Have you looked at your calendar today? If not, let me tell you what day it is: March 31st. You know what that means? Tomorrow is April 1st, the infamous April Fools day. That means companies are about to flood the internet with jokes, press releases about fake products and other cheeky shenanigans.
There’s just one problem this year: some companies can’t help but to get started a day early. Google has already unleashed a few of their own, the most cool of which is an interactive new Google Maps feature that turns your local area map into a game of Pacman. You can actually play it right now by clicking here, if you want (or stroll into the Google Maps for Android app).
It’s not a joke, per se, but it’s a cool and fun little quirk that Google likely tossed in to celebrate the goofiness of tomorrow’s pseudo-holiday. It’s also a great way to promote the real-world augmented reality counterpart being featured in the latest Ingress update.
It doesn’t stop there for them. They’ve sneakily baked a feature into the latest version of Google Chrome that will enable a new “Chrome Selfie” feature once the calendar turns.
Steve is blown away by that dreamy Samsung user interface concept! The idea is that you take a selfie with your reaction of whatever site you’re viewing, and you can send a shot of that selfie and website off to your friends to view. It’s the one killer feature we’ve always been waiting for! Not. You can give it a try right now by changing the timezone on your calendar to GMT +10.
It isn’t just Google’s US arm having a good time, either. Those in Japan have already gotten their fun in, with Google Japan teasing a new “hornpipe” input feature that allows you to input text in Japanese without having to type or even speak anything. Just blow!
And then there’s Samsung, whose Samsung Galaxy Blade Edge smartphone promises to serve dual purpose as a butcher’s knife. It’ll feature built-in thermometer styli, a fold-up handle for easy conversion and, you guessed it, a fire proof display.
Oh, and food porn. Finally, we’re able to record our meat chopping experience from the perspective of the destructive tool that makes it all happen, and then easily take a photo of the finished product afterward!
Sad to say it, folks, but this is only the beginning. The Next 24-48 hours will spawn an even greater number of jokes. Some will be funny. Some will even make us wish they were actual ideas and products. And then there will be the bunch that will outright make us cry, cringe and wish this day never existed, all the while actual announcements have to be questioned for their legitimacy in a sea of ridiculous satire. This is April Fools. Prepare yourselves.
It was only a couple of short months ago that Cyanogen vowed to steal Android from Google, and only shortly after that was Microsoft revealed to be a potential partner in crime to make that happen through a lofty investment. Cyanogen would have you believe otherwise, but new evidence suggests Microsoft actually did invest in the company, and they’ve somehow pried Android from within the Googleplex and made it their own.
You’ll even find mentions of the code that adds Microsoft’s flair sprinkled throughout the source code of the latest builds. No formal details have been made available yet, but we imagine the two are gearing up to announce later today that they’ve joined forces and have successfully stolen Android from Google (whatever that means).
April Fools! Nothing you read above is real. That code does actually exist, though it’s only in the latest nightly and is obviously a joke, likely to be scrubbed away from nightlies built April 2nd and later.
It’s April 1st, the day tech companies like to come up with ridiculous and silly ideas to market as if they were real, and get fools like you and I to fall for them. We don’t, of course — we assume everything announced on April 1st is fake unless someone makes a really convincing argument (we’re looking at you, Amazon Dash Button).
But just because we have our guard up doesn’t mean we can’t laugh about a lot of this stuff anyway. We’ve had a blast around the digital Phandroid offices sharing and talking about some of the great April Fools pranks we’ve seen across the web so far, and we’re here to share the best ones we’ve seen aside from the charade narrated above.
We all hate mail, but it’s not because it’s usually boring, littered with bills you don’t want to pay, and filled with spammy coupon offers from low-grade local businesses. It’s because the contemporary mailbox is a pain to use and look at!
That’s why Google created the Smartbox. With automatic hand-warming technology, a smart filter system, spam-busting contraptions and a touchscreen for using Android apps for the 2 seconds you’re near a mailbox every day, this is literally the best mailbox ever imagined.
