Weekly Round Up #23: Spotify, Oculus Rift, Merc meets Apple Watch and WooThemes acquired

Welcome to Weekly Roundup, our podcast discussing the tech trends, innovation and news from the last few days.

This week on BurnCast, Stuart Thomas, Andy Walker, Graham van der Made, and Christopher Wilton speak about Spotify’s new features which include Spotify Running, Oculus Rift PC requirements, Mercedes-Benz’s Apple Watch app and Automattic’s acquisition of WooThemes.

Gone are the days when Spotify ruled the music streaming space with little competition. It is now facing serious competition from a number of services. Tidal, not much a threat yet, is in that space now, Apple is looking to get into it, and putting pressure on Spotify is also its own controversy. To maintain its position, not only as a good service but an innovative one, Spotify introduced some nifty features. Spotify Running, a feature that lets runners listen to music that changes tempo to match their pace is by far its most innovative. Apart from the tracks that have been composed for this feature, it also works with other features. The team debates this and wonders about the technology behind it.

Oculus Rift meanwhile released PC requirements. Graham, having tried it during the week (he walked away with a migraine), suggests that its a little way off from being viable for home users. The team also predicts what the upcoming Oculus Rift event will reveal.

South African WordPress theme builder WooThemes was meanwhile acquired by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com for a reported US$30-million this week. The real catalyst behind the deal however was probably the company’s ecommerce plug-in WooCommerce. This is amazing news for the startup but also the team suggests that this is amazing news for the startup space in South Africa.

Mercedes-Benz announced its Appple Watch app. An expensive meets an expensive watch, sidelining a majority of us. Besides this, the app does not sound at all like it has a practical functionality. Its best use, Stuart Thomas suggests, is that it will help old man with forgetfulness find out where they had parked their cars.