12 ms·

Wikipedia In Your Pocket for $99

29 points by edw519 17y ago

10ren 17y ago
Specs at Amazon (4.5 oz; 128 grams) http://www.amazon.com/WikiReader-WR-01-Pocket-Wikipedia/dp/B002N5521W/ http://www.amazon.com/WikiReader-WR-01-Pocket-Wikipedia/dp/B... A review: http://dvice.com/archives/2009/10/the-wikireader.php http://dvice.com/archives/2009/10/the-wikireader.php CrunchGear review: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/10/13/wikireader-packs-all-of-wikipedia-in-a-power-sipping-portable/ http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/10/13/wikireader-packs-all-of... It's a hp200lx-style: B&W display, incredible battery-life. Anyone have more specs on the processor? I predict an incredibly small, cheap, light and efficient x-term-based, ARM-based linux machine.
jacquesm 17y ago
nice find! Check out these guys as well: http://www.wikipock.com/ http://www.wikipock.com/
Anon84 17y ago
Or for $1.99... http://www.appsafari.com/searching/3506/iphone-wikipedia/ http://www.appsafari.com/searching/3506/iphone-wikipedia/
Frocer 17y ago
Can't you get an iPhone for $99 now? Seems like a much better deal with more functionality.
- Timothee 17y ago
  The thing is that you need a data plan for an iPhone to work. This doesn't require anything. (I assume they have something similar to the Kindle) edit: nevermind. The store page shows this: "Annual Update Subscription $29 for two updates per year Receive content updates for your WikiReader delivered to your door." It seems to say that the content is loaded once and for all? Surprising… so, it doesn't require a subscription but the content is not live.
  - catch23 17y ago
    what about the itouch then?
  - tlrobinson 17y ago
    Or iPod Touch + Patrick Collison's offline Wikipedia app: http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/ http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/
  - gnubardt 17y ago
    The subscription is only for them to mail you a microsd card. You can download the updates for free and load it yourself. http://thewikireader.com/update.html http://thewikireader.com/update.html
- tptacek 17y ago
  I agree the Wikipedia device is priced way too high, but you cannot buy an iPhone for $99, or even $199. The money you give Apple is just a down payment.
- ajg1977 17y ago
  $99... and a $75 a month bill for two years. Sure, you could pick up an iPod Touch for $199 but that's twice as much, has worse battery life, looks like it'd be far more fragile, and no way to prevent kids for accessing the more adult Wikipedia areas. This looks like a great device you could give to your 9+ kids to help with homework.
ajg1977 17y ago
It's like a slightly-less-but-still-awesome Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy :)
- zandorg 17y ago
  This comic strip makes a point about Kindle: http://xkcd.com/548/ http://xkcd.com/548/
DanielStraight 17y ago
And um... how big is the screen?
pospischil 17y ago
Destined for a sharper image near you? Don't want to come off too strong, as this device would have been awesome just a few years ago...but with how common smartphones are becoming, the market for people (without smartphones) willing to spend $99 on an electronic wikipedia device seems like it would be quite small.
- andar 17y ago
  If you had wikipedia in your pocket for only $99, you would have known that sharper image closed its retail stores: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sharper_Image#Retail_stores http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sharper_Image#Retail_stores
antidaily 17y ago
I wonder how good the search is. Searching wikipedia from the site is terrible IMO.
icey 17y ago
I wonder what the chances are of using one of these and coming across a wiki page that has been defaced and / or is somehow incorrect. With the online version you have the benefit of time tempering validity of most articles. With something like this, aren't you at the mercy of whenever the snapshot was taken?
- furyg3 17y ago
  and / or is somehow incorrect The chances are 100%.
  - icey 17y ago
    Yeah, I did some back of the envelope calculations on this yesterday - approximately 4 million edits to Wikipedia a month, 4% of which end up being vandalism of some sort. That ends up being approximately 160,000 instances of vandalism a month if you don't mind my hand-wavey oversimplification. The median time to revert a vandalized article is 14 minutes. I guess the question is "how many vandalized articles are in an average snapshot?" instead of "are there any vandalized articles?". Sources: http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesDatabaseEdits.htm http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesDatabaseEdits.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Vandalism_studies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Vandalism...
wooby 17y ago
Anyone have an idea as to how hackable this thing is? A friend of mine and I are looking for a good platform upon which to build a programmable and pocket-sized RPN calculator.
- joe_bleau 17y ago
  The ARM based HP-20B calculator is fully hackable, and HP has even released schematics and an SDK. Not a lot of non-volatile RAM, though. http://www.wiki4hp.com/ http://www.wiki4hp.com/
  - wooby 17y ago
    Very awesome, thank you for the link!
yan 17y ago
My favorite feature: Forget daily charging, two standard AAA batteries (included) will power WikiReader for about 12 months of normal usage. Or put in those unused rechargeable batteries lying around in the house. Those will work, too. Sure, you can get an iPod touch or some smart device du jour, but that defeats the point. I'm sure reading text on that crisp b&w screen is far easier and with less distractions than on an iPod. But this is something you can throw in your bag just to have, or give to your niece or nephew or create a homebrew community around. Maybe its the nostalgia talking, but I have a fondness of these 'one use' devices that have just as much computing power as you need, don't need a wireless connection and don't need an power umbilical chord nightly. If I didn't have a Kindle, I'd consider playing with one.
ugh 17y ago
Love the spots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVnCZI9h46Y&feature=player_profilepage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVnCZI9h46Y&feature=playe...
Asmodeus 17y ago
This would be pretty awesome if the screen were bigger, according to me.
psyklic 17y ago
Make it or break it for me might be images and math equations. Good idea though -- I actually thought of tying something like this to your GPS for roadtrips, and have it pop up the relevant Wikipedia article for the closest town/landmark, expandable to big cities/states/etc.
- grandalf 17y ago
  check out www.wikifieldtrip.org, which does that
avinashv 17y ago
I read the title and immediately thought that this is an outrageous price for something that my phone can do for a few dollars a month (cheap data plans in India), and then I saw the form factor, and the amazing battery life. The question is: can it display the equations that Mobile Wikipedia + my phone have trouble doing?
James-Foster 17y ago
Is the fact that internet access is not required that much of a benefit? Why not spend $199 on an iPod Touch instead...

