Without a doubt, Wikipedia has become some sort of nexus for human knowledge, despite the fact that its functioning model involves articles written by specialists from various fields rather than a centralized body of authors. However, in order to check out articles on Wikipedia, one requires an Internet connection and a web browser, which makes is kind of useless in situations when these pre-requisites are not met.

However, it seems that Openmoko might have come up with a very innovative solution to this problem in the form of the WikiReader, which can be best described as a portable eReader that comes pre-loaded with around 3 million articles from Wikipedia (the English-language version) and is powered by just two AAA batteries.

According to the manufacturer, the WikiReader sports a touch-enabled monochrome display that allows users to scroll articles with a stroke of the finger and select hyperlinks with a simple tap. The device features three different buttons, namely Search, History and Random, their functions being identical to their virtual counterparts from Wikipedia.org.

WikiReader was designed by Thomas Meyerhoffer, a former Apple designer, who stated that, “The key is keeping it simple. We really want the focus to be on the experience of reading Wikipedia, not browsing the Web. That’s why we only have three buttons. There really is no interface. You’re just straight into the content.”

Erik Moeller, Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said that “We've played with WikiReader, and it's a lot of fun to see the entirety of the English Wikipedia text in a self-contained little box that doesn't require Internet access. It could also be one viable approach to share the world's most comprehensive encyclopedia with people who aren't connected. We will watch the continuing development of this device with great interest, as it's fully in the spirit of what Wikipedia is all about: empowering people.”

Of course, since Wikipedia is being constantly upgraded, the same will happen with the WikiReader. However, in the case of this tiny device, updates will be available quarterly and for free download. A yearly subscription plan for updated microSD cards is also set for $29, which will add to the initial pricing of the WikiReader, which is available for $99.


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