Wikipedia In Your Pocket, $99 412
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.
Hitch Hiker's Guide (Score:5, Funny)
Finally we have a hitch hiker's guide to Earth!
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Damn, foiled again by AC!
<Khan>ACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC!</Khan>
citation please (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:citation please (Score:4, Interesting)
This is just as good a place as any to ask about the support of templates in this device. Important components of some articles are generate by templates. One example is the infamous [citation needed] text, which is generated by the "{{cn}}" template. Other times, important words in a sentence are used as a argument for a template, to produce some from of link automatically.
Some other mobile Wikipedia solutions, such as one I saw for the iPhone, just ignore templates. That means that important words in a sentence could potentially be omitted. In some cases, entire sections of an article may be omitted. I consider that extremely problematic.
Assuming they are properly supported, are references supported? In few articles I've seen the feature used for general footnotes in addition to references, and having those disappear could be problematic.
What about the LaTeX math equations? A lot of mathematical and Computer Science articles become completely worthless if those are omitted, but including them means included quite a few generated images for some of the more complex ones that cannot be rendered as html.
And what about the ez-timeline extention. Are the images that it generates included?
What about the hieroglyphics that articles may include by way of the wikihiro extention?
I would not be willing to use a static mobile Wikipedia that did not support templates, references, tables, external links, LaTeX equations.
Other people might insist that the categories pages be included, and that time lines and hieroglyphics be supported.
Re:Hitch Hiker's Guide (Score:5, Funny)
WTF are you talking about? Everything important to say about Earth can be summed up in two words.
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Everything important to say about Earth can be summed up in two words.
Is 'manbearpig' three words, one word or two halves of a word? ;)
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Everything important to say about Earth can be summed up in two words.
Is 'manbearpig' three words, one word or two halves of a word? ;)
It depends on how 'super cereal' you are!
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I think they should have stuck with the one... since the universe is apparently blocking our attempts from discovering its secrets.
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More importantly, the answer to everything in the universe can be summed up in two digits.
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More importantly, the answer to everything in the universe can be summed up in two digits.
Real geeks use 110 digits. The answer to everything is 101010.
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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.
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No, don't use threes, use fours [timecube.com]!
(Note to kooks and overzealous mods: Yes, this post is in fact a joke.)
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But if it doesn't have three corners it wouldn't be my hat
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WikiReader? (Score:2)
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".
Solution looking for a problem (Score:3, Insightful)
With ubiquitous cellular broadband practically everywhere (that matters) and phones with good web browsers in them, this is a solution looking for a problem.
Re:Solution looking for a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Three points to consider:
- It's openmoko based, so it's extremely hackable.
- It uses standard AAA batteries. I can't overstate how important this is to me.
- No contract, hard copy of reference information, safe to give to a kid.
This seems like a good gift solution for
a. hackers
b. travelers
c. parents
Re:Solution looking for a problem (Score:5, Informative)
Three points to consider:
- It's openmoko based, so it's extremely hackable.
[citation needed]
It's produced by some of the Openmoko people but it's a very different software stack that shares little (if any) code with their phones. It doesn't run Linux.
Source code is available (seems to be at http://code.google.com/p/wikipediardware/ [google.com]) so there is some potential for hacking and community development, but so far I haven't thought of any interesting applications except for an e-book reader. It doesn't have any of the interesting peripherals that come with the Freerunner (WiFi, GPS, accelerometer, USB, etc).
I do appreciate the AAA batteries and the sunlight-readable screen. Those are the reason that I'm still using my Palm III to read science-fiction magazines.
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d. Trivia Night husslers
Re:Solution looking for a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
No contract, hard copy of reference information, safe to give to a kid.
I'm actually wondering about this part. Their website seems to be clearly positioning it at children, and yet Wikipedia is quite deliberately not censored for children. I smell a lawsuit there once some 7yro Johnny, driven by curiosity, starts with anime, and ends up diving into the depth of interlinked mesh of articles on yuri and lolicon...
Read the site, rather than just looking at the pictures ;-)
For Parents: WikiReader offers an easy way to protect your child from adult-oriented content.
<flamebait>I wonder if there's "American mode" (hiding all the articles about sex) and "European mode" (hiding all the articles about guns).</flamebait>
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Or Chinese mode where everything about China is censored to be bad but it's good.
Wait what?
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it strikes me as a good solution for people who don't (and don't want to) pay $150/mo in phone plan charges.
or for people for whom battery life is a concern.
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Or for people who don't live in a major city, but hey, thanks for telling me I don't matter! :)
Still wished they'd used a lithium ion battery, though, just to make the form factor fit a pocket better.
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http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/ [apple.com]
http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/ [collison.ie]
Re:Solution looking for a problem (Score:5, Informative)
We don't all want to pay for data plans.
