Wikireader is a handheld encyclopedia with all contents of Wikipedia downloaded into an SD card. It needs no internet access as the contents are pre-loaded. It is slightly bigger than pocket sized (4"x4") but quite light @ 125g.
It is however a TEXT ONLY device with no pictures .
The LCD screen in just black and white, with no back-lighting. It can be read easily in bright light (unlike our present day colour mobile phones).
It has a touch screen which displays a QWERTY keypad. Scrolling is done by touching and dragging your finger. While the scrolling is smooth like butter, it is over sensitive at times.
The article would display links on words which have some Wikipedia pages on it and this is selectable by touching on the links. Occasionally this would lead to inadvertent navigation to other topics.
There is a history button which enables you to go back to half finished pages, where you can return to exactly where you stopped last time.
The search is basic, once you type first few letters of any topic, it would show a list of related topics, and you pick up from the list. I find it quite effective, except that it cannot detect incorrect spellings.
It works on 2AAA batteries and comes with an 8GB uSD card.
It is avilable in India from this website : idasystems.net/wikireader
It costs Rs 5500/- including shipping.
Is it useful ?
Sure it is.
Does the lack of pictures bother you?
It does, but you would be amazed by the usefullness of this device even without pics.
Even if you have internet, you still won’t feel like booting the PC just to look up those terms you see on TV. (eg what is the full form of SWAT?
What does "Tempura" mean in Master Chef Australia? Or quickly look up some answers in KBC , etc), or see if the DVD movie you are seeing in the store is worth buying (check movie reviews without internet) , pass you time meaningfully while on bus or waiting for the doctor to turn up in the clinic...
Children will love it.
If your parent are not so comfortable with internet, yet want to know more about the world, this can help, I guess.
How do we update it?
You need to download 4GB of data from internet (free) and put it on the SD card with a card reader . They have already released a Fall 210 update which has a dictionary and some other stuff.
The torrent download they provided is good as it can be done in 5 parts over many days if you wish.
The GOOD:
You can down load 30, 000+ free e-books from project Gutenberg for free on this reader. Thus this can double up as an e-book reader as well.
The BAD:
1) The piece I got had poor battery life. According to them the battery should last for months. Where as mine would last hardly 10 days. They said it may be a defective piece.
I am yet to replace it, but since I switched to re-charbale AAA it is not a big concern. Other users said they get better battery life.
2) The SD card which comes with the reader is fragile and it stopped being recognized (although it works well on a card reader). Since I upgraded to a 16GB Sandisk card, I had no issues.
The LCD contrast / readbility is not so great and it needs a lot light to read comfortably. The lack of tables and graphics would make things incomplete.
IDA systems support is not so good over email.
The bottom line is that it is a good product, but I wish they paid more attention to the quality of the hardware and do more testing.