There hasn’t always been much to smile about in recent years, but April 1 usually brings some amusing spoof announcements from the tech world. This year many of the biggest companies seem to have given it a miss, leaving something of a mixed bag of formats and success.
LEGO announced an extremely unsettling life-size version of its minifig:
Something big is coming. And we mean really, really BIG! pic.twitter.com/eOyxfyYna7
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) April 1, 2022
Australian online learning site Lessons.com.au offered a free four unit course on “How to explain NFTs to your elderly relatives” which would probably be quite useful if real.
A London gym chain claimed it had invented a implantable “Handfob” for checking in to a gym:
Not only does the smart-tech allow for contact-free check-in, it also tracks blood pressure changes, fluctuations in oxygen levels and calorie burn, relaying instant digital information to a smartphone app in a world-first for the fitness industry.
The makers of cult game Goat Simulator claimed Steve O would be directing a musical movie adaptation:
@goatsimulatorgame The announcement you never hoped to see in your life #goatsimmovie #goatsimulator #fyp #foryou #foryoupage ♬ originalljud – GoatSimulator
Heardle, a music recognition game that combines Wordle with Name That Tune, hit users with a fake error message but offered to let them click through to see the answer. Doing so revealed the inevitable Rick Astley track.
The Washington Post’s Joseph Marks slightly missed the concept of April Fool’s but did solicit some truly terrible cyber-relayed puns to publish today. Perhaps the best/worst was from @neurovagrant who said:
A Chinese APT broke into multiple state governments through an unpatched livestock app.
It proves once again that to err is human, but to patch is bovine.
— Ian (@neurovagrant) March 16, 2022
Finally, Reddit doesn’t do pranks as such but rather uses April Fool’s Day for fun experiments. This year it’s brought back r/place, a million-tile community artwork. For the four days the project is live, any registered user can change the colour of any one pixel in a 1000×1000 grid once per five minutes. If it’s anything like the first incarnation, expect a wild mix of creativity and (very slow) flame wars.
Editor’s note: My personal favorite is from Squatty Potty and their “new” pillow!