Accessorise Google Nexus 7 inch Tablet -Black Leather Folio Case Cover with Built-in Multi-Angle Sta

This folio is exactly what I wanted. I researched just about every folio and tablet case for my Nexus on Amazon. Not easy with all the choices and a challenge sometimes judging by photos. What really helped my decision was a customer's video review of this product.

I ordered the black one (comes in four colors) and when it arrived I was thrilled. Feels great in my hands, the folio is solid yet flexible, the stand works great, automatically sleeps the Nexus when you close the cover, easy access to all the buttoms, camera, volume, usb port.

A terrific value for the price.

Took it on vacation with me a couple days after I got it and it was perfect! Loaded it with movies for the plane rides and the folio stand came in real handy on the seat tray. I have a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard for the Nexus, and the stand angles on this folio are ideal for viewing.

I highly recommend it.

I bought the Accessorise Folio Case Cover for my son's Nexus 7 and he loves it. It is comparable in quality to $30 cases you would find in the stores. We watched a movie on a plane using the built-in stand and it performed flawlessly, despite a sometimes bumpy ride. The only drawback is the power button is a little difficult to access, but with the auto-on feature you don't need it much. We did not experience any of the odors that others have commented on. I looked around for a while before deciding on this case and am happy with my purchase.

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First of, let's be clear this is an affordable case, not a high end one. That aside though, it is definitely worth the $3 I paid, and probably is worth at least $7. Here is why:

Pros:

1:Feels like leather

2: Looks like it could withstand a drop or two (it is a thick case, which is the drawback of this plus)

3: Soft inside material to cover the screen

4: handstrapnot the best because gravity will make the left corner slide lower than the right corner

5: Viewing standWas real nice when I set it on my lap and used it as a viewing stand. Has 2 different angles which works great for me

6: sealed with quite sturdy velcro, I can shake the case with no fear of it falling outI do adjust the velcro here and there to give it a more snug grip. This can be a bit bothersome until I remember the velcro is solid and the price.

7:Stretchy thingyNot sure the proper name for this, but it allows me to close the case with it so the flap has no chance of opening. Regarding the front cover, there are magnets allowing you to hold the case frontcover-side down (but a little shake and watch the "front cover" open)

8: AUTO SLEEP/WAKE!!!! This is a really nice feature because the screen goes off when the cover is closed, and turns on when the cover opens. No issue with the magnet being too strong as well (Probably because it is a thick case)

This leads me to the major gripes or disadvantages of the case.

Cons:

It looks like a leather book. This case is thick, so you can kiss pocketting your Nexus 7 goodbye.

The logo implies my name is "Ayl" Look at the photo. You will see the "Ayl" in the lower right corner(How accessorise got that is beyond me) This in my opinion is the dumbest part of the case. Seriously, it probably costs more to put that there and does nothing to further the company name. I would like it better if the logo was a simple "A" or a redesigned "A" or even the entire name "Accessorise" was put in a smaller font at the bottom right. I would ultimately prefer the logo under the tablet so it's hidden with the tablet.

All in all though, if you don't mind people asking Who "Ayl" is, I say it is an excellent $3 case for me.

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I ordered the previous version and was very happy. Soon after they sent this replacement "upgraded" version. This version is slightly less bulky and the magnetic on off version works as expected. As others have mentioned, it does come with an odor, but now owning two, I can say that after a couple of days it does wear off and will no longer be an issue. The horizontal prop is greatly improved, however I can not seem to figure out how to vertically prop my device. Could be a user issue. This cover is a solid piece that I feel protects my Nexus well. A bargain find most definitely!

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works great, good price. professional looking. fits in my (bigger) pocket still. I looked at expensive cases and I'm glad I went with this one.

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Hewlett Packard Jornada 525 Color Pocket PC

• Compatible with the essential Microsoft programs you use the most--Outlook, Word, Excel
• Capture your thoughts with the built-in voice recorder
• Integrated MP3 player and e-book reader
• Expandable via CompactFlash cards
• What's in the box: Jornada 525, Carrying pouch, Stylus, AC Adapter, Serial cable, Quick Start Guide, UserÆs Guide, Microsoft ActiveSync CD-ROM

For almost three years I had exclusively used a Jornada 820 (Windows CE handheld with built-in modem and keyboard) as a portable device. And while I still love to take the 820 along on trips, there was one drawback: It was always just a little too big and heavy for my purse. This is why I recently bought a Jornada 525 Pocket PC.

The main reason for deciding on a 525 was its price, but I was also pleasantly surprised by its great functionality and design. The device fits well into my hand and exudes a sense of quality no thin plastic body but substantial metal with rubber coating on the sides for a better grip. It looks pretty cool.

Of course there are a few compromises compared to higher-priced Pocket PCs: The 525 does not come with a cover, although one is available separately; the stylus cannot be stored in the device itself, although there is a slot for it in the included protective glove. Also, this Jornada has only a 256 color display, and no USB interface, however, a serial cable is included for synchronization. Another thing that's missing is a docking station, but again this can be purchased as an accessory. The 525 has only 16 MB memory, and not the fastest processor (SH3, 133 Mhz).

But all these things do not bother me too much. I synchronize via infrared anyway (which you CAN do with this device), and I have already purchased a cover the silver-colored one looks quite good with it! Sure, the 16 MB memory is not great, but luckily the 525 has a Compact Flash Card slot. With prices for these cards plummeting, I put in a 128 MB CF card and I'm loaded for bear.

If you are like me and I would dare say like most of the Pocket PC users you will probably use such a device mainly for storing contacts and appointments, for playing Solitaire or read an eBook while waiting at the doctor's office, or for listening to MP3 files when the wait gets REALLY long. Also for storing other information like credit card numbers, passwords and PINs, and for keeping track of projects, orders, etc. With the optional camera module, one can even take pictures and view them.

All these things work on the Jornada 525, and work well. I would urge anyone who is in the market for a Pocket PC to really think about what he/she wants to do with it, and not blindly go for ads that make you want to spend hundreds of dollars more for a little more speed, contrast, and built-in memory. The fact is that all these devices have a very short shelf life, and what is top-of-the-line today, will very likely be gone by this time next year. Unless you are one of those rare power users who really live and breathe this technology, I believe the Jornada 525 will more than meet your needs.

The reason I didn't give 5 stars is that in my experience its battery life is not the best I've learned to never stray too far from an electrical outlet. But again: This also depends on what kind of applications you are running, and how many at the same time... Nothing to gripe too much about.

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I have been using the Jornada 525 for about week, and I am very satisfied with the quality of this product. The unit has a nice solid feel, and there are rubber grips on each side to make it easier to hold. The leather case that is included works well, and has a sleeve inside for holding the stylus.

The 12-bit (that's 4096 colors) 240x320 display is surprisingly detailed and sharp compared to other similarly priced products. The Jornada is also equipped with a built-in speaker and a stereo headphone jack. The "up to 8 hours of battery life" for the rechargable battery usually turn out to be around 5-6 hours on low power use settings. The screen responds very well to touch, but I would recommend buying screen protectors to prevent scratching.

There are thousands of third party applications and games out there to load onto the Jornada as well. Installing programs is very easyyou just have to download the installation file, sync the Jornada to your PC, and run the installation file. The program will take a minute or two to transfer depending on the size.

Here are a few of the things I like/don't like about the Jornada:

GOOD:

Performance vs. price (compare to Palm IIIc, Handspring Visor Platinum, other Windows CE handhelds)

Sharp, colorful, well lit display (fully adjustable brightness/contrast)

Fast. Very few delays while opening programs or navigating menus.

Included items: A/C adapter, serial sync cable, carrying case

Easy to use. Windows CE should be simple to pick up for anyone familiar with windows 9x/NT.

Shortcut buttons. You can access your calendar, daily tasks, etc. with one touch of a button instead of navigating menus.

BAD:

Short battery life compared to less powerful handhelds.

The included stylus is very light. (Most people prefer heavier, more solid ones)

The rubber pieces on the sides of the device (the smaller ones near the top) are too easy to peel open (they are not intended to be opened) They push easily back into place, though.

The cover to the expansion slot is a little flimsy.

Windows CE bugs. I have encountered a couple bugs, but all I had to do was reset the OS with the red button on the back of the unit to put things back to normal. This does not erase your data.

I would recommend the Jornada to anyone who wants a powerful handheld computer for keeping notes and appointments as well as playing games, viewing pictures, working on word/excel documents, and listening to music. For people who just want to keep calendar dates and simple notes, I would suggest buying a less powerful handheld with a longer battery life.

Read Best Reviews of Hewlett Packard Jornada 525 Color Pocket PC Here

I moved over a Visor Prism last week and even though I still love my Visor I am very satisfied with the HP 525. It has a very nice sleek metal design and it feels solid in my hand. I have to tell you that I spent around 3 long nights figuring out the last detail of the software and the "infamous" windows CE. Maybe not that easy to handle compared to the Plam OS but the more I got into the new system, the more I liked it. Running at 133mhz it handles the programs well when you are not using multitask. The 256 colors do nicely on the programs but this is not a multimedia device specially if you want to play a video or to watch high resolution pictures. The MP3 player sounds great with my headphones and with a built in compact flash you have no problem with the space. I have to tell you that I wasn't sure about buying a Pocket Pc since I have been with palm devices for the last 3 years but I wanted more features out of the box for less money this time. What I don't like about it?? Well, it doesn't have a metal cover, you can't hold your stylus inside the device, it only has 16mb, it doesn't use USB to Sync, no cradle and short battery life. Putting aside all the limitations, the HP 525 is a nice machine with an elegant design. If you are moving from a Palm handheld this could be a very good and affordable option for you.

