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“Insane project idea: all of wikipedia on a single, scrollable page, Patina Systems founder Tyler Angert posted on X earlier this month. “Even better, an infinitely scrolling Wikipedia page based on whatever you are interested in next?” replied Bloomberg Beta VC James Cham. WikiTok, added Angert. insane project idea: all of wikipedia on a single, scrollable page— Tyler Angert (@tylerangert) February 3, 2025 New York-based app developer Isaac Gemal stumbled across the discussion the following evening. Within two hours, WikiTok was live. If you’re the type to instinctively pull up Wikipedia to fact-check anything and everything, this app is made for you. WikiTok users can swipe through an endless stream of Wikipedia article stubs, discovering random facts and interesting information along the way. Damn this is really cool, much better for the brain, one X user posted. The rabbit hole we didn’t know we needed. knowledge discovery powered by attention span instead of search terms. finally, a productive way to waste time, another added. Free from invasive tracking and endless notifications, this app offers the closest thing to guilt-free scrolling. Instead of feeding you content based on an algorithm, it delivers a truly random selection of Wikipedia articles, pulled straight from the Wikipedia API and displayed in a TikTok-style interface. Each entry appears with an image from the corresponding articleand if something catches your interest, a simple tap on “Read More” opens the full Wikipedia page in your browser. Gemal made the code for WikiTok available on GitHub, allowing anyone to modify or contribute to the project. Currently, the web app supports article previews, sharing capabilities, and 14 languages across both desktop and mobile browsers. As the community grows, new features are expected to roll in as contributors get involved. The app is currently algorithm-free and Gemal plans to keep it that way. “I have had plenty of people message me and even make issues on my GitHub asking for some insane crazy WikiTok algorithm,” Gemal told Ars Technica. “And I had to put my foot down and say something along the lines that we’re already ruled by ruthless, opaque algorithms in our everyday life; why can’t we just have one little corner in the world without them?” One little corner, in other words, without doomscrolling.
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E-Commerce
T-Mobile has launched a wide-scale beta satellite-to-cell service using SpaceX’s Starlink, aimed at extending service to remote areas or “dead zones” that cell towers can’t reach. The satellite-messaging service will be free to use until July, even if you arent a T-Mobile customer (that means you, Verizon and AT&T users). Starlink, a satellite internet service that provides high-speed broadband internet to rural areas, is owned by SpaceX CEO and Trump adviser Elon Musk. The wireless carrier made the announcement Sunday with a big ad during the first quarter of the Super Bowl. While it’s free until July for all, after that, only T-Mobile’s customers can add the plan for $15 a month; those with T-Mobile’s premium Go5G Next plan will get it at no extra cost. T-Mobile Starlink uses satellites orbiting the Earth at more than 200 miles an hour to deliver cell phone signals creating text messages to and from locations that traditional cell towers cant reach, known as “dead zones.” In the future, users will also be able to send images, use data, and make voice calls. Its a massive technical achievement and an absolute game changer for ALL wireless users, T-Mobile president and CEO Mike Sievert said in a statement. Were still in the early daysI dont want to overhype the experience during a beta testbut were officially putting no bars on notice. Dead zones, your days are numbered at the Un-carrier. How does Starlink satellite texting work? “If you can see the sky, youre connected with T-Mobile. Its that simple, Mike Katz, T-Mobile’s president of marketing, strategy, and products, told Fast Company. When a cell phone is out of cell tower range, the phone automatically connects to the T-Mobile Starlink. The technology works on “most smartphones from the last four years,” including iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones, and most operating systemshowever, the iPhone’s latest operating software, iOS 18.3, did not add Starlink to the handset (it merely added SAT as an onscreen option instead of LTE or 5G, according to Forbes). T-Mobile Starlink also broadcasts Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) nationwide to anyone in range of the signal and with a compatible devicewhich could be a literal game changer, enabling users to send and receive potentially life-saving messages in places impacted by severe weather and natural disasters or in remote hiking areas. How do I sign up for Starlink’s beta test? Sign up for the satellite service beta here. It is free for everyone, but spots are limited, according to T-Mobile. Once enrolled, you may have to wait a few days before you can send text messages. Can I also make Starlink satellite calls? No, currently the free beta service only supports text messages including SMS, RCS, and iMessageno satellite calls. Nor can you send your favorite video clips from last night’s Super Bowl, where the T-Mobile Starlink ad first ran, as data is not yet available.
