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Circa 2009 or so, my absolute favorite app for the iPod Touch was Patrick Collison's Offline Wikipedia (yes, that Patrick Collison: https://web.archive.org/web/

Circa 2009 or so, my absolute favorite app for the iPod Touch was Patrick Collison's Offline Wikipedia (yes, that Patrick Collison: https://web.archive.org/web/20100419194443/http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/ https://web.archive.org/web/20100419194443/http://collison.i...). You could download various wikis that had been pre-processed to fit in a very small space - as I recall, the entire English Wikipedia was a mere 2 GB in size. It was simply magical that I could have access to all of Wikipedia anytime, anywhere offline - especially since the iPod Touch could only connect to the Internet via WiFi. It was particularly useful while travelling, since I could load up articles and just read them on the plane. As I recall, there were several clever things that the app did to reduce the size of the dump; many stub/redirect articles were removed, the formatting was pared down to the bare minimum, and it was all compressed quite efficiently to fit in such a small space. Patrick gives more technical detail on an earlier version of the app's homepage: https://web.archive.org/web/20080523222440/http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/ https://web.archive.org/web/20080523222440/http://collison.i...

NegativeLatency 4y ago
Yeah that was awesome, so useful/fun being able to go deep on a wikipedia reading session when there wasn't good mobile coverage and data was expensive. In retrospect I do kinda miss _not_ having cell reception on vacations, as it was easier to disconnect from stuff.
- airstrike 4y ago
  > In retrospect I do kinda miss _not_ having cell reception on vacations, as it was easier to disconnect from stuff. In retrospect I do miss _not_ having the internet or cell service at all. It's part of why I like to watch shows and movies from the 80s or 90s. It's funny because I love technology as much as anyone else on HN, but at the same time my idea of the perfect retired life is one that is almost entirely offline.
  - NegativeLatency 4y ago
    The tea ceremony of: sit at computer desk, boot up computer, dial up the internet connection etc was pretty fun. Also the relative novelty. (As I check HN from the bathroom, which would’ve been a childhood dream)
    - zeristor 4y ago
      Yea ceremony, nice way of terming it. Playing a vinyl LP was a more intricate tea ceremony.
  - jkepler 4y ago
    I don't know if its still the case, but about ten years ago I took ViaRail Canada from Vancouver to Toronto. It was a four-day train ride (with a brief stopover on Bamff) and the vast majority of it was remote Canada crossing the Rockies, with no mobile network coverage. I asked the train staff about WiFi onboard, and they said that they didn't have it and the preferred it that way. People take their train, not to get from A to B, but to disconnect and meet other people, read books, or watch the beautiful landscape going by. If people had Internet access, they'd be glued to their devices and wouldn't meet fellow travelers, and that's the magic of this line. (They even said that their corporate management wanted WiFi in the trains so that the staff could digitize a lot of their paperwork, but the crew was resisting it because they believed it was exactly the lack of connectivity that keep people taking the train for vacation.)
  - prox 4y ago
    I usually ‘lie’ to everyone that where I am going I will have no connection. Even if I go to London City or some urban hub :)
- Denvercoder9 4y ago
  > In retrospect I do kinda miss _not_ having cell reception on vacations, as it was easier to disconnect from stuff. What's preventing you from not taking a phone with you on vacation?
  - Aardwolf 4y ago
    The expectations of other people, society, and, more and more, infrastructure (taking public transport, ...)
    - devilbunny 4y ago
      I was in Park City, Utah, not during ski season, just looking around, and we decided to stop and walk around. Parking meters theoretically took coins or cards, but all were nonfunctional. The only way to pay for parking was by installing their app. Promptly uninstalled it when I left, but still… with no smartphone, you literally could not legally park on the street.
nullwarp 4y ago
Not directly related but way back in the day I had a Handspring Visor and would use something (i can't remember now what it was called) to download websites to it when I would sync it and it would be available on it. At the time i was super into fan stories about Ultima Online like PK Ghost and things and would download that and we would all pass the Handspring around to read them. Dang this actually brought up some good memories for me thinking about.
- dbarlett 4y ago
  Was it AvantGo?
  - thakoppno 4y ago
    pocketpc with avantgo i remember that era. in fact i invested in avantgo right before the crash. i like to think it was the $500 or so i invested that truly precipitated the original year 2000 dot com bubble crash.
    - karpour 4y ago
      I fondly remember AvantGo! Surprisingly many sites supported it, it was really handy.
- amatecha 4y ago
  that's awesome! I remember totally wanting a Handspring Visor (and soo badly wanting to play UO)! Jealous, hahah :)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- luismedel 4y ago
  Maybe Plucker? https://web.archive.org/web/20110609235417/http://www.plkr.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20110609235417/http://www.plkr.o...
mattl 4y ago
I got a bunch of super cheap WikiReader devices and those were great for offline Wikipedia. I think I paid less than $5 per device.
- CompuHacker 4y ago
  Check those prices now. And you know about the test utilities included with them? Incredible devices.
  - mattl 4y ago
    Bunch of neat Forth stuff in the firmware? Sadly I gave them away, hopefully not sitting in a drawer somewhere
askvictor 4y ago
Had a similar thing on my iRiver H340, running Rockbox, device had no network at all. Those were the days.
thom 4y ago
I have an app called Kiwix that does this now. I also like Organic Maps for offline maps.
- mat_epice 4y ago
  Yeah, Kiwix is great! I have that on my phone to browse when I'm on airplanes.
- jimmySixDOF 4y ago
  I worked on a slide deck we were proposing SD Cards & Thumb drives preloaded with Kiwix and an almost full almost localized version of Khanh Academy (KA Lite at the time) which could be mass distributed in active conflict zones where the schools and education were some of the first casualties. I don't think it ever went too far which was a shame compared to how other monies were spent at the time these could have really made a difference.
- FuriouslyAdrift 4y ago
  HERE WeGo also has offline maps (although you have to download them prior to being offline). Useful for when I have been traveling and need GPS nav and there isn't cell service.

