. Just reply right away. From your Peek, of course 
Otherwise you re-read.
3. Don’t reply at all. Sometimes, you can just wait it out. That “quick question” usually goes away.
4. And, have a separate “private” account! Don’t give it out. Make it your batphone. That one you know you keep at 0. No anxiety. Done.
One minute of protest: 12 Noon Eastern Time, 8/11/10
On the 11th at 12 Noon we are going to shut down Peek’s Gmail delivery for a minute.
Unless they pay up.
Why?
We think the mobile Internet should be free and accessible and equal — just like the wired internet, now and in the future.
The whole point of freedom is you *can* take it with you.
So Google, we’re sad to see you give up the good cause yesterday…and choose evil.
Google isn’t evil. They just do what’s good for…. (guess)
Dear tech community,
What does the Verizon-Google announcement mean?
One important view is what it means to innovation, the kind of thing we look for from startups with ambitious technology and market visions.
At Peek, we think today’s announcement re-affirms what we already knew — Google isn’t evil, they just do what’s good for Google.
Even if that means reversing their high-minded positions on principles like net neutrality — the idea that all content for all users be equally accessible.
Or if it means negotiating deals with the powerful players who oppose open access to the Internet — whether they be US Fortune 100s or governments.
Or if it means playing both sides in the PR war with doublespeak — as they did today behind closed doors with Verizon and in the blogosphere; and they did in the 2007 spectrum auctions when the last chance for an independent, non-telco wireless internet was lost when Google. http://nyti.ms/aQCI96
We read today’s announcement as Google locking arms with one of the least innovative,most closed companies in tech to say “we don’t think people who connect to the Internet over wireless should get net neutrality”.
Peek makes a fast, focused, cost-efficient mobile for putting real-time Internet apps like mail in the hands of front line staff and first time users. What was once an email device is now a real-time apps platform for mail, text, Twitter, Facebook, web links, maps, weather, and even custom biz apps. We do it all for 90% less than smartphones — as little a $10/month.
The way we do that is by optimizing around the flaws and bloat of the big network operators. We operate on the same playing field as everyone else and use technology to reduce cost in mobile — the most important frontier of Internet access.
Today, Google is saying they will use their heft to make sure their operating system (Android), their search box, their devices (Nexus One), their mobile ads (Admob), their mail apps (Gmail mobile), and all the rest should buy and edge over all the unlucky technologists trying to make a better, more accessible technology.
At Peek we are sorely disappointed in Google’s repeated willingness to deal with the bad guys. It’s bad news for tech innovators and it makes the job harder for the Peeks of the world.
The Blackberry Ban Movement
Peek is made for everyone — smaller, faster, easier, less expensive than the complicated and costly stuff that claims to be “better” because they jam in every possible feature.
Well, Blackberry is rightly about to suffer some heavy scrutiny around the world for exactly such an attitude — a security design that is anti-user, controlled exclusively out of Waterloo, Canada, and super-duper encrypted in a way that…only Blackberry can read.
Now, we like security, but this type of security creates quite a lot of responsibility for the folks in Waterloo — police departments, anti-terrorism forces, governments, and all the rest have to rely on Blackberry. We can’t blame governments for being worried that a private company in Canada is the only way to catch no-name people from communicating with dangerous people. The terrorists in the Mumbai attacks in 2008 used Blackberry.
At Peek we work with authorities in various countries in the way that most telecommunications companies do worldwide. Phone calls, data, and all that is regulated by law enforcement authorities and we comply with their rules.
Your Peek is 100% A-OK anywhere you go worldwide.
Is email broken? Are attachments evil?
Should Gmail lower the attachment limits they allow for emails?
At Peek we see that Gmail is the dominant mail platform in the world — by far most of our users, and our most active users are using Gmail. That’s why we focus first on Gmail when we add/fix stuff, and that’s why Gmail messages hit Peek Pronto Final (1.10 and after) in under 1s. Real time!
But with great power comes great responsibility, as they say.
