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Wikipedia In Your Pocket, $99
An anonymous reader notes the announcement by Sean Moss-Pultz (Openmoko, Inc.) of a new geek device: The $99 WikiReader. All of Wikipedia in your pocket with no Internet connection required. Works in bright sunlight. 3-button interface. You can update the information in the WikiReader either by mail (they ship a microSD card) or by downloading a 4+ GB file.
Finally we have a hitch hiker's guide to Earth!
While "WikiReader" explains in one made-up word what the device actually is, they should have tried to get bonus nerd points and get the trademark rights to sell it as "The Guide".
I have a device just like this, touch screen and all, its my GPS. Is there any sort of open form factor that vendors could use to be EITHER a GPS, a WikiReader, MP3 player, etc? Stop the gadget proliferation !!
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Put it in a retinal display so people think I'm smart, then I'll buy it.
With ubiquitous cellular broadband practically everywhere (that matters) and phones with good web browsers in them, this is a solution looking for a problem.
Great! Now I can regale and browbeat others with authoritative sounding misinformation wherever I go. Cafe discourses and dinner discussions will never be the same again!
May the Maths Be with you!
It's called an iPhone. :)
[citation required]
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An encyclopedia in the form of an e-book for $99. Sorry if I'm not too excited...
Love the idea but I'm a little cautious of Wikipedia's search engine. Not sure if they're rendering the php the same way and using MediaWiki's built in search engine but I have problems with that if they are. For instance if I search for hottest pepper the answer is the seventh result. On Google, it's the second result but also found in the first (being on the page for Scoville scale on Wikipedia).
The time this would be really useful to me is when I get into arguments at bars or restaurants with friends. I'm a bit concerned about how well the search part of this device will work for that, I'd probably need to rethink a lot of my searches to start at an obvious Wikipedia page and then lead me to my answer.
Probably wonderful for just reading through Wikipedia on a bus or plane though, too bad it doesn't seem to have the images, videos or audio.
My work here is dung.
Have these people never heard of a diff? How about just letting me download the changes! The Wiki can tell them what they are.
That's worse than useless if I have to redownload all of wikipedia to keep it up to date.
Luckily I have a smart phone with internet access.
Finally, the HHGG in your pocket.
Does it come with a towel, or do I need to provide my own?
Hosting and Domain name coupons
According to the rules of open source... all derivative works must also be open source.
This is hardware. Does that mean that the design, specifications and technology used are also open source?
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
What about all the inaccuracies that make it into the downloaded copy before they're reverted on Wikipedia? Wouldn't it take a while for them to be reverted on the downloaded copy?
It's perfect for my niece and nephew for school and writing reports. Just handy not having to have an internet connection. I wish the design was more pocket sized though.
"That's IT?!"
"Well, it's a large galaxy, and there's not a lot of space in the book."
Really, someone should start a HHGTTG-pedia based on HHGTTG canon, and WikiPedia standards for alternate content.
In Liberty, Rene
The form factor is a bit wonky. Adding just a little more functionality would have made it worth twice as much. Right now it looks like you have to depend on the community to provide delta-updates, they want you to dump 4GB. There are numerous tools for gathering your own wiki subset.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Their website is going to host 4GB update files for this gizmo. I can imagine them crawling under bandwidth costs shortly. Why not use bittorrent?
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
No images, no hyperlinks (Isn't that the half the point?), there are plenty of little electronic encyclopedia/dictionaries that have been around forever and have actual accurate info. Just use your cellphone to settle your bar bets. Doesn't even have a Back button!
Mine's called k700i... But I often refer to it as Bob.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Obligatory xkcd
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Rockbox and iPodLinux both have options to do this. http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/4755 On Rockbox the unofficial plugin requires a modified version of the Wikipedia database dump http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_database
Is that The World's Largest Internet Encylopedia in your pocket, or am I happy to see you (leaving)?
...which, upon further thought and remembering past articles, may actually be a rather large target market...so I guess I do understand why they've made this, even though I'll pretend I don't.
