Twitter just gave into pressure from British councillors to release the private information of users who made some allegedly libelous tweets. This is a landmark case in the already-messy realm of online free speech and privacy. More »

Using software called TweetVER (short for Tweeting from a Vintage ComputER), the folks at the PC Museum will be accessing Twitter from this VIC-20. You can read the first tweet on Saturday February 20th at 11am EST by following the museum’s Twitter account. (There appear to be some test tweets from a modern computer on the page, so disregard those.)

While we don’t think much about accessing Twitter from any one of our desktops, it should be kept in mind that the average computer today runs on about “3000 MHz and contains 2,097,152 KB.” This translates to about “419,430 times the memory power and 3000 times the speed” of a VIC-20. And despite all that, grandpa VIC-20 is still ready to tweet. [PC Museum]

Take a peek at the new TwitterPeek, an always-on, always connected Twitter machine. It comes from the folks that make the Peek and Peek Pronto, two bare-bones email-only handsets that can be bought and used without monthly contracts.

The TwitterPeek stays with the simple approach, and does nothing but send, receive and search Twitter posts. It doesn’t do SMS, and it doesn’t even do email. At first we thought this was a joke, but the Amazon listing looks real enough and a quick visit to the Peek discussion forums shows this request from the company: “As usual we have a couple things cooking in the Peek oven. We’re looking for Peeksters that use Twitter a lot.”

The package will cost $200, and that includes a lifetime of Tweeting — you’ll never pay for your connectivity. We expect that we’ll start to see more and more devices with “free” internet connections over cell networks, where the seller does a deal with the telcos to provide low-bandwidth hook-ups. It has worked for the Kindle, so maybe we’ll get the long promised internet-connected Toaster after all. One which burns a Tweet into your breakfast slice.

The picture, by the way, is from Peter Hu’s (of Time and CrunchGear) Twitter feed. We’re running this instead of the regular product shot because a) it is ironically appropriate and b) there’s a huge WIRED logo on the front of the box.

Product page [Amazon via Peter Hu’s Twitter]

See Also:

• Peek Now Available in Cheap Packs of Five
• Peek Leak: Pronto Email Device is Twice as Fast
• Official: Peek Pushes Pronto with Unlimited Texting
• Peek Could Kill Subscription Fees For Its Email Device
• Review: Peek Device Delivers Peak Email Performance And Not Much …

By Chris Scott Barr

Are you an important person? I mean someone that people hang on your every word, simply because even the most mundane actions in your life are news-worthy? Well I’ve got some awesome news for you. Peek, the makers of the Pronto email device have a new gadget up their sleeve. It looks very similar to the Pronto, but this one is dedicated to Twitter.

That’s right, if you don’t have a smartphone with a data plan, you can still tell everyone about the tiniest details of your life when you’re away from home. I honestly think that this is simply the worst idea ever. This is only encouraging people to post even more boring facts about their everyday life that no one cares about. Unless your life is filled with the same level of excitement of James Bond, you don’t need to be updating everyone hourly on it. There’s currently no word on pricing or availability.

[ Peek ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

Peek’s never been one to shy away from the wacky and opportunistic marketing schemes but launching a whole product just for Twitter? That’s courage, drive, and possibly a mental health issue. Yet here’s the TwitterPeek — what looks to be the same old Peek you know, love, and probably haven’t purchased, stripped of its email and SMS functionality and re-oriented towards telling the entire world too much about your body and what you’re doing to it every waking moment of the day. Now, to be fair, we’re getting a distinctly strange feeling of phoniness about this whole thing, but there’s already an Amazon listing and a picture of the box has already surfaced on — where else? — Twitter, so this could really be happening. Just think about that for a second. And then tweet about it, of course.

[Via LiveDigitally]

Read – Amazon TwitterPeek listing
Read – Peter Ha’s TwitPic of the box

Continue reading The TwitterPeek is… a Peek for Twitter?

Filed under: Handhelds

The TwitterPeek is… a Peek for Twitter? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Pronto costs $59.99 with $14.99/month service. The Classic costs $19.99.

In related news, it seems the company has created a new version of the hardware with dedicated Twitter access. We’ve seen images of the box, above, and we’re asking for more info right now.

[Thanks, Peter ]

It’s October 27th which means Sonos is pushing the 3.1 system software out to its distributed home audio systems. With it comes a slightly tweaked, user interface (color icons! heh) for CR200 owners as well Twitter integration for whatever that’s worth to ya (don’t worry, it’s free). Still no sign of the iPod touch / iPhone app but it’s expected to pop on iTunes shortly.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Software

Sonos 3.1 software update out now, let the smug music tweeting begin originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox 360’s resident spokesman Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb wants you to know that the Xbox Live update preview program is now officially a go, with the first wave of registered participants getting automatically prompted to update upon sign-in (you should also receive an email, but apparently they’re behind on the notifications). More people are said to be getting the update “in the coming days,” so don’t lose hope yet — not that waiting for Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm integration, and 1080p instant-on streaming should cause ultimate despair, but we digress. The only thing you don’t get is the Halo Waypoint preview, which doesn’t join the preview fun until next week.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Filed under: Gaming

Xbox Live update preview program now rolling out originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the Square iPhone Payment System we told you about back in August? If you’ll recall, the device — which involves an iPhone app and associated dongle — enables an iPhone or iPod touch to become a kind of mini credit card reader, allowing payments to be taken on the spot, no matter where you are or how big (or small) the transaction may be. When we’d first reported the device, word on the street was that it was only being alpha tested around New York City, and there wasn’t much else to say. Now, we may have a little more insight on just where this device is headed, and who’s behind the project.

Jack Dorsey, the man who all but built Twitter in a matter of two weeks, has been working on a half-secret start-up project since around May. His new venture — dubbed, funnily enough, Squirrel — is based around the concept of using the iPhone as… yep, a portable, personal cash register; essentially the exact device which Square has created. And that’s no accident. In the images we ran of the Square system, you can see a domain name on a receipt: squareup.com. Squareup.com is the domain of the Square System (obviously), and a casual investigation into the site’s WHOIS profile reveals registrant info that points to an office in San Francisco, and a contact email address which reads… billing@paybysquirrel.com. Square, squirrel, square… are you getting it? So the cat, er, squirrel appears to be out of the bag. Now the question is whether or not Dorsey and co. can turn this fairly obscure piece of tech into the kind of firestorm which Twitter has become — and who knows, maybe there’ll even be a business model this time.

[Thanks, Little Birdie]

Filed under: Cellphones

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Squirrel project revealed… as the Square iPhone Payment System originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oftentimes a picture shouts a thousand words. Other times it belts out precisely a dozen. Straight from Verizon Wireless’ official Twitter account comes this, a confirmation that the Palm Pre we knew was coming to Big Red, well, is coming to Big Red. If you can hold off through the tempting holiday rush, you’ll find Palm’s first-ever webOS device on VZW “early next year.” Huzzah!

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon confirms: Palm Pre hitting Big Red “early next year” originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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