Wikipedia’s Official App For Android Now Available On Android Market
With Wikipedia having extraordinarily blacked-out today in protest against the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills, social sites have temporarily become hubs for surfers to vent their frustrations – significantly those reliant on the world’s largest on-line encyclopedia in order to complete college/school assignments.
After an extended wait, the Android Market is currently home to an official Wikipedia app, that is free as you’d expect, and boasts a host of essential options. One can save an article for offline reading at a later date, look for articles nearby, share articles with friends using Android’s in-built “Share” function, and effortlessly read any given article in a completely different language. Additionally, searches can be carried out in full-screen, giving most visual real-estate within the quest to trace down that key article.
The SOPA and PIPA coverage has literally taken over all news and communication outlets today, with several fearing web censorship as a foregone conclusion. Then again, with sponsors of the bill dropping out like flies amid the protests, it does appear as though there’s a decent chance the no-shows from the likes of Wikipedia, Boing Boing and thousands of others will carry an excellent deal of weight moving forward.
As a commentator of most things tech-orientated, it’s refreshing to check members of the web uniting with such a stick it to the person attitude. It’s a rare occurrence, with several users usually taking things for granted, However the implications of this bill being passed will affect each surfer across the world. As an example, as Joshua Hill (better Chronic Dev frontman p0sixninja) points out, the distribution of jailbreak software would become illegal activity below the Stop on-line Piracy Act. Of course, the likes of greenp0ison and Redsn0w could theoretically be shared, however developers would be placing themselves in incriminating positions – leaving us smartphone enthusiasts literally stuck with stock.
To conclude this sermon, the Wikipedia app is an important tool for those with a hunger for knowledge, and early adopters of the Android version have been fast to offer mostly five-star ratings for the brand-new app. Today’s blackout hasn’t affected those on mobile devices – a minimum of not those sifting through Wiki articles – therefore as you’d probably expect, this app works a treat at time of writing.
