Is That a Wiki in Your Pocket?
Ever wish you could hold all the knowledge of the world in your back pocket? Well, how about just 3 million topics? The WikiReader is a small, portable device that carries the knowledge of Wikipedia, offline and at your fingertips.
Both the brilliance and the downfall of this device is its simplicity. It has only three buttons: “search”, “history” and “random”, and a very simple virtual touchscreen keypad to look up topics. The interface is a simple monochrome display offering text only with links to other articles. Certainly, taking away photographs is an easy way to conserve space and make it completely about the information. But it can’t display charts or graphs either, which can be more problematic as many of them contain very useful information, especially country-specific pages which are littered with informative charts. But the rather simple display allows this device to move incredibly quickly. Turn it on and it’s instantaneously ready to go and it loads pages fast as well.
The WikiReader also can run for a very long time on its AAA batteries (we can’t tell you how long because we haven’t reached the end of it yet)… but of course it does that by not offering a backlit screen. We found it rather easy for our young eyes, but with any amount of bright glare on the screen it becomes a strain and it’s quite difficult for the elderly. Nonetheless, the battery life makes it an excellent device to carry on trips. Even more than that, since the device has no ports or outlets, it is more resistant to sand, dust and the like getting inside and messing things up, making it very durable.
I personally don’t use Wikipedia enough to need a separate system from my smart phone, but the WikiReader has several advantages over such a device. The first being that it is entirely offline- so you can bring Wikipedia with you everywhere- and the second is that it’s incredibly easy to use. Were it not for the readability issues, it would be an excellent gift for seniors. As it is, it is an excellent gift for kids and those among us that are less tech savvy.
It seems to be most useful for a few niche markets in particular: avid Wikipedia readers either without smartphones or who like their Wikipedia in a separate device; travelers abroad, especially in areas where Wikipedia might be blocked or data connections hard to come by; and school children everywhere as a wonderful (though occasionally inaccurate) learning device. The WikiReader also comes with a small calculator and parental controls. The source code is available online and the Reader can run programs in Forth as well.
As it is offline, new edits don’t show up in the WikiReader, but they release an updated version every few months or so. Luckily, knowledge doesn’t go out of fashion that quickly and it functions as a great reference when struggling with some bit of historical trivia, some complicated physics terminology, or when just hitting the “random” button to learn about something new. Available for $99 on the WikiReader site and also available on Amazon.
