It’s the first day of April, and that means only one thing: Don’t believe anything you read on the Internet (even less so than usual)! The tech world loves a good April Fools Day joke, and each year we get to enjoy more, and funnier, gags. To make sure you don’t miss out on the best ones (or get caught out by the most subtle), we’ve put together a roundup of the ones which have made us giggle, guffaw, or groan on April 1.
Follow the links to see if you were fooled
- All Google’s awesome April Fools Day jokes
- Samsung has the edge, Planet Fitness make the gym more comfortable, and Microsoft brings back MS-DOS
- T-Mobile frees pets, BMW protects mouths, and Sony gets us wet
- Honda, Miz Mooz, Think Geek, and Motorola solve selfie problems
- Drones for deliveries, vacuum cleaning, and shooting adult movies
- April Fool apps include Grouber cat deliveries, Agri Birds, and Hailo Piggback Rides
Make sure you check back often, as we’ll be updating throughout the day.
Just to get you in the mood, here are a couple of the latest gags we’ve found.
Presurance makes insurance funny
Insurance isn’t usually funny, but this April Fool from Esurance made us chuckle. It’s Minority Report tech taken out of Tom Cruise’s cool sci-fi world, and put into the hands of insurance agents. Stick around for the end of the video, and the amusing warning list to do with Presurance.
A heavenly match, it’s Uber for Tinder and Tinder for Uber
It’s the most obvious app mashup once you start thinking about it, and it’s surprising the pairing hasn’t happened for real yet. It’s Uber for Tinder, and Tinder for Uber.
- 1. Tinder for Uber
- 2. Uber for Tinder
The Force is strong with CERN
CERN has been using the Large Hadron Collider for all sorts of scientific things, which has resulted in the discovery of something many of us already knew had to be real – The Force. The article is a great read, and packed full of Star Wars references, and closes with a fun nod towards the forthcoming new movie.
Asus brings touchscreen tech to old-style phones
Asus has added another Zenfone to its growing range, only this time it’s for the home. The Zenfone Zero (oh, and check out the model numbers), looks like an old-style home phone, but with the dial replaced by a touchscreen.
Scratch and Sniff to order pizzas at Pizza Hut
At Pizza Hut restaurants in the UK soon, regular written menus will be replaced by Scratch and Sniff menus, which as you’d expect, smells rather than words are used to identify tasty items. Ordering pizzas will never be the same again.
Pets can now ride the iRobot
Robotic vacuum cleaners have been giving pets rides around the house for years, and now iRobot has added a much needed degree of safety to the experience with the Waggin’ Wagon. The accessory is like a race seat for your dog or cat, and fits to your friendly robotic houseworker.
Next: Google’s April Fools Day jokes
Google April Fools Day jokes
Google kicks off with Google Backwards
Google, often the most prolific April Fools Day jokers, has come out in force for 2015. We’re sure there are more to be discovered, but com.google is a good place to start, where the Google website we know and love is entirely backwards and upside down. Search for things, and the results run in the opposite direction to usual. It’s all very confusing.
Pac-Man invades Google Maps
The Google Maps gag was revealed a little earlier than April 1, making us wonder if it’ll stick around. It’s also pretty cool, because Google Maps now has a Pac-Man mode, which turns the streets around you into a real-world version of the classic arcade game. It works on the desktop and on mobile, but for the latter you need to search for a Pac-Man to start, and when you find him, the game is accessed by tapping a new Pac-Man button on the screen.
Cute Google Panda will answer all your questions
Google Japan has introduced the Google Panda (a name that references an infamous update to the company’s search algorithm), a voice activated, shock-proof, and very cute panda which has Google Now built in. Talk to Google Panda — in one of 50 languages — and you’ll get the answer to all your questions. Amusingly, it’s available in two sizes, Panda 5, and Panda 6.
The keyless keyboard is beyond ridiculous
Also from Google Japan is the keyless keyboard, a user friendly, mouth operated device which uses the length of a party horn to input different letters on your smartphone. There’s even an accessory so you can blow through your nose instead of your mouth.
