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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.
With ubiquitous cellular broadband practically everywhere (that matters) and phones with good web browsers in them, this is a solution looking for a problem.
It's called an iPhone. :)
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. - Einstein
I can guarantee you they're not actually running MediaWiki on PHP. It would make no sense to run a web browser and a web server and a database server just for one embedded device. It's probably just some basic firmware reading data off a flash chip.
That still sounds like a design flaw. In the worst-case scenario, the problem should be that the device doesn't have enough CPU and extra storage space to uncompress the archive and apply the diffs. Even in that case, I should be able to offload the current archive version to my PC, apply the diffs there, and then load it back onto the device.
Breakfast served all day!
There is a lot of research about wikipedia and its veracity going on. You can look at Episteme for instance that did a themed issue about the social web where Wikipedia figures prominently. I have also read research papers where they establish that the information in Wikipedia generally is as good as or better than encyclopedica brittannica. Dont knock the wikis.
Now the world has gone to bed, Darkness won't engulf my head, I can see by infra-red, How I hate the night.
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.
101010. Light side (something) and dark side (nothing). Three of each, like the sides of a triangle. Like two triforces, one good and one evil, balancing each other, Yin and Yang.
The Universe is at peace with itself.
Sure, but the true secret to appearing intelligent is quick and accurate Googling.
Good news! You can get one gadget that's all that PLUS a phone!
=Smidge=
Great! What is is? The only thing I know of that comes close is the iPhone, but that fails the first item on his list.
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.
I am sorry but the piece of hardware looks so extremely ugly it reminded me 80's.
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
Oh, they still let you surf the web on a Kindle? How cute.
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