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Well it found a problem. Specifically, my problem.
I was reflecting on how I would like to throw some money their way, but don't really want to donate and don't really need CD's.
I don't have a dataplan on my phone and don't want one.
This device is perfect. I will own one.
Re:Solution looking for a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
yeah, there's no use for an encyclopedia with detailed information on all edible plants out in the middle of nowhere where there's no cell access.
and you couldn't possibly find yourself in a situation where you need information but can't access your wireless, despite being in a 'covered' area, cell phone coverage is, practically, perfect.
Oh, also, power outages. Infrastructure is all well and good, but having all the knowledge you need about the world around you at your fingertips regardless of the state of the outside world is great.
I'd say the places that matter the most are precisely the places that don't have cell access.
Re:Solution looking for a problem (Score:4, Insightful)
yeah, there's no use for an encyclopedia with detailed information on all edible plants out in the middle of nowhere where there's no cell access.
Might not be as useful without pictures, though.
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Every hemlock plant article I found on wikipedia describes them as poisonous in the introduction.
Re:Solution looking for a problem (Score:5, Funny)
hmmmmm
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Don't travel international much, do you?
When you can get cell service (i.e., not in a wilderness area), you often can not get data.
When you can get data, it won't be affordable.
If you haven't converted to local plan (sim locked phone?), you may as well just leave your phone turned off because international roaming fees will eat you alive.
Translation: (Score:4, Funny)
No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
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http://www.thewikireader.com/media/pictures/wr_hand1_small.jpg [thewikireader.com]
Oh, that's funny. I see something on that page that doesn't look anything like a latin character set.
The databases are the same, I don't see why this wouldn't be able to read a non-english wikipedia dump.
Sophists Dream (Score:5, Funny)
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!
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kinda sad the collective real/mis information we have is only about 4 gigs, the size of a blu ray disk full of porn.
I've got wikipedia reader in my pocket (Score:4, Insightful)
It's called an iPhone. :)
Funny that... (Score:3, Funny)
Mine's called k700i... But I often refer to it as Bob.
Older iPods or other MP3 players (Score:2)
Re:I've got wikipedia reader in my pocket (Score:4, Insightful)
How much did your iphone cost? Does it run on batteries you can buy anywhere for cheap? According to the website this device runs on AAAs.
This sounds like a great little cheap device. If I can make and load my own articles (the site said something about updating with a flash card), then it could be useful for me. If this is programmable (open source mentioned) and has a touch screen like it appeared (video had someone typing search in a touch-screen keyboard), then it could have all sorts of uses. If you are rich enough to buy an iPhone, then obviously this device is not for you.
So this is ... (Score:4, Interesting)
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If it truly is an eReader for $99 that's actually pretty sweet, but otherwise, yeah, a bit of a snoozer. I can jump online with my CDMA phone (YES; I'm going GSM soon) and peruse wp at any time. AND transfer a 4G file to update the thing? Forget that. Makes it useless. Here's a hint guys: INCREMENTAL UPDATE. Hardly cutting-edge technology. Get it together, inventors.
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I was using it very loosely... as in a non-paper book. :)
IMO, not only is the hardware somewhat lacking, I'm not sure I even want a wikipedia reference. Why not something somewhat authoritative? Wikipedia is alright and all, but there are definite issues with it once you get outside of certain to pics. Not that other encyclopedia's are perfect, but at least they have trained/educated editors and researchers that are presumably paid to be good at it.
When I wrote research papers in college, it seems to me
Re:So this is ... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Beats paying a grand for every edition you have to throw away when it becomes dated. Beats buying a Kindle. Beats paying for data on cellular. I might buy one just because you're not excited.
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An encyclopedia in the form of an e-book for $99. Sorry if I'm not too excited...
I bought a nice new 30-volume Britannica in 1983 (leather-bound dead trees). It cost considerably more than $99, and is no longer up-to-date. It still resides on my bookshelves, but rarely gets consulted any more. This is one of the few cases where the ebook is actually superior to the dead-tree version, as it can be kept up-to-date, while the dead-tree version progressively loses relevance over decades.
My only gripe about this ebook is that a few GB seems too little. I have not tried to httrack wikipedia'
Which Search Software Does This Employ? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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.
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My friends would laugh at me citing Wikipedia. Real Geeks use authoritative references.
You know you're in a Real Geek argument when the geek in question has a better library on the topic than any library within 100 miles (except maybe a college specializing in the topic), and half the books are on the table, floor, and any other handy horizontal surface during the debate.
a 4G+ file? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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The file on the device is probably compressed in a way that makes a diff impractical.
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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.
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Really, in the end blame Wikipedia for not producing diffs. Storm in a teakettle...
