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April Fools’ 2015: The Mega Round-Up Of The Best Gags

Greg Kumparak
April Fools' 2015
It’s that time of year again! The time when a massive chunk of the tech industry drops what it’su00a0doing and puts all of its collective effort into getting a few laughs. As we do every year, we’re gathering up the best/worse/most cringe-tastic efforts in one place for your perusal. We’ll be updating this list as the day goes on, so check back in later!”
Steam-Powered Gaming Box
You’ve heard of Valve’s Steam box gaming console. ThinkGeek has taken it one step further, with a console that’s powered by Steam. Literal steam. As in the vapor that water converts into when heated.nn nnThinkGeek’s product page.“
ThinkGeek's 360u00b0 Selfie Rig
Selfie stick? Pft! The universe revolves around you; your cameras should, too. Here’s the ThinkGeek Product Page“
Voltron Cat Condo
Every year, ThinkGeek comes up with a few pranks that really shouldu00a0beu00a0real. This is one of those.u00a0Although your cats will probably ignore it in favor of the box it came in, anyway. ThinkGeek’s product page.“
Groot Beer and Rocket Fuel
Groot is calm. Rocket is… not. What happens when you mix beverages inspired by the two best Guardians? You kick evil’s ass, that’s what. ThinkGeek product page.“
ThinkGeek's Game Of Thrones Clue
Who killed Jon? Who knows! You’ll have to wait months or yearsu00a0for the nextu00a0editionu00a0of the game to come out to find out — and by then, you’ll probably have to replay the whole game just to remember what the hell is going on.u00a0(Note: All of the Game Of Thrones-related jokes just got pulled down off ThinkGeek. Maybe someone couldn’t take a joke?)“
Hodor Travel Buddy
The other (now removed) Game Of Thrones-themed prank item from ThinkGeek: a Hodor phone case/car mount. Need to get to the super market? Sure. Just make a Hodor on Hodor, then a quick Hodor, then Hodor Hodor Hodor.”
ThinkGeek's Mad Max PowerWheels
Remember that Barbie jeep you had as kid? It’s like that except, you know, with spikes. Dystopian face paint and anti-sand storm goggles not included. ThinkGeek Product Page“
TimeHop's TimeBook
Facebook recently launched a feature that’s basically a Timehop clone, so Timehop took the opportunity to throw a jab at Facebook. Meet “Timebook, a totally original never before thought of idea”.nn nnThis is easily one of my favorites of the day; so simple, and yet it burns so hard. The link leads to Facebook’s press release for their Timehop clone feature.”
Birchbox Part 1
Birchbox actually has twou00a0gags this year: one of the guys, and one for the ladies.nnFor the guys: a mail-order beard subscription box. It comes with epoxy, beard wax, and everythingu00a0else you need to tame that faux-mane.nn “
Birchbox Part 2
And for the ladies (Birchbox’s distinction, not mine!): A nostalgia-packed Saved By The Bellu00a0box. It’s got Zack’s cell phone, a bottle of peroxide for at-home bleach jobs,u00a0and everything else you need to survive a day at Bayside High.”
Airbnb Goes Back In Time
Airbnb has discovered a “glitch” left behind by “an intern” that lets you travel not just the world, but across the space time continuum. Would you prefer a “Cozy cave with rocks”, or something a bit more high-end, like a “Sunny cave with fire”?nnYou can find the kind-of-hiddenu00a0page rightu00a0here, and a blog post about the glitch here.u00a0The era that you’re “traveling to” seems to change throughout the day.”
Rovio's Agri Birds
You know what sometimes helps Anger issues? Gardening. Looking to chill their Angry Birds out a bit, Rovio has “announced” Agri Birds, a game “where resource management meets visual novel meets point-and-click survival horror meets FPS meets your face!””
Reddit's ridiculous button
A timer counts down. A button next to it resets the count… for everyone on the site. Every reddit user gets one click. What happens when the timer counts all the way down? It’s a mystery!“
COME ON AND SLAM!
