Wikipedia launches redesigned Android app
Wikipedia announced today that it has updated the official application of the service for Android with new features and a redesigned home screen.
When you open the latest version of the Wikipedia application for Android, the new home screen is the first thing you see.
You may still run a search directly from it as the search function is available right at the top of the page. What more, you may tap on the microphone icon to run a voice search there as well.
Below that however are new or updated features that users may find interesting. This includes trending articles and in the news stories, featured pictures and articles, recommendations, and a continue reading section.
Wikipedia for Android
Wikipedia describes all sections featured on the home page of the app on the company blog, and you may want to check it out if you want details on all of them.
While you may like the "what's new or trending" sections, it is the continue reading and because you read sections that may be most interesting to you.
Continue reading lists articles that you started to read but have not finished yet. Because you read on the other hand displays recommendations based on previous articles.
Wikipedia did not forget to include an option to customize the home screen. A tap on the three dots icon next to one of the sections on it gives you options to hide that card from it.
So, if you don't use certain sections or features, you may remove them permanently from the startpage of the app.
The start screen scrolls continuously. When you read the end of a day, data from the previous day is loaded and displayed.
Wikipedia Offline Reading
Another interesting option is the save function. It allows you to save an article for later reading. What's great about this, apart from making sure you find the article again at a later point in time, is that saved articles become available offline.
Saved articles are added to reading lists. While you may use just one for all articles, you may also separate articles by topic or other criteria.
The three dot menu changes context when you open it on an article page. It provides options to change the article's language, use find in page functionality, search for similar titles, and make light changes to font size and theme.
Basically, what you can do with the last option is to switch between a light and dark theme, and to make the font appear larger or smaller on the screen.
Verdict
The new Wikipedia application is an open source project. The source code is available on GitHub.
The app is very responsive and well designed. It displays information quickly and does not seem to use too many system resources either. The ability to hide information you don't require is excellent, as is the ability to save articles for offline access.
It would be useful if Wikipedia would add an option to save multiple articles in batch for offline reading though.
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?