Is 4GB really such an imposition these days? That's about 40 minutes of downloading. How long do you think making many many changes to a heavily compressed 4GB archive on your PC is going to take...never mind two-transfer of 4GB of stuff over USB or whatever.
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Is it really 40 minutes of downloading for the kind of people who thing this device is more attractive/affordable than a mobile phone with a data plan?
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Re:a 4G+ file? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:a 4G+ file? (Score:4, Informative)
Any instructions on how to build a local mirror?
Here's [wikimedia.org] enough to get you started. They also link to a program (Wikix) that builds scripts to download images should you desire them.
I've found that in most cases just the text is good enough, but if I had the hard drive space and bandwidth I'd download the images too.
Don't Panic (Score:4, Funny)
Finally, the HHGG in your pocket.
Does it come with a towel, or do I need to provide my own?
Is this a derivative work? (Score:2, Interesting)
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?
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Simple, there is no such rule.
It depends instead on the particular license that Wikipedia uses.
Some open source works use a license that allows closed source derivatives, others do not.
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Uh.. there is such a rule. It's called ShareAlike, and it very much applies to Wikipedia
"Share Alike—If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License [wikipedia.org]
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What derivative work? We're talking about hardware accessing and displaying information. Or do you think people using Windows or Mac OS X don't have the right to use wikipedia.org?
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No we're not. That's an oversimplification. We're talking about selling Wikipedia. This isn't "accessing" the website. This is "selling" the content.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License [wikipedia.org]
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What if the fee is asked for the work of porting/compresing/whatever the content, and not the content itself?
Then again I haven't read the details of the whole thing.
Re:Is this a derivative work? (Score:5, Informative)
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?
That's an easy question! Answer: No.
First, the hardware is not derived from Wikipedia. That's just silly. Second, even if it were "derivative" in some sense of the word, hardware itself is not copyrightable, and thus not subject to the GPL in any meaningful sense.
Mostly Harmless (Score:2)
"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.
Re:Mostly Harmless (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/ [bbc.co.uk]
Not exactly what you asked for but it's good stuff and it predates Wikipedia.
Discussed this earlier with some peeps (Score:3, Informative)
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 [makeuseof.com] for gathering your own wiki subset.
Updates (Score:2, Interesting)
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They should be using rsync.
Obligatory xkcd (Score:4, Funny)
Obligatory xkcd [xkcd.com]
Its called an iPhone (Score:2, Funny)
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." :-)
The Website (Score:4, Funny)
I clicked "Media". I stopped looking for information when I saw the picture of the old man "researching" Megan Fox.
Aaah... too bad... (Score:3, Funny)
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. [youtube.com]
Got a Kindle already (Score:3, Informative)
Wikipedia online plus Google, the interwebs, and books too.
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A bit small (Score:2)
They could have done more with the device at that price point.
lame joke (Score:4, Funny)
Is that the largest encyclopedia in the world for just $99 in your pants or are you just happy to see me?
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I think you just wrote the dialog for their TV ad.
Too cubed (Score:2)
Too little, too late, too expensive.
Don't Panic comes on the front (Score:2)
Project Gutenberg (Score:4, Informative)
Somebody please hack it to contain the complete works of Project Gutenberg, or at least a worthwhile subset.
Why isn't this an iPhone App? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
It's a postapocalyptic civilization rebuilder! (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Get It for Free (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyone with an Internet connection can download the complete Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] 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.
Re:trick you into thinking I'm educated (Score:5, Insightful)
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. - Einstein
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It's perfect for my niece and nephew for school and writing reports.
Except that it's not a reliable source for research papers/reports... at least, not for any of the teachers that I have had. And if the niece and nephew are younger, may as well start them out looking at good sources....
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What is a reliable source, then? Should they travel to whichever university has the greatest expert on the subject and get an interview? Oh, not enough? So they have to do their own archaeological dig? Oh, but that would be prone to errors. Maybe they need to go back in time to witness the event.
From what I've seen, Wikipedia isn't any less accurate or bias than any dead tree encyclopedia. Anyone who says it isn't good enough for an elementary or high school report is an ass. In fact, for most research, W
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> 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 !!
Good news! You can get one gadget that's all that PLUS a phone!
=Smidge=
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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.
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But it is the iPhone. Not the jesusPhone.
At least not until you install the jesusPhone [typepad.com] theme...
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What about the inaccuracies which are in Wikipedia when you read it online? What about inaccuracies which are in any source (online, books, or other places)?
Re:So... (Score:4, Interesting)
Most people I can think of who'd like this, or have some other form of access to The Great Wiki in their pocket don't see it as unconditionally gospel. It's like the rest of the internet - about right, most of the time. I don't recall ever having been wrongly informed through getting information from wikipedia - it can be (and more often than not is) ambiguous, over-complicated or over-simplified, lacking in detail, but it's very rarely wrong - there's too many anally retentive pedants on it.