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Nothing can beat the price to function ratio of this machine. I got a Visor Edge and bought this one for $220 (It's a long story). And my friend kept asking me why this color one is even cheaper than the B/W Edge? If you are looking for an MP3 player and/or a PDA for cheap this is what you should get. The MP3 playback is awsome. Music quality is great with earphone jack and it has no problem playing Music as good as 128bit/sec. You can easily get a 64mb CF card for less than $40, or 128mb on Amazon for $60, which bring the total down to less than $300 for an MP3 player + COLOR PDA.

There are a few downside of this PDA, though. The color is 256, which means that you won't be able to see great pictures that you took from your digital camera on it. And there is only serial cable connection for it. I will suggest you buy a USB card reader if you are actually using it as an MP3 player.

A few tricks you might want to know. You need to create a folder called "My Documents" in your card so that mediaplayer can find your music. And, to save energy, the screen toggle function in the option can be set so that you can turn screen off while listening to music.

In all I think this is worth at least 4 starts.

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It's not the fastest, it's not the lightest, it doesn't have the best screen, it doesn't even have USB sync... But, for about half the price of those "best" units, Jornada 525 does everything well that's expected of any PocketPC. I bought Viking 128MB CF expension card (here @ Amazon) to store all files (so I can allocate more memory to run programs) and still have enough room left over for over an hour of MP3 music to enjoy with pair of good headphones. With only a serial connection and slower processor than the competition, this unit is for those of us who are patient and will use it mainly as a secondary portable device to compliment our primary portable notebook computers. All in all, I am completely satisfied and it's all I expected and more.

Samsung Galaxy S3 siii leather case - Vertical Pouch Type (NO Belt Clip) (Black) GT-i9300 - PDair

The product has excellent quality. The mobile is full protected and leather is very soft. This case is very useful and without defects.

I ordered it to Netherlands, delivery time was 2 weeks, so actually faster than they say it will be.

The product itself is perfect, really good quality. I've checked a lot offers and I think this is the best one, since many other producers (even Samsung) don't think about small details, like access to the side buttons, or extra stretching material on the sides, so it is easier to take out the phone. Furthermore back and front part are strengthened (it is not just a leather) so you have extra protection for your phone.

To sum up, if you don't mind waiting a little bit longer, buy this one, you not gonna find better option...

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NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System- Macintosh

• Transform paper into information that works
• Automatically extracts key information from scanned receipts; can export to Quicken, Excel, and pdf
• Scans are IRS-accepted digital copies, making tax preparation a snap
• Scan up to 10 receipts, 10 business cards and 10 documents at once or a single, 50 page document
• Developed for OS X to look and feel like the applications you use every day

I purchased a NeatDesk scanner awhile ago to answer a growing need at home for more robust scanning. I'm one of those people that needs to have everything neatly filed away even though I will probably never see it again. I also religiously enter all my personal receipts and track my personal finances in detail. This seemed the perfect product to answer both needs.

I was used to the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 that I have at work, but in addition to an arm they also wanted a leg. The price of the NeatDesk is substantially less (about 40% for what I paid), and the promotional material for the scanning software was really sexy. So I clicked buy.

After a few days, my conclusion is that although it could be an outstanding product with a couple of tweaks, it's just not ready for primetime. This may be the case of a small company working on tight margins with a product that got too big too fast. It remains to be seen whether or not they can keep up with their new-found popularity.

Here's the dirt:

Hardware:

Good Stuff

Attractive design.

You can click the hardware "Scan" button all day, but you don't have to file your scans until you want to.

Bad Stuff

No adjustable paper guide. Unless you hold it as it's sucked in, every single document is crooked.

Not enough paper support. Creased documents (like a bill) flop back and aren't grabbed properly.

I found the slot for receipts and documents to not match any receipt or document I had... Nice slot for business cards though.

The output tray is not attached to the scanner body. Huh?

It came with the grim spectre of having to clean and calibrate your scanner. You don't have to clean or calibrate the ScanSnap, although the ScanSnap does include "consumables", so maybe it's a tie.

Software:

Good Stuff

Recognizes dates, subtotal, sales tax, and credit card used. This alone almost makes the product an overall winner and definitely put it on top for scanning receipts.

As mentioned above, you don't have to file away your scans until you want to.

Extremely fast search.

It's pretty--yeah, that's important.

Bad Stuff

Always takes the scan from the front but from the sheet in the back, which may be more intuitive for the beginner, but also means that a stack of double-sided sheets will go into the software backwards (page 2, 1, 4, 3, etc.) so you'll have to sort your document before and after scanning. Maybe I just haven't figured this one out, but it does seem like they emphasis multiple single-page documents vs. one multiple-page document.

* UPDATE: I figured out that you have to put the document in face up and everything is scanned in from the last page to the front. Your physical document will come out sorted, and the software will reverse the order of the scanned pages for you so the electronic document is correct.

Does not auto-rotate to fix crooked problem caused by not having adjustable paper guides.

Does not do auto-color detection--it's either all black-and-white or all color and you must choose. Those "Scan" and "PDF" buttons on the front are great, but you have to go into the Quick Scan application to set up how everything will be scanned first, defeating the convenience.

Viewing the documents that are in the library is difficult. Should have a simple hand-tool for dragging and allow multiple documents to be open at one time.

Moving data around the library is laborious.

Software installs SQL Server Express, which takes up system resources and at least for me causes the program to not want to start up (try again message a couple of times before starting). Sure the search results come back very quickly, but at what cost? As a developer, I actually already had SQL Server Express installed, but it went ahead and installed another instance... Not very nice.

Lots of opportunities to categorize data, but searching for the categories is difficult. For example, to see what you marked for follow up click "Advanced Search", click "Looking at..." and select "Action Type", click "Selected in the List", click and check box that says "Follow Up". It's more work finding out what's marked "follow up" than to actually follow up.

The heavy emphasis is on recording receipts for expenses that will be reimbursed by your employer or be tax deductible. So what happens when I have a pay stub for consulting work? I have to file it as a document where I can't tag it's dollar amount, can't tag it as 1099 income, and it can't be exported to Quicken. That's one of the main reasons I got the scanner.

Categories for receipts are very limited. Need a split? You'll have to do it yourself when you get to Quicken if you can remember what the receipt was for. Sales tax is always exported as an over-generalized "State Tax".

How it Could (Easily) be Made Great

Package in or sell another paper guide that is adjustable. You can use the same snap-in style that is used for the receipt/business card guide.

Add one inch to the pull-out paper support.

Update the software to take scans from the face down position first on double-sided scans. Take the scan from the face down position only in single-sided scans.

* UPDATE: Even though this way seems more intuitive to me, the way the software does it is okay (see update above).

Add in auto-color detection and auto-rotate so that scans always come out right. If Neat Co can do awesome text-detection, they could do this.

Conclusion

Seems to be an innovative company so I'll keep it in anticipation of at least the software updates.

UPDATE After 2 Years: After having owned this product for a good while I have to say it's worked fairly well for what it is. During this time I made the switch to a Mac and the Mac version of the NeatWorks software was a huge improvement. (From what I understand, the PC software seems to have caught up somewhat.) For the most part it has done what I want it to: scan a few receipts for expense reports but mostly documents of 10 pages or less. I tried to scan my mortgage documents of about 60 pages, but it kept grabbing multiple pages. I had to scan in batches and grab a beer (darn).

It still does weird things though. For example, sometimes it will scan and not fully eject the document and after a moment will display blinking red lights. Other times it will whisk the document through and the document ends up with a large black area at the top.

At the end of the day, for the casual home user who doesn't mind taking a little extra time to scan, this is probably a best buy. For the business user who will frequently be scanning large documents, the Fujitsu products will probably be a better fit, especially since their price is now a lot closer to the NeatDesk.

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I went to the store looking for the Neat Receipts scanner, and I came across this new product. I could not be more happy for buying it! I had 4 years worth of credit card and bank statements piled up in boxes, and with this scanner system I was able to scan them and organize them on my computer in less than a day (I'm talking hundreds of pages).

I have absolutely no complaints on this (other than the price, which is high, but it is a new product and it will come down).

The scanner can read 2 sided documents and scan both sides, in color! And it does it fast.

It also reads receipts and business cards and extracts the information from them (such as what store the receipt is from, how much total was, how much tax was, date of transaction, etc...) The best part about this feature is that it lets you edit the information (sometimes necessary if the receipt was very worn or wrinkled.

The software is extremely easy to use and very powerful. A great feature about the scanner/software is that you can load a bunch of pages and start scanning them. While they scan you can work on filing other documents. Once the pages are scanned they go into a sort of "inbox" where they wait for you to look at them and decide where to file them.

The two sided, color scanning is great and very fast. Another convenient feature the program has is the ability to combine several pages into one document. All you do is click on the different pages while holding down control and click combine ... and you have one file for a multi page document!

All the files you scan into the program are searchable, so you can enter a search term and it will bring up all the documents (or receipts or business cards, depending on which section you are searching in). Very handy to search back on when you bought something...

Another great feature for those that do not receive paper statements is the pdf import feature! If you get your statements from online, you can still import the file into the program (as if you had scanned it in yourself) and have the searchable capabilites of the other files.

Keep in mind, this is probably not a good scanner to scan pictures with, but for a document scanner, it is fast, and very good. I just hope it lasts the wear and tear I'm subjecting it to right now. I am very thankful that this product has helped me get rid of all of my paper clutter!!!

Read Best Reviews of NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System- Macintosh Here

This scanner is marketed to small businesses, and while I do not happen to run one of those, it does appear to be a really nice item for organizing business expenses. Since I am very fond of 'tech' of all sorts, I offered to test and review this item.

The description says it does not support 64 bit windows, and in fact the included installer CD refused to run on my 64 bit system. Not to worry though, if you go to their web site (www.neatco.com) you can download a 64 bit version. It installs a database as well as the scanner software. There is a special piece of paper in the package which is used to calibrate the scanner, and the documentation recommends occasional recalibration, which means you need to NOT lose the paper. I am not sure what you'd do if you lost it...I guess ask them to send you another one.

