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Best April Fools’ Day pranks of 2014

The 1st of April is a minefield of pranks and silly jokes every year. And nobody gets into the spirit of the day quite like members of the tech sector.

Translation, Pokemons and more

The undisputed leader when it comes to elaborate April Fools pranks is Google. This year, its host of pranks include the launch of a new Google Chrome feature that will on-the-fly, translate boring web text into more exciting emoticons.

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 10.26.35 AM“Our translation algorithm interprets not just the definition of the words on a webpage, but also their context, tone and if appropriate, facial expression. It then distills text into articulate, meaningful symbols so you can get more out of every screen,” the blog post says.

If reading isn’t your thing, you could always become a Pokemon master with Google Maps. Another of the company’s blog posts suggests that if you prove yourself as a true Pokemon master, you might just be Google employee material.

“We value employees who are risk-taking and detail-oriented, have deep technical knowledge, and can navigate through tall grass to capture wild creatures. It turns out that these skills have a lot in common with another profession—that of the Pokémon Master. With that in mind, we’ve worked with Pokémon and Nintendo to develop a new training tool to help people hone their Pokémon-capturing abilities using Google Maps,” the post says.

It then encourages users to grab their Poké Ball and the newest version of Google Maps for iPhone or Android and begin your quest.

Gaming glory

A company that’s been absent from previous April Fools lists, but this year knocked it out of the park in our opinion is Blizzard, and its mock launch of a new game entitled ‘Outcasts: Vengeance of the Vanquished.

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 10.20.52 AM

While a cursory glance a the page reveals it’s a pisstake, the massive amount of work Blizzard has poured into the art and copy for the game is impressive. The game hinges on all of the classic also-ran, cast aside bad-guys from Blizzard’s games being able to visit revenge. The company even went as far as designing a custom controller for the game complete with a credit card slot.

It’s pure genius.

Give yourself a hand

In probably the best April Fools’ joke of the year, Samsung and HTC have both unveiled a mock wearable glove.

Screen Shot 2014-04-01 at 10.21.16 AM

It’s funny enough that both companies took the Mickey out of the wearable market, begging the question, who’s copying who. And who’s ripping who off here?

Samsung’s joke hit the wires first, so we’re going to assume that HTC’s joke isn’t the launch of a wearable glove, but a counter launch of a wearable glove to Samsung’s launch of a wearable glove – you get the picture.

For a full overview of the ‘products’ head to Samsung and HTC‘s sites respectively.

Let’s also not forget that we threw a couple of jokes of our own up on the site today – did you spot them?

[Image: Shutterstock]

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