NegativeLatency 4y ago

Yeah that was awesome, so useful/fun being able to go deep on a wikipedia reading session when there wasn't good mobile coverage and data was expensive. In retrospect I do kinda miss _not_ having cell reception on vacations, as it was easier to disconnect from stuff.

airstrike 4y ago
> In retrospect I do kinda miss _not_ having cell reception on vacations, as it was easier to disconnect from stuff. In retrospect I do miss _not_ having the internet or cell service at all. It's part of why I like to watch shows and movies from the 80s or 90s. It's funny because I love technology as much as anyone else on HN, but at the same time my idea of the perfect retired life is one that is almost entirely offline.
- NegativeLatency 4y ago
  The tea ceremony of: sit at computer desk, boot up computer, dial up the internet connection etc was pretty fun. Also the relative novelty. (As I check HN from the bathroom, which would’ve been a childhood dream)
  - zeristor 4y ago
    Yea ceremony, nice way of terming it. Playing a vinyl LP was a more intricate tea ceremony.
- jkepler 4y ago
  I don't know if its still the case, but about ten years ago I took ViaRail Canada from Vancouver to Toronto. It was a four-day train ride (with a brief stopover on Bamff) and the vast majority of it was remote Canada crossing the Rockies, with no mobile network coverage. I asked the train staff about WiFi onboard, and they said that they didn't have it and the preferred it that way. People take their train, not to get from A to B, but to disconnect and meet other people, read books, or watch the beautiful landscape going by. If people had Internet access, they'd be glued to their devices and wouldn't meet fellow travelers, and that's the magic of this line. (They even said that their corporate management wanted WiFi in the trains so that the staff could digitize a lot of their paperwork, but the crew was resisting it because they believed it was exactly the lack of connectivity that keep people taking the train for vacation.)
- prox 4y ago
  I usually ‘lie’ to everyone that where I am going I will have no connection. Even if I go to London City or some urban hub :)
Denvercoder9 4y ago
> In retrospect I do kinda miss _not_ having cell reception on vacations, as it was easier to disconnect from stuff. What's preventing you from not taking a phone with you on vacation?
- Aardwolf 4y ago
  The expectations of other people, society, and, more and more, infrastructure (taking public transport, ...)
  - devilbunny 4y ago
    I was in Park City, Utah, not during ski season, just looking around, and we decided to stop and walk around. Parking meters theoretically took coins or cards, but all were nonfunctional. The only way to pay for parking was by installing their app. Promptly uninstalled it when I left, but still… with no smartphone, you literally could not legally park on the street.

nullwarp 4y ago

Not directly related but way back in the day I had a Handspring Visor and would use something (i can't remember now what it was called) to download websites to it when I would sync it and it would be available on it. At the time i was super into fan stories about Ultima Online like PK Ghost and things and would download that and we would all pass the Handspring around to read them. Dang this actually brought up some good memories for me thinking about.

dbarlett 4y ago
Was it AvantGo?
- thakoppno 4y ago
  pocketpc with avantgo i remember that era. in fact i invested in avantgo right before the crash. i like to think it was the $500 or so i invested that truly precipitated the original year 2000 dot com bubble crash.
  - karpour 4y ago
    I fondly remember AvantGo! Surprisingly many sites supported it, it was really handy.
amatecha 4y ago
that's awesome! I remember totally wanting a Handspring Visor (and soo badly wanting to play UO)! Jealous, hahah :)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
luismedel 4y ago
Maybe Plucker? https://web.archive.org/web/20110609235417/http://www.plkr.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20110609235417/http://www.plkr.o...

mattl 4y ago

I got a bunch of super cheap WikiReader devices and those were great for offline Wikipedia. I think I paid less than $5 per device.

CompuHacker 4y ago
Check those prices now. And you know about the test utilities included with them? Incredible devices.
- mattl 4y ago
  Bunch of neat Forth stuff in the firmware? Sadly I gave them away, hopefully not sitting in a drawer somewhere

askvictor 4y ago

Had a similar thing on my iRiver H340, running Rockbox, device had no network at all. Those were the days.

thom 4y ago

I have an app called Kiwix that does this now. I also like Organic Maps for offline maps.

mat_epice 4y ago
Yeah, Kiwix is great! I have that on my phone to browse when I'm on airplanes.
jimmySixDOF 4y ago
I worked on a slide deck we were proposing SD Cards & Thumb drives preloaded with Kiwix and an almost full almost localized version of Khanh Academy (KA Lite at the time) which could be mass distributed in active conflict zones where the schools and education were some of the first casualties. I don't think it ever went too far which was a shame compared to how other monies were spent at the time these could have really made a difference.
FuriouslyAdrift 4y ago
HERE WeGo also has offline maps (although you have to download them prior to being offline). Useful for when I have been traveling and need GPS nav and there isn't cell service.