.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE WikiReader: read all of Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg without an Internet connection
.AUTHOR Nancy Hand
.SUMMARY WikiReader is a small touchscreen device that packs a lot of information and does not require an Internet connection.
.OTHER
The [[http://www.thewikireader.com/|WikiReader]], shown in Figure A, is a small touchscreen device — 5 inches on the diagonal — that packs a lot of information and does not require an Internet connection.
.FIGPAIR A WikiReader also holds 33,000 Project Gutenberg books.
A single 8GB microSD card holds some 3 million articles from Wikipedia, the entire 33,000 ebook collection from Project Gutenberg a dictionary, and a database called Quotes. WikiReader offers Wikipedia in 17 languages including: English, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, German, Japanese, Greek, French, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Welsh, and Hungarian. Korean language files are currently being tested. It is possible to install multiple language Wikipedias on a single WikiReader.
Whew, that’s a lot of information!
The device is made by Openmoko and runs on 2 AAA batteries, as shown in Figure B, and has a total of four buttons — On/Off, Search, History, and Random. It has no Wi-Fi or 3G, no cables, and no ports for plugging into anything. My scale says, with batteries, it weighs 138 grams or 4.8 ounces and it fits in most pockets or purses with room to spare.
.FIGPAIR B All the world’s knowledge is powered by 2 AAA batteries.
My WikiReader arrived, with batteries in place, ready to go. All that was needed was to turn it on. A 16-page manual is included to help you get started.
To turn it on, you press a button on the top right corner. It comes on very quickly. If you ignore the device for a minute or two it will turn itself back off, or you can press and hold the power button to shut it off. The opening screen displays a virtual keyboard, As shown in Figure C, letting you type in the subject of your search.
.FIGPAIR C Go ahead and ask away!
To hide the keyboard, you press Search again. Pressing the globe icon on the screen allows you to change the database being searched, as shown in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D The Library at Alexandria it ain’t, but it’s a reasonable fascimile for a handheld.
Random searches can be somewhat addictive. Press the button marked "random" and the WikiReader responds with an entry from the selected database. Pressing "random" again will bring up another article, probably on another subject.
Searching Wikipedia brings up the same articles you would find if you did the search through your browser. The links are active, allowing you to move back and forth between articles.
Dictionary searches a dictionary with words and idioms. I discovered that the English dictionary includes entries in Greek, Japanese, Mandarin, Norwegian, and other alphabets, as shown in Figure E.
.FIGPAIR E Search is available for multiple languages.
The Quotes database was interesting. I was unable to find the quote "To be or not to be" from Hamlet, though the entire play seems to be there. Under H.G. Wells, I found a selection of excerpts from his writings. Otherwise I discovered what look to be entire scripts, by season, for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Dexter, and Bones.
Pressing the button marked "history" brings up a list of all the articles and books you’ve opened. If you frequently return to the same book or article, this can be handy.
Project Guttenberg is shown in Figure F.
.FIGPAIR F I’ll accept Openmoko’s word that all 33,000 ebooks are included.
The list of titles and authors is impressive. These are books on which the American copyright has expired. For example: Steinbeck’s work is still covered by copyright so is not included. Mark Twain’s work is no longer covered, so his work is included.
If you are worried about children finding and reading "inappropriate" material, you can set a password and select to filter content. It appears that all the data has been pre-tagged to make this easier.
Updates are available. You have two choices: you can subscribe for $29 a year and get two new, pre-loaded microSD chips mailed to you each year or you can download updates to your computer, at no cost, and overwrite the microSD chip that came with your WikiReader.
Interestingly, there is [[http://dev.thewikireader.com/category/sdk/|a software development kit]] (SDK) and someone has created a small game for their WikiReader.
.H1 Using the WikiReader
The screen is designed to be read "with adequate lighting". I actually found the WikiReader much easier to read in full sunlight than in the more subdued light of my living room. Unlike most of the dedicated e-readers, you cannot change the font, either for style or size. The standard font looks much like the 12-point Times New Roman of my word processor. Otherwise, the display reminds me of my old Etch-a-Sketch, with a silvery-gray background and darker gray characters.
The virtual keyboard is rather small, though maybe a little larger than what you’d get on a smartphone. It’s laid out well, with numbers on a second "screen", to maximize key size. The touch-screen will not accept input from pencils, pens, or fingernails, you have to use your fingertips.
Pictures from Wikipedia and Project Guttenberg books are not included, perhaps to save space. When I opened Dante Alighieri’s "The Divine Comedy, illustrated by Gustave Dore", I hoped to see some of Dore’s wonderful plates. Instead I found place markers such as "cover.jpg (96K)" with no way to open the images. All the images from Wikipedia articles are also missing. My husband felt this was unacceptable. Pictures are an important part of many Wikipedia articles.
Articles that include information in unsupported alphabets — Thai, Arabic, Hebrew, etc. — do not show the characters correctly. An empty "box" is displayed where the characters should be, as shown in Figure G.
.FIGPAIR G Missing characters can leave you feeling boxed in.
Again, my husband had difficulties with this. Several of his random searches called up entries in unsupported alphabets. One he showed me only had a few "supported" characters. He felt an English language dictionary shouldn’t include entries in non-English characters, especially unsupported alphabets.
There is an update application available for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 or Mac OS X 10.5 and above (the update page says you need OS X 10.6 and though it didn’t work on my OS X 10.4 device, it loaded fine under 10.5). Or you can use Torrent to download the file directly to your PC.
To update your WikiReader this way, you do need a compatible SD reader on your PC. Updates are large since you get the entire database, not just changes. I pulled down the Spanish Wikipedia using Torrent — the database was approximately 1 GB and took over an hour to download.
History cannot be cleared but seems to overwrite itself after a while. A "full" list, when it starts overwriting, looks to be just over 200 entries.
I found the search databases for Quotes and Wikipedia to be lacking. Space considerations must have influenced the decision not to make Quotes fully searchable. While PD James only has one or two quotes listed, trying to find a specific comment from one of the television series would take a while. And, if you don’t know who said it, or where, you may never find a specific quote.
A search for Alexander Graham Bell in Wikipedia resulted in failure when I looked under "Bell". The list jumps from "Bell, Andy" to "Bell, Book & Candle". To find Mr. Bell, I had to look under "Alexander G".
The "back button" was another curious item. If the article has a "prev" tag in the lower left corner, selecting it will take you back to the previous page or article. If the article does not have a "prev" tag, but you have moved down a level — maybe from the table of contents to the actual text — pressing the lower left corner of the screen will take you back "up" one level. If you have not moved down a level and there is no "prev" tag, you can pound a hole in the lower left corner of the screen and the display will not change.
Reading something like War and Peace (yes, it’s included) on the WikiReader would take more dedication than I have. The screen displays no more than 150 words at a time and instead of "turning a page", as you do in many e-readers, you scroll through the text. It’s also easy to get lost in tables of contents and legal notices.
And, while History will return you to the same book, I didn’t find a way to bookmark my place.
The WikiReader does what it is designed to do and does it well. I rate it a solid 3. My husband was less impressed.
.RATING 3
.BIO
