Saw an a
rticle on the WikiReader in a magazine and ordered one right away. This is basically an offline Wikipedia with a touch screen and powered by two AAA batteries.
The entirety of the English version of Wikipedia is in there, minus the images. There are also parental controls built-in to shield children from adult-oriented content.
I was skeptical even after reading various positive reviews, but after playing around with mine for a couple weeks I’m very impressed. The main drawback to the device is that in order for it to last as long as possible on just the AAA batteries as well as (I assume) to hold down costs, there’s no backlight. This is not something you’re going to be using in a room that isn’t already well-lit.
But beyond that limitation, the touchscreen keyboard works great for searching and navigating through Wikipedia. In fact, I really had to make a conscious effort to put the thing away rather than spend hours lost in exploring different topics.
The only other limitation is the frequency of updates to the WikiReader database. The database itself is stored on a MicroSD card, and is updated quarterly. You can either download the database for free from Wikireader and then copy the update to the MicroSD card, or order a subscription for $29/2 updates and receive a new MicroSD card in the mail that just needs to be popped in to the device.
That does mean that the WikiReader is at times going to be up to 3 months out-of-date, but at least for me that’s also an acceptable tradeoff to have that much information always at your fingertips.
But the real test was handing this to my 7-year-old son and having him use it. It took him about 5 minutes before he was reading aloud entries on dinosaurs and sharks to me. Very cool.