For the project to print books of Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:Books.

WikiReader is a project to deliver an offline, text-only version of Wikipedia on a mobile device.[1] The project is sponsored by Openmoko and its source code has been released.[2]

The project debuted an offline portable reader for Wikipedia in October 2009.[1] As of October of 2012 a version with a 4 GB Micro SDHC Memory Card costs US$14.99 at Amazon.com. Updates in multiple languages are available online;[3] Wikireader versions of the English Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote and Project Gutenberg can be installed together on a user-supplied 16 GB Micro SDHC Memory Card. Unlike Wikipedia itself, the device features parental controls.[4]

The device can also run programs written in Forth; a simple calculator program is included.[5]

Specifications

WikiReader being used.
Wikireaders in original packaging.
  • Display: Monochrome Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), 240 × 208 pixels.[6]
  • Interface: Capacitive touchscreen with on-screen keyboard. Four hardware keys.[7]
  • CPU: Epson S1C33 E07 microcontroller with 8KB+2KB internal memory
  • Firmware: 64 KB Flash memory[6]
  • Memory: 32MB SDRAM[6]
  • Storage: Removable microSD card (SD and SDHC supported, 512MB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB supported)[6]
  • File formats supported: native format; a converter from MediaWiki's XML export format is available.[8]
  • Dimensions: 100 × 100 × 20 mm (3.9 × 3.9 × 0.8 inches)[6]
  • Weight: 120 grams (4.2 oz)[6]
  • Languages: English
  • Warranty: 90 days
  • Power: Two AAA batteries[6]
  • Battery life: 90 hours;[9] equivalent to 1 year of normal use according to manufacturer[4][10]

Limitations

  • Text-only display: The WikiReader is strictly a "text only" display device. The device therefore does not store or display any Wikipedia images.[11]
  • Tables: The WikiReader does not display article text which appears inside a table on the Wikipedia Website (see Wikipedia:Tables).
  • HTML "special characters": Certain Wikipedia article text encoded using HTML special characters is stripped from the WikiReader's output.
  • Mathematical formulas: Original versions of the WikiReader do not display Wikipedia article information encoded as a formula using LaTeX (see Math markup). This has been addressed with an optional firmware update, which is pre-loaded on newer WikiReaders.
  • Treatment of missing information: The WikiReader does not provide any indication of gaps where information has been deleted from a Wikipedia article. Images, tables, mathematical formulas and other information that was not encoded strictly as plain text in the original Wikipedia article is silently deleted from the WikiReader's output.
  • Search: The WikiReader's search capabilities are basic. There is no full text search capability. Only the titles of Wikipedia articles can be searched. The WikiReader does support incremental search of article titles, beginning with the first characters of each title. Search terms must be spelled correctly. Wildcard searching is not supported.

See also

Portal icon Free software portal

References

  1. ^ a b Möller, Erik (13 October 2009). "OpenMoko Launches WikiReader". Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 December 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2011. 
  2. ^ Hall, Christopher (15 October 2009). "WikiReader source uploaded to github". Openmoko. Archived from the original on 11 December 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2011. 
  3. ^ "WikiReader Development Site: Downloads". Retrieved 28 September 2012. 
  4. ^ a b Engst, Adam C. (15 October 2009). "WikiReader Puts Wikipedia in Your Pocket". TidBITS. Archived from the original on 11 December 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2011. 
  5. ^ Hall, Christopher (15 October 2010). "Software Information". GitHub. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2012. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Hall, Christopher (15 October 2010). "The WikiReader contains the following major hardware components". GitHub. Archived from the original on 11 December 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2011. 
  7. ^ Gibbs, Mark (18 June 2010). "Wikipedia in your pocket". Network World. Archived from the original on 11 December 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2011. 
  8. ^ http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-October/056799.html
  9. ^ Segot, Christopher (21 October 2009). "Openmoko WikiReader: Portable Wikipedia in Your Pocket". OLPC News. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2012. 
  10. ^ "Features". Openmoko. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2012. 
  11. ^ "Source code". Openmoko. Retrieved 29 May 2013. 

External links