29 points by edw519 17y ago

10ren 17y ago

Specs at Amazon (4.5 oz; 128 grams) http://www.amazon.com/WikiReader-WR-01-Pocket-Wikipedia/dp/B002N5521W/ http://www.amazon.com/WikiReader-WR-01-Pocket-Wikipedia/dp/B... A review: http://dvice.com/archives/2009/10/the-wikireader.php http://dvice.com/archives/2009/10/the-wikireader.php CrunchGear review: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/10/13/wikireader-packs-all-of-wikipedia-in-a-power-sipping-portable/ http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/10/13/wikireader-packs-all-of... It's a hp200lx-style: B&W display, incredible battery-life. Anyone have more specs on the processor? I predict an incredibly small, cheap, light and efficient x-term-based, ARM-based linux machine.

jacquesm 17y ago

nice find! Check out these guys as well: http://www.wikipock.com/ http://www.wikipock.com/

Anon84 17y ago

Or for $1.99... http://www.appsafari.com/searching/3506/iphone-wikipedia/ http://www.appsafari.com/searching/3506/iphone-wikipedia/

Frocer 17y ago

Can't you get an iPhone for $99 now? Seems like a much better deal with more functionality.

Timothee 17y ago
The thing is that you need a data plan for an iPhone to work. This doesn't require anything. (I assume they have something similar to the Kindle) edit: nevermind. The store page shows this: "Annual Update Subscription $29 for two updates per year Receive content updates for your WikiReader delivered to your door." It seems to say that the content is loaded once and for all? Surprising… so, it doesn't require a subscription but the content is not live.
- catch23 17y ago
  what about the itouch then?
- tlrobinson 17y ago
  Or iPod Touch + Patrick Collison's offline Wikipedia app: http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/ http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/
- gnubardt 17y ago
  The subscription is only for them to mail you a microsd card. You can download the updates for free and load it yourself. http://thewikireader.com/update.html http://thewikireader.com/update.html
tptacek 17y ago
I agree the Wikipedia device is priced way too high, but you cannot buy an iPhone for $99, or even $199. The money you give Apple is just a down payment.
ajg1977 17y ago
$99... and a $75 a month bill for two years. Sure, you could pick up an iPod Touch for $199 but that's twice as much, has worse battery life, looks like it'd be far more fragile, and no way to prevent kids for accessing the more adult Wikipedia areas. This looks like a great device you could give to your 9+ kids to help with homework.

