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Cat Tracking, Ola Air, Backwards Google, and Other April Fools' Pranks

Cat Tracking, Ola Air, Backwards Google, and Other April Fools' Pranks

By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 1 April 2015 17:16 IST

If there's one day of the year that tech companies really love, it's not Christmas, New Year or anything like that. The day that all companies love the most is April Fools' Day, and the pranks started with companies in the Asia-Pacific, and as the rest of the world wakes up, we're seeing more and more roll in. Here are the ones we've spotted so far, and we'll update this with more as we come across them.

Google
Google is usually the company that's most enthusiastic about April Fools' Day pranks, and this year was no exception, with different teams rolling out their own gags.

Panda Now
Google Panda was unveiled by Google Asia Pacific as the world's cutest personal assistant that you can hold in your hands. Powered by Google Now, Google Panda can listen to and answer your questions in seconds, while looking adorable the whole time. Beat that Siri.

A keyboard without keys
Not satisfied with just a smart-panda, Google Japan also rolled out a "keyboardless keyboard", which can be used even by people who are not tech savvy.

By using a party horn - and blowing in to it. The force you use to blow will stretch the horn to different lengths, and you can use that to enter different letters. This might actually be one of our favourite videos to watch - particularly when it talks about the mouth free version of the horn.

Smartbox by Inbox
The Inbox team meanwhile showed us Smartbox - "a better, smarter mailbox that fuses physical mail with everything you love about the electronic kind."

Backwards Google
Sure, it's no Google Nose but Google's homepage (and Google Now) are backwards today. To check out the website, just go to com.google instead of google.com, and you'll see a backwards page. All your search results are also mirrored, and it's actually very disorienting compared to what you're used to. The only sad part is that Googling askew doesn't give you a mirrored, askew page.

Pac-Maps
The Google Maps team has created a pretty amazing gag for April Fools' Day as well, turning actual maps into Pac-Man mazes. If you've updated to the latest version of the app, or if you're visiting the Google Maps website, just click on the Pac-Man button on the bottom left to start playing. It doesn't work too well on round roads like Connaught Place in Delhi, but the area around the NDTV office was a great maze.

Chrome Selfies
The Chrome team has meanwhile decided to make it possible to share your reactions to websites, by capturing selfies as you read, that you can share with just a couple of clicks.

The cutting edge of mobiles
Samsung's April Fools' prank is the Samsung Galaxy Blade Edge, which uses ceramic and diamond and can literally be used to cut through the competition. It promises a human blood sensor and is water and fireproof, and comes with a thermometer.

Upcoming accessories include wooden charging blocks, which actually sounds like the coolest part.

Rocking the Re Sock
HTC meanwhile has announced the smart sock, the RE SOK. This wearable wants to cut through the bothersome hassle of pulling your phone out of your pocket. Instead, just pull your foot up to your head. It also includes a smart system to find holes in the sock, and best yet, programmed to self destruct when worn with sandals.

Got juice?
Joining in the fun, Sony has posted a simple message to Facebook, promising users a new app for the Sony Xperia Z3 and Sony Xperia Z3 Compact. Using this app, the post says, you can send extra battery life to friends whose phones are dying. Funnily enough, some other companies are doing this for real using OTG cables.

MS-DOS Mobile
Finally, a Lumia you have apps for! MS-DOS Mobile by Microsoft promises to bring a beautifully simple OS where productivity started for millions of people. Actually though, it would be cool if they would add this as an emulator just for fun, and the video looks pretty slick too

Amazon's fake moustaches and Thinkgeek's Steam Gaming
On Amazon, there are a bunch of fake products that you can buy, such as exotic wildlife, moustache stylers, dream analysers, and waste disintegrators. Thinkgeek is another online seller that is famous for its fake products on April 1, and this year is no exception. A 360-degree selfie rig looks worryingly realistic, while a Game of Thrones themed Clue set looks like it should really be made for real. Our favourite though was the steam-powered gaming cabinet. The best part about Thinkgeek's annual fake products is that buyers can vote on products that they wish were real, and the site tries to make it happen - that's how things like the iCade and Tauntaun sleeping bag came to exist.

The old Reddit switcheroo
Reddit - the self-proclaimed front page of the Internet - is organised into communities called subreddits which are built around a single subject. Two large - and vocal - groups that seem very antithetical are the r/apple and r/android subs. For April Fools', the two subs switched identities, with a giant Apple logo on r/android and Android for r/apple.

Ola takes to the sky
Ola has put up a video promising a new helicopter service with door to door pickup if you have a private helipad. A quick check on the Ola app proves that this is just a joke, though rival Uber has added a "supercar" section in its app, which is apparently in partnership with toy store Hamleys.

Premium selfie-sticks
Motorola rolled out a video that is clearly a joke, with over the top narration on how it has crafted selfie sticks from wood, leather and other premium materials. But honestly, these didn't look too bad, and if they're priced right, we can imagine some people who would buy them.

OnePlus' little joke
OnePlus has been promising a "game changer" for a little while now, and unveiled the drone on its website. Looking at the website, we had to wonder what the big deal was, but then we scrolled to the bottom of the page, and learned that this was actually just an April Fools' Day joke.

The DR-1 isn't really a new product being launched, and OnePlus only made the pitch as a joke. However, the firm has made the mini-quadcopter available on the OnePlus Accessories page, in limited numbers. At just $19.99 it's a little cheaper than similarly-sized quadcopters we've seen before, and could actually be a good buy if you like the little things, particularly since it promises 20 minutes of flying time.

Here kitty kitty
A map app for your cat? That's the idea behind the $249 Here Kitty wearable, which is a collar that can track your cat with 10cm precision. This feline first strategy can be used to tell if your pet is living a double life, and getting meals at every neighbour's house.

What's more, much like the Apple Watch Edition, the Here Kitty will also have a premium model, available for $18,000.

The best line in this gag though was where Schrödinger's cat was quoted. When asked if he welcomed the HERE Kitty collar he said, "Yes and no".

From dinner to dating
Food discovery website Zomato today announced the launch of a new matchmaking service, Zomatcho. The tagline is the promise to never dine alone again. Here's the company's pitch

Using a proprietary algorithm that takes into account your known dining behaviour based on the way you use Zomato, as well as a couple of other parameters (let's just call it magic, because we can't reveal anything more), the app helps match you with people you're most compatible with, food-wise.

In the blogpost, Zomato promises that the new matchmaking service will include Zomato features like table reservations, cashless payments, and online ordering. That however reminded us that none of these features have been rolled out in India yet, and could use a little more attention from the company instead.

Saw something we didn't mention? Tell us in the comments!

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