This is Smartbox. Which was made by the folks who made Inbox. Which was made by the folks who made Gmail. Which was made by the folks who created Google. Which started in a garage. That’s the real ‘murican dream.
Do you get tired of tech companies detailing the “beauty” of their devices in a way that makes you think Picasso himself was responsible for their creation? Sketches of early prototypes and hipster designer engineers be damned Motorola does too, so they parodied this growing trend by doing the same thing for a selfie stick.
We don’t know why a selfie stick would need to be “beautifully hand-crafted” and all that jazz, but we’re sure some company is actually going to pull that ridiculous, overplayed angle someday. Oh by the way, Motorola has a 0 off Moto X deal today only, and that’s not a joke. Check it out right here.
Smart socks. It’s happening, folks, and you’re going to freaking love it. No longer do you have to look to your phone or smart watch to be notified of new messages, emails and Tweets — they’ll go right to your ankle instead!
This is perfect for those moments where you have to bend over to, um, put socks on. Oh, and perhaps change and tie your shoes! Hard to use a phone or smart watch while doing all that so these smart socks are sure to be a big hit.
Other features include a sock hole warning system, GPS for making sure a pair of socks are never separated, and even has super SuperSlip Coating technology for making sure you get the best possible slides when running across your kitchen floor like a madman during a home alone karaoke session. You’re laughing right now, but I really wish these things existed. =(
OK, Google Panda
Forget smartphones, tablets, watches and glasses: the real future of connected technology is stuffed pandas. Google Panda is a cuddly companion that can wrap itself around your arm and answer any question you may have within 0.3 seconds. It does so in 50 different languages, and uses the power of Google’s Knowledge Graph to deliver only the most accurate information.
The funniest thing is we aren’t even excited about this technological advancement for its practical uses: we’re geeked up about the fact that we can officially say that a panda bear is more smart than Siri ever will be.
OK, so dogs and cats can’t use smartphones and tablets, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need connected devices (smart collars, anyone?). That’s why T-Mobile’s Pet Freedom plan is perfect — per month to your existing lines for your pet to have their own pool of data.
A joke, obviously, but T-Mobile’s joke actually rewards pets for everyone who visits this fun page: they’re donating per visit (up to ,000) to the Humane Society to help endangered animals and pets who have found themselves in tough situations. Kudos, Magenta!
No, that backwards URL wasn’t an error. Click it — Google is mirrored! Alongside a flip-flopped search engine that hurts our head more than makes us laugh, this cool April Fools prank showcases one of the new top-level domains Google was able to get approved in the latest ICANN expansion. You can find a full list of other TLD extensions they filed for below.
Ah, AOKP. Your misunderstood (and perhaps inaccurate) history as a ROM with code borrowed from top ROMs such as CyanogenMod and Paranoid Android makes room for a lot of jokes, so why not make it the star of a good ol’ April Fools joke?
Their schtick is that they have been tapped by Xiaomi to make MIUI 7, and will internally call it MiKangy (not to be refused with the porn marketplace app MiKandi). They’ll shamelessly copy the best features from many of the top ROMs, and look to create a user experience that “evolves” over time based on your usage so no two ROMs are the same (likely a parody of the trend of software engineers always claiming their apps and ROMs have a life of their own and learns so much about you that they know what you want even before you do).
Share some you’ve seen!
Those are just a few of the cool and funny April Fools pranks from around the web. You can’t forget yesterday’s introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Blade Edge that transforms into a butcher’s knife, Google Chrome’s new #SelfieReaction feature, Pacman on Google Maps and the innovative Party Horn text input device from Google Japan.
Any others you’ve seen that we don’t have here? Feel free to share them in the comments section below, and we’ll be adding to this list throughout the day as more pranks and jokes potentially roll in. Keep your guard up and have a happy April Fools!
The April Fools Day “pranks” were weak this year, but a few products that seemed like jokes were actually real. Chris still doesn’t believe the Amazon Dash Buttons are real. We also talk about our HTC One M9 and LG G Flex 2 reviews, and share some of our own favorite April Fools Day pranks from back before #brands ruined the holiday. Thanks for watching/listening!