React to the best websites with Chrome Selfies
Chrome Selfie, which a lot of people will wish was real, takes advantage of front-facing smartphone cameras to shoot reaction selfies to webpages. A screenshot of the page, along with your reaction selfie pasted next to it, can be shared afterwards.
Google Fiber gets Dial-Up Mode, for when life moves too fast
Super-fast broadband Internet is great, but it’s sometimes too fast to get anything else done. Google has come up with a way to get some time back, with Dial-Up Mode on Google Fiber. It slows the connection down to ancient 56k modem speeds, so you can spend more time with your family, while waiting hours for a 30-second video to download.
The ordinary mailbox meets Google Inbox
Finally, there’s the Smartbox, a traditional mailbox given the Google Inbox treatment with smart folders, spam protection, and notification alerts. It even has a built-in tablet so you can take it with you.
Next: Samsung has the edge, Planet Fitness makes the gym more comfortable, and Microsoft brings back MS-DOS
Samsung has the edge, Planet Fitness makes the gym more comfortable, and Microsoft brings back MS-DOS
Samsung’s Blade Edge is cutting-edge tech
The Samsung Blade Edge is an elaborate stunt, and the description of this unusual device goes into a lot of detail. What is it? It’s a special version of the Galaxy S6 Edge, with an edge so sharp it doubles as a chef’s knife. The body is ceramic, while the blade has a super sharp diamond-edge, along with a handy foldable handle. Samsung promises a 50 percent speed increase in chopping, cutting, and slicing. A finger-detection system keeps your pinkies in place, and a human blood sensor automatically calls the cops if you start using the Blade Edge on the sous chef. Check out the full description for a lot of geeky, techy fun.
Microsoft’s Lumia range gets MS-DOS Mobile
Microsoft made us laugh with the MS-DOS Mobile preview, a return to the much-missed C:/ command line prompt from the beginning of modern computing, reintroduced on your smartphone. Apps already installed are opened using simple commands, and although it’s all a big joke, the retro clean white text on the black screen looks really cool.
Get comfy at Planet Fitness with the Reclinomax
Planet Fitness wants to bring comfort to the gym (or is it the gym to comfort, I forget) and has designed the Reclinomax, a sumptuous leather recliner that can still provide a great workout. While the chair isn’t especially amusing, the script and the performances in Planet Fitness’ video are great. Give it a watch now.
Next: T-Mobile frees pets, BMW protects mouths, and Sony gets us wet
T-Mobile frees pets, BMW protects mouths, and Sony gets us wet
BMW grill inspires rugby mouth guard
BMW has taken its trademark kidney grills, which make up the “face” of BMW cars, and created a new Motor Mouth mouth guard for rugby players. Chris Robshaw, an international player, who makes an average of 18 tackles per match, has been testing the product. It has been created using rubber from BMW door seals, and tire tread technology to ensure it doesn’t slip about inside the mouth.
Hilarious Un-commercial for T-Mobile Pets-Unleashed
T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a tweet the company prides itself on freeing customers from the constraints of the industry, but one group has been ignored until now.
.@TMobile prides ourselves on freeing customers from the constraints of this industry, but one key group has been ignored for too long…
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) April 1, 2015
That group turned out to be our pets. The un-commercial for Pets-Unleashed is a must watch, and it introduces a new $5 per month plan that will include your dog, cat, or other pet in all the mobile fun. The video’s great, and even includes some trademark John Legere swearing.
PlayStation Flow makes underwater gaming truly immersive
Sony has brought us PlayStation Flow, a way to make those underwater scenes in games like The Last Of Us even more realistic. Using some cool shades and wearable muscle sensors, those sequences are now truly immersive, as they can be player underwater for real. What’s more, Sony has also made a platform that dries you off in seconds, so you can quickly get back to the PS4. We’d quite like that to be a real thing, actually.
Next: Honda, Motorola, and Miz Mooz solve selfie problems
Honda, Miz Mooz, Think Geek, and Motorola solve selfie problems
You may end up wanting the Motorola Moto Selfie Stick
Motorola doesn’t think the selfie stick is a joke at all, and is taking the much-maligned accessory very seriously in this excellent video, in which artists craft the best selfie stick in the world. Made from beautiful wood and tactile leather, the Moto Selfie Stick is made with care by some very serious people. This one is an early leader for the best of April Fools Day 2015.
