april fool's

Google Tap tries to April fool with Gmail a la Morse code

I am delighted that Google has used this first day of April to launch yet more of its most ingenious technology.

For the company's GMail blog has announced that it's time to move beyond the QWERTY keyboard. There are simply too many keys to think about. Instead, why not reduce the number of keys to two?

How is this possible? By turning each key into a dot or a dash, thereby allowing you to send Gmail by Morse code.

"This makes it ideal for situations where you need to discreetly send emails, such as when you're … Read more

Google's hilarious April Fools' Maps launch

Google is funny. I have wanted to write that sentence for so long in a context where funny meant "intentionally humorous."

So here is an April Fools' work of art from the company that, to many minds, just might deserve righteous laughter. For here, purportedly, is the launch of Google Maps 8-bit for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

According to Google's Lat Long blog, this is something that the world desperately needs.

"Our engineering team in Japan understood the importance of maps on retro game systems. With the power of Google's immense data centers, and support … Read more

Seven ways to punk noobs on April Fools' Day

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One of my favorite pastimes has to be pulling pranks around the office. The pranks may leave a sour taste in the mouth of the recipient for a few days, but in the end they often lead to some good laughs and classic memories.

April Fools' Day naturally lends itself to a flurry of random jokes and pranks, so I took the liberty of rounding up some tech-inspired pranks. I hope you find a way to put one, if not all of them, to use--heck, it doesn't even have to be on April 1!

Here, let me Google that for you Do you have a co-worker who refuses to look anything up on the Internet for himself? Do you often feel like your name should be "Google"? On April 1, send the lazy Web searcher a link to LMGTFY; perhaps he'll learn a thing or two.

To use LMGTFY, visit the site, type in a search query, and click on either search button. You will then be presented with a link to copy and send off to the unsuspecting recipient. The link you send will then open a Web page with an animation teaching the recipient how to use Google. After the site automatically fills in the search bar with the query and clicks on the search button, he will be redirected to the actual Google search results. … Read more

Fox news anchor fooled into licking iPad

We all get fooled on a consistent basis. It's just that some decide to be slightly more guarded when it comes to April 1. And yet an anchor at a local Fox news station managed to fall for one of the more technologically inspired ruses of recent memory.

Her fellow workers at Fox 5 San Diego ran a story about a new app that lets you taste or sniff things on your iPhone or iPad. The app was called "Virtual Sip" and the technology behind it was christened "Piezo Electrics." Which, to my mind, sounds like a disreputable electrician in Napoli.

It was all rather cleverly done. First, the station ran a package that showed people sniffing and licking their phones. The anchor who wasn't in on the joke, Shally Zomorodi, looked appalled and said, "Wait a minute...are they licking their phones?"

She was then handed an iPad by a producer and encouraged to try the app. Still, when she didn't seem able to quite get any sniff emanating from it, she was persuaded (fairly easily) to lick it. Even though she had just declared: "I am NOT licking an iPad!"… Read more

The 404 792: Where we do that voodoo that we do (podcast)

Natali Morris fills in for Wilson Tang today and assures our mutual destruction when she "accidentally" spills hot water on the mixer console...the rest of the show is spent worrying about spontaneous electrocution, but we manage to fit in a handful of stories about 3D Lego printing, the strange trend of unboxing videos, our favorite April Fools' tech product, and the ongoing Porn Wiki Leaks fallout.

The 404 Digest for Episode 792

Customize your own Lego sets using 3D printing, coming soon. MakerBot specializes in consumer-level 3D printers. Only you can prevent lame unboxing videos. Another Windows 7 tablet, and a Windows 8 tablet coming soon after--why? RE35 turns any 35mm film camera into a digital sensor (4/1).

Porn Wiki Leaks reveals the personal information of 15,000 stars. One box of Lucky Charms cereal, hold the cereal. Amazon.com sells Rice Krispies Treats Cereal for less than retail value. This might be the perfect cereal bowl to solve all your soggy problems.

Episode 792 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 790: Where toothless Tim tells tall tales (podcast)

Today we're saying goodbye to a CNET colleague and frequent 404 guest host, Tim Geisenheimer. No, this is not an April Fools joke, but guess what? The Shock Top is. Today we're showing off some of our favorite Internet April Fools pranks, starting with Hulu taking us back to our Internet salad days.

The 404 Digest for Episode 790

RIM debuts the first screenless Blackberry, dubbed The Dauntless. Gmail gets motion activation functionality. Zookeepers in Europe equip gorillas with Apple iPads. PC Mag follows tech trends with a name change. Manalapan Best Buy employees accused of stealing $50,000 in gear. ThinkGeek sells Playmobil Apple Store playset. New flash dance show "Mobbed" debuts on Fox. Follow THE GEISENTUMBLOG!

Episode 790 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

April Fools' Day 2011--who's gonna get you, sucka?

For years now, the tech industry has been a sucker for the "gotcha" moment every April 1. Teams at companies large and small cook up clever gadgets and widgets and such that sound ever so almost plausible. Or not.

In case you hadn't already noticed, April Fools' Day is here again. A flurry of pranks has descended upon us via the Web. Some of them are quite smart and might just elicit a few chuckles from even the most cynical of us. Others are just plain goofy.

We're keeping tabs on the April Fools' jokes for … Read more

Google's joking, but Monotype isn't: Comic Sans Pro

Comic Sans, the Windows font reviled by font snobs everywhere, has joined the big leagues.

Monotype Imaging released the oxymoronic but definitely real Comic Sans Pro, taking advantage of April Fools' Day to bring some humor to the occasion. The new typeface combines a script style geared for typographically clumsy children's birthday invitations with high-end font features more commonly used on wedding invitations.

"Comic Sans Pro contains a versatile range of typographic features including swashes, small caps, ornaments, old-style figures, and stylistic alternates," Monotype said, referring to a variety of ways designers extend beyond the standard character … Read more

Friday Poll: Most April Fool-ish product?

Happy April Fools' Day! Some news outlets love playing jokes on audiences on April 1. The BBC, for example, has a tradition of pulling off great fake news pranks, from spaghetti trees to flying penguins. Their high jinks have become increasingly sophisticated.

Here at Crave, we are, of course, way too mature to inflict any fake news today. But plenty of loony ideas get fed into our Crave news machine, and more than a few recent ones are so silly they beggar belief.

Take Israeli start-up BioExplorers. It has a security screening system that relies on mice to sniff out concealed bombs. Fortunately, we hear the critters have graduated from the Bomb Sniffing Academy for Rodents and are thus highly trained.

Over in Australia, industrial designer Melody Shiue has designed a fetus viewer for expecting parents. Yes, moms strap the gadget on and the magic of ultrasound turns their tummies into windows on the uterus. Apparently this idea won an award of some sort. … Read more