ogremustcrush

October 13, 2009 at 10:41pm

From the description of the battery life I would assume this device has an eInk screen. I just couldn't see an LCD pulling that sort of life off, even if it doesn't have backlighting or color. The nice thing about eInk is that once info is on the screen, it takes no power to keep it on the screen, so basically the entire device can be off except in circumstances where a button is pressed. If it does have an eInk screen, the price is probably justified, just look at the price of any other product with this technology. You also know that it has an 8GB or so micro-SD card, so there's the additional price of that factored in. I initially scoffed that they were charging for updates, but their update process involves them sending you 2 additional micro-sd cards per year, so they're charging for the media more than the info. If you can download the large files they let you update the device yourself for free.

The device is definitely not meant for us gadget hounds, we have more than enough ways to access wikipedia already. But I could see it being useful as an always available reference for the normal person, as it's not reliant on data access or staying charged every day. That's hard to say about any other device that lets you do the same thing. 

greymist08

October 13, 2009 at 5:14pm

Can I put a cover in it that reads "Don't Panic!" in large friendly letters?

Tekzel

October 13, 2009 at 4:45pm

Dumbest. Product. Evar.

1337Goose

October 13, 2009 at 4:12pm

You can already download wikipedia and put it on a smart phone or something..

I'd like to see this on an ebook reader or something.

~Goose