The NeatWorks software is really nifty. It interprets the scanned documents, and if they are receipts, it picks out dollar amounts for later use in expense reports. I did not have any business cards to try, but the application will scan them and produce an update to several types of 'contact list' that you might use. There is also an option to choose to file an item as a 'document' which means it is largely uninterpreted (though you can do text searches on them. One suggestion made by the developer is that you file recipes as documents so they can be searched for ingredient lists).

I wanted to give this scanner a good test, so I fed in a bunch of stuff just to see how it would be handled. My results:

1) I fed in a grocery receipt that had been folded a few times but wasn't badly crumpled. This was handled just fine, and the software was easily able to pick out the correct dollar totals. It even figured out that the receipt was for groceries and tagged it as such.

2) An Amazon purchase receipt that was in the box from a network hard drive I recently purchased. This scanned correctly as 'hardware' but the software read the dollar sign on the total as a '1' and thus added a thousand dollars to the purchase amount! Yow! Luckily, this is simple to fix in the application and you are in fact prompted to verify the numbers before they are filed in the database.

3) A receipt from a recent American Airlines flight to Texas. The application did read it as an 'airline' expense, but the dollar totals were completely misread. Again, I fixed them easily.

4) A receipt from a recent trip to Best Buy. If you've seen BB receipts lately, these are receipts with an attitude! They've got a lot of 'stuff' printed on them, advertisements, phone numbers, etc. The scanner processed this perfectly and the software read everything correctly.

5) For chuckles, I fed in a MegaMillion lottery ticket (a loser, sadly). This ticket had really light print on a colored background, and of course it had numbers everywhere. Not surprisingly, the software was completly flummoxed by this one. I filed it under 'documents'.

6) How about a 20 dollar bill? It scanned perfectly, and the software indicated it was 'cash' (hee hee) but did not indicate the denomination.

7) Since I was testing it, I decided to do something of a stress test. I took a longish grocery receipt and I crumpled that sucker up BADLY. Then I flattened it out as best I could and fed it in. For good measure, as the paper disappeared into the scanner, my cat leapt onto the desk and whacked it. Now THAT is a test... This receipt did not fare well at all. It was completely chewed up and caught in the scanner mechanism. I was afraid I'd done some damage but I picked out the pieces and then got the last of it out of the works by scanning a blank piece of paper. This jam-clearing exercise was simple to do, since the scanner top pops open at the push of a button to allow access to the internals. The scanner was undamaged and I fed in another document, which processed just fine.

Now I tried out some of the software options...

Once the receipts were in the scanner database, there were numerous export options. I exported to a MS Word document and got a very nice 'expense report'. An export to Excel gave me an xls file that produced a nice spreadsheet.

My final scans really tested the NeatWorks interpretive software, and that application exhibited a level of functionality that might be an indication of why this scanner is so expensive. I tore a page out of a paperback book (the 'about the author' page at the end, because it contained two different font sizes and some bolding) and scanned it in as a document. Then I exported it to a PDF and opened that PDF in Adobe reader. I exported it to a text file and it was a perfect text representation of the words on the page! I could wish it had the option to export to MS Word format because I can't begin to afford Adobe Acrobat...

I then printed out an adobe document I already had on my system, a knitting pattern with smallish text and color pictures. I scanned the printed document back in and then used the NeatWorks software to export it to PDF. I ended up with a PDF that looks really close to the original, allowing for some quality loss from printing the color images.

All in all, I liked this scanner and as I said, if I were running a small business, I'd find it really useful. It's also really nice for folks who scan in regular documents because it saves them in a handy database for later searching or printing.

The newly added 64 bit support means this will be my 'main' scanner in the future.

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I really really really wanted to like this scanner. I received the unit on Friday and had planned on spending Saturday scanning in all my documents and then relaxing on Sunday. I am sooooo disappointed with the quality of the scans and software when scanning in documents like car insurance or doctors statements that I am sending it back.

The main issue is that the manufacture's web site states that the scanner can scan grayscale and B/W documents in at a rate of 25 PPM. This is an outright lie on one level and a stretching of the truth on another level.

First let me start off with the truth stretching. The scanner is very fast while scanning in B/W images but it did not seam like it was 25 PPM fast so I timed it using a stop watch. I was able to scan in a page (two sides) in 6.4 seconds that's 10 PPM not 25! As Fujitsu rates their ScanSnap S1500M at 20 PPM whether you scan one or two sides, I assumed I would see the NeatDesk scanner do the same. Thinking that they (NeatCo) must have been playing with some slick marketing numbers when they came up with the 25 PPM rate I figured I would see the 10 PPM rate double to 20 if I only scanned one side of a page instead of two. I was very disappointed to see that the rate did not change between one or two sides. Normally I would think that 10 PPM is a very quick scan, which it is, but it is more than half as fast as advertised.

That was the truth stretching now onto the lie.

My main complaint is not the scan rate of B/W or grayscale scans. I would be very happy with a 10 PPM grayscale document scanner. The problem is that the scanner / software package does NOT scan in grayscale. The scanner DOES send the images to my iMac in GRAYSCALE and then the horrible software converts it to B/W. Yes you heard me right! They take a perfectly legible (8 bit, 256 levels of black) grayscale image and turn it into a very poor quality B/W (2 bit, 2 color) illegible image. I can't for the life of me understand why they would do such a thing.

If you are only interested in scanning in receipts, which by their nature are only black and white, then you might be happy with the software. Unfortunately about 95% of the stuff I wanted to scan is various types of documents / kids school work / insurance papers / medical records etc. If you have ever looked at these kinds of documents you will notice that most of them have shaded areas on the page that highlight important text. These shaded areas, along with the text, usually become unreadable when converted to B/W. Not only can I not able to read them the OCR can't detect them either. It makes me angry to see a scan show up on the screen that looks GREAT only to have it destroyed a few seconds later by the software as it converts it to black and white.

I contacted NeatCo about the ability to scan to grayscale. Their support person was very nice and polite; unfortunately she confirmed for me that the software does not support grayscale. Her response is at the end of the review.

You may think that I should just scan in color. Unfortunately scanning in color is very slow. A color scan took 15 seconds for a single sided page and 27.5 seconds for a single 2-sided page (weird that color scans do double the time for 2 sides unlike the BW option). At this rate it puts color scans in at 2 PPM not the 8.5 reported on their web site. At 2 PPM it will take me several hundred hours to scan everything I need to scan.

The quality of color scans is very good if you are willing to wait 30 seconds for a single 2-sided scan.

Here are my timing results for the BW, color, 1 side and 2 sided document. All times are for a single sheet of paper.

Page Sides | Color Mode |Time to Scan |Total time to scan & OCR 1st page

1 | Color | 15 sec | 52 sec

2 | color | 27 sec | 1:15 (m:sec)

1 | BW | 6.4 sec | 36 sec

2 | BW | 6.5 sec | 40 sec

Just for reference I have a late 2008 24'' iMac with 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4 gigs of ram. I have also updated the NeatDesk software to their latest version as of 10/30/2009 which is 2.1.9

I have taken some screen shots of the grayscale images before they are converted to BW and will try to post them to Amazon. In the screen shots you can see that the initial image looks very nice. If NeatCo fixes this issue the package might be worth a look.

Here is the NeatCo response to my grayscale question.

Response (Campbell) 10/29/2009 08:45 PM

Hi Chris,

There's no way to set to scan in a gray scale at this time. I will put in a feature request to our developers so they can include this capability in future releases.

Question Reference #091029-000359

---------------------------------------------------------------

Product Level 1: NeatDesk for Mac

Date Created: 10/29/2009 08:45 PM

Last Updated: 10/29/2009 08:45 PM

Status: Solved

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It appeared to save documents. It appeared to do huge backups 8Gigs+. But when I tried to export to PDF, I get an error message. After six months of denial, customer service looked at the error log and confirmed that my documents are gone forever and the paper copies have been discarded.

Wireless Finger HandHeld USB Trackball Mouse for Laptops Desktops

Good alternative mouse, saves the index finger from pain and numbness. Track-ball

is touchy, but you get used to it. Great for showing computer Photo's and video's

on the big screen from across the room, even 15 feet. Only one thing i'am having to

deal with is the pointer stops and needs to have a left button pushed before you can

move again, that's annoying, but more a annoying is trying to find who made this thing

from China???

The finger mouse works okay, but I have issues with the fine movement of it. It may be that I have gotten too used to the quality and manuverability of my Logitech thumb trackball mouse. In comparison this will do exactly what I bought it for, a small, easy to hold controller for my presentation laptop. It works in the capacity of being highly portable, allowing me to move about the room as I give presentations, orientations and preside at meetings.

I was disappointed that the unit did not include a laser pointer although the unit does have a spot for a laser pointer and a button to push to activate a laser pointer.

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If you have Arthritis, this mouse is for you. Since you can hold it anywhere, you do not get wrist problems from being in one position all the time. It is very easy to install just plug in module to any USB port, and your set. To get it working, just click the button in the middle. Only complaint, and it's not much at all, is that it seems a little small for my hand. But perhaps with time, and more usage, I'll adjust to its feeling. The price certainly makes it worth a try for anyone who desires something more flexible than a standard mouse

Read Best Reviews of Wireless Finger HandHeld USB Trackball Mouse for Laptops Desktops Here

the word mouse made me think i could use the unit both as a desk top mouse as well as a trackball. After the supprise and a couple of uses I enjoy the unit as is. The scatch pad constantly caused me problems. Now I can turn off the scrach pad and not be concerned with my hands moving the curser.

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I bought 02 units of this item and brought to Venezuela throught my courier. It happen because i wanted to use one and kept the other one for the future. Surptise, both worked only one day and right now not work. Fully charged the first one and not work. I decided to use the reserve one and work fine but only one day. What can i do?. One of the adfapter for wireless was broken when i try to pull from my laptop. Now i have two pieces of garbage and lost my money. It is not good for Amazon that some expensive products in this case not have the quality for the money that we pay.

