Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, October 13, 2009
Tech / Books Wiki In Your Pocket
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 4:35 PM
It's a single purpose device with a monochrome screen and a simplistic touch interface and on the inside is an 8GB microSD card loaded up with three million of Wikipedia's finest hypertexts. The device can be searched or just browsed through clicking through interlinked articles
Apparently, you can subscribe to a service that will deliver a new, updated SD card in the mail every so often. This seems so weirdly low-tech for a new gadget, although it does kind of pleasantly remind me of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
6
Or you could join the 21st century and get a smart phone instead of some overpriced black and white LCD screen.
This is about as stupid as that tv show from a while back that basically just showed YouTube videos.
This is about as stupid as that tv show from a while back that basically just showed YouTube videos.
7
I like the fact that this thing has pretty much zero strings. You buy it, it's yours. No service fees, no fees to update the content (if you choose to download yourself). Too much stuff today has strings, drm, service fees, etc.
Also, why doesn't this article have at lease one link?
Also, why doesn't this article have at lease one link?
8
Will tiny robots go door to door selling these?
"You and your fam-ma-ly will treasure this Wikipedia for years to come...may I tell you about our installment plan?"
Will tiny robots go door to door selling these?
"You and your fam-ma-ly will treasure this Wikipedia for years to come...may I tell you about our installment plan?"
9
Just for the record, I tried to add the pertinent links to the bottom of my post (@7) but the slog overload machine-in-the-sky removed them.
11
@5 and @10:
What is the total cost of your iPhone/BB (equipment cost and monthly charges over two years)? How long do the batteries last? If you break it, how much does it cost to replace it? Can I give one to an 8 year old and lock it to use just the mobile wiki app (that runs from memory and doesn't rely on a signal)?
What is the total cost of your iPhone/BB (equipment cost and monthly charges over two years)? How long do the batteries last? If you break it, how much does it cost to replace it? Can I give one to an 8 year old and lock it to use just the mobile wiki app (that runs from memory and doesn't rely on a signal)?
12
@11 - yeah, but you can't wrap it in gold, wrap it in a lemon, and smash your head with it either.
13
@11 An iPod touch is only 200 and does substantially more than this.
And most 8 year olds I know can work one.
Look if it were like 20 bucks I could maybe see it, but 100. Come one, that's a rip-off for whats essentially a cached website.
And most 8 year olds I know can work one.
Look if it were like 20 bucks I could maybe see it, but 100. Come one, that's a rip-off for whats essentially a cached website.
16
I remember a couple years back when people were so excited about the OpenMoko phone. A linux-based iPhone killer! I finally saw one in person and it was the ugliest, clunkiest thing imaginable. It took like 5 minutes to boot and nothing really worked.
17
In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.
First, it is slightly cheaper; and second, it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.
20
Great. So instead of a bunch of drunken idiots blathering shit they know nothing about and cannot verify, we'll get a bunch of drunken idiots blathering shit they know nothing about but can "verify" through an internet-user-based confirmation source.
Ignorant rants were so much better when nobody could pull a random wikipedia quote out of their ass but instead had to stand by their positions without any ambiguous support whatsoever.
Ignorant rants were so much better when nobody could pull a random wikipedia quote out of their ass but instead had to stand by their positions without any ambiguous support whatsoever.
21
I love the concept of having an encyclopedia in your pocket but since most phones these days have internet you've already got wikipedia in your pocket. What's the advantage of this?
22
One of the great features of Wikipedia is that you can follow the supporting links rather than rely completely on the writer(s) of the entry, who as we know are usually but not always reliable.
Hard to imagine many people ponying up $10, for this, never mind $100.
Hard to imagine many people ponying up $10, for this, never mind $100.
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