Seriously, who are they marketing this toward? Most people who like Wikipedia enough to want to spend $100 to always have it with them probably already have some form of internet-capable device that gives them access at almost any location they could want (laptop, cellphone, netbook, etc). And many of those same people probably enjoy Wikipedia because they can modify articles as they choose (for good, bad and/or ugly), something this does not sound like it would allow them to do as it only transfers data internet-to-device. So I guess their market is toward that segment who believes that The Great Wiki is made up entirely of articles free from all forms of bias and subjectivity thus making it unconditionally gospel, and who have never heard of a "wireless connection" before.
I have an iPhone. I already have Wikipedia in my pocket.
Of course, thanks to AT&T, its more like "I usually have Wikipedia in my pocket." :-)
There have been various Rockbox and iPodLinux packages available for this for several years. You can get an old iPod or other device and burn your own for a fraction of the cost of this new device. Maybe not as efficient, but certainly cheaper. I'm going to do this on an old iPod Mini.
For my 8 year old nephew? Hell, why not? I've been wanting a way to drive my big sister nuts ever since the little guy stopped banging on stuff with random other stuff and showing up with a wooden spoon did the trick. Now, I can make him into a pedantic, spottily informed, know-it-all little chatterbox. Probably for life.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The website looks like it was put together in a matter of minutes. I'm having "Netscape Composer" flashbacks.
I clicked "Media". I stopped looking for information when I saw the picture of the old man "researching" Megan Fox.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
Now you too can have 4+ GB of data of dubious accuracy in the palm of your hand for only $99!
Wikipedia online plus Google, the interwebs, and books too.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
When your ipod, phone, wallet, keys etc aren't quite annoying enough, this handy new device will make sure every last pocket is full to bursting!
New Zealand's shopping & price comparison website
They could have done more with the device at that price point.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Is that the largest encyclopedia in the world for just $99 in your pants or are you just happy to see me?
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
One of the biggest issues for projects like OLPC is getting electricity and internet to remote locations.
A device like this could be very helpful in remote villages where having a resource on agriculture, emergency medical how-to's, etc. in a compact, low cost device that needs 2 AAA batteries every year could be very helpful. Users could update it a a nearby library, city, etc. that has electricity and internet when they are able to.
If it's modeled anything like the neo/freerunner they will encourage hardware hacking that could evolve the device.
Too little, too late, too expensive.
That device could've been a lot more awesome with an electronic paper display.
*switches attention back to e-book reader*
You should have stayed there for just a bit longer.
Then you would have also noticed the white, bespectacled woman in her 50s "researching" Snoop Dog.
And that 6-year-old WikiReader poster child reading about string theory.
I did not click on the links to see the videos though.
I prefer the version I got in my head, where Will Smith bursts in and shoots that kid before it starts some shit.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Probably many have done the same, but here was my version of this on the iPod Touch (requires jailbreak, or did at the time)
http://quay.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/my-very-own-hitchhikers-guide/
Also, a script to convert it to a more iPhone ish LNF (http://quay.wordpress.com/2007/11/17/iphone-native-look-and-feel-wikipedia/)
Most likely I wouldn't have done this if I had an iPhone originally, as it more generally has access available to it.
"Has anything you've done made your life better?" - American History X
If it was still 1993 and a black and white device with no graphics and no web connectivity at all was still the height of high tech...
From TFrakkinA:
For Parents - WikiReader offers an easy way to protect your child from adult-oriented content.
... except, of course, Wikipedia content.
Obligatory NSFW or home: goatse *caution: with picture*.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I know what I want for Christmas, too bad I'll probably have to buy it for myself.
in large friendly letters, of course.
My favorite quote doesn't fit into 120 characters. Now no one will like me.
http://www.ipodlinux.org/wiki/Wikipedia
Somebody please hack it to contain the complete works of Project Gutenberg, or at least a worthwhile subset.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
View over 100* web sites with no risk of e-viruses or e-worms!
A Cinco product.
*: 101
What about a notespace to correct inaccuracies?
I have been a admin on and off for 6 years. ( off right now ).
Does the device come with all the crap comments? Does it come with CAT:BJAODN?
Hmmm? Since I can basically whack the whole damn site, and delete most of the crap...( then it would fit on a floppy ).
What makes this valuable, other than a blank flash drive?
