October 14, 2009, 9:40 am
OpenMoko has launched a new product called WikiReader, a small mobile device that stores over 3 million Wikipedia entries. Users can browse Wikipedia offline on its touchscreen display. The WikiReader will also empower its owner to use the best geek pick-up line ever: “I have the sum total of human knowledge in my pants. Do you want to see it?”
OpenMoko, which was spun off of FIC in 2007, aimed to build open source smartphone devices. Although OpenMoko’s phone products have attracted interest from Linux enthusiasts, the company suffered serious setbacks and failed to overcome a number of significant technical and philosophical problems. OpenMoko halted development of its third smartphone, codenamed GTA03, in April following budget cuts that were necessitated by the economic downturn. Some of the features that were initially planned for GTA03, such as 3G support, were prohibitively expensive and could not be implemented with fully open drivers.
