It’s that time of year again, friends. The day when “up” becomes “down”, lies become truth, dogs become people, and when the Internet becomes a liiiittle bit unbearable for a day or so.
It’s April Fools’ Day! Yay.
As is something of a tradition around these parts, we’re keeping a big running list of the best (/worst?) of today’s gags from around the vast Internets. Check back throughout the day for the new stuff, as it comes in.
Google:
Always cutting edge, Google actually decided to get the ball rolling with their April Fools’ day stuff yesterday. (Screw it! Lets start April Fools’ day in February. You know what I like to say? ABF. Always be foolin’.)
Pokémon Challenge:
Yesterday morning, The Google Maps’ team tugged at the heart strings of every geek around the world by debuting a video teaser for a video game they’ll never actually release: a live-action, augmented reality Pokemon game.
Softening the blow just a little, the Maps team did sneak an actual Pokemon collection mini-game into their app — it’s just not quite as ridiculous as the one in the video.
Magic Hand:
Brought to you buy Google Japan, it’s Magic Hand! Why use your own hand to type, when you can use your hand to make a robot hand type?
Nest For Flights
Rich Branson introduces personal climate control for every passenger on his planes, brought to you by Nest.
The real prank is really the reminder that this doesn’t exist, and instead we get that weird little grey nipple thing that blows out tepid air that always seems to smell like fart.
Gmail Shelfie:
“Shelfie” is short for “Shareable Selfie”. By replacing your Gmail background with a big ol’ picture of your face, Gmail is making sure you never have to stray far from your inbox to get your daily dose of self indulgence.
Auto-Awesome Photobombs:
Google+’ Auto-Awesome feature does a lot of awesome stuff. It’ll automatically make GIFs out of series of photos, so you don’t have to! It’ll make snazzy little video compilations of your day, so you don’t have to!
And now it’ll randomly insert David Hasselhoff into your vacation photos, so you don’t have to.
Swiftkey For Traditional, Physical Keyboards:
Sega:
You could wear an Oculus Rift. Or you could strap two Sega Genesis to your face. Your call, really.
Roku Watch:
Google gets a wearable! Apple gets a wearable! Why shouldn’t Roku get a wearable? Complete with HDTV antenna and a handy-dandy remote, for when your wrist is just too far away.
ThinkGeek:
Every year, ThinkGeek launches a series of fake products that they don’t actually intend to sell. Every year, at least one of the products gets so much attention that ThinkGeek decides to turn it into a real thing. Is it sort of like free market testing for ThinkGeek? Sure! But that’s okay, because the stuff they come up with is generally brilliant.
Here’s what they came up with this year (from left to right, above):
- The Flux Capacitor Car Charger: A tiny, cigarette-port-powered recreation of the heart of Doc Brown’s DeLorean.
- The USS Enterprise Throwing Disc
- The Laser-Guided Tactical Necktie. It’s got buckles!
- The Unicorn Drinking Horn: ThinkGeek sells canned “Unicorn Meat”; why waste the horn?
- Darkmage LED Spellcasting staff: “Our Darkmage LED Spellcasting Staff makes a statement. And that statement is You Shall NOT…. violate copyright on this product page.”
- The Pabst Stein: For when you want the experience of Oktoberfest, but without actually drinking good beer
- Rosetta Stone: Klingon Edition: Never mix up “qoSlIj DatIvjaj” and “Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam” again!
- The Nerf Nuke: It’s only an advantage until everyone has a Nerf Nuke. Then it’s just terrifying.
- The Mr. Beard Beard Machine: The convenience of one of those single-serve coffee capsule machines, but for your luscious face locks.
Any votes on which, if any, might become real? I’d pick the Flux Capacitor car charger. I know a dozen people who would buy that in a heart beat. I might be one of them.
Samsung and HTC
Both Samsung and HTC came up with the same idea: a smart glove (powerglove!) for your phone. Aaakwaaaaard.
Nokia:
Nokia throws it back to the year 2000, bringing back the classic (and mostly indestructible) Nokia 3310, with a few small changes: it runs Windows Phone. Oh, and it has a 41 megapixel camera.
CERN Goes Comic Sans:
Some of the world’s smartest people decide to use the world’s dumbest font:
Sphero’s Selfie-Bot:
Bonus points for looking like Bowser’s flying machine from the final boss battle of Super Mario World.
iFixit:
iFixit, who sells kits to repair gadgets and regularly knocks Apple for making it too damned hard for users to repair their own stuff, faux-announces that they’ve been acquired by Apple. They immediately start pitching AppleCare+ as “the only tool you need” and decide that Apple’s stuff isn’t that hard to repair after all.
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