Thanks

Dymo LetraTag Plus LT-100H Personal Label Maker

• 2-Line printing
• Direct-thermal print technology saves you money - no ribbons, ink or toner cartridges needed
• Auto-off power saver
• Added navigation key with easy to use scroll menus
• 3 Language options (English, Spanish and French)

I have been desperately trying to get organized, and when I found this gizmo from heaven at a heavenly price, naturally I jumped on it. After a few weeks of labeling frenzy, much like one of my other fellow reviewers, the tops of my labels started fading, then the middles, and soon the entire text of all my labels, poof! disapparated! Yes! I am a Harry Potter fan, but not for my labels in invisible ink. Tried all of the suggestions from the website. Cleaning, changing batteries, labels, cartridges. No luck. Still shooting blanks. Of course no way to put in new ink cartridges and it seems like the ink ran out. So waiting to hear back from customer service. Will post back, when and if I do. Really sad-that my labeling frenzy has been thwarted!!

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I was very excited about getting a labelmaker, and after some research, settled on the LetraTag. It seemed fairly priced and was just what I needed.

I made a couple of labels and was pleased the dozens of symbols and various fonts that the LetraTag offers are fun. Unfortunately, after only a few uses, the labels came out faded. I switched the label cartridge, but the next label came out almost completely blank. I cleaned the inside with the little brush, changed the batteries, and tried a power adapter all of the suggestions on the Dymo website. None of these worked. I e-mailed Dymo's customer support; they were relatively nice and sent me a new one. I had to send a couple more e-mails, however, to find out if they wanted the broken one back (they didn't).

I was excited to get my new labelmaker, but this time the first label came out faded. Then the second. And the third had barely a fleck of ink. Now I have two brand-new labelmakers that won't make labels.

Either I have a crazy electrical force field like Sean Patrick Flanery in Powder or this product stinks. I'm betting on the latter, and would not recommend this labelmaker to anyone.

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I bought this label maker based on price comparisons and multiple types of labels available. Once you get used to the buttons/functions, it is pretty good device. The magnetic labels do not have a great "stickability". More importantly, I did have a problem when using the basic white label cartridge. During early use, it began to make bad labels. After reading troubleshooting section of manual, I replaced the label cartridge with a new one, and that fixed it. But I wonder why is that needed, and how often is that needed especially since they mention that in the manual? I did send customer service a message regarding this and am waiting on their response. I will follow up on this review based on what they say, if anything.

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Each time I go to use this I find another little irritating thing about it. My main complaint is the size of the type. Oh, you can choose from several sizes, but that is only for width, not height of the letters. I.E. Extra Large prints the letters twice as wide as the Large size, but still only 3/16ths of an inch high, making them very difficult to read (and using twice as much tape, of course).

The Preview button only shows you the letters that will print, and the Size function shows the letters taller, not wider, and it is very misleading. It would be nice if you could see what the actual label would look like, and if it would print on more of the width of the tape, not just on a narrow 3/16th inch band.

I'd prefer a QWERTY type keyboard over the alphabetical one provided.

The labels are easy to apply and to remove without residue, and remain on the packages in the freezer (which is my main use for the product). I like the fact you can stick the entire device on the side of the refrigerator with the powerful magnet holder.

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This is a terrific little tool and an inspiration to become more organized. Good for labeling kids' items too. I use the plastic label tape for things that get wet, such as a water bottle kept in the fridge. So far they have stayed on & I'm very pleased with it. My one slightly-negative comment is that the font size default cannot be changed default size is large, but I'd prefer medium it's plenty big and would save tape. So I have to change the size each time I print something. But still... easy to use, doesn't take up much storage space and I love it. If Dymo would produce colored tape (I've only found white and clear) that'd be even better!

PNY P-CF1G-RF3 1 GB Compact Flash Memory Card

• Device Type - Compact Flash Card
• Storage Capacity - 1 GB
• Maximizes your storage capacity, resolution and speed
• High Performance, low power consumption, non-volatile storage

Don't be fooled by the low price. This is a 60X card that works well with my PDA.

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I bought this card about a year ago so I could have plenty of room for pictures and clips at Disney World. As with my other PNY cards, it's worked flawlessly. I use the lowest compression and still can take several hundred pics.

Read Best Reviews of PNY P-CF1G-RF3 1 GB Compact Flash Memory Card Here

Wasn't sure how it would perform as it was much less than most cards. Have had no problems.

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no cons on this one... this 1g has a great price and quality. no problems so far.. dont think ill really have any...

on transferring pictures to computer. Yes, it's cheap,got mine for $5 after rebate. It can capture at a rate of about 1.5 fps for up to 20+ pictures before bogging down. By comparison the San Disk Ultra II goes at 1.5 fps up to 45 pictures without slowing. The main problem is it takes a long time to transfer pictures. If you are fine with that, it's a good deal.

Planon DPENR700 Docupen R700 B&W Pen Scanner

• Battery Operated for Full Portability Purposes. Stores Up to 100 Pages into Memory
• Scans Take Approximately 4 to 8 Seconds
• Scans a Full Page Width Including Text & Graphics
• Free PaperPort Software Included with OCR Capability
• Rechargeable lithium-Ion Batteries

Bottom line first: DocuPen is a very good device if you do not have too high expectations and use it only for what it was designed for. You have to realize: this is neither a copier, nor a scanner; this is a fax machine inside out. You will get exactly the same quality as from a conventional fax. If that's what you need, than DocuPen is a perfect device for you. Otherwise don't bother.

The images scanned with DocuPen look almost exactly as if they came out of a conventional fax machine. The pictures looked pretty bad (if heavy graphics/pictures are what you need don't even think about DocuPen) and some of the text lines were stretched in a way a fax machine does when the paper gets a bit jammed. I am sure, with some practice it will get better but not too much as it's humanly impossible to keep moving the hand up to 8 seconds with precisely the same speed.

However, if the text and some light drawings are what you need than this device is for you. I, personally, do historical research and need to copy some articles from old newspapers. DocuPen works great with text. Just make sure you always use 200 DPI even if you don't really need to. The reason is that if you mess something a bit (say, your hand shakes or so) with 200 DPI there is a chance to fix the image later on or at least to be able to read it. At 100 DPI it's pretty much dead end.

The two major drawbacks of the DocuPen (at least for me) are the small memory and inability to work with a PDA. DocuPen's internal memory is only 2 Mb which in my opinion is ridiculously small. And there is no way to increase/upgrade it. Don't believe the ad that says you can store up to a 100 pages. You don't want to scan at 100 DPI, and with 200 DPI 50 pages is the max. What they don't tell you in the ad, is that if any of those pages contain heavy graphics the number could go as low as 12 (!) at 200 DPI (that's what the manual says). That sounds like almost nothing to me.

The small memory issue would not be that bad if the DocuPen was compartable with any of the PDAs. As long as I could download those few pages and start scanning again I would have being OK with that. However, I don't always carry my laptop with me and it is sort of a hassle to bring it to the library every time. On the other hand, my PDA is always in my pocket. If I download those scanned pages to my PDA not only to clear the memory but also to check how they turned out (and re-scan any if necessary) that would have been great. But the DocuPen DOES NOT work with any of the PDAs !!!

I actually made a call to DocuPen's tech support (BTW the guy who works down there was very nice) and talked about this issue. Apparently the problem was not the compartibility but the lack of drivers. The company supports Windows 98/2000/NT/XP (and, I've heard, some of the MAC's OSs) but not Windows Mobile or Palm OS. So, they simply don't know what's going to happen if I connect the DocuPen to my PDA (provided I find the correct cable or make one myself). So if anybody out there feels like writting a driver for the DocuPen to work with Windows Mobile please let me know :-)

They also told me that in six months (Spring 2006) they plan to launch a new model of DocuPen which would have a slot for SD card (yes-s-s !!!) and would scan in full color. Personally, I don't think that DocuPen's upgrade to color scanning is such a good idea. The quality of its images is low enough in b/w and the addition of color would just make things worse. It will also enlarge the size of the device and, of course, the price will go up.

For now, your choice is either to buy the DocuPen R-700 and deal with its small memory or wait six months (at least) and pay more for pretty much the same device (again, I don't believe in color on the "world's smallest scanner") to be able to save your scans on a SD card.

Two other things that I would have changed about DocuPen are fairly minor and are really more inconveniences than major issues. The button that turns the device on is very hard to press. Every time I do that it feels like I am going to break the whole thing. Also the carrying case that comes with the DocuPen does not provide the adequate protection. I wish they made some sturdy metallic tube/box instead of this fluffy pouch. But may be that was the point. The sooner your DocuPen breaks, the sooner you get another one :-)

Overall, I did like the DocuPen and I would recommend it to anybody as long as you clearly understand what you need it for. If you plan to use it for copying a few book articles at your library, class notes from your friend's copy-book or some simple hand-drawings it will work great for you. But if you need quality graphic images of pictures or complicated blueprints and/or plan to scan a large number of documents at once DocuPen is NOT for you. Try to get HP's CapShare 920 instead.

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I am a student and I bought DocuPen thinking I could scan library books or part of books, convert them to PDF and have my own collection of readings, with my annotations and highlights on them. Fat chance...

First of all, it looks very cheap and not very solid (very cheap-looking plastic, poor finish).

Second, the controls are incredibly frustrating everytime you scan you have to press a button (twice, if you want hi-res), and the button is pretty much burried in the scanner and tough to press. Why do I have to press it every time and hurry to scan (it shuts down quickly, unless you start scanning, I do not know).

Third, the 2MB of memory is a joke. I guess you could fit 100 not-too-large low-res scans on it (as the product claims), but who wants 100 dpi scans? Why, when flash memory has dropped so much in size and price, the Docupen has a measly 2 MB?

Fourth, the software interface and transfer mode are atrocious. Why is not recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device, but instead you have to install its software or use another image-acquiring program? Moreover, the transfer speed is horrible, and you have to download all the images in its memory before choosing which to actually keep.

