Techathlon podcast: Trying the new Oculus Quest, broken tech promises, and the week’s tech news

We’re currently deep in the heart of developers’ conference season. Last week, Facebook had its F8 shindig to announce its site and app redesigns. This week, Google is putting on its own conference to fill us in on its upcoming projects—which will likely include the next version of Android—and maybe even some new hardware. With all of these keynote presentations happening, it can be hard to keep up on all the big developments, but luckily the Techathlon podcast can help. It’s the most fun way to catch up on the latest tech news and learn some interesting bits of technology history unless you have a clown shout them at you while you play old school NES games.

You can listen in the player above, subscribe on iTunes, add us on Stitcher, follow on Anchor, join us on Spotify, or find Techathlon wherever quality podcasts reside. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter where we will be talking trash and arguing about whether or not the producers of Game of Thrones left that Starbucks cup in that one scene on purpose to give fans something to nerd out about (They totally did).

Here’s what you can expect from this week’s podcast.

Techathlon Decathlon

As always, we have distilled the week’s biggest tech news into a series of 10 questions. Rob is in the midst of a winning streak—there’s no mandatory performance-enhancing drug testing in the Techathlon rules just yet. This week’s questions cover Facebook’s new features, Apple Music’s recent rise, and the new best way to make your friends uncomfortable on the internet.

Show & Tell: Oculus Quest

Facebook’s new virtual reality headset is one of the most impressive new gadgets to arrive this year. It turns your room—or in this case, our studio—into a VR play land in which you can actually walk around. Jason gets to try the Quest for the first time and repeatedly bangs his face into the microphone while trying to blast virtual pirates.

Dead or Alive

Tech companies are like Game of Thrones characters—get too attached to them and they’ll likely die horribly. Just recently, we saw two robotics companies, Anki and the laundry folding robot that every tech blog made a video about back at CES, close up shop. In fact, companies come and go so often it can be hard to keep track of which ones are still around. In this game, our contestants try to decide whether some well-known names in tech are still in business. It’s harder than it sounds.

Be sure to share your suggestions, scores, or fawning compliments with us on Twitter. Until then, we’ll see you next week!