WikiReader: The World in the Palm of Your Hand

by Lori Cunningham

Editor’s Note:  I just got back from an exciting time at the New York Toy Fair.  I will be spending the next week putting together my top toy picks and a post which gives you a glimpse of what I saw at the Toy Fair.  Stay tuned for some fun stuff!

If you read my Valentines Day post, you’ll remember the WikiReader for the trivia buffs I wrote about in the article.  The WikiReader is a palm-sized gadget that offers you nearly the entire contents of the Wikipedia in your hand!  That means the WikiReader gives you offline access to over three million articles.  As you can see from the picture, the WikiReader a 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 touch screen with a black and white unlit display.  Because it has no backlight, the two AA batteries are expected to last for 90 hours…the equivalent of one year’s use, as estimated by Openmoko, the WikiReader’s maker.  Each article has hyperlinks so you can touch the words or topics of interests to jump to other areas to learn more.

Features:

• touchscreen
• current and free updates available quarterly
• lists the history of topics you visited for easy retrieval
• random button serves up a random topics to learn more about
• energy saving – two AAA batteries should last up to a year
• parental controls to keep kids safe
• simple to use – only three buttons!
• multilingual support
• ability to read up to 33,000 ebooks from the Project Gutenberg library (with added 16GB memory card)

Pros:

• lightweight
• does not use your mobile data minutes
• does not require WiFi
• provides extensive knowledge at your fingertips
• convenient size – great  for traveling
• satisfies your curiosity at a moment’s notice
• parental controls – you can let your kids explore without worry of them reading inappropriate content
• hyperlinks to related content is great…just like using the Internet
• love the history button to share with others your findings
• read up to 33,000 books…right on this little reader!  Incredible!

Cons:

• a bit pricey
• no color
• no pictures or tables
• can’t read in the dark
• small screen size

My seven year old daughter loves to learn.  As soon as she is assigned a new science or biography project, she comes home right after school and begins her assignment!  I pray she will always have this enthusiasm for projects as she grows.  Of  everyone in our family, I knew she would appreciate the WikiReader the most.

Sure enough, I was right!  She took to it right away and began typing in topics on the onscreen touch keyboard.  She learned that her name means “wise child!”  LOL.  I never knew that!  I thought she found a way to type that article in herself!  Nonetheless, she is very smart.  Days later after she received the WikiReader, she got an assignment on Davy Crockett.  Guess what resource she went to first?  (Not me, thank goodness, all I could remember about Davy Crockett was that he was a frontiersman!)  With the hyperlinks to different topics, she found out a wealth of information about Davy.  She began writing her report that night using the WikiReader…while in bed!  By the next morning she had two full pages done.

The WikiReader lets her imagine run wild and look up anything she’s interested in…right on the spot.  She doesn’t need to run downstairs to ask us or “google it” as she often does. Other topics she looked up: 

• Angry Birds  (our current favorite game)
• New York City – we were going soon for Toy Fair week
• Her friends’ names to find their meaning
• Disney
• Zhu Zhu Pets
• 911/World Trade Center

A Mom’s Perspective

Anything that captures my daughter’s attention and educates her at the same time is a winner in my book.  The fact that the WikiReader is a single purpose device (as opposed to an iPod Touch) works well for our family because my daughter won’t be distracted by Angry Birds or other fun games.  We recently went to New York for the Toy Fair and the WikiReader was one of the few “toys” she packed. 

The WikiReader is the new dictionary yet it encompasses an expanse of knowledge and interactivity to satisfy the most curious reader.  I also like the fact that the latest update is available free from WikiReader allowing you to download over 33,000 digital books from the Bible to Walden onto a SD card into the Reader.  Wow!   Now you can read a multitude of books without the need for an Internet connection or additional cost.  And the fact that the WikiReader offers parental controls gives me ease in knowing she won’t be reading content not appropriate for children.

Of course, the WikiReader isn’t just for kids.  Its a great resource for trivia buffs, on family vacations, when gardening, on fishing/camping trips, and places where an Internet connection is not possible.  The WikiReader retails for $99 online with free shipping.  It is my hope that as manufacturing costs comes down, the WikiReader will retail for a more affordable price.

* Openmoko  provided me with the WikiReader in exchange for my honest opinion.