But, most important, unless you have a very steady hand and are very careful when you scan, the quality is very poor and there is no hope of OCR (by the way, the bundled OCR software is slow and not very accurate). I guess they should have the rollers on the bottom of the scanner measure the speed you're going, the way they do in ball mouses, or have measure the speed the way optical mouses do, and thus compensate for variations in scanning speed across the page.

I have had much better OCR results with snapshots of books taken with a digital camera (done carefully, in bright sunlight) and a professional OCR suite, such as Abbyy FineReader, than with Docupen scans (using the same OCR software).

Last, but certainly not least, it costs a lot (but that could be a problem with most handheld scanners, since the cheapest I could get a used C-Pen on ebay one year ago was some $ 120).

The only good things I can say about it is that it comes with a leather-like case, good for protecting it against scratches while carrying it around, and that one of the led lights on it blinks when you're scanning to fast, thus offering some control over your optimum speed.

All, in all however, this seems like a good idea that steel needs some technological progress before it can actually be useful (higher DPI, speed-variation compensation) or at least some simple and sensible improvements possible at present (more ergonomic and simple controls, higher memory and transfer speeds, and implementation of USB Mass Storage protocols instead of the clunky TWAIN interface).

Read Best Reviews of Planon DPENR700 Docupen R700 B&W Pen Scanner Here

Easy to install and easy to use.

I used to have the older model (DocuPen BW) but after knowing that the new model featured rechargeable batteries I decided to buy it (my son inherited the BW and now uses it at school)

Since I bought my DocuPen R-700 I have been carrying it around with my mobile and my notebook and it is almost like having my whole office on the road.

The scan quality is good for my purposes (it is 100 dpi, not a 1600 dpi flat bed scanner OK?) and the best part is that I don't have to look for photocopy machines anymore.

I have heard some complaints about the installation but it worked perfectly to me and have not found any problem (I use XP). If you follow the instructions on the screen you should not have any problem at all

Anybody working on the road should have one.

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This product looks and feels very flimsy. Do not be fooled by the flashy, metallic-looking picture. The plastic shell of this device is the quality of McDonald's toys. One would think that for $300, the company would at least commission a manufacturer that did not leave plastic whiskers hanging off the rims due to bad cutting.

The buttons are hard to press. In order to turn the device on, you have to press very firmly, which is a risky thing to do considering the cracking delicacy of the shell.

The cable port for the DocuPen is also extremely flimsy, and you have to hold the cable firmly in place in order for the downloads to take place; otherwise, the connection will be lost.

I am a pre-medical student, and I very stupidly invested a lot of money in this product, believing that I could (for 8 seconds a page and 100 pages per disk) scan my science textbooks in the library, including the colored diagrams, and in that way, I thought I would make back my investment, since textbooks go for at least $100 each. However, I now see that this belief was naive, to say the least. The Docupen is extremely difficult to use. The words come out distorted, like a jammed fax machine, and although the free Paper Port software which comes complimentary with the DocuPen is rather useful for annotating PDF's, the DocuPen does not produce texts that are legible enough to annotate.

Furthermore, downloading is very slow (at least 15 seconds per page on my fast computer), and since you can't see how your scans have turned out until you load them into the computer, you will have to re-scan about 80% of pages due to stretches, smudges, blurriness, suspicious blank spots, and general illegibility.

I wish I had read some of the other negative Amazon reviews before buying this product. I would have saved myself a lot of money and time.

If you are a user who is only looking to scan pictures or a few flat documents, then this product may work okay for you, although a digital camera will probably deliver better results. If you have been harboring grandiose visions of going all-out "paperless" with this product, you will find yourself extremely disappointed.

Until PlanOn decides that this product is worthy enough to invest in a semi-decent shell manufacturuer, it will not a good buy. The idea is wonderful and has a lot of potential, especially when coupled with a Tablet PC. However, the execution of the idea needs improvement. I hope to see a far better version of this product in the next few years, at a price that is comparable to quality.

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Although I would like some type of "high-tech" mobile scanner like Kiefer Sutherland uses in the show "24"....that's a few years off...LOL. Anyway, this thing is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. As far as text is concerned the resolution is adequate for my needs, and probably the vast majority of users. With regards to graphics, it is the only hand/pen scanner that can scan graphics, but with a limited resolution (200dpi). Overall, this docupen is great. I did notice however that if you do alot of mobile scanning and don't necessarily have the ability to dump the info immediately into a computer...space becomes limiting. I've decided to get a "handful" of them (no pun intended), so that I'm never caught short of memory and space. I will let you know that I was able to easily scan about 50 pages of text at decent resolution with little or no difficulty (with alot of room left over). It saved the the hassle of looking for a copier where I was on-site working. One thing to know: there is supposed to be a "calibration sheet" enclosed in the package that "tunes up and calibrates" the pen. After looking around for it to no avail in the package, the customer service department let me know it was on the installation disc as a file that can be printed out and scanned for calibration purposes. Other than that, like I said, it's simple, effective and quite honestly the only product that's currently on the market that can scan and store text and graphics on the fly. If you need something that absolutely must have the flexibility of incorporating graphics this is the only game in town...and as I've already indicated I couldn't be happier (unless someone develops a tablet sized pc that has a printer and a scanner built right into the system).

Oh, one additional thing: people do give you a second glance or two when using one of these things.....they either think you are a: 1) Spy like James Bond, 2) Alien here observing humans, 3) Traveller from the future or 4) High tech geek (LOL).

I hope this product is as useful for you as it is for me.

Apple iPad / iPad 2 10W Wall Home Charger Adapter

• 100% Brand New Non-OEM Wall Charger Adapter
• AC 100~240V; 10W
• Get charged up when you plugged the wall charger in!
• Has blue LED light indicator
• IC Chip recognizes a full battery & automatically switches to saver mode

Doesn't charge! I left my ipad plugged in all night and it was at the same battery level when i turned it on in the morning! I've tried using it with three different cables and it still wont charge!

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It was really difficult plugging the USB into this charger. I should have stopped, but was in a pinch and needed my iPad. When I tryed to remove the cord however, it wouldn't budge. As I worked it as gently as possible, the wires in the cord broke and now no longer works. Very disappointed and will be returning this (with my cord still in it). It did however, charge my iPad2.

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I received it very quickly; that's about the only good thing about this product. It is not an authentic Apple charger. You can tell by the cheaper plastic and the pinch marks from when the product was pulled from the mold. It just has a lower level of quality than an Apple product would. They have clearly aimed to deceive the consumer with this product.

To top it all off--It doesn't work; Apple products actually work when they are plugged in.

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When plugged in alone it is quiet, but when charging a product it "hisses". Now concerned about a fire hazard.

Only charges iPhone and iPod not iPad. Some kind of aftermarket charger that iPad doesn't accept. I wish I would of just bought one from the apple store.

CE Compass Black Flip Leather Case Cover Stand For Blackberry Playbook

• Leather case features smooth leather and heavy duty stitching to ensure the long life of your Blackberry Playbook
• Features with auto-securing magnetic flap for the best combination of security and ease of use
• Leather case cover can be turned into a horizontal stand for the convenience of viewing slide shows or videos
• Unique design allows easy access to all buttons, controls and ports without having to remove the case

This case is of nice quality and I love the stand. Since the Playbook can rotate either way in portrait, you can have two different viewing angles with this case. But the reason why I gave it 3 stars is because the leather frame covers the Playbook's whole screen and you can't do any swipe gestures to control the Playbook. Also, the sides of the leather isn't flush against the tablet where the cutouts are for the speaker so that annoys me quite a bit. I'm going home for the holidays tomorrow so I am going to keep it for travelling. I had to take an x-acto knife and a ruler to cut the edges off. It doesn't look nice anymore. I am going to purchase a different one after I come back.

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Granted, for the price, it is what it is. But, the leather prohibits using the swipe from tthe bottom function, so you are forced to use the product upside down. The "stand" is hard to use as well, wont set up easily, you have to pry open the clip to make it work

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I bought this for my Blackberry Playbook and I just gotta say: Great price, great material, great fit, just what I needed... I really recommend this item ;)

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This is a wonderful case for $25 or $30 let alone $7!!! Perfect fit and great protection without the bulk. Do not hesitate. Highly recommended.

IOGEAR 56-in-1 USB 2.0 Flash Memory Card Reader (Tri-Lingual Packaging) GFR281W6

• Easy installation; Plug-n-Play, Reads and writes multiple media cards at one time
• CompactFlash Type I, II , High Capacity support: SDHC / microSDHC, SD / Mini SD / MMC / microSD / T-Flash, transfer your slotMusic songs to your PC or Mac
• Olympus and Fuji Film flash memory, Memory Stick / MS Duo, Memory Stick Micro (M2), Remarkable high-speed digital image and data transfer to computer
• Remarkable high-speed digital image and data transfer to computer, USB 2.0 transfer speeds up to 480 Mbps., No power adapter needed, Works with all popular memory cards without dditional adapters required
• Specifically designed for digital cameras and also ideal for using with Palmtop PCs, Handheld PCs, PDAs, Voice Recorders and other mobile electronics, hot swapping capacity for replacing PC storage cards without restarting the computer

It works as it is supposed to and reads the HDSD cards well...especially since some of the older card readers won't recognize the 16GB SD cards.

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This worked great, just plug and play. Cards were immediately identified. I gave it four stars instead of five because this is a very light unit and it has a tendency to slide around my desk. It needs some tacky rubber feet.

Read Best Reviews of IOGEAR 56-in-1 USB 2.0 Flash Memory Card Reader (Tri-Lingual Packaging) GFR281W6 Here

Transfer by cut and paste, copy or whatever to another drive without using drivers and a special USB connecter. So far I have used it on 4 different types. Copy and paste and then delete from the original media. Nice small handy, transportable drive and easy to use.

