April Fools!

So it’s that time of year again. That time when the Internet as a whole pranks each other with fake products and non-existent technologies, all in the name of hilarity.

 

The absolute highlight of the year is the efforts that Google go to creating fake services, and 2015 is no exception. Among their collection of pranks this year is the fully playable and hopefully permanent feature of Google Maps Pacman. Simply go to any street map and press the Pacman icon in the bottom left corner. Behold – the map has transformed into a complete game. Navigate Pacman around the visible streets (which, true to the real game, loop you from one side of the screen to the other should you attempt to leave the boundaries) and gobbling up pills and avoiding ghosts.

Users of Google Chrome on mobile will have noticed today the new option “Send a Reaction” where Google wants you to share a selfie of yourself on a webpage.

Telstra are to release the Potty Mouth Censor app that “turns your blue language white”, meaning, all swears uttered are replaced with more conversation-appropriate sound effects such as a duck’s quack and a clown horn.

Red Balloon Days new experiences that include being fired from a cannon in a Zorb Ball and learning how to use your Selfie Stick.

Vodafone are apparently set to release the Emoji Phone featuring an “image conversion engine allowing users to text quickly and seamlessly via Emoji and converting received texts back to the image language.”

Climate Council dire April Fools joke on Facebook is, unfortunately, too cruel to be funny.

Kogan’s usual “John Smith bought a Bluetooth Car Kit” popup that shows in the corner of the site to encourage users to cross-sell was today replaced with celebrities such as MacGyver buying a USB Stylus Pen and Family Guy’s Consuela stocking up on more Lemon Ajax.

And Groupon are letting one lucky bidder win Tony Abbott's budgie smugglers. Lucky guy.

Either due to their redesign they have opted out of producing hilarious prank products, or more likely we are ahead of their timezone here in Australia, ThinkGeek have so far not produce any April Fools Day pranks. Some of their best items from the past years include the Flux Capacitor Car Charger, the NERF Nuke and The Admiral Ackbar Singing Bass. Many of these items, such as the Star Wars Tauntaun Sleeping Bag proved so popular as a fake product that they were put into production.

I will update this article tomorrow if ThinkGeek announce anything!