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Google Blog

So a lot of tech companies had fun with April Fools Day today

Especially Google, but that was already expected.

SO APRIL FOOLS day is over for another year and a lot of tech and digital companies got involved.

With the majority aiming for entertainment instead of fooling people, today meant that a lot of silly, crazy and genuinely funny products were announced today.

There were a lot out there, but here are a small selection of the best ones.

Google

When Google does April Fools jokes, it goes all out and this year was no exception.

In no specific order, its jokes included (deep breath now) Gmail’s selfies background, Google Japan’s Magic Hand, Google Maps’ Pokemon Challenge, Google Chrome’s translate to emoji feature, Chromecast for squirrels, delivering coffee through Google Fiber, a Chrome plug-in which provides a virtual keyboard for cats, a Google+ feature that has David Hasselhoff appearing in all your photos, and a feature that auto-optimises your resume.

Although the best one was YouTube’s announcement that it had created every viral trend in existence and it announcing what’s trends will be big this year.

YouTube Spotlight / YouTube

Samsung

Apart from its announcement it was introducing its first wearable smart glove  (which HTC also did a version of), Samsung also announced Fi-Fly, bringing wifi to everyone by attaching mini-routers to pigeons.

SAMSUNGMOBILEUK / YouTube

Ocado Technology

“With this breakthrough size and weight, it not only felt larger, it was *actually* larger.”

Ocado Technology / YouTube

Virgin Airways and Nest

Virgin Airways teamed with the Google-owned Nest to introduce Total Temperature Control, allowing passengers to control the temperature at their seat.

Nest / YouTube

Sony

Sony sees the next future power source in your food, and… well, you can see where this is going.

sgnl / YouTube

Reddit

Headdit allows you to browse Reddit using just your head, nod to upvote, frown to downvote, and look surprised to open up a link.

reddit / YouTube

Nokia

Since everyone has such fond memories of the 3310, Nokia reinvented the model and updated it to include a modified version of Windows Phone 8 and One fan, Norman Gage (no prizes for guessing what that’s in reference to) said:

It’s an historic day. For five years, we’ve worked hard to make our voice heard and now our dreams are about to become reality. Personally, I’d have preferred to keep the five-line, monochrome screen, six ringing-tone volume levels and original message templates, but you can’t win them all!

Although that said, there is a demand for Nokia 3310s so maybe this is an plan to gauge interest by claiming it’s a joke before releasing it proper.

3310-pureview-in-line1 Nokia.com Nokia.com

Roku

The Roku Watch allows anyone to stream TV shows on their wrist, a must have for anyone who really enjoys the feeling of squinting at a tiny screen.

Roku-watch_standalone_BLOG_resize Roku Roku

SwiftKey

Having created one of the best touchscreen keyboards out there, SwiftKey April Fools joke brings the same features to your physical keyboard.

SwiftKeyApp / YouTube

Read: A Definitive Ranking of Ireland’s April Fools’ Day Pranks >

Read: You’re not the only one who hates April Fool’s Day >

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8 Comments
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    Mute Chris Kinsella
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    Apr 1st 2014, 9:16 PM

    Liking the sound of the 3310 now that you mention it!

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    Mute Jeremy Usbourne
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    Apr 1st 2014, 9:18 PM

    If Nokia went back to making those legacy handsets they would dominate again.

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    Mute Helen Lynch
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    Apr 1st 2014, 9:30 PM
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    Mute Bazalini
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    Apr 1st 2014, 9:44 PM

    Ah heyor – id buy that nokia if it supported Android.

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    Mute Janet De Hora
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    Apr 1st 2014, 9:47 PM

    Birds Eyes new product, “Frozen chocolate covered peas” was my favourite- used to get kids to eat veggies!
    On the Birds Eye Australia Facebook page, one woman posted that she rang the company and was told the complaints department didn’t know anything about this product… She spent ages complaining on Facebook about it! And another woman asked how they would be cooked, as the chocolate would melt. She asked 4 times before finally realising it was a joke!

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Apr 2nd 2014, 1:50 AM

    I still have my 3310. I retired it from doing duty as an alarm clock when I got a smartphone!

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    Mute Damien Mc Padden
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    Apr 2nd 2014, 1:12 AM

    I assumed that Google was up to it’s usual messing with Gmail, endless tinkering.

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    Mute Moi Communications
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    Apr 2nd 2014, 12:07 AM

    App company called Tenthbit created an artificially intelligent partner to talk to and share your life with. This is inspired by the movie “Her”..https://couple.me/alice

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