Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, can now be downloaded. Webaroo enables users to download web content onto mobile devices and then browse it without the need for an internet connection. Stored on a hard drive or flash memory, it can be directly accessed by desktops and handhelds.

The “web pack” downloads 6GB of Wikipedia entries - 3.8 million articles - in a fully searchable offline format. The portable pack will automatically update when the device it is stored on is connected to the internet.

To view Webaroo content on a handheld, a Pocket PC 2003 SE or Windows Mobile 5.0 OS is required, as well as the Webaroo application. A USB cable with ActiveSync on the computer transfers the data. A minimum 256MB external storage card (SD, CF or mini-SD) is required and Webaroo recommends at least 1GB of RAM and 10GB of free space on the system for the Wikipedia Web pack.

The Wikipedia web pack is one of more than 200 web content packages offered by Webaroo - including downloadable packs dedicated to country-specific news, individual sports teams, cities and even an introduction to glam rock. Sponsored links cover the costs of running the Webaroo servers 24/7 and paying the 100 or so staff it employs.

Wikibooks is sister project to Wikipedia whose goal is to create textbooks. It is a Wikimedia Foundation project.

In August the Wikipedia project, in all 229 languages, gained an unprecedented 289,885 new articles, of which 68,388 were in English. Wikipedia now features more than 5,000,000 (free) articles.

Handheld devices like Microsoft’s Zune, which has an internal 30/60 gig hard drive, might store the whole thing. Microsoft plans a Zune-based phone, according to Zune’s general manager of global marketing, Chris Stephenson. Perhaps an iPod phone or wide screen iPod video player will follow — with RSS updates.

Can we kill textbook publishers yet? Newspapers could do the first draft.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Friday, September 15th, 2006 at 3:36 am.