

Wikipedia In Your Pocket for $99 - edw519
http://www.thewikireader.com/index.html

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icey
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
_and / or is somehow incorrect_

The chances are 100%.

~~~
icey
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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Vandalism...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Vandalism_studies)

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yan
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.

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pospischil
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
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>

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10ren
Specs at Amazon (4.5 oz; 128 grams) [http://www.amazon.com/WikiReader-
WR-01-Pocket-Wikipedia/dp/B...](http://www.amazon.com/WikiReader-WR-01-Pocket-
Wikipedia/dp/B002N5521W/)

A review: <http://dvice.com/archives/2009/10/the-wikireader.php>

CrunchGear review: [http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/10/13/wikireader-packs-all-
of...](http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/10/13/wikireader-packs-all-of-wikipedia-
in-a-power-sipping-portable/)

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.

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ajg1977
It's like a slightly-less-but-still-awesome Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy :)

~~~
zandorg
This comic strip makes a point about Kindle: <http://xkcd.com/548/>

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avinashv
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?

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psyklic
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
check out www.wikifieldtrip.org, which does that

------
ugh
Love the spots:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVnCZI9h46Y&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVnCZI9h46Y&feature=player_profilepage)

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wooby
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
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/>

~~~
wooby
Very awesome, thank you for the link!

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

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

~~~
Timothee
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.

~~~
gnubardt
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>

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

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

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jacquesm
nice find! Check out these guys as well:

<http://www.wikipock.com/>

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Anon84
Or for $1.99... <http://www.appsafari.com/searching/3506/iphone-wikipedia/>

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DanielStraight
And um... how big is the screen?

