61–70 of 332 posts
Shazam is the one app that has been around since about the birth of the iPhone that honestly still blows my mind in it's capabilities. The fact it can so quickly figure out any song in so many environments is incredible. Call me simple, but I use it almost daily, and it is accurate close to 98% of the time. I absolutely love Shazam's iOS app, and they have done a great job keeping up with UI/UX treads for it over the…
I remember feeling that way the first time I used Uber (in SF where getting a taxi was difficult and unreliable). A few taps on my phone and a car shows up to my exact location in 2 minutes?! And that's it? No calling dispatch and hoping they'd show up eventually (sometimes they didn't). No fumbling with cash or tip or anything. It was like magic.
Shazam is the closest thing we have to witchcraft. I'm sure plenty of HNers will chime in with "well acktually..." type comments about how they could write it in their basement in a weekend, but to do what it does, as quickly as it does, on the ridiculously enormous library of music that it does is really something special.
It creates a time series of frequencies then checks a db for that same series. A problem that is easily parallelizable. Probably does some filtering first. It's a very useful and clever application, but not that technically challenging. The most amazing feat is they got access to the catalogs of the record labels. I wish someone would do the same thing for commercials on TV. Auto detect the commercial and advance the…
Shazam is the closest thing we have to witchcraft. I'm sure plenty of HNers will chime in with "well acktually..." type comments about how they could write it in their basement in a weekend, but to do what it does, as quickly as it does, on the ridiculously enormous library of music that it does is really something special.
I don't mean to take away from Shazam (because I too was amazed when I first used it) but the Pixel phones have Shazam-like ability built in which uses minimal battery and without internet... and it's constantly running any time music plays. Not really "magic" how it works but still pretty amazing that I can pull the phone out of my pocket any time I hear a song I like and immediately see the band/title.
Shazam is the closest thing we have to witchcraft. I'm sure plenty of HNers will chime in with "well acktually..." type comments about how they could write it in their basement in a weekend, but to do what it does, as quickly as it does, on the ridiculously enormous library of music that it does is really something special.
Maybe my listening tastes are just _that weird_, but I've found that it's only accurate about 50% of the time for those times when I really need it. It's also pretty garbage for classical music.
I remember feeling that way the first time I used Uber (in SF where getting a taxi was difficult and unreliable). A few taps on my phone and a car shows up to my exact location in 2 minutes?! And that's it? No calling dispatch and hoping they'd show up eventually (sometimes they didn't). No fumbling with cash or tip or anything. It was like magic.
I have so badly wanted to be able to Shazam and automatically add something to a Spotify playlist via IFTTT or whatever. I wonder if that will be more or less possible now. Maybe with a Shortcut?
This functionality has been around for a bit actually, you may have missed it. You have to connect your Spotify in the Shazam app. And every time you Shazam something it auto adds it to a "My Shazam Tracks" playlist in Spotify. Been using that feature from them for about a year now! :)
Shazam is the closest thing we have to witchcraft. I'm sure plenty of HNers will chime in with "well acktually..." type comments about how they could write it in their basement in a weekend, but to do what it does, as quickly as it does, on the ridiculously enormous library of music that it does is really something special.
Shazam is the closest thing we have to witchcraft. I'm sure plenty of HNers will chime in with "well acktually..." type comments about how they could write it in their basement in a weekend, but to do what it does, as quickly as it does, on the ridiculously enormous library of music that it does is really something special.
Yes shazam's algorithm is aktually pretty simple math, but there's nothing wrong with creating a busines sbased on simple tech! Like most companies in tech, it's the business part that is hard, not the technical part.