4 ms·

This is cool but I feel like buying a 1000 count of cheap USB sticks and loading them with wikipedia or whatever would be cheaper and more useful.

jackphilson 1y ago
probably access to chatgpt4o is a million times more useful than wikipedia imo
- cookie_monsta 1y ago
  Yes, why does the developing world need an education system when we could be flooding them with AI hallucinations?
- dymk 1y ago
  Cool all they'll need to do is find $20/month per person for the subscription, how hard could that be in rural South Africa or Nepal?
  - urbandw311er 1y ago
    And an internet connection
minhazm 1y ago
What would they be plugging these USB flash drives into? Underdeveloped countries / regions have very low penetration with traditional laptops / desktop computers. But nearly everyone has a smartphone of some kind, which has WiFi. That's the reason the form factor of these are mobile hotspots.
- brewdad 1y ago
  Won’t most Android phones accept a USB device for reading/storage? Not much iPhone penetration in the developing world.
- drilbo 1y ago
  Well, I have a few flash drives with USB-C connections built in, and 1 or 2 with USB-B
blacksmith_tb 1y ago
Isn't the idea that you only need a minimal device with a browser to access stuff on the portable hotspot? Handing out USB drives would be easy, but people who had only phones might not find them as practical (and they'd tend to get wiped / sold / lost / etc.)
metasj 1y ago
At the least you need storage for the content ($10-20), and a physical device to read it off of ($20-40). If your community has lots of computers with no wireless antennas (old servers), USB keys that can be passed around make sense. If you have lots of mobile devices with wireless (phones or tablets), a hotspot like this makes sense and can be used by dozens of people at once. In practice USB keys run a slightly higher risk of being wiped and repurposed for personal storage. Some IIAB users glue the SD card into their socket for that reason, making it take a lot longer to swap out.

jackphilson 1y ago

probably access to chatgpt4o is a million times more useful than wikipedia imo

cookie_monsta 1y ago
Yes, why does the developing world need an education system when we could be flooding them with AI hallucinations?
dymk 1y ago
Cool all they'll need to do is find $20/month per person for the subscription, how hard could that be in rural South Africa or Nepal?
- urbandw311er 1y ago
  And an internet connection

minhazm 1y ago

What would they be plugging these USB flash drives into? Underdeveloped countries / regions have very low penetration with traditional laptops / desktop computers. But nearly everyone has a smartphone of some kind, which has WiFi. That's the reason the form factor of these are mobile hotspots.

brewdad 1y ago
Won’t most Android phones accept a USB device for reading/storage? Not much iPhone penetration in the developing world.
drilbo 1y ago
Well, I have a few flash drives with USB-C connections built in, and 1 or 2 with USB-B

blacksmith_tb 1y ago

Isn't the idea that you only need a minimal device with a browser to access stuff on the portable hotspot? Handing out USB drives would be easy, but people who had only phones might not find them as practical (and they'd tend to get wiped / sold / lost / etc.)

metasj 1y ago

At the least you need storage for the content ($10-20), and a physical device to read it off of ($20-40). If your community has lots of computers with no wireless antennas (old servers), USB keys that can be passed around make sense. If you have lots of mobile devices with wireless (phones or tablets), a hotspot like this makes sense and can be used by dozens of people at once. In practice USB keys run a slightly higher risk of being wiped and repurposed for personal storage. Some IIAB users glue the SD card into their socket for that reason, making it take a lot longer to swap out.