Technology

9 verified facts in this category.

• GPS satellite clocks run faster than Earth-based clocks by 38 microseconds per day due to relativity effects, requiring constant correction.
  Modern · global
• Nokia once manufactured rubber boots and toilet paper before becoming a mobile phone company.
  20th century · Europe
• The average smartphone has more computing power than all of NASA had when it sent astronauts to the moon in 1969.
  Modern · global
• The first webcam was created at Cambridge University in 1991 to monitor a coffee pot so researchers could avoid trips to an empty pot.
  20th century · Europe
• Before the marine chronometer, celestial navigation made it difficult for ships to keep accurate track of their position.
  Pre-18th century · global
• The first email spam was sent in 1978 by a DEC marketing representative to 400 ARPANET users advertising computers.
  20th century · North America
• The first computer mouse was made of wood and had only one button, invented by Doug Engelbart in 1964.
  20th century · North America
• The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed in the 1870s partly to prevent mechanical typewriter jams by separating commonly used letter pairs.
  1800s · North America
• LCD displays work by twisting liquid crystal molecules with electric fields; without power, some LCDs appear white while others appear black.
  Modern · global