Monday was April 1st, and the internet was, once again, overflowing with April Fool’s jokes. Some great, some awful, and most worthy of a chuckle or two.
First, from the tech world, Google introduced Googl e Nose, allowing users to search for smells.
They also solved the problem of “How do we completely redesign and recreate something while keeping it exactly the same” by launching Gmail Blue. Which is Gmail. Only bluer.
And, they added a treasure mode to Google Maps. This is active now, from the map itself to Street View, so please try it before they yank it.
Oh, and they also announced that they’ll be shutting down YouTube to pore through all the videos they’ve ever received in 8 years of existence, then pick the single best video ever and show only that. This will take until 2023.
Twitter decided to make vowels a premium feature, charging $5 a month if you want to use the letters A, E, I, O, or U in your Tweets. In a charitable move, they kept the letter ‘Y’ free to use in their basic service.
In other tech news, Nokia announced a touchscreen microwave oven.
Sony premiered Animalia, a line of personal electronics for your pets.
And CIRA, the administrators of the .CA domain, realized that .CA wasn’t Canadian enough, and decided to migrate all .CA websites to the .EH domain. As in, website address dot eh?
For active April Fools, lululemon announced a partnership with reputable Vancouver farms to produce lululeather yoga mats and pants.
In England, Richard Branson announced the world’s first glass-bottomed plane on their Virgin Atlantic airlines.
And still with Virgin, Virgin Mobile Canada announced SmartStraw, an app which lets you “suck in and enjoy the flavour” of any picture of food on social networks.
In camera news, Canon announced a left-handed version of its popular 7D camera.
And Kodak announced the Kodak Wrist Kiosk, a watch with a memory card slot that can print photos at about an inch by half an inch.
Turning to politics, the New Yorker broke the story that Kim Jong-un has become too exhausted to threaten the world seven days a week, and will begin to take the weekends off.
And, filed under miscellaneous, France detailed its plans to deliver newspapers by autonomous flying drones.
Scope announced its new bacon-flavoured mouthwash, “for breath that sizzles.”
And Instacart, the grocery delivery service, is now letting you choose from their inventory of puppies, which they’ll deliver to your door within the hour. US addresses only, I’m afraid.
Thank you, internet, for a never-ending supply of April Fool’s day amusement. =) Bud