And one thing that really doesn’t work in the world of email is attachments.
Giant attachments make the world worse — it slows down Peeks servers, it surely taxes Gmail, and it makes people do awful things.
Like what? Well, it makes people create big, bloated, unedited files. Images that should be resized, documents that are too long, all kinds of junk that wastes bandwidth (bandwidth costs money!), and storage (same), and computing resource (because computing costs money, many people can’t even afford computers and powerful phones).
So in a way, yes Gmail is part of the problem.
At Peek we try to solve the problem — we compress, transcode, store, and modify for you. Peek’s just one little service but our mission is to connect everyone, everywhere. The only way that is going to happen is if we reject the big, bloated world of Internet stuff and redesign it to work for mobile. Something everyone can enjoy.
We’ve complained about this before, when GeekyPeek Dan posted about Google’s diet needs.
Winner of the restaurant industry’s tech innovation award!
Peek is what makes Gomobo’s OLO tick — the online order receiver that makes it possible for restaurants to quickly link their restaurants to the web. Believe it or not — most have no way to get orders, receive emails or social network messages from customers, etc etc.
Now they do! Gomobo’s breakthrough integration of their web-services application with Peek’s mobile device makes a complete, real-time solution that puts power on the front lines at a tiny price.
Quick Service Restaurant Magazine’s Awards
Thanks restaurants!
Peek is hiring. Join us as we connect everyone, everywhere
1. We have some GeekyPeek needs. If you are a smart, creative, ship-code, generalist developer — you might be the right person. Check out our Chief GeekyPeek’s rants and tirades to see if you might be the right person.
2. We are trying to find some sales support folks. For this you can be relatively inexperienced — maybe just a couple of years in sales. We want to support our IT resellers and channel partners. Some locations are preferable for this like Northern NJ, Chicago, Phoenix, Connecticut. If you think you have the aptitude and interest and possibly experience to do sales support — contact the chief peekster — asarva at getpeek dot com. Since the experience hurdle on this one is low, having extraordinary motivation, personal skills, and tech interests are key.
3. Peek needs some smart, capable, get-it-done business folks. This is a junior-level product marketing role in the core marketing, operations, and product management area. This is also a great role for an early-career person who wants to start a company some day. Since the experience hurdle here is low too, we need someone with demonstrated aptitude and talent — so high grades, good test scores, impressive accomplishments are the kind of thing we want to see. Email asarva at getpeek for this one too.
What is Peek? Peek is a fast, focused and cost-efficient mobile that brings real-time Internet and biz apps like email to the front lines — by hanging up on voice and focusing on productivity.
Peek’s mission is to connect everyone, everywhere.
Our ultra-thin and typing-friendly smart device has won awards around the world for its design and value. We offer unlimited data and unlimited texting with no contracts for 90% less than data cell phones.
Smiles around our call center
Peeksters at HQ are smiling about Zendesk this week. They make a really nice, cloud-based app for managing tickets.
It’s so great our call center team has been handling 50% more calls the first week we are using the platform.
Peek customers — what do you guys think? Better, worse, same?
Why is your cell phone company overcharging you?
Most people who use major wireless carriers are still being overcharged through their plans to subsidize the cost of a new phone every two years, whether they want one or not.
Don’t believe me? Next time you are “due” a new phone under your contact, call up your cellular provider–or go into a store–and ask them for some of that subsidy instead. Cash.
“You were going to spend $200 subsidizing my new phone,” you can say. “But how about I keep my current phone, which works just fine, and you can give me $100 cash?”
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Can your email be smarter?Writing Short Emails. And Saving Time.
One minute of protest: 12 Noon Eastern Time, 8/11/10
Google isn’t evil. They just do what’s good for…. (guess)
The Blackberry Ban Movement
Is email broken? Are attachments evil?
Winner of the restaurant industry’s tech innovation award!
Peek is hiring. Join us as we connect everyone, everywhere
Smiles around our call center
Why is your cell phone company overcharging you?