Seriously, my iPod touch has the capacity to store the 4GB data file and render the content just fine.
So why can't I have an offline copy of Wikipedia AND take Diff files of the changes and updates when I am near a Wifi hotspot? Its got the capabilities to do play music, video, and display images so why isn't this the better form factor?
Also a refurbed iPod touch is $149 with a color screen and rechargeable batteries and it does more than just read Wikipedia.
----
Tablet PCs Feed @ Feed Distiller
No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
looks like it contains only text :(
Contract.
So, I'll be paying more than $99 for my iPhone? What will my contractual obligations be, then? Does the battery really last for the entire length of the contract with no charging?
Somehow I suspect that an iPhone is going to result in me keeping less of my money than the article device.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum_shot
...another tiny screen that I'm supposed to be happy squinting at.
That thing has 3 buttons, how long will I type Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis into it?
Just what a person needs, a pocket full of bullshit.
Much more suitable to geeks was this previous implementation of the same idea:
http://hackaday.com/2009/05/02/wikibrowser/
1) Huge compendium of human knowledge.
2) Runs off of commonly available, easily stockpiled batteries
3) Runs for a whole year off of one set of batteries (swap Lithium for alkaline, it should run for a decade)
4) Sunlight-readable
5) Compact, sturdy and durable
Hell, at those kind of power usage levels, you could hack a small solar cell into it and it should work anywhere you've got sunlight. Imagine a complete breakdown of civilization as we know it. Books are heavy and inconvenient and make good kindling. Without electricity, compact digital forms of information retrieval become impossible. What do we use to rebuild civilization after a couple generations of this send us back to the dark ages? This thing! It's PERFECT.
I'll buy it when it includes images. The text is wonderful, but there are definitely some things that require a picture, or at least a diagram.
++
I'm getting kind of anxious about the crop of standalone single function devices that seem to be turning up. Between my kindle, wikireader, peek mobile device, google images mediatablet, ping keyring, bluetooth bash shell voice command headset, RSS reading necktie and US keyboard necklace it's going to be heavy going during my daily commute. Thank god for my 8 port switch underpants or I'd be spending all day swapping SD cards around. As a budding futurist, I see that someday they will integrate all of these devices down into a common platform that you can use in your home or at work to complete all these tasks in a common manner, perhaps even in the far future as a small portable device that can house each of these functions on the one hardware platform..
I am sorry but the piece of hardware looks so extremely ugly it reminded me 80's.
It looks kinda cool but could probably be cheaper. It doesn't look like it renders any images though, so it's missing something. Wikipedia is usually a good read and it's easy to drop time into it.
I must have his previous great project somewhere in a drawer. It was supposed to be a mobile phone. Some day.
...or are you just happy to see me?
It's called a Motorola V980 :)
(Come on everyone, line up - let's list every model of phone in a separate post.)
Hey is it just me or does that little boy in the advertisement remind you of the little boy in Trick 'r' Treat? I just saw the movie last night and the little kid is creepy.
Anyone with an Internet connection can download the complete Wikipedia in a compressed file about 5GB (decompresses to about 3TB), or even as SQL or XML. You could probably delete all the non-text content (eg. rm -R /*.jpg) to get something small enough to put on a 4GB Flash card for any smartphone.
And you could get the updated snapsot a lot more frequently than with this subscription.
--
make install -not war
I found some of the comments above gaining the complete fail badge due to the assumption that it's going to be used by some iphone-toting hardcore geek who complains that it doesn't have GPS. FFS. The main page has a KID doing the presentation for the device. I wonder who it's aimed at. It's a $99 device that last for MONTHS on a single set of batteries and has an entire instance of wikipedia on it.
I sponsor a child in India and I've been wanting to get her something special for the last couple of years (missed on the OLPC). This would be perfect. I can send her this with a spare set of batteries and then send her updates and batteries every six months. Not a single negative so far (yes, she reads and writes English).
And if any moron cares to reply that children in India need food more than they need gadgets; note that this is Slashdot and most people here are aware of the true value of knowledge and what it can do for a person.
"Why, Johnny Ringo. You look like somebody just walked over your grave." Doc Holliday, Tombstone.
Not perfect, but a good start.
