Over the weekend, Twitter owner Elon Musk said that he’d make an “alternative phone” if Twitter got banned from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Interestingly enough, a device that would potentially solve this problem was released back in 2009: the Twitter Peek. It was pretty abysmal.
Now, look, there’s a lot of silliness to what Musk said on Twitter. Saying that he’d make an ‘alternative phone’ in response to what is clearly an app moderation policy isn’t really the easiest way Musk could go about solving this problem.
A browser-based version for smartphones would likely still work and Twitter could release a self-hosted APK for Android phones, allowing users to download the app directly from Twitter (like Epic Games did with Fortnite, when it was booted from the Google Play Store). Or, you know, Musk could properly moderate his platform.
I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022
But no, making a new phone entirely appears to be the way to go. Yeesh.
Interestingly enough, Twitter already made a similar device in 2009: the Twitter Peek. The entire idea was to give users a Twitter-only device for use on the go. It was a colossal failure.
But, hey, if your entire reason for creating a new phone is if your $44 billion ($61.4 billion in Australia) midlife-crisis app got banned from app stores, you may as well resurrect the Peek. What have you got to lose?
The TwitterPeek (2009) was an always-connected Twitter device with cellular service. The $99 device came with 6 months of service. Users could renew the service for $8 per month or pay $199 for lifetime access. pic.twitter.com/KoGjjkLb5z
— Retro Tech Dreams (@RetroTechDreams) October 31, 2022
Why was the Twitter Peek so bad?
I doubt you’ve seen a Twitter Peek before, but it did very much exist. Released in 2009, this Blackberry-like device with a full button-face keyboard could only access Twitter. Sounds like it was made for Musk.
Wait, hang on, let’s entertain that for a second: only access Twitter? Seriously? Like, only tweets? Not even photos in those tweets, just the text. You couldn’t even open the links in tweets.
That’s right: no phone calls, texts, emails, web browsing or games. Just tweets. What a stroke of genius.
The original Peek device was also a one-trick pony, except that single trick was emailing, not tweets.
Back in 2009, our colleagues in the U.S. wrote about the Twitter Peek.
“I still can’t believe the Twitter Peek exists. It’s a portable device that only does Twitter. Seriously, who the hell would spend $200 on this? Am I crazy here?” Gizmodo writer Adam Frucci said.
It was later listed as the most useless gadget of Gizmodo’s 50 worst gadgets of the decade.
“It’s a $200 device that does only one thing. That’s not so bad, except that the one thing is tweeting, which you can do on any mobile phone or PC. Not only that, but it doesn’t work particularly well. So once and for all: Twitter Peek is the most useless gadget ever, and I’m glad it came out in time to make this list,” Gizmodo’s list read.
Only ever available in the U.S. and India, the Twitter Peek was sold for $US99 (about $106 in Australia in 2009), with an included six months of cellular service (for Twitter only). After this, you could pay $US8 per month (about $8.50) for continued access, or $US199 (about $215) for lifetime access.
Anyway, surprise surprise, both the Peek and the Twitter Peek were killed off in 2012. The Twitter version wasn’t as loved as the original and is a member of the Museum of Failure, among other crappy tech products.
It just wasn’t a very good device, especially when smartphones could already do what the Peek was doing (and more). It couldn’t even get Twitter right, and would only display the first 20 characters of each message, resulting in some pretty annoying scrolling.
Anyway, what can’t billions of dollars make work?
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