Encyclopaedia Britannica Is Launching An iPad App

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is the most “scholarly of encyclopaedias” according to Wikipedia (heh), is about to release a new iPad app. It costs $1.99 a month to subscribe to their knowledge base, which is cheaper than the $US1400 for the print set, but far, far more expensive than Wikipedia’s freeeeeee.

OK, I totally respect the Encyclopaedia Britannica, what they’ve done and what they represent, but are they even relevant anymore? Isn’t it only stuffy, old people who spend the thousands on their books? Wikipedia, unreliable that it may be, is a great starting point for the 3.7 million (and constantly growing) items in their database. Comparatively, Britannica has 140,000 articles.

The app isn’t out yet but All Things D got a preview of it and said that it’s a lot better than the web version of the Britannica. There’s a neat sounding ‘link map’ that shows relationships between topics and a daily photos feature to learn new things. What the WSJ found disappointing though, was that there weren’t any videos or outbound links. I won’t kill you for spending $2 a month, $62 a year for access to the Britannica iPad app (it might be good for students rushing on a last minute book report or something!) but I know I won’t be. [All Things D]


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