Astro Super Lite

• Astro Super Lite
• Astro Super Lite is made from aircraft grade aluminum, with 6 high-power LEDs inside.
• it's water resistant and hangs anywhere with your choice of the included carabiner clip and lanyard.
• 6 high-power LEDs last for more than 100,000 hours.
• Includes carabiner clip and lanyard-attach to backpacks, keychains, or wear around your neck. Includes 2 button cell batteries.

Best small flashlight I have ever had. Fits in my pocket and I carry it every where. Very well constructed. Will order another.

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This little light is great it can hang aroound your neck or hook to keychain easy access in a dark movie theater. It has 6 super bright LED lights with 100,000 hours. Where I live it is suer dark at night on parts of the parking lot this solves that problem easily. I only paid $5 bucks on clearence at another retailer but would gladly buy again. Will buy another as a backup.

Read Best Reviews of Astro Super Lite Here

The light is bright and compact for easy storage in purse. Also great little gift for friends! Great deal! Shipped and received promptly.

Purple TPU Silicone Case Cover For Apple iPad 2

• Superior protection from scratches and dust
• Prevents everyday finger and oil prints
• Stretchy, silicone material to resist moisture
• Full functionality while in case

This product was timely received as I just received my IPAD and wanted to protect it. Thank you for offering this IPAD case at a price that one can afford. Keep up the high quality.

Thank you,

Debbie Dragon

(727) 393-8080

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Bought this cover for my daughter's i-pad...fits great, looks good, easy to install. Protects the corners, while looking stylish.

The only downside is that it can be slipped off, doesn't fall off, but can be slipped off if someone is not careful.

Daughter loves it and Mom is happy also!

Tribeca FVA5556 iPad 2 Folio - Dallas Cowboys

• Folio-style iPad 2 case by Tribeca protects device and converts to stand for viewing or typing
• Constructed of genuine nubuck leather
• Screen-printed in full color with the official NFL team logo
• Cover folds back to form stand with two positions - one for typing and one for viewing
• Slim, lightweight design; measures approx. 10 x 8 x 3/8 inches
• iPad 2 Folio - Dallas Cowboys
• Easy access to ports and controls
• Slim design adds style, not bulk

it was too light and flimsy more for show than protection, but if that is what you are looking for than this is for you

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The cover looked great when I first got it but started stretching and falling apart after about three months after. Now I have to always make sure my iPad s secure.

TwitterPeek Mobile Tweeting Device (Gray)

• Large, full-color screen and full keyboard
• Long battery life of 4-5 days. Fully recharges in under 2 hours
• Service plan no longer supported by manufacturer.

Amazon needs to pull all of these devices from its marketplace. Peek is done. My "life time" service was shut-down on January 30. Today I received a mass email from the head of the company (see below). I guess he didn't know how to complete the fourth paragraph. This was the first I heard they were shutting down. I loved Peek for what it was... and now it's gone.

"Dear Peek user,

Since we launched Peek in September 2008, we received amazing accolades for the product and the support of many, many Peeksters like you.

Since 2010 the business has been taking off in a direction that moved us away from these devices -putting our cloud platform and software to work bringing smart apps to simple devices made by other mobile phone makers.

We have been winding down the US service since late 2010, and at the end of 2011 this email address was connected to one of a few Peek devices still operating in the US. At the end of January, this last batch of devices was decommissioned.

I'm sorry to report that this

As our Peek cloud powers increasing millions of devices around the world, we hope you'll find yourself using our apps for services like mail, chat, picture sharing, and cloud backup. Indeed, we were just honored by the global mobile industry association with a prestigious Best Technology award nomination. You can read more about this and where we are heading at

All the best,

Amol

Peekster-in-Chief"

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*******

OCT. 19, 2010 UPDATE:

The TwitterPeek does NOT work any longer. Don't buy it. If you already have a TwitterPeek with LIFETIME SERVICE, this is NOW what PEEK INC. is telling me: PEEK INC. is only offering TwitterPeek Users with LIFETIME SERVICE to switch to a Peek 9 with only ONE YEAR OF SERVICE. No more LIFETIME SERVICE on a direct straight swap. But someone else in the GetPeek discussion forum is saying you have to pay an extra $50 to get lifetime service on the Peek 9 if you want to swap to a Peek 9. It's up to you. But I say: Don't buy the TwitterPeek. Get a real phone with internet on the phone for doing your twitter. Based on my experience with the TwitterPeek, you can expect a DEAD DEVICE and you will be wasting your money.

*******

OCT. 14, 2010 UPDATE:

The TwitterPeek no longer works. The TwitterPeek is a dead device. According to a support message that I've received, PEEK INC has no ETA as to when twitter service may be restored. PEEK INC. is now saying that TwitterPeek users should get the Peek 9 device which is their new email device. There's is a "lemonade" offer where you can get a Peek 9 for $1, but you have to contact PEEK to swap your lifetime service from the TwitterPeek to the Peek 9. But there is NO TWITTER on the Peek 9 because PEEK INC. still hasn't gotten twitter to work. They may advertise twitter on the Peek 9, but they admit twitter is not working. I haven't switched to the Peek 9 yet, but anticipate doing so to at least get some sort of LIFETIME SERVICE that I've originally paid for. [EDIT: my contact at support is checking to see if there is a difference in paying for the Lifetime Service on the PEEK9. If there is, I may not want to get it because I've paid all that I want to pay for these Peek devices.]

If you are looking at the TwitterPeek, don't get it. Additionally, I suggest you don't bother looking at any of Peek's other devices because the service is not reliable from my experience and also if you look at the GetPeek discussion forums where people complain about the outages on the other Peek devices. You will be better off looking for an unlocked phone, put an AT&T SIM card on the phone, and use AT&T GoPhone prepaid service on the phone to get voice as well as internet to thereby get twitter. As I've mentioned in a previous update, my review here used to be five stars, but I've since downgraded my review to ONE STAR. Don't get the TwitterPeek. I used to be enthusiastic for the TwitterPeek, but I now wholeheartedly agree with the other one-star reviews here. Those other one-star reviews had no experience with the TwitterPeek, but I have experience with the TwitterPeek and can tell you that you will definitely make a mistake if you get the TwitterPeek since the TwitterPeek is now a dead do-nothing bricked device and when the company behind the device is telling people to switch to something else.

*******

OCT. 8, 2010 UPDATE:

Still No Twitter Service.

This was originally a Five Star Review.

I've completely downgraded it to One Star.

This TwitterPeek is suppose to have

LIFETIME SERVICE, but at this point

there has been NO SERVICE for

OVER ONE MONTH and counting.

*******

SEPT. 29, 2010 UPDATE:

From the PEEK discussion forum (@amolsarva):

TwitterPeek fix status :

Official word on TwitterPeek:

while we were getting ready to launch Peek 9

Twitter changed a bunch of stuff

that broke TwitterPeek

but we are nearly through fixing it up

and it's going to work not only on all TwitterPeeks

but also on Peek 9s

and you can even turn it on Peek Prontos

If you want a credit back for a "monthly plan" TwitterPeek please email care@getpeek

A cool thing is that the links are "followable" by the mini browser. That will work on all Peeks

*******

SEPT. 18, 2010 UPDATE:

Because of a recent change in how Twitter authenticates accounts, the TwitterPeek has been DEAD in getting service from Twitter since about the beginning of September 2010. First, the people at PEEK Inc. said that they would have access to Twitter restored by Thursday, September 16, but that date fell through. Now, they say they will have access to Twitter restored by sometime the following week (which is next week after the time when I'm currently writing this update) in time for the debut of their next product called the Peek 9. So far I've got only three months out of the lifetime service for my TwitterPeek. And I'm waiting to see if this comatose TwitterPeek actually rises from the dead and starts working again. Totally annoying having to wait to see if that actually happens. I'll report back if and when Twitter access is restored on the TwitterPeek, or if there is some other change, BUT I have to agree with the naysayers, that you will be better off with a smartphone that has some type of internet access for accessing Twitter while you are on the go away from a computer. For instance, look at the unlocked phones that can take GSM cards like the LG phones or even the iphone clones that you can use with AT&T GoPhone prepaid service for voice calls and internet.

*******

ORIGINAL (AND NOW *WORTHLESS*) June 23, 2010 REVIEW

WITH THE JULY 11, 2010 UPDATE....

GOOD CONCEPT BUT NOW DEAD WORTHLESS DEVICE....

DON'T BUY ANY OF THE PEEK DEVICES....

DON'T EVEN BUY THEIR SO-CALLED NEW PEEK 9....

PEEK IS A RIP-OFF. STAY VERY FAR AWAY FROM PEEK....

======================================

TwitterPeek is either something you want or it is something you really despise. There seems to be no other than two ways about it. You either like it or hate it.

For the record, I do like the TwitterPeek. However, the TwitterPeek is not for everyone. Particularly, not for those who just don't understand Twitter and certainly not for those vocal Haters who can't understand the reason for a single-purpose device like the TwitterPeek when there are the more multi-purpose smartphones like the iPhone. People definitely do want to have their smartphones and all the more power to them. And then there are those people who will want the TwitterPeek for it's single-purpose simplicity and the lack of a monthly phone bill if you get the TwitterPeek with "lifetime" service. It's a choice that the beauty and the diversity of the marketplace provides because people will buy what they want.

Okay, let's compare the two sides of those who want the TwitterPeek and those who hate the Twitterpeek.