Back when 1GB was enough to hold Wikipedia, there was application for iPods with screens that could run Wikipedia. This sounds like basically an evolution of that, and of course today the iPods/iPhones have a lot more storage (and Wikipedia's a bit larger - not sure how many GB you need for 3M articles in English and .5-1M in each of another dozen languages? probably around 20GB before compression, and good compressibility?)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
... and it's open source, costs nothing, and runs on any computer with Linux or even Windows, or on any Nokia Maemo device if you want to have it on your pocket. It's called Aard Dictionary
Best Regards,
Durval Menezes.
I have never met a computer that didn't like me.
It's Windows software. Just download the latest dump from wikipedia, allow wikitaxi to process it and you're good to go.
No pictures, but great on the airplane
http://www.wikitaxi.org/delphi/doku.php/products/wikitaxi/index
Sure, it's not perfect. But there is a GREAT DEAL of math on the great wiki. deep stuff. and that shit doesn't change real fast. It would be a hell of a fucking thing to have in ones pocket. I might give this a go.
I thought this was going to be an article about how you can bribe Wikimedia Foundation for very little money...
When you see this long-haired boy with the WikiReader sitting on an open page of a book, can you not see the caption, "OK, which one of these is complete bullshit?"
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
Cut apart a rectangular 9V battery, and inside you will find 6 AAAA cells
I admit to being skeptical at first, but it's absolutely true! Thanks for the info... this is why I still like Slashdot.
How about a wikireader app for a mobile phone that reads Wikipedia off an SD card in the phone, rather than a separate device?
Dump openstreetmap on it, not sure the screen/CPU can handle nice map rendering though. But you can always dump tiled PNGs on a flash..
Seems that the hardware specs are online:
http://code.google.com/p/wikipediardware/
---
This project is based on Epson's S1C33E07 processor with SDRAM, a serial EEPROM and a SD card slot attached. Along with UI input/output devices, of course.
The project's goal is to provide a bunch of software:
* a set of bootloaders which load a small kernel image from SD card and execute it. ...)
* wiki-lib, a library which contains all the application's logic
* gui-lib, a very thin layer to provide glyph rendering and font file parsing
* some simulators (Qt/Cocoa/ncurses) which emulate the hardware to make development easy
* the 'kernel' code which is only a small wrapper around the hardware and uses wiki-lib and gui-lib
* host based tools to generate the content from Wikipedia sources (indexing, font file generation,
Toppers/JSP is included as source tree in a configuration that boots on the hardware. However, it is not currently used as base of our software stack.
---
So this is an ARM device with some SDRAM, pretty curious on how much RAM there is. Hope that some additions will be made like formula rendering for the scientific articles. This seems like a device with a lot of hacking potential. It reminds me of the Texas instruments calculators hardware wise with it B&W LCD. Too bad it has so little buttons for additional functions. The price seems okay if a real community springs up around it with some nice development tools.
why is it that open source people seem to always be of the mindset "The whole thing is free for everyone, so the best way to update is to send the whole thing again!"
Ever heard of a patch?
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
This sounds really great. Some people here are afraid of hackers, but how can u hack something that is not connected to the net? Imo this gadget is a pdf reader and you download whole wikipedia from time to time. If there would be a german wiki avaiable for this i probably would buy that thing.
The idea of having a searchable, hyperlinked encyclopedia at my fingertips that didn't require online access is quite attractive, but much less so if I can't slip it in my pocket and carry it around. I'd prefer a thin, iPod touch-size doobie with the same super battery life. If it had the form-factor, I'm OK with it's other limitations.
I am sure this would come in handy for the coming apocalypse! I am sure there would be good articles in there. Some "how to" articles with diagrams sure would have been useful though...
Did you ever stop to think that not Wiki but Google can also be provided as a flash drive, but that they won't do it since their scam is to make everybody connect to it over and over in order to get it dribbled out to them and set them up to get rich?
GPL Offline wikipedia reader, with templates and LaTEX formulae... available
here
Think of WikiReader's potential to help you score a hot, brainy geek chick!
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
When is Wikipedia going to be released in audio format, in whole or in part? Might be a worthwhile project for someone.
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