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Internet notifications play a worryingly crucial role in our lives. Maybe you even got one from the Podcasts app to let you know that the latest Techathlon episode is live. Most of those notifications manifest as simple phone buzzes, but that wasn’t always the case. In the earlier internet days, notification sounds were crucial, They were the Pavlovian stimuli that let us know when we had a message from our friends or an email from our boss. Last week, Blackberry officially shut down its BBM messaging service, and it took its sounds with it. So, pour one out for the late BBM, then fire up the latest episode of Techathlon and take a trip down memory lane.
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Here’s a quick look at what you’ll hear in this week’s episode.
Techathlon Decathlon
Is Apple really killing iTunes? Did Xbox really make a body wash? Did Google really promise everyone a free blimp ride on their birthday? Some of those things are true, but you’ll have to play along with our tech-based trivia game to find out. It’s everything you need to know broken down into 10 questions. Tweet us your score when you’re done!
Going Pro
Apple announced a new $6,000 Mac Pro and $5,000 6K monitor at its WWDC event last week. The prices sound outrageous until you consider how expensive everything else is in the creative industry. We take a stroll through the big-ticket world of movie, TV, music, and photo production in which you need to make Leonardo DiCaprio money just to afford any of this gear.
Name That Notification
In this audio-based trivia game, we play some of the most famous internet notification sounds from history and the contestants have to name the app in which it lives. The sounds are probably burned into your memory, but identifying them in the wild is surprisingly challenging. Have a listen and then maybe turn your phone’s volume on for old time sake. The notification noises will be fun to hear—for a couple minutes.