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E-Commerce
Last month, Elon Musks social media platform X announced it was launching a digital wallet service. Users would be able to transfer money from their bank accounts to a wallet on X, bringing the platform one step closer to its much-promised Everything App destiny. The announcement was met on Bluesky and X with a torrent of jokes on a similar theme: the wallet inspector. Congrats to Elon on his long-awaited move into the wallet inspector business, wrote Edward Niedermeyer, author of a book on Tesla. And that was before Musks Department of Government Efficiency started poking around inside the national treasury. Its early still, but the wallet inspector is already the frontrunner for the defining meme of 2025. It comes from a 1993 Simpsons episode called Homer Goes to College, written by Conan OBrien. In the pivotal scene, Homer has just gotten a trio of nerds expelled from their university, and he feels remorseful about it. No sooner does one of the geeks assure him they can take care of themselves, though, then they are confronted by the town thief, who introduces himself as the wallet inspector, and holds out his hand in solicitation. The group doesnt hesitate for a second, leaving the thief stunned that his dumb plan succeeded. Its funny to contemplate a thief lazy enough to give the wallet inspector gambit a go. Its also funny to imagine a squad of marks so sheltered and credulous, they believe this is standard procedure. And it may be funniest of all to think about a third party like Homer observing this exchange and, in the scenes final beat, despairing: Thats not the wallet inspector. That the same versatile term can be deployed to evoke three separate sets of behaviors may be why it already seeped into cultural vernacular years ago. But the convergence of so much openly shady behavior and corresponding gullibility in recent months has made the wallet inspector especially relevant in 2025. Its an ideal flourish for a moment when the mere suggestion of legitimacy, and a lack of shame, can take you seemingly anywhere. The day-to-day experience of life in 2025when our institutions are crumbling, the barbarians are no longer even at the gates but within them, and no wretched outcome seems off the tableis pushing those with the capacity to take it all in toward a mindset of total distrust. Anyone steeped in that worldview can only look upon their neighbors who still have faith in anythinglaws, public safety, basic decencyas grade-A suckers. When a legal scholar thinks the constitution is inherently inviolable, even after daily evidence of Musk and his minions openly flouting it, they are ready for the wallet inspector. When a Republican Senator who lived through the past decade is still surprised Donald Trump did not stick to his word, its inspection time. And when DraftKings offers its gambling-addled user base a premium subscription tier with increased odds, that wallet is gone. People lob plenty of inspection allegations at the saps of the tech realmthose lured in to recent memecoin rug pulls by the Hawk Tuah Girl or the president, for instance, along with anyone who ever invested in NFTs. They use the meme to describe the U.S. government handing over untold billions to AI companies, based on the adorable belief that a Chinese company could never in a million years undercut themand they deploy it to shrug at everyone fooled by all the visual slop coming down the pike in the AI boom. And there was only one way to frame it when one of Xs lesser-known advertisers turned out to be, fittingly enough, a literal wallet inspection operation. All the wallet inspector talk seemed to hit a crescendo when X announced its digital wallet service; then, Musks team obtained access to the U.S. Treasury. The DOGE crew reportedly now has at their inexperienced fingertips data on Social Security numbers and banking information. They are effectively inspecting Americas walletand Americas top officials are just handing it over. The wallet inspector meme makes for a devastating way to describe anyone too trusting of plainly false assurances, the people making those assurances, and the Homer-like observers who dont quite seem to understand what is happening, much less mount any meaningful opposition. Its the rhetorical embodiment of a free-fall era where so many people in positions of authority seem to be openly running scams, and the people meant to protect evryone else are either also running scams or are getting scammed themselves. Its wallet inspectors all the way down.
Category:
E-Commerce
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