Just before Christmas I took delivery of a WikiReader a small, handheld device that has the entire contents of Wikipedia stored on it. It’s a simple little thing – basically a souped-up version of those little electronic dictionaries that have been around for years. Hit the search key, type in a search term through the touch-screen keyboard on the black and white, 7cm square screen and it will display a list of options for you to select the right Wikipedia entry.
I decided to road test the device during the family Christmas. Obviously Wikipedia is always changing, but it seems to be stable enough for most articles (and you can order updated memory cards). In fact, it was a massive hit and saw near continuous action on the sofa. Whenever anyone had a question about a TV programme that was on, or an actor on the screen, or a word they needed the meaning of, or details of a place they were reading about in the paper, the cry went up to ‘pass the Wikireader’. Based on this experience I think the company in question may have a bit of a hit on their hands.
All this has helped my thinking around the endless speculation about Apple’s iSlate. If the device turns out to exist and if it is some kind of all-in-one tablet that provides access to a range of multimedia – e-books, films, music etc – then it could have a real place on the sofa. Who wants to get off the chair and head upstairs to log on to use the PC or fish the laptop out of the briefcase? The iSlate will just sit on the arm of the sofa. In our house at least, the WikiReader has shown the way. The next step in computing is to the sofa.
Tags: Apple, iPad, iSlate, sofa, ubicomp, wikipedia, WikiReader
Tech Lunch 
January 26, 2010 at 10:09 pm |
Surely such a device could spew out a code that would allow the user to download updates from Wikipedia to a local PC/MAC and then have them uploaded to the reader over a USB link.
That would still keep the device cost down (as it doesn’t have to understand IP or have wireless etc) and yet allow it to be updated much quicker than having a flash card sent in the post.
I can see the use in the pub or a curry house or, dare I say it, a school quiz…
January 27, 2010 at 10:56 am |
Hi Raz, I believe there is also a way to download a file to the WikiReader from a PC, but I’ve yet to investigate that method.
January 31, 2010 at 7:08 am |
Alot of bloggers aren’t really pleased with the new iPad.There was 2 much hype regarding it and lots of people got turned off.Quite frankly, I for one see great deal of the awesome potential of this gadget. Third-party soft for making tunes, games, papers and magazines and FFS books, all kinds of awesome stuff, but they just didn’t really sell it very well (aside from the books). It feels rather undercooked