The $15 Infinite E-Reader - The Solar Powered Wiki Reader and Ultimate Apocalypse Tool
So, I recently picked up a WikiReader for $13 from a one-sale-a-day site. I liked the idea that it ran on AAA batteries and could last "a year". I figured that since it came from Openmoko (a little open source company) it would probably be easy to hack.
Turns out - you don't even have to.
While it advertises itself as "Wikipedia without the Internet" - it actually also comes with the ability to download all of project Gutenburg. You either need to wipe wikipedia to do this or get a bigger microSD card (16gb) to hold them both. If you have a spare 4gb microSD card then, you get most of wikipedia (some articles are missing) and tons of great books all on one device.
While some sites say that it runs on three AAA batteries - it runs on two. And here is where the infinite solar part comes in. As you may know, small cheap garden lights typically run on one 300mAh AAA NiMh battery. These little garden lights are often for sale at Walmart etc for $1. Buy two of them, and you have two nice little AAA solar chargers ready to go (just take the battery out at night).
Now - 300mAh batteries can't run much for very long - but this little WikiReader draws so little power that I have not yet been able to run the batteries out (in relatively limited testing to be sure - but still, signs are good).
So there you have it - for $15 you can have thousands of books, hundreds of thousands of wikipedia articles, and run the whole thing forever off the grid.
The only downside is all of your reading will be on an overgrown Game Boy screen... though I have to say I am impressed with the accuracy of the touchscreen on the thing.
Turns out - you don't even have to.
While it advertises itself as "Wikipedia without the Internet" - it actually also comes with the ability to download all of project Gutenburg. You either need to wipe wikipedia to do this or get a bigger microSD card (16gb) to hold them both. If you have a spare 4gb microSD card then, you get most of wikipedia (some articles are missing) and tons of great books all on one device.
While some sites say that it runs on three AAA batteries - it runs on two. And here is where the infinite solar part comes in. As you may know, small cheap garden lights typically run on one 300mAh AAA NiMh battery. These little garden lights are often for sale at Walmart etc for $1. Buy two of them, and you have two nice little AAA solar chargers ready to go (just take the battery out at night).
Now - 300mAh batteries can't run much for very long - but this little WikiReader draws so little power that I have not yet been able to run the batteries out (in relatively limited testing to be sure - but still, signs are good).
So there you have it - for $15 you can have thousands of books, hundreds of thousands of wikipedia articles, and run the whole thing forever off the grid.
The only downside is all of your reading will be on an overgrown Game Boy screen... though I have to say I am impressed with the accuracy of the touchscreen on the thing.
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