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)
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.
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).
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.
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?
... 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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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)