Taiwanese company Openmoko announced the availability of WikiReader, a portable device that contains three million English language articles from everybody’s favorite online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. It turns on instantly, has a touchscreen, and does not require an Internet connection to function.

Updates to the Reader are provided quarterly and are available for free download. Yearly subscription plans with updated microSD cards are available for $29, and the device itself is available for purchase on Amazon.com or the Wikireader website for about $99.

I don’t know about you guys but Wikipedia is one of my favorite places to go while on the web. The information might not always be accurate but you will surely get a general idea of the topic you were researching. And Wikipedia is a must-have on one’s mobile.

Orange and the Wikimedia Foundation have announced a partnership and European subscribers should be happy to know that Orange phones will get Wiki content soon enough. What you can expect is Wikipedia-dedicated channels on Orange’s web and mobile portals at first, Wikipedia-based widgets and even applications. That means Wikipedia will load a whole lot more faster on Orange phones in the near future. The service will be launched in the UK, Spain, France and Poland at first but other European markets will follow.

via Press

For people who are fond of using and sending quotes to their friends, here is a specific reference point you can use compatible with the iPhone. Quote Book from TOMSOFT allows generations of wisdom to be carried in your pocket in the form of a database of 3,000-or-so quotations.

From the uncomfortable to the hilarious, there are numerous categories to choose your quote from, handy for finding something smart to say in a variety of situations. Everything from art, politics, love, marriage, sports, technology, and other subjects are represented. You can also look at your favorites, recent quotes you have viewed, or a random quote.

Once you find a quote you like, you can add it to your favorites, give it a rating, or find out more about the author by viewing their Wikipedia entry from right within the app. You may also e-mail your pearl to a quote-less friend, and share the wisdom.

Quote Book also offers a search feature, but not on the main page; you may only search within the category you are currently browsing. The app normally sells for US$2, but as this review was posted, Quote Book was on sale for just $1.

Quote Book is compatible with any iPhone or iPod touch running the iPhone 2.x software update.

(Source) PC World

I don’t know about you but one of my favorite sites is Wikipedia since it has an answer for most of my questions. Therefore I’d want it on any smartphone and especially the iPhone.

There are two applications for your iPhone ready to bring Wikipedia in a friendlier format to you.

iWik will optimize Wikipedia and it will display it in a format suitable for your iPhone. iWik has a search feature, landscape viewing option, page marking and lots of other options. It costs just $0.99 in the App Store so I’d say it’s a must have for the curious-about-things iPhone owner.

There’s another application for Wikipedia on iPhone called Kiwi. This one will pretty much do the same things for you but it will cost you $2.99. It must be the name that makes it a little more expensive.

While I am trying my best not to fuel more and more rumors about the new 3G iPhone and while I am trying to report, as closer to the actual truth, news (remember AT&T?), I can’t let a day go by without mentioning the iPhone.
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