ajg1977 17y ago

It's like a slightly-less-but-still-awesome Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy :)

zandorg 17y ago
This comic strip makes a point about Kindle: http://xkcd.com/548/ http://xkcd.com/548/

DanielStraight 17y ago

And um... how big is the screen?

pospischil 17y ago

Destined for a sharper image near you? Don't want to come off too strong, as this device would have been awesome just a few years ago...but with how common smartphones are becoming, the market for people (without smartphones) willing to spend $99 on an electronic wikipedia device seems like it would be quite small.

andar 17y ago
If you had wikipedia in your pocket for only $99, you would have known that sharper image closed its retail stores: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sharper_Image#Retail_stores http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sharper_Image#Retail_stores

antidaily 17y ago

I wonder how good the search is. Searching wikipedia from the site is terrible IMO.

icey 17y ago

I wonder what the chances are of using one of these and coming across a wiki page that has been defaced and / or is somehow incorrect. With the online version you have the benefit of time tempering validity of most articles. With something like this, aren't you at the mercy of whenever the snapshot was taken?

furyg3 17y ago
and / or is somehow incorrect The chances are 100%.
- icey 17y ago
  Yeah, I did some back of the envelope calculations on this yesterday - approximately 4 million edits to Wikipedia a month, 4% of which end up being vandalism of some sort. That ends up being approximately 160,000 instances of vandalism a month if you don't mind my hand-wavey oversimplification. The median time to revert a vandalized article is 14 minutes. I guess the question is "how many vandalized articles are in an average snapshot?" instead of "are there any vandalized articles?". Sources: http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesDatabaseEdits.htm http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesDatabaseEdits.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Vandalism_studies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Vandalism...

wooby 17y ago

Anyone have an idea as to how hackable this thing is? A friend of mine and I are looking for a good platform upon which to build a programmable and pocket-sized RPN calculator.

joe_bleau 17y ago
The ARM based HP-20B calculator is fully hackable, and HP has even released schematics and an SDK. Not a lot of non-volatile RAM, though. http://www.wiki4hp.com/ http://www.wiki4hp.com/
- wooby 17y ago
  Very awesome, thank you for the link!

yan 17y ago

My favorite feature: Forget daily charging, two standard AAA batteries (included) will power WikiReader for about 12 months of normal usage. Or put in those unused rechargeable batteries lying around in the house. Those will work, too. Sure, you can get an iPod touch or some smart device du jour, but that defeats the point. I'm sure reading text on that crisp b&w screen is far easier and with less distractions than on an iPod. But this is something you can throw in your bag just to have, or give to your niece or nephew or create a homebrew community around. Maybe its the nostalgia talking, but I have a fondness of these 'one use' devices that have just as much computing power as you need, don't need a wireless connection and don't need an power umbilical chord nightly. If I didn't have a Kindle, I'd consider playing with one.

ugh 17y ago

Love the spots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVnCZI9h46Y&feature=player_profilepage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVnCZI9h46Y&feature=playe...

Asmodeus 17y ago

This would be pretty awesome if the screen were bigger, according to me.

psyklic 17y ago

Make it or break it for me might be images and math equations. Good idea though -- I actually thought of tying something like this to your GPS for roadtrips, and have it pop up the relevant Wikipedia article for the closest town/landmark, expandable to big cities/states/etc.

grandalf 17y ago
check out www.wikifieldtrip.org, which does that

avinashv 17y ago

I read the title and immediately thought that this is an outrageous price for something that my phone can do for a few dollars a month (cheap data plans in India), and then I saw the form factor, and the amazing battery life. The question is: can it display the equations that Mobile Wikipedia + my phone have trouble doing?

James-Foster 17y ago

Is the fact that internet access is not required that much of a benefit? Why not spend $199 on an iPod Touch instead...