Peek Apps Launches: Twitter, Facebook & More

Having thrown open the doors – or at least left them more than a little ajar – Peek have announced the latest string to their messaging-device's bow: Peek Apps.  Launching on the one-year anniversary of the email-centric handheld, Peek Apps isn't an on-device download store like you would find on the iPhone or Android, but instead the culmination of service mashups that bring Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps to the Peek.

As you might expect given the capabilities of the Peek and the flat-rate data subscription, the various social networking services have been pared down in what they offer.  The Peek Facebook integration, for instance, supports reading through friends' statuses and updating your own – there's no photo browsing or messaging – while the Twitter integration is basically an RSS aggregator that delivers regular email digests about tweets (and in fact any other RSS feed you incorporate).

As for the mapping, Peek Maps is a basic geolocation service that uses cellphone triangulation – the Peek has no inbuilt true GPS – to pinpoint your position.  None of these features are likely to start a fire underneath any hardcore smartphone users, but then again those users aren't really Peek's target audience.  More details here.