First, this is what is typically said by those who sadly really hate and despise the TwitterPeek with a vengeance in blogs and comments around the web:

1. TwitterPeek is nothing but a piece of @#$!&* junk.

2. Twitter is a complete waste of time.

3. Isn't Twitter just like TXTing which you can do with your cell phone anyways?

4. TwitterPeek is a complete waste of money.

5. Two Hundred Dollars can be used to buy a real smartphone.

6. Get a REAL smartphone like the iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, etc.

7. TwitterPeek is another device that you have to carry.

8. The TwitterPeek interface is horrible using that Scroll Wheel.

9. Using the Scroll Wheel to go into and out of tweets is like doing email.

10. TwitterPeek doesn't show complete tweets in the timeline.

11. TwitterPeek can't do the new Twitter Lists.

12. TwitterPeek can't do multiple accounts.

13. The company behind the TwitterPeek is doomed to go out of business.

14. Real Geeks hate the TwitterPeek and you should too.

15. Only idiots would want to use a TwitterPeek.

Now, let's go on to those who happily and definitely want the TwitterPeek:

1. TwitterPeek with lifetime service is now approximately one hundred bucks on Amazon.

2. TwitterPeek with lifetime service means no monthly bills.

3. TwitterPeek with no monthly bills goes perfect with a cheap or prepaid cell phone.

4. TwitterPeek is for people who don't want a smartphone.

5. Use TwitterPeek's keyboard to quickly go through tweets instead of using the Scroll Wheel.

6. Use the N and P keys to go quickly from tweet to tweet. It's not that bad.

7. You don't have to be a Geek to use a TwitterPeek.

8. The company behind TwitterPeek shouldn't go out of business.

9. People who use the TwitterPeek are not idiots. Don't Rain On Our Parade.

10. REPEAT: TwitterPeek with lifetime service is now approximately one hundred bucks on Amazon.

The battle between the LOVE-HATE adversarial opinions about the TwitterPeek is kind of ridiculous. It's like talking about religion where the people who hate the TwitterPeek really hate the TwitterPeek with a vengeance as an automatic reflex action on their part. The one area of contention that I find to be very silly is the criticism about the navigation using the Scroll Wheel. Yes, it's BAD going in and out of tweets using the Scroll Wheel and the back button. But the better way to really quickly go through your tweets on the TwitterPeek is to use keyboard commands. Click the Enter (Return) key on a selected tweet and then use the "N" key (for Next) and the "P" key (for Previous) to go from tweet to tweet (yes, one at a time) to very quickly and seamlessly go through your twitter timeline. This has the same practical effect of what you're doing anyways if you are reading one-tweet-at-a-time whether in a timeline or not. But the die-hard twitter aficionados and critics will say that you can't scan complete tweets in the whole timeline at once. Nonetheless, if you are quickly going through tweets using keyboard commands with the "N" and "P" keys, then that shouldn't make too much of a difference when you are looking at a very small screen. The video included with this review is intended to give you an idea as to how to navigate the Twitter timeline either using the scroll-wheel or the keyboard on the TwitterPeek.

The storage space on the TwitterPeek is approximately only 7.5 megabytes. That's like teeny weeny tiny in size. That's megabytes. Not gigabytes. But we're talking about Twitter text messages that are only 140 characters long per tweet. So that's more than enough storage space. To me, this does make the TwitterPeek seem like an overly expensive device at its original price of two hundred dollars when it is such a tiny single-purpose twitter-only device. But whether at the original two-hundred dollar price tag or at the recently discounted price of approximately one-hundred bucks, whatever you're paying for the TwitterPeek with lifetime service, then that should go mostly towards the service. It's like you're prepaying mostly for the "lifetime" service and getting the TwitterPeek device for some lesser amount. And when you then average out what you've paid upfront over time, then that may turn out to be a good deal if all you want to do is twitter and assuming you don't lose or break the TwitterPeek device because the "lifetime" service is for the "lifetime" of the device that you are buying. You just have to assume and hope that the company behind the TwitterPeek (and its older sibling the Peek Pronto) stays in business to continue providing you with the online service that is suppose to send tweets to your TwitterPeek.

On a related note, regarding the online service, from what I could tell, the TwitterPeek retrieves tweets every 5-to-15 minutes. (I've noticed similar delays from some, but perhaps not all, people who do Twitter and send tweets from their smartphones.) Usually, this is okay because tweets would be coming in all the time like this. But sometimes it may look like the TwitterPeek has stopped receiving tweets. If it looks like the TwitterPeek has stopped receiving tweets, like if an hour has gone by and you don't see any new tweets, try turning the TwitterPeek off and then on. This assumes you expect to get a bunch of tweets every few minutes or so from a lot of people whom you follow. Currently, I follow over 300+ people and there will be someone or someone else (although NOT everyone at the same time all the time) tweeting something every few minutes whether during the day or at night (which could be their day if they are elsewhere in the world). So I expect to constantly be getting tweets that are waiting for me to look at in a timeline pile of tweets. (If you follow only a few people, then your frequency of receiving tweets may be less and not as often.) Then if it looks like the tweets have stopped for a long time, then the chances are the TwitterPeek may need to be rebooted. Turn the TwitterPeek off and then on to see if those missing tweets show up. If the TwitterPeek is really not getting any new tweets, then that could be for any variety of reasons like the main Twitter servers (that everyone accesses) are overwhelmed or down during very busy times like during the recent World Cup soccer games or if Twitter is having other technical problems. I've seen that happen with the regular Twitter website and with other third-party Twitter apps (like Tweetie or Hootsuite). Reboot your TwitterPeek (turn it off and then turn it back on) to see if that clears things up on your end. Or wait to see if Twitter clears up and starts updating again.

Okay, there are some other things to be aware of if you really want to get this TwitterPeek device. You can click the link in a tweet, but you'll only get the text for the webpage that the link is for. Sometimes, you may have to scroll through a bunch of text to get the main part of page that you want to read. If the linked page is too complex or if it is busy, you may get nothing. You can get pictures with the TwitterPeek but only if the links are at Twitpic (most of the time) and not anywhere else. The TwitterPeek does not do email. It only does Twitter. No multiple accounts. The battery life is suppose to last four days, but that depends on how much you use it and whether you have a good or bad signal. Maybe expect to plug it in to charge every night and be happy if you only have to charge the TwitterPeek every two days or more. It does come with a charger to plug into an electrical wall outlet. However, if you want to charge the TwitterPeek via the USB on your computer, then you'll have to get a blackberry cable to hook up the TwitterPeek to your computer to charge the TwitterPeek's battery. Don't expect firmware updates for the TwitterPeek. The folks at Peek Inc. think that the TwitterPeek works fine for the basic twitter functionality that it provides.

The TwitterPeek cannot directly handle tweets that contain foreign language characters like japanese, chinese, korean, and thai. Yet, I've noticed that japanese, chinese, korean, and, recently, thai characters in tweets are converted into romanized text. I'm guessing that a romanization conversion happens at the Peek servers before the tweets are sent to the TwitterPeek. It's not a translation, but a romanization of those script characters into text for phonetic pronunciation purposes. However, there may be some question marks or different strange characters where the conversion is not complete. I don't know about any other script languages. Also related to this, it looks like the TwitterPeek unfortunately cannot handle some symbol characters like the heart symbol or a pointing hand/finger symbol or musical note symbols that people may use in tweets -you'll get question marks instead. (NOTE TO THE PEOPLE AT PEEK: It would be visually more pleasing if any incomplete conversion be replaced by asterisks instead of question marks.)

There are other PROs and CONs for the TwitterPeek. You can read the other reviews here on Amazon and elsewhere to find out what other people say about the TwitterPeek.

As previously mentioned, YES, I do like the TwitterPeek. I find it easy to use where I primarily use keyboard commands. I've waited for Amazon to drop the price for the TwitterPeek (with "lifetime" service) before buying it. So far, I've been keeping my TwitterPeek turned on pretty much all the time -but every once in while I would turn-it-off-and-on to reboot the TwitterPeek if it looks like it "stopped" receiving tweets. What I typically do is I use the TwitterPeek when I'm away from my computer -and then when I am using my macbook then I may have the TwitterPeek plugged into the USB on the computer with a blackberry cable (a kindle cable works also) to charge the TwitterPeek's battery, and I would be accessing Twitter mostly on the computer -and later, in a kind of tag-team hand off, when I'm away from the computer, then I would be using the TwitterPeek.

However, is the TwitterPeek for you? If you really want an iPhone or some other smartphone, then this is certainly not for you. If you are not into Twitter, or if you don't understand all the hoopla surrounding Twitter, then this is particularly not for you. However, if you don't want a smartphone (like an iPhone), particularly if you don't want the monthly bill that comes with a smartphone, and if you want on-the-go twitter access, then the TwitterPeek (with "lifetime" service) may possibly be for you.

Thank you for reading and viewing this review.

P.S. UPDATE July 11, 2010:

As another point of comparison for navigating the TwitterPeek, I was looking at youtube video demonstration reviews for the AT&T Social Net app for the AT&T smartphones because I was looking at the AT&T LG Prime Prepaid GoPhone which is something like an iPhone. The AT&T Social Net application let's you access Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. and the way that you navigate the app reminds me of the TwitterPeek where the main timeline has truncated tweets that are cut off at the end of each tweet and if you want to read the whole tweet then you have to go into each individual tweet. And the fast way to go through tweets is navigating message by message. So the TwitterPeek navigation is not really new and similar navigation although in a different interface can be found on other devices.

Also, it looks like the price for the TwitterPeek is closing in on the ninety dollar mark for the "charcoal" version of the TwitterPeek. The price for the "aqua" version is under one hundred fifty at this time. I would really like to eventually get the "aqua" version. Nice. Whichever one you get, assuming you're getting the TwitterPeek with "lifetime" service, you can consider whatever amount that you're paying to be like mostly for your prepaid "lifetime" service on the device.

Anyways, the TwitterPeek is a good buy as far as I'm concerned and I've been happy with mine. And to be clear, I do *NOT* work for PEEK INC. I'm only a user of the TwitterPeek device. However, at this point, one thing that frustrates me about the TwitterPeek (and I think this may also frustrate people using the Peek Pronto which is the email version of the device that is also made by the same PEEK INC. company that makes the TwitterPeek) is the recent service outage that have occurred. One occurred on the July 4th weekend on two consecutive days and lasted several hours each day. I'm guessing that those outages were related to how the Peek Inc. company was expanding in Europe and had to get their servers working to also serve new European users of the Peek Pronto devices in multiple countries. However, I guess that I have to expect these hiccups that may happen as part of the growing pains that the PEEK INC. company may be going through as they expand worldwide. Otherwise, I've been happy with my TwitterPeek. Here's hoping for continued smooth sailing with minimal if any hiccups.

