For the last 24 hours (and likely the next 12), excitable company execs have been barraging our inbox, YouTube and your social media networks with their best shenanigans. Love it or loathe it (and you're probably starting to loathe it by now), the April Fools' tradition continues, even stronger, in 2014. Google went a little overboard, but hopefully, after today, selfies will die a death. Hopefully.
Aside from its Pokémon-mapping efforts, Google wants the world to see the web differently... peppered with emoji icons.
Google Japan also has a new "Magic Hand" for touchscreen text input, featuring a very necessary cat paw add-on.
Then there's Gmail's shareable selfie, the Shelfie and a new auto-Awesome photobomb feature, ruining your photos with David Hasselhoff.
Who was first? We'll call it an awkward draw, as both Samsung and HTC had largely identical ideas for AF 2014: smartgloves. HTC's Power Glove knockoff Gluuv promises holo-calls and an 87.2-megapixel camera. Finally. We also like the companion BoomBass speaker though: "durable, humongous and completely wireless" ... and carried on your shoulder.
Samsung Fingers' blog post outlines a palm-based flexible screen, another mention of selfies and, in a nod to its own often superfluous software add-ons, an increasingly bizarre list of features, showcased with sketches like these:
"Our engineers and culinary technicians have come up with a way to tap into the amazing energy of food," says the nondescript Sony spokesman. An enzyme that transfers food energy to gadgets and it involves a "voltaic enzyme." Sony's planned cereals and protein bars, filled with "protein, fiber and charged lithium."
Nokia's most iconic phone, the 3310 is making a return. Nokia's best-selling handset returns with Windows Phone OS, a 41-megapixel camera sensor and most importantly, preloaded with Snake 2. We almost wish it was real.
Apparently, you can still get Here maps without a smart device. This is Here Papyrus, and we're particularly taken with this augmented reality trace sheet.
Truly, the thinkers' font.
Total temperature control for every passenger. Our own social media manager even makes a cameo!
We can tell it's a fake because Kodak's blog post mentions calling and texting a phone number. Oh and hands-free selfies. (Also, how is this any more ridiculous than Kodak's very real nuclear reactor?)
Why not just utilize the rats of the skies to be your drones... and boost your WiFi?
Has its own hashtag. Must be legit.
iFixit gets an offer it can't refuse.
In just 10 years, you can make your very own smartphone, in this tie-up between Japan's KDDI network and magazine publisher Deagostini.
That should equal 32-bit gaming.
Look at the size of the remote. Coming April 31st.
Some of us here at Engadget HQ love Tim Burton, but thankfully, he's not directing the first official Killzone movie.
"Driving slow never felt so fast."
A SYNTHESIZER THAT SHOOTS ROCKETS!
Who hasn't wanted one of these?
They've "uninvented" the wheel.
"A true out-of-body experience."
...because selfies are the new black.
"...so people around you are like 'WUT?!?'"
Next up on President Obama's to-do list? A Presidential Council on Beards, of course! It's not tech, but sure is silly.
We're not sure of what, but ASUS announced "the end" today. Either that, or something was lost in Google Translate.
WHICH ONE DO WE PICK? OH GEEZ. [Thanks, Matt!]
We see what you did there, Flipboard.
"My little chum, Eric the goldfish, has an uncanny sense for what direction to swim or drive," said Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Can't wait to see In the Kitchen with Hannibal. There's The Field too: A Brooklyn Nine-Nine spin-off with Sgt. Jeffords.
[Image Credit: Michael Muller/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images]
This would be a pretty good Facebook-Oculus joke, if only Twitter had bothered providing, you know, a picture of said helmet. Nobody could be bothered to PhotoShop something?
If you're tired of luddites harshing your Google Glass vibe, perhaps you'd like to live on an island where everyone probably already has one.
