The Peek is an interesting idea. It's a mobile device that's about the size of a smartphone that has a full QWERTY keyboard plus wireless data connectivity. It's not a phone, though, since it just gets email. No phone calls and no web surfing. The basic version costs $20 and the Pronto (which also adds text messaging) costs $60. The Peek service is $20 a month.

"Well, with the project officially announced, I think it may be time for a sneak peek. What better to kick off a sneak peek than to share with you the very first two pages of the book, lovingly reproduced here for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy! ..."

Considering its market share in search and advertising, how and why Google is able to avoid more severe antitrust scrutiny, considering IBM's and Microsoft's run-ins with anti-monopoly commissions around the world, is unknown.

It appears that great minds think alike (or in the case of open-source software and the close-ties between Google and Mozilla, share-alike). Within a week of each other both Mozilla and Google have announced new initiatives to allow for extensions to their browsers to be written using regular HTML / JavaScript and CSS, greatly lowering the bar for developers to join in.

Rob Enderle still attacking Google and GNU/Linux (and Preston Gralla from IDG likewise); Spinners from IDG tilt Microsoft antitrust in Microsoft's favour

One thing that both Google and Apple share is that almost the instant that they announce a new product, the public loves it. That's partly because they tend to deliver winning products, but they don't always do so. Google has shuttered a number of projects from its labs, and its productivity applications are popular, but haven't come close to toppling Microsoft Office.

Microsoft fails to slow Google down; Google harms Microsoft's profits; Windows-only Microsoft Web rationalises temporary support of Google

In my travels, I discovered David Zeuthen's informative peek at DeviceKit (and its use with and in lieu of HAL) in the upcoming release of Fedora 11.

A glimpse at what Google's advancement in the market is doing to Microsoft, the company that attacks Free software more than any other company (or all of them combined)