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BBC's h2g2 Goes Mobile - Again

Posted by timothy on Wed Apr 13, 2005 05:54 AM
from the as-well-it-ought dept.
Handhelds Sci-Fi Software Hardware Technology
zaktheduck writes "According to a recent press release, in anticipation of the new movie and the h2g2 website's sixth birthday, the BBC have relaunched the long-shelved h2g2 Mobile service. The new version of the popular community website allows access to the 7000+ and growing edited guide entries from PDAs, and smartphones. H2g2 had a WAP service back in 2001, aptly named "h2g2 on the Move", but was cancelled when the company faced financial trouble and was purchased by the BBC. Here's a copy of the old promotion page for the service."
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BBC's h2g2 Goes Mobile - Again 25 Comments More /

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  • 7000+ entries?! (Score:5, Funny)

    by CdXiminez (807199) on Wednesday April 13 2005, @05:56AM (#12221850)
    I thought the whole of planet Earth had only one entry: Mostly harmless...

  • So, (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 13 2005, @06:00AM (#12221861)
    Does it have a page on how much the movie sucks?

  • Sorry, but no one cares (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 13 2005, @06:01AM (#12221864)
    h2g2 could have been great, but Wikipedia and e2 have it beat both in size and content quality. 7000 entries is nothing.

    • Re:Sorry, but no one cares (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ford Prefect (8777) on Wednesday April 13 2005, @06:07AM (#12221878) Homepage
      h2g2 could have been great, but Wikipedia and e2 have it beat both in size and content quality. 7000 entries is nothing.

      So should I throw away all my reference books and keep just one encyclopaedia?

    • Feel free to educate me but I wasn't aware Wikipedia and e2 had readily available mobile access.
        • The link you gave is most certainly NOT a text only portal to wikipedia.

          The page you linked to is a wiki page edited to have no images inside.

          Clicking any of the links takes you to the normal wiki page which may or may not include images.

          Besides, the bloody big wikipedia logo image and other page images are still displayed.
          • You know, CSS provides the ability to - using the same HTML - provide the fully designed page via a normal browser; and an image/tables/etc free version via a cut-down device.

            I don't know if Wikipedia does this, but it is quite simple. Having a specific "text only" version is 1990s thinking. I think if someone sent a patch to Wikipedia for their CSS styles that did this they would happily adopt it.
            • At least my SE T630 can't handle that page. It may be an issue with the Vodaphone gateway as well though. But I do doubt that a normal Feature-phone can handle that massive content. This includes most modern 3G phones which can really draw benefits from an online search.

              My bet is that they did that page in order to work with mobile devices like Palms and Smartphones (Symbian based or similar).

    • Re:Sorry, but no one cares (Score:5, Insightful)

      by NumberGod (65770) on Wednesday April 13 2005, @06:18AM (#12221914)
      Douglas would be happy.

      I think Wikipedia has grown into what Douglas had envisioned.

      A Free encyclopedia, updated by almost anyone who wants to update it.

      In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, The Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.

      First, it is slightly cheaper; and second, it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

      Sounds a lot like the guide to me.

        • Re:eehm... (Score:2, Interesting)

          by l*barbs (872527)
          As far as I know douglas had invisaged an encyclopedia that anyone could contribute to thus making it accuurate and up-to-date. Both wikie and h2g2 sprung from this idea. Eath my have been considered "Harmless" to begin with, but if HHG2G had been 'open-source' this would have been ammended by some carbon-based ape decendent!

    • Re:Sorry, but no one cares (Score:5, Informative)

      by Mwongozi (176765) <slashthree&davidglover,org> on Wednesday April 13 2005, @06:25AM (#12221943) Homepage
      That's 7000 entries specially edited for reading on mobile devices. The complete guide has lots more.

    • Re:Sorry, but no one cares (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      7000 is the number of *edited* entries - there are many more unedited entries.

      Having said that, I started out with h2g2, but much prefer Wikipedia, because collaborating on articles with h2g2 is (or at least was) difficult, while with wiki it is easy.
    • I agree, but you have to admit that h2g2 is a lot more fun. honestly, w/ all the buzz that the movie's getting -- i wouldn't be surprised if we saw a spike in membership/registered users w/in the next few weeks. is anyone actually registered w/ them??

  • Useful for hhgg2xml (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jaffa (7714) on Wednesday April 13 2005, @06:22AM (#12221928) Homepage
    Interesting. This could be useful for my own hhgg2xml [bleb.org] converts H2G2 articles into a variety of formats, including XML and TomeRaider - which is useful for carrying it around with you on a PDA without network access.

    I'll have to look more closely at this new version to see if it can be parsed more easily.

  • hg2g has always been mobile (Score:5, Funny)

    by dkleinsc (563838) on Wednesday April 13 2005, @06:23AM (#12221935)
    If the Hitchhiker's Guide wasn't mobile, it wouldn't be much use to a hitchhiker, now would it?
  • Eventually there will be an affordable, portable, wireless device that will allow instantaneous access to local and remote information of the choice of the user, basically a universal reference ebook reader, with several means of input. This is inevitable since such an item would be the ultimate knowledge tool. Cell phone tools, wireless laptops, tablet pcs, pdas, and data watches are all technological stepping stones to an actual, useful, guide to the universe.

  • The original H2G2 (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 13 2005, @06:37AM (#12222001)
    I stumbled apon this the other day: incase anyone is looking for the original BBC radio show. [eatsushi.org]

  • May 03 New Radio HHGTTG series begins (Score:3, Informative)

    by Forget4it (530598) on Wednesday April 13 2005, @07:29AM (#12222221) Homepage
    Final Hitch [bbc.co.uk]
    Radio 4 to broadcast final Hitchhiker's series.

    The eight-part series, produced by Above the Title, will be broadcast from Tuesday 3rd May at 6.30pm.

    Following on from last year's radio smash hit, Life, the Universe and Everything, the original cast - Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Stephen Moore, Mark Wing-Davey and Susan Sheridan - were again reunited to record the series alongside William Franklyn as the Voice of the Book.

    Several actors connected with the Hitchhiker's Guide from its other incarnations, both on stage and television, take lead and supporting roles, including Bill Paterson, Sandra Dickinson, Jonathan Pryce, Rula Lenska and David Dixon. Supporting stars include Jane Horrocks, Jackie Mason, June Whitfield, Stephen Fry, Arthur Smith, Saeed Jaffrey, Miriam Margolyes and a surprise Hollywood star guest appearance
  • I know there would have been copyright issues, but I was always surprised no one put together a complete guide recreation - using the entries from the radio shows, tv show, books and computer game - for the Palm or PocketPC platforms. It's really not very many entries, and it would be a cute little novelty application.

    Those copyright issues would likely come more into play with the movie coming out, though. The interested parties have more of a stake in protecting their material now that it's going super-m

  • Communication and Wikitravel (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Wikitravel is probably closer to The HHGG than Wikipedia, as it's supposed to contain useful stuff about travelling. It's even got a Hitchhiking page! Quote from that page: "Always stay happy - even if people react nastily." On the Mobile access thing: Most of the world doesn't have mobile phone masts... And where will you recharge your phone in Eastern Siberia? At the moment nothing beats a good paper guide book for most of the world (especially if you need to start a camp fire).

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