April Fools’ Day 2019: Space burps, cologne, a snake and Thor’s hammer – CNET

Turn your skepticism radar up to full blast. It's April Fools' