When I first came across the WikiReader from OpenMoko, my thought was: why would I want a device that is dedicated to Wikipedia, but not connected to the Internet? What value would such a device have?

Then I realized that this device really isn’t for people like me who have easy access to the Internet. This device is for people without connectivity, or in situations where you don’t have or want connectivity. In these situations, the Wikireader is a great reference device to have around.

The device contains 3 million topics from Wikipedia stored on a MicroSD card inside the battery compartment, which stores two AAA batteries. It has a touch screen where you can scroll the text on the screen,  type in the topic you wish to look up and tap links inside Wikipedia articles. It also has a Search button where you can enter the topic you desire, a History button where you can see what topics you previously viewed, a Random button for a little bit of serendipity, and the power button on the top.

The device can be updated. As mentioned before, the contents of Wikipedia are stored on the MicroSD card. You can either take the MicroSD and update it yourself or swap the MicroSD card with a freshly updated one that OpenMoko can provide. The service costs $29 a year (plus taxes and shipping) and entitles you to two updates a year.

Having used a review unit that OpenMoko sent me, the screen on this device is kind of a letdown. The screen is passive matrix, has a horrible refresh rate, is not backlit, and is impossible to read in all but the most optimal of lighting conditions. However, if you want to bring Wikipedia to a non-computer savvy or non-connected person, this is the device to consider. This is not a device I would buy, but then again, I am not the target market for this.

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• OpenMoko offline reader puts Wikipedia in your pocket (arstechnica.com)
• Wikipedia In Your Pocket, $99 (news.slashdot.org)
• OpenMoko branches out with new $99 WikiReader device (engadget.com)
• WikiReader packs all of Wikipedia in a power-sipping portable (crunchgear.com)

Comments

• 8 December 2009, Louise | UPrinting.com writes: You're right. This gadget is good for researching, especially by students who can't afford an internet connection. Though I doubt this gadget will come cheap too...
• 14 December 2009, Isacc writes: That is really cool. I think it can be a great item to have for some students. Not everyone can afford a laptop.. I think even I would use on those for my data entry job. It might be quicker than searching online or even when my connection is down for a short time.

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What I had been doing to watch videos on my TV was to bring my MacBook down to my living room, hook it up with a Mini-DVI to composite cable, and use Front Row or Boxee to navigate my way to my videos to play. Works, but it’s a bit bulky and the video quality wasn’t always great.

This device works better. I did have a little difficulty when I first hooked it up, most likely because I have a nearly 20 year old television, but the included quickstart manual tells you how to resolve this problem. Shortly, I had a screen showing me a list of some of the movies I had shoved onto a USB thumb drive and plugged into the back of the unit. I could easily navigate with the remote control and select a video for viewing.

Why didn’t I have all the movies listed on my screen? They all weren’t encoded properly. The ScreenPlay TV Link doesn’t support every video encoding format, but it does support several common ones, including DivX and directories straight from a DVD!

After reencoding the videos that weren’t displaying on the list, I tried again. They were all there and played on my ancient TV in excellent quality!

Certainly there are other, more capable devices out there, but for what I need, this is perfect for both my home use and when I travel. It even includes interchangeable power prongs for US, UK, and EU use! I just wish it came with a small travel bag, but beyond that, it’s a fantastic buy!

Comments

• 30 January 2009, Dave Michels writes: Does it have a network port? All of my movies are on a NAS drive.
• 30 January 2009, Vik writes: Check out WD TV http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572 supports all the formats of the iomega box and more (like mkv) plus it works with the Mac hfs file system. For NAS there is always the popcorn hour http://www.popcornhour.com/
• 31 January 2009, PhoneBoy writes: The WD TV box looks like it would have been the better buy. At least I wouldn't have to do as much transcoding with it ;)

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This little USB microphone is about the size of a deck of card, when folded up. When you separate the white plastic from the aluminum base with the microphone–they pull apart easily–you can either put the microphone on top of your monitor–it hooks on an LCD monitor, or you can set it on your desk. An included USB cable is hooked to the back of the microphone.

The sound quality? Pretty good! I used the Skype test call plus a call with a friend of mine to verify the audio quality. It will be a worthy addition to my laptop bag for travel.

I’ve heard Andy Abramson use this microphone with Ken Rutkowski on KenRadio and have heard the recordings over Skype, it sounds great. That is, when Andy has a good Internet connection

You can get the Blue Snowflake for $69 (or less) from a local Blue Microphones dealer or through the Internet, of course. Well worth it if you want your voice to sound good on the go!

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Normally, I would not be buying–or necessarily wanting–a phone like the Nokia 6301. I am quite firmly a smartphone user. The Nokia 6301 is most certainly not a smartphone, but if you want the free calls over WiFi, this is one of the handful of phones T-Mobile sells that permits you to use the Hotspot @Home service.

The technology behind T-Mobile @Home is called UMA. I won’t get into it in detail here, but in short, it allows seamless transitions between your home WiFi and the mobile phone network. I cover UMA in a little more detail on phoneboy.com.

Now, onto the phone hardware. It’s a pretty run of the mill S40 5th Edition FP1 device. Has the usual assortment of keys on the front, power button on the top, volume control on the right side, a 2.5mm headset jack, power, and a not-very accessible USB port. On mine, I basically have to take the back cover off in order to be able to get the port cover off.

Once you take the battery cover off, you can also access the MicroSD slot. The device comes with a 512mb MicroSD card that you can load with music or use to store pictures taken with the 2 megapixel camera.

Unfortunately, I have been spoiled by the two variants of the N95 that I currently have as well as the older N73 and the newly arrived N96, which I will cover later. The 2 megapixel camera on the Nokia 6301 certainly won’t win any awards, but it takes servicable pictures, as shown on my Share on Ovi account. The one feature the Nokia 6301 camera DOES have is the ability to take pictures in landscape mode, giving you a 960×1280 picture. You have to manually put it in that mode, but it’s a nice touch that it has that feature.

The phone has an Active Standby screen like my Nokia smartphones have, but it is disabled by default. Once it is enabled, you can have a number of icons display along the top–you can choose as many as you want among the pre-selected choices. There’s also sections for Music/Radio, Calendar/Notes and more. You can even customize in which of these sections–if any–these will show.

The features are nice, but the real test for this phone is the sound quality–particularly over WiFi. I called someone today and talked with them for an hour on my Nokia 6301 using my home WiFi. They had no idea I was on a mobile phone, much less over WiFi. The audio quality–for both of us–was that good.

I also tested the phone handoff between WiFi and GSM. I started a call with 800-555-TELL (a.k.a TellMe) and played the blackjack with the lovely Sean Connery impersonated voice. The call didn’t miss a beat, though there was an audible “thunk” when the call handed off.

I tried the web browser, which is a fairly basic XHTML/WAP browser. It’s functional, but it’s not the Webkit-based browser that’s on my Nseries devices. Of course, when you’re not in WiFi range, you really don’t want to be web browsing much since the phone only supports GPRS on T-Mobile’s US network–not even EDGE.

One note about the WiFi on this phone: it is only provided for use with the T-Mobile @Home service, or whatever UMA service provider you buy the phone from. It will not work independently of UMA. The good news is that while you’re in range of a configured WiFi access point, the data transfer is much faster.

One downside to S40 devices is that contact and calendar sync are a little more of a challenge. T-Mobile has a (presumably subscription) service where you can sync your stuff to the cloud. Since I have no interest in that, I set up PC Suite on my work computer and am syncing my calendar and contacts over Bluetooth. The phone also, surprisingly, has Nokia’s “Phone switch” application, which makes it possible to sync information between phones.

All in all, the phone is not a bad little device. It’s probably something I’ll carry alongside something more functional and with an AT&T SIM, but for a voice-centric device, it does the job.

Comments

• 4 October 2008, T-Mobile @Home and UMA: It Works writes: [...] While it’s been kind of a rough week workwise, with the announcement of Nokia selling off the Security Appliance business, I did get a couple of new phones to play with: The Nokia N96, which I will review later, and the Nokia 6301. The latter phone came as part of signing up for the T-Mobile @Home service. You can read my review of the Nokia 6301 over on Joy of Gadgets. [...]

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A developer involved with the Nokia Internet Tablets posted on Jaiku about the latest iteration of the Maemo software that runs on these tablets. Note that unlike the Symbian OS that runs on all of Nokia’s smartphones, the underlying Linux OS of Maemo is open source–80% of it is, anyway.

The big news–although not entirely surprising–is that the the next release of Maemo is going to have HSPA support, and it will be open-sourced! Is that for data only or will it have phone features, too?

There is also mention of photo sharing, a higher-quality camera, and a faster OMAP3 process. Wonder just how this stuff will all go together. Will it be a replacement for my beloved Nokia N95 8GB? Will it be a data-only device or a phone as well? What’s it going to cost?

Software is one piece of course. I wonder what the hardware’s gonna look like. We obviously won’t know for a while yet, but it’s nice to have a new piece of gear to look forward to.

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Comments

• 25 September 2008, Maemo going open source; Nokia developments look exciting writes: [...] Nokia may be inching in that direction, but not according to traditional means.  Friend Dameon has written about some interesting changes to Nokia’s line of Internet Tablets on his excellent blog, Joy of Gadgets. Among the [...]

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The iCage Locking Skin is durable, lightweight protective skin complete with a 3-digit combination padlock and a flexible cable to make lockdown easier. Despite this, all of the buttons and ports of the supported iPod models can be used when in the iCage.

My question is: where the iCage for the Nokia N95?

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Except for one problem: they take batteries. Every few weeks, the batteries need to be replaced. These FMRS walkie talkies don’t have that problem. They include a hand crank and can also be charged with a USB connector.

A pair of these walkie talkies can be had for around $110 US, though the Thumbs Up UK store suggests a minimum of 6 items are required. Think I’ll stick with the radios I have, thanks.

Via Red Ferret

Comments

• 2 September 2008, Thumbs Up writes: Hi, thanks for mentioning our wind-up walkie talkies. We actually sell to wholesalers, so that's who the mimimum of 6 items applies to. Don't worry - the wind-up walkie-talkies will be available to buy in pairs from retailers all over the place very soon. If you go back to the product page on our website in a week or so, there's be a link on there to a places you can buy them online.

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Enter the Photo Safe II from Digital Foci. It’s got a hard drive and an all-in-one card reader. Plug your media in, push a button, and within a couple of minutes, you’re all backed up.

This battery-powered device comes in two models, an 80GB and a 160GB model. Both will take CF Type I (including Extreme III, IV, UDMA), MMC, SD/HC, miniSD, MS, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and xD cards and will take the data off those cards at speeds of up to 5mb per second. Both models will also allow you to get the data off the drive with a USB 2.0 connection to a computer.

Via The Red Ferret Journal

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