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Show HN: Wikireader – website reader with a built-in dictionary

github.com

2 points by amosj 4 years ago · 1 comment

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amosjOP 4 years ago

Greetings HN!

Wikireader is inspired by two facts:

  - I like learning foreign languages
  - Some (most) days I will open certain news sites more times than I'd like to admit, "just to check if there's something interesting"
This app is an attempt to channel that energy in a more productive direction. Instead of opening XYZNews for the nth time I'll try reading wikipedia - but in a different language. That way I'll learn something new about the world AND practice that language. At least that's the idea. Sometimes it even works.

Although e.g. Chrome has a built in integration with wordreference, it still requires too many clicks. So I rolled my own. This has been sitting on a dusty shelf for a while. But it still builds in Android Studio, so I thought I'd share. Any feedback welcome!

Fun fact, some wikipedia versions have a "quote of the day". Those have become my favorites.

The list of websites is configurable, so one could use it for other websites too - by default each language has wikipedia and a news site. The built-in browser is sometimes buggy and gets dizzy if it follows too many redirects.

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