Tag Archives: GPS

Reviews: How The Best Of Technology Works (WSJ)

The Wall Street Journal (December 16, 2023) – How does Google Maps use satellites, GPS and more to get you from point A to point B? What is the tech that powers Spotify’s recommendation algorithm?

Video timeline: 0:00 Google Maps 9:07 LED wristbands 14:30 Spotify’s algorithm 21:30 Tap-to-Pay 28:18 Noise-canceling headphones 34:33 MSG Sphere 41:30 Shazam

From the unique tech that works in seconds to power tap-to-pay to how Shazam identifies 23,000 songs each minute, WSJ explores the engineering and science of technology that catches our eye. Chapters:

Morning News Podcast: Tokyo Olympics, Week GPS Signals, Studying Cicadas

The Tokyo Olympics are due to begin in just over two months. But with coronavirus cases climbing in recent months, 80% of Japanese people want the games to be cancelled.

The navigation signals sent by satellites like America’s GPS constellation are surprisingly weak. What happens when they’re jammed—or tricked? And in America cicadas have emerged from their underground redoubts for the first time in 17 years, for a frenzied few weeks of mating. How do you study a species that emerges fewer than six times in a century?