OK, so I was away on April 1st, but I’ve been catching up… so I thought I’d do a quick round-up of my favourite online (or, in some cases, not) pranks from Friday:
Most definitely in first place, Google launched their own soft drink brand: GoogleGulp. It’s a “limited release beta product“, “available to anyone who turns in a used Google Gulp bottle cap at any local retailer. If you don’t have any Gulp caps, ask a friend to give you one.” An obvious spoof of how they spread GMail… And will it ever come out of beta (a lot of Google software seems to stay in beta for a long time – or forever)? “Man, if you pressure us, you just drive us away. We’ll commit when we’re ready, okay? Besides, what’s so great about taking things out of beta? It ruins all the romance, the challenge, the possibilities, the right to explore.“
Radio 4′s Today programme ran an “awesome story”* about Tom Parker-Bowles becoming second-in-line to the throne as a result of an obscure 19th Century law governing succession in the Royal family.
BMW (as every year) took out a full-page advert in the Times about how they have found a way to combat an EU regulation where right-hand drive cars cannot be driven in left-hand-drive countries from 2007 – by removing the steering wheel from the car.
GMTV ran a story about a farmer who has discovered how to “make his cows produce fruit-flavoured milk – no additives, no sugar – straight from the cow.”
“Emperor penguins looked up in awe on Friday as Tokyo’s main zoo unveiled its latest addition – a giant penguin said to be suspiciously close in height and weight to a human. The press release – which stressed the newly discovered animal would be unveiled on April 1 – said the giant penguin’s favourite food was ‘white fish meat with soy sauce.’“
The Register ran a story about Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, becoming the CEO of Ikea… “For Jobs, who has no furniture at all in his Palo Alto house, it’s an opportunity to reinvent an industry once again.“
And finally, the BBC has a list of 10 stories that could have been April Fools but weren’t…
*Not my words…
Apple didn’t do one mind sob