Windows Phone Central, 24 April 2014 link
Wikipedia: linkHead into the Windows Phone Store and you’ll see version 2.3 of Wikipedia from Rudy Huyn. Thankfully Rudy is one of those developers that likes to leave a changelog. Here’s what’s new: Cortana support
Want to take the voice commands for a spin? Try saying something like “Wikipedia, show me an article about bananas” and you’ll then be taken to the Wikipedia page all about Bananas!
Download Wikipedia from the Windows Phone Store.
No thanks. I studied banana plantations in Central America, and already know that it is the most pernicious crop on the face of earth. But the Wikipedia app might impress your fellow frosh.★★★★★ The best Wikipedia app on the marketplace ★★★★★
All Wikipedia on your windows phone. In addition to a quick and easy access to articles, get innovative features:
- Support Cortana
- View wikipedia articles around your location
- Search in 100 languages
- Offline mode to view article without internet connection
- Display the summary of the article
- Find your favorite articles
- View previous versions of article
- Simply share a article on Facebook, Twitter, by mail or by generating a QRCode
- Support Pocket (formerly Read It Later) and Instapaper
- live-tiles
- voice command and speech recognition
- NFC sharing
- protocol extension
update 2.3:
support Cortana
This app, on the other hand, would likely awe your fellow sophomores:
Wikipedia App Inspired By 109-Year-Old Encyclopedia
A Wikipedia redesign riffs on a century-old style.
Co.Design, 24 April 2014 link
das Referenz: linkWhat should Wikipedia look like in the modern age? It’s a question that Wikipedia is wrestling with internally, that designers are playing with via sleek concepts, and that one app developer is exploring through a very old world lens.
Das Referenz, by Raureif--the same Raureif that brought us Partly Cloudy--is an iPad app that re-skins Wikipedia into a classic, leather-bound encyclopedia. Its creators, in fact, drew inspiration from a 12-volume Meyer’s encyclopedia printed in 1895, with the hope of elevating Wikipedia’s knowledge to that of a more cherished object. “We think knowledge is something precious, almost like a keepsake, something to be treated with a bit of respect. Old encyclopedias did just that: leather-bound, fine paper, careful editorial selection, and attention to typographic details. For us, these encyclopedias are timeless beauties,” developer Timm Kekeritz tells Co.Design. “We intentionally did not go for the sleek, airy style, as this is more suitable for temporary contents, such as blog articles. For instance, we love the design of Medium.com. But while it is a great fit for blog articles, it seems a bit too light for a work of reference.”
In turn, the pages are tan, like parchment paper. Images are turned to black and white (until you tap them, then they go full-screen color). These skeuomorphic touches may or may not be your cup of tea, but they’re meant to elicit the feeling of precious, heirloom information in the same way that an old book would. [...] Yet the neatest thing about Das Referenz may not be its classic take on information, but its future-forward approach to Wikipedia. Some pages are smart enough to actually integrate and render information from the information repository Wikidata--pasting images such as timelines into relevant Wikipedia articles--which even Wikipedia itself doesn’t do yet. This particular integration is fairly basic right now. It’s basically just when a few people lived and died--on a timeline. And pages that support the feature are few and far between. But given that Wikidata has all sorts of information ripe for visualization--such as geolocations, sport statistics, and box office revenues--it’s great to see developers running with the idea, even if Wikipedia itself isn’t quite yet.
das Referenz - Wikipedia: linkEncyclopedias have always showcased culture and style:
Das Referenz strives to build on this heritage. With an eye for detail, Das Referenz puts Wikipedia’s vast amount of knowledge into a sleek package of clear layouts, world-class typography, and playful interactions. Free Download on the App Store
What's New in Version 1.1
- You can now remove the ad banner via In App Purchase
- Search history (yes, these large words in the background)
- Open any article in Safari
iPad Screenshot:
