Let's see, it's a portable, electronic encyclopedia on any subject known to man (and several better left unknown), it's written by anyone with enough free time and any knowledge on the subject (or none whatsoever), and despite the fact it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it's more popular than the Encyclopedia Britannica. Now if only it were black and had "don't panic" written on it in large friendly letters, this thing would be the Hitchhikers' Guide, as described in Adams' books, down to the very last letter.
It even has an entry on the Pan-Galactic-Gargle-Blaster.
Official website.
The device features a monochrome touch screen, an 8GB microSD card, and contains Wikipedia. I've seen it called "wireless" by clueless news reporters, but it doesn't mean it supports any mode of wireless data transfer, it just means there are no wires. Not even a charger: it runs on AAA batteries. Two AAA batteries will power it for a year, according to the manufacturers. Even with a wide and generous margin of exaggeration, that's a lot.
The price is $99, and for $30 you'll get two "updates" per year, in form of a new microSD card, delivered to your door. I think you get to keep the old one. Provided they're not read-only, $30 will get you two 8GB miniSD cards, plus some additional fluff you could download yourself anyway.
It's also entirely open source, so expect a flood of homebrew, but considering the nonexistent processing power, the "flood" will probably consist of an e-book reader, a calculator and a Tetris clone. You'll probably also be able to transfer any kind of Wiki database on it too, so you can take the M3 wiki on the road with you. Or the Uncyclopedia.
Now to find someone to start working on the Babel fish, and we're all set
Any comments along the lines of "my phone can do that" or "lol buy a EEE/Palm/whatever" are predictable, expected and completely unnecessary. If that's all you have to say on the topic, feel free to keep it to yourself. Here, I said it already. No need to repeat it.
It even has an entry on the Pan-Galactic-Gargle-Blaster.
Official website.
The device features a monochrome touch screen, an 8GB microSD card, and contains Wikipedia. I've seen it called "wireless" by clueless news reporters, but it doesn't mean it supports any mode of wireless data transfer, it just means there are no wires. Not even a charger: it runs on AAA batteries. Two AAA batteries will power it for a year, according to the manufacturers. Even with a wide and generous margin of exaggeration, that's a lot.
The price is $99, and for $30 you'll get two "updates" per year, in form of a new microSD card, delivered to your door. I think you get to keep the old one. Provided they're not read-only, $30 will get you two 8GB miniSD cards, plus some additional fluff you could download yourself anyway.
It's also entirely open source, so expect a flood of homebrew, but considering the nonexistent processing power, the "flood" will probably consist of an e-book reader, a calculator and a Tetris clone. You'll probably also be able to transfer any kind of Wiki database on it too, so you can take the M3 wiki on the road with you. Or the Uncyclopedia.
Now to find someone to start working on the Babel fish, and we're all set
Any comments along the lines of "my phone can do that" or "lol buy a EEE/Palm/whatever" are predictable, expected and completely unnecessary. If that's all you have to say on the topic, feel free to keep it to yourself. Here, I said it already. No need to repeat it.