Honda’s new selfie car could be a hit
Honda has returned with another great April Fools joke in 2015 — the HR-V Selfie Edition. The all-new Honda HR-V crossover vehicle has been kitted out with ten different selfie cams — everywhere from the vanity mirror to the underside of the vehicle — to make sure your best poses are captured when cruising the streets. It’s safety first though, and the cameras only work while the car is in Park. Wait, is this real?
The Selfie Shoe solves a modern, and often major, problem
From in-car selfies to selfies taken with your shoe. Yes, the Selfie Shoe is a product from shoe designers Miz Mooz, and it aims to solve the problem of never having anywhere to store your selfie stick when it’s not in use. Simply pop your phone into the custom slot on the tip of your shoe, lift your leg, and use the toe button to snap a selfie. A sensible solution to a major life issue.
All selfies, all the time
Think Geek, the geeky online retailer is (not) selling the Do It YourSelfie, a 360-degree, neck-worn rig with space for 12 cameras to take amazing selfies from any angle. It syncs with your phone, and an app supposedly stitches all the images together into a single, all-encompassing image. It’s $200, and you’ll still need to buy cameras for it.
Next: April Fool drones
Drones for deliveries, vacuum cleaning, and shooting adult movies
Drones over the skies of London
If Uber used drones to deliver stuff, it would be Bizzby Sky, an on-demand, drone delivery system has launched over the skies of London. This is one of those gags which could be entirely genuine — and almost is thanks to services like Amazon’s Prime Air and Bizzby’s own service — but it’s not, at least, not yet.
Henry the lovable vacuum cleaner reimagined as a drone
Henry, the popular vacuum cleaner with a cute face, has been made into a drone. See him happily float around the room in the short video below, and be concerned that RS Components says it could theoretically reach 22mph when traveling in a straight line. You definitely wouldn’t want to get in the way of an 8.5kg flying Henry at that speed. On the positive side, you’d never need a ladder to get rid of those hard to reach cobwebs ever again.
Alcohol deliveries by drone
Southern Comfort also thinks drone deliveries are amusing, and has come up with SoCo2Go, its own way of bringing the well known whiskey to thirsty drinkers wherever they may be. Southern Comfort says the project has taken four years, but we think coming up with the gag took considerably less time than that. Still, the video’s pretty good.
Those drones over Paris were shooting adult movies
Here’s a really weird one. French publication L’Obs says the mysterious drones buzzing Paris recently are linked to the adult film industry, and have been filming couples having sex au naturel. The story links to an old, unrelated (and NSFW) video called Drone Boning, which it says was seized during the arrest of connected individuals. All this made it too strange not to include.
Next: April Fool apps
April Fool apps include Grouber cat deliveries, Agri Birds, and Hailo Piggback Rides
The future of ride-sharing is piggybacking
Hailo, the taxi-calling app, has decided the future lies in providing piggyback rides, and who would have thought so much research would be needed into matching rides, with mounts. The video is surprisingly serious, and supremely silly. We especially like the “Pig me up here” button spotted in the app at the end of the video.
Playdate app for toddlers
This could have been a really, really worrying April Fool. But the video is actually quite funny, and surprisingly sweet. It’s all about a spin-off app from dating experts Hinge, which will set up playdates for toddlers. Give it a watch, and just be thankful it’s not creepy.
Cats deliver your Groupon deals
Groupon has seen what Uber does, and wants to combine it with its great deals. Now we’ve got Grouber, which is a transportation app where you pick a deal, then a well-trained cat will deliver it to your door – by car. No, it doesn’t make any sense, but it’s still very funny, and the opening shot of the cat in the SUV is super cute. Make sure you check out the website, which has some great added details, like the cats being guided to their destination by laser pointer.
Agri Birds is an Angry Birds spin-off you may want to play
Rovio’s April Fool is another Angry Birds spin-off, called Agri Birds. It’s set on a farm, and while there’s some resource management things going on, there’s also an unexpected survival horror element, and a dramatic storyline about love and loss. It’s a beautifully produced video, and completely different to anything Rovio has done with Angry Birds in the past. Yes, we’d quite like to give it a try.