/r/listentothis, a default sub-reddit u00a0with 2.5 million subscribers, has changed its ways. Once a place to find and appreciate music from artists that you probably wouldn’t hear on the radio, it’s now strictly dedicated tou00a0the Space Jam theme, and remixes/mashups of the Space Jam theme.”
500 Startups "Five Unicorns" Fund
Investing a bit of money into 500 startups is a hefty goal in it’s own right. But Dave wants to kick it up a notch: 5 startups. $1 billion dollars each. “Our new fund will invest exclusively in the top company each year already clearly branded as a unicorn, and already funded by unicorn VCs.” writes Dave. “This strategy will also give us a lot more time to go skiing with other entitled white male VCs.””
CERN Confirms The Existence Of The Force
You thought the Large Hadron Collider was meant to find some particle thing? Heh. They’re really looking for the Force. The Force. As in, may it be with you.”
Pac-Man In Google Maps
Google started things off early yesterday with this Pac-Man Easter Egg hidden within Google Maps. To fire itu00a0up,u00a0go to your favorite Google Maps location and tap the Pac-Man icon in the lower left. If it’s not showing up, try Times Square in New York. (more like pac-maps, amirite?)“
YouTube hearts Sandstorm
It’s a YouTube tradition: any time someone asks “What song is being played in this video?”, someoneu00a0will answer with laser tag arena anthem “Darude — Sandstorm”.nnNow YouTube is embracing this trend, with searches foru00a0pretty much any popular song on YouTube offering up a “Did you mean: Darude — Sandstorm?” link. They’ve also added a Sandstorm button to the video player, which lets you ensure that the music in any given video really isu00a0Sandstorm.”
Self-browsing Chrome
Zoning out and browsing the web is pretty easy. But can’t it be even easier?u00a0I mean, why do you even have to mindlessly click on links? Can’t your browser just mindlesslyu00a0clicku00a0for you? With Google’s new Chrome extension, it can.u00a0Hell, it’ll even book you a vacation! To, erm, somewhere?”
Google Goes Backwards
Looking to put their new “.Google” top-level domain to use,u00a0visitors of com.Google (as opposed to Google.com) will find Google… with a bit of a twist. Go ahead and try searching — you know you want to.”
ChromeSelfie
Typing a response to something is soooo 2005. Why type when you can wrap up your feelings with just the snap of a shutter? Chrome on Android now lets you snap a selfie response and share it with friends.”
Amazon Goes Retro
Remember what Amazon looked like back in 1999? For one day only, it’s back. Alas, it’s just a non-functioning facade; once you actually try to click anything, it’ll be replaced by the modern layout.”
HelloSign Avian
HelloSign lets you easily sign faxes, digitally. Are faxes just waaaaayu00a0too futuristic for you? Why not send the document by airmail, instead?”
Samsung's Galaxy BLADE Edge Smartphone Chef's Knife
Just don’t try to answer a call with it.”
Giphy's GIFt
Everyone loves sending their friends GIFs. But what if you could send your friends GIFs.. in real life? With GIFt by Giphy, you can!“
NewEgg Launches EGGCOIN
Bitcoin. Darkcoin. Dogecoin. And now… Eggcoin?u00a0Deciding they needed to get into the cryptocurrency game, NewEgg has “launched” Eggcoin — a digital currency that fluctuates with the current price of a dozen eggs.”
HTC's Smart Sock, "Sok"
A “feet” of engineering (lol), the Sok has a built-in notifications display, hole detection/alerts, and best of all: GPS that makes sure you never lose half of a pair. Their prank product page for it is packed head to toe with puns.”

Topics

Greg Kumparak

Greg Kumparak was an editor at TechCrunch. Greg started at TechCrunch in May of 2008 as the editor of its sister site, MobileCrunch. Greg’s coverage primarily focused on consumer companies, particularly those involving gadgets, robotics, or augmented reality. Disclosures: Greg holds shares in ETFs/mutual funds and owns a small amount of cryptocurrency (ETH, ADA)

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