This Space Intentionally Left Prank: April Fools’ Day Tech Roundup
April 3, 2009 :: Joe LoongGenerally, I’m kind of a curmudgeon when it comes to April Fools’ Day. I tend to think of it as a day where people and organizations who aren’t funny, try to be funny. And fail.
Having said that, it’s unavoidable (I woke up to WAMU’s Power Breakfast item on Congressional calisthenics), and I guess it’s useful to ratchet up the degree of skepticism and incredulity that we should bring to bear when faced with everyday ludicrousness.
On the corporate side, it’s a chance for companies to drum up some publicity and show off their “wackiness” (e.g. BMW announces Magnetic Tow Technology). Usually, it’s the equivalent of easy money, though there are times when the joke doesn’t go over so well (c.f. AOL News announces in 1996 that life was found on Jupiter).
It’s kind of a delicate balancing act — too obvious, and it’s not funny; too realistic (or too close to home), and people get mad.
Anyway, check out April Fools’ Day tech prank roundups from CNET, TechCrunch, and PaidContent.org. Some of the more notable items:
* The ThinkGeek shopping site main page features a Tauntaun sleeping bag (pity about the smell), the anti-buzzword shock bracelet (it’s a real value-add*ZZAAPP*), and Squeez Bacon.
* Contrary to this Conficker report from the Washington Post’s Security Fix blog (which basically says the end is nigh), the Conficker worm has not blown up the world. Yet.
* Warner Brothers acquires Bittorrent tracking site The Pirate Bay for $13 billion.
* Protip: All many some of the April 1 stories on Slashdot main are jokes.
* Browser maker Opera announced browser navigation via facial gesture — which would actually be kind of neat, and may actually just be a few years early, instead of being a “prank.”
* Google announced that its artificial intelligence, CADIE had taken over. (Question: How would you tell?) Included was an “autopilot” feature for GMail, and a Google Mobile brain search. Also, videos featured off of YouTube’s main page had the text flipped, which, oddly, made the comments more intelligible.
* Speaking of Google, the Register (UK) announced Google video Street View for London. This joke plays on the recent dust-up with privacy concerns about Google Maps Street view, as well as the fact that central London is one of the most heavily CCTV monitored areas in the world.
* TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington seeks wife. This is probably not just a joke.
* The Wikipedia main page has a slew of headlines that are, at the very least, misleading.
* The Guardian (UK) newspaper switches to an all-Twitter format.
* Fark.com’s Drew Curtis announced a series of changes to the social linksharing site, including a “preview” of the new look. This actually followed on the heels of a few changes he teed up during an interview at SxSW. (Unless it was all a setup for 1 April.)
* Another social linksharing site, Reddit, rolled out front page changes. With an alternate view.
Things that sound like April Fools’ Day pranks, but aren’t
* BBC News reports that baby chicks can count.
* The Department of Justice is dropping charges against former Senator Ted “Bridge to Nowhere” Stevens
* Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak kicked off Dancing With the Stars. Actually, the joke is that he lasted so long in the first place.
* Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an actual book, soon to be an actual movie.
What was your own favorite? Please leave a comment below.
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