WikiReader: Entire Wikipedia on your palm
Published On: 29 October 2009 11:44 IST
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There are few better illustrations of the staggering advance of digital technology than the new WikiReader. It's the size of a thick table coaster, and contains nearly the entire text of the English-language Wikipedia. That's 3.1 million articles, written and edited by volunteers around the globe
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The WikiReader is sold online and made by OpenMoko Inc., a Taiwanese company. The founder, Sean Moss-Pultz, says the inspiration for the gadget comes from the electronic translation dictionaries that are common in Asia
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WikiReader: Entire Wikipedia on your palm
The fact that the WikiReader carries the text on a memory chip, rather than using an Internet connection, means you can use it anywhere: overseas, on a plane, in the subway. It's also faster and easier to use than most cell phones, and it has a bigger screen. The battery life is, to believe OpenMoko, outstanding. It says two AAA batteries will last in the WikiReader for a year, if you use it 15 minutes per day
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WikiReader: Entire Wikipedia on your palm
The face of the device is nearly filled by a monochrome LCD touch screen. To search the encyclopedia, you bring up an on-screen keyboard. To select links, you tap on them. To scroll, you move your finger across the glass
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WikiReader: Entire Wikipedia on your palm
There are four buttons: one for power, one for the search screen, one that lists the pages you just visited, and one that brings up a random article. There's no backlighting, so you can't read in weak light. Because the screen doesn't show color, the WikiReader doesn't even bother to show images
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WikiReader: Entire Wikipedia on your palm
The online Wikipedia changes every minute, but the WikiReader's content does not. It's a static snapshot. However, the manufacturer plans to provide free updates four times a year. To take advantage of that, you'd have to extract the chip from the WikiReader's battery compartment, stick it in a computer's card reader, and download the entire database
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WikiReader: Entire Wikipedia on your palm
OpenMoko also plans to provide a subscription service that mails new memory cards with updated content four times per year, for $29.
(Text: Associated Press)
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