Read Best Reviews of TwitterPeek Mobile Tweeting Device (Gray) Here

The maker is going out of business and no longer is providing the service you need to use this. It will save you the time to dispose of the unit in recycling a week after receiving it. YOU CAN PAY FOR NONREFUNDABLE SERVICE that is not available , with no option for any form of refund.

Want TwitterPeek Mobile Tweeting Device (Gray) Discount?

The TwitterPeek is a handheld, dedicated Twitter device recently released by Peek, a company which also makes a similar device for email, the Peek Pronto. The TwitterPeek runs on a wireless network and allows you to Twitter from anywhere in the U.S. where you can get a T-Mobile signal. No wi-fi signal is needed. It sells for $99.99, which gives you six months of free service. After that it'll cost you $7.95 a month. Or you can buy a TwitterPeek for $199.99, which gives you free service for the lifetime of the unit, no monthly fees ever.

I was very excited about the TwitterPeek when news of it surfaced. I was initially put off by the cost of the device, but my lust for the TwitterPeek got the better of me, and I also rethought my position somewhat. The unit itself costs $52.29 if you subtract the six months of service from the $99.99 price tag. Or for $199 you get potentially years' worth of always-on connection to Twitter. Go the latter route and it becomes very cost-effective over time if you're a big Twitter user.

Given my excitement about the release of the TwitterPeek, I was very interested in following its reception in the Twittersphere. So I was really shocked to read that early impressions of the product were extremely negative. I shouldn't say impressions of the product, I guess, because most of the people who were Twittering and blogging about the device early on had never seen or used one. There were two main objections to the device raised: (1) it only does Twitter, and multi-function devices are superior; single-use devices should be avoided; and (2) smartphones already do Twitter, so there's no need for a dedicated Twitter device. These objections, worth raising, were, however, often accompanied by a surprising amount of vitriol. For some reason, a lot of people don't want such a device to exist: they see no use for it themselves, and don't want other people to see a use for it either.

Regarding the two objections above, the point is, it really depends on your needs. If you have a smartphone that's already giving you always-on Twitter, then there's absolutely no need for you to buy a TwitterPeek. But not everyone wants to cough up the monthly fees required for smartphones. I myself hate using the phone, landline or cell. I have a basic Tracfone that cost me $20 to buy and costs me $20 every THREE MONTHS to keep going. I hardly ever use it, but it's good to have for emergencies. I have an iPod Touch that gives me virtually all the benefits of an iPhone, but without a camera (which I don't need) and without the cell phone (which I don't need or want). But I'm tethered to wi-fi with it. So what am I missing? The ability to Twitter when I'm away from a wi-fi signal. That's what TwitterPeek provides.

Some people may object as well that one doesn't NEED to Twitter at all times, and of course that's true. But it's a good way to stay in touch with friends and family, and it's a legitimate a mode of communication. If you don't like Twitter or use it enough to want to use it on the go, then again, the TwitterPeek isn't for you.

There have also been, let's say, more rational reviews of the TwitterPeek that have criticized its features, which is fine. I just object to the crazed bashing that has occurred over the very existence of the device.

After a lot of obsessive TwitterPeek watching I finally bought myself one, and I've been using it pretty intensively for the last 24 hours. It's a mix of good and bad; some things could be improved. But on the whole, I like it, and I'm not sorry to have spent the money. In more detail:

SET-UP

The set-up of the device is simple--you pretty much just input your existing Twitter credentials. But it wasn't immediately obvious from the documentation that you have to activate your device online first. Once you do that, it only takes a couple minutes to be up and running.

NAVIGATION: SCROLL WHEEL AND KEYBOARD

The TwitterPeek comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, which is really nice. The keys are stiff but not too stiff, with the exception of the space bar, which is a little too stiff for my comfort. On my second day of ownership I gave myself a typing test to see how many characters I could type in one minute on the TwitterPeek vs. the iPod Touch (which I've owned for close to a year). The results:

* iPod Touch: 206 characters with 5 mistakes

* TwitterPeek: 173 characters with 0 mistakes

As other reviewers have noticed, navigating the TwitterPeek's menus and viewing tweets using the scroll wheel is much too awkward. Happily, most actions can be performed with keyboard shortcuts. These work very nicely. My favorite detail is that you can hold down a letter or number key and it will become either a capital or the associated symbol. (One shortcut I discovered but didn't see in the documentation: shift-S for settings menu.)

Still, there are some things that you have to use the scroll bar for, which is unfortunate. Ideally, I would like to have every action performable from the keyboard. That means, I'd like to somehow see directional keys on the keyboard. The Kindle's four-way toggle comes to mind as a possiblity. (To move left or right within a tweet you're writing you have to press shift and use the scroll wheel.) When you're in a menu, or a tweet for that matter, you have to back out using the back button on the side of the device. To me it seems unnatural to use buttons on the side when you're otherwise focused on the keyboard--it's disruptive, like reaching for a mouse when you're typing. So I'd like to have a back button on the keyboard. I'd also like to have a quicker way to get to the home screen than backing out two or three times if you're inside the menus (shift-H?).

The keyboard, by the way, is lockable in case you're worried about accidental keystrokes. Though I think the keys are stiff enough that that's not a likely problem.

ABILITY TO FAVORITE A TWEET NEEDED

You can follow links that are included in tweets received, but you'll only get a text copy of the web page. In some cases this is fine, but it's obviously not always going to be enough. This doesn't bother me, because I'm happy to wait until I get to my computer to view interesting links. However, to this end I'd like to be able to favorite a tweet as a sort of bookmark so I can go back to it easily (for example, shift-F would work nicely). This isn't possible currently. Instead, I've been reduced to direct messaging myself the tweet as a reminder, which is an annoying work-around.

NOTIFICATIONS

You can be notified of new tweets either by a sound (there's are five choices, but I prefer the chirp) or by vibration or both. You can be notified either of all tweets or only @messages and dm's, or you can turn notifications off. In addition, when new tweets come in the little envelope in the upper left of the device blinks. I rather like hearing my TwitterPeek chirp throughout the day, I must say. I would suggest two improvements to notifications:

1. Make it possible to receive different alerts for @messages and dm's vs. other new tweets. For example, one might want to hear chirps for stuff that's directed at you, but a different sound or only vibration for regular tweets.

2. There is an airplane mode on the device, which I gather shuts down the wireless connectivity temporarily. (I'm not sure why that's preferable to turning it off.) But I would like to have a temporary mute button. Sure, you can go into the menus to turn the alerts off when you want to, but it would be easier to be able to, say, shift-M them away for the length of a movie.

ABILITY TO MARK TWEETS AS READ NEEDED

People have complained that the TwitterPeek makes reading your tweets difficult because it only lists the first lines of the tweets on your home screen. You see part of the Twitter id of the person sending the message then a snippet of the tweet and then the time it was sent. In real use I haven't found this problematic. Most often I go into a tweet and then jump to the next one or the previous one using the N and P keyboard shortcuts. Also, if the full tweets were displayed then you would only be able to see two or three at a time, which would increase the amount of scrolling you have to do, which would be bad.

I do dislike very much, however, the fact that the TwitterPeek does not mark as read tweets that you have entered to read. I hate to guess where I've left off reading in the Twitter stream. (Though it does keep your last place highlighted as new tweets come in.)

SPEED

Sitting with my TwitterPeek in front of my Mac with Tweetie open on the desktop, the reception of tweets by the two devices is roughly the same. Sometimes a tweet will come in first on Tweetie, sometimes on TwitterPeek. There's been no noticeable difference. (Where the TwitterPeek does lag slightly is when performing functions like discarding an unfinished tweet. But it's not a huge lag.)

APPEARANCE

The device itself is pretty attractive, I think. It has a solid feel. The keyboard is nicely laid out. I particularly appreciate that so much information is relayed in a tiny, attractive strip at the top of the color screen:

You have the Twitter logo, then a signal strength indicator, battery indicator, time and date, and the Twitter bird (which flies when it's communicating with the network), and finally the name of the screen you're on (home, settings, etc.). A lot of information in an attractively designed space.

As for the font of the tweets, it's not as attractive as what one sees on the iPod Touch/iPhone--I'm thinking here of Tweetie 2 (a great app). Somehow the TwitterPeek font looks like it's not smooth.

The appearance of the tweets would also be improved by the inclusion of avatars. These do not currently appear with the tweets.

DIRECT MESSAGES

I actually haven't quite figured this out yet. But it seems that direct messages that I send out appear on my home page as messages in. (I've confirmed and they are sent as dm's, however.) This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's confusing.

ONE ACCOUNT AT A TIME

You can only have one Twitter account associated with your TwitterPeek at a time. That is, if you want, you can switch between accounts by resetting your information, but there's no easy way to move from one account to another. Obviously, it would be better if you could do that.

SEARCH

You can search the messages that are on your device, but you cannot search the Twitterstream as a whole. The more I use Twitter, the more I think that search is an enormously important aspect of it. So it would be nice to be able to follow keyword searches on the TwitterPeek on the go. Then again, I can catch up once I'm back at my computer, so it's not a huge negative for me.

-Debra Hamel

I have a Twitter Peek and after being without service for many months I finally got support to answer my ticket, after first being pitched the shiny new Peek 9 and refusing it several times I was basically told that because of Twitter's API changes the Twitter Peek Lifetime will never again be in service. Ever.

To be clear, these do not work right now and will never work again. That was admitted by Peek themselves, told to me directly by customer support. I do not understand why these are still for sale.

On top of that their customer support system is awful. It takes weeks and sometimes months to get a reply. There are folks out there with monthly service plans being billed endlessly for service that doesn't exist.