Hekool is offering a Wikipedia app over at the Marketplace, Wiki Bee. Wiki Bee is a straight forward, simple to use, Wikipedia portal for Windows Phone 7.
The Windows Phone app comes in two flavors; a free version (Wiki Bee Free) and a paid version (Wiki Bee). Both versions allow you to search in 35 languages, auto-complete searches, quick navigation through a table of contents, and the means to immediately return to your most recent topic searched.
The differences rest with the paid version of Wiki Bee. With the pay version you add the ability to save topics as favorites, jump to any topic in your search history, and have offline access to your history and favorites.
For more on the Wiki Bee apps, buzz on past the break.
Free or not to be Free?
The hardest thing to decide with Wiki Bee is if you want to invest the $1.29 and buy the full version. If you need access to Wikipedia from your Windows Phone, either will do just fine.
Both versions ran smoothly with no bugs, glitches, or crashes experienced. Searches ran smoothly and the predictive/auto-complete feature added to the ease.
The choice really boils down to your need for a Favorites feature and the ability to access off-line material. Wiki Bee lays the Favorites out in metro fashion with your search history and settings completing the hub. To add a topic to your Favorites, simply tap the "add to favorites" button on the topic screen. Then to view your favorites, obviously you tap the favorites button.
With Wiki Bee Free, the favorites button pulls up your Settings and the option to buy the full version. Both apps share the same contents button and Welcome Screen (search page) buttons.
Overall Impression
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best and Wiki Bee definitely presents a good case for such. There's really not much to this application.
You type in your search topic and it pulls the information from Wikipedia. The paid version allows for you to populate a favorites list with topics you use with frequency and gives you the ability to pull that information up when off-line.
If you don't need these features, then Wiki Bee Free won't miss a beat. Personally, I can live without the favorites list but having the ability to retrieve information while off-line (e.g. in areas of little or no reception) is a worth the price of admission.
There is a trial version available for Wiki Bee with the full version running $1.29. You can find Wiki Bee here (opens your Zune desktop) and Wiki Bee Free here at the Marketplace.
