Review: $99 WikiReader is a pocket encyclopedia by AP: Yahoo! Tech

Sign of the times

When I was a kid, my dad bought a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It had 32 volumes and took up 4 feet in the book case. I loved to sit on the couch and flip through it, reading articles at random.

Now, I'm returning the favor, giving my father an encyclopedia that has the equivalent of 1,000 volumes. Yet it fits in his pocket, and it costs just $99.

There are few better illustrations of the staggering advance of digital technology than the new WikiReader. It's the size of a thick table coaster, and contains nearly the entire text of the English-language Wikipedia. That's 3.1 million articles, written and edited by volunteers around the globe.

Picture from the vendor site:

Review: $99 WikiReader is a pocket encyclopedia by AP: Yahoo! Tech