In an effort to appeal to the nerd rage caused by the recent BlackBerry outage, Peek is offering 50% off the Peek Pronto for the next 24 hours. Use discount code BBOUTAGE5 at checkout. Full e-mail from Peek with more details below:

Now might be a good time to lock in one of these Peek devices if you’ve subscribed to the idea of mobile e-mail and texting without the cost and complexity of an entire smartphone. Today only, Peek is offering $10 monthly service for the lifetime of the device.

We’re giving away five Peek Protos this week, one a day, and we want you to ask us nicely for one so we can give you one. What I’m basically trying to say is that you should respond to this post with a comment (using your real e-mail address) and also follow CG on Twitter and watch the Gift Guide for more special things.

The Peek has been around for a year already and surprise, surprise, it’s still around. In fact, you can now snag one without a monthly subscription charge for $299 exclusively from Amazon. Now, I’m not saying you should spend $299 on a device that just does email now that smartphone’s monthly subscription costs are dropping, but someone out there might want a dedicated device for email, Twitter, and Facebook.

Update: Kind of ironic deal found. It’s after the jump.

You know the little e-mail-only device called Peek? Well, the company is hoping to get Linux running on the device and is looking for a someone to do it for them. If someone actually accomplishes the goal, Peek will offer that developer/hacker a mini-consulting gig, which we can only assume is a paying gig. But a Peek with Linux on it, you say…

Peek made a spectacular splash last year winning loads of accolades for doing one simple task – e-mail. Being the technophiles that we are, the entire tech community bitched and moaned about what else the Peek should have in the feature set. Yes, we simply cannot leave things the way they are. So, Peek seems to have heard our whining and it appears a new device or OS upgrade is on the way. It’s unclear whether or not it will be hardware or just software, though.

Peek is trying to drum up some small business business (I meant to type “business” twice, ROFL!) with a five pack of its $20-per-month e-mail devices for $150. A single Peek e-mailer now costs just $50 out the door, so the five pack results in $100 worth of savings.

Amazon has a schmoopie-riffic Valentine’s Day deal for you and your lovie. Keep in constant textual contact with one another with a two-for-one Peek sale. Just add two of the devices to your cart and one of them will be zeroed out, for a grand total of $79.99.

Such a clever headline, I know. Having had a Peek for several months, I’ve come to the realization that keeping things simple isn’t always the best option. Sure, for those folks who don’t want a BlackBerry the Peek is a useful device, but I have to wonder who actually uses these things. I think RIM should rerelease the first BlackBerry but with an updated façade. If memory serves me correctly the Peek is a basic clone.

Anyway, it’s a good little device that does its one and only task very well. I’ve never really gotten into these teardown videos, but to each his own. The first video is a look inside the Peek while the second shows the differences between an early prototype and what you can buy today.

I don’t know about you but when I think of the inauguration of our 44th President, I think about the Peek e-mail device. I can’t shake it! It’s all I can see when I close my eyes!

Whoa, ho, ho there. Take a look at this. If you’ve been intrigued by the e-mail-made-simple Peek device but thought the $20 per month outlay for service was a bit too steep, you can get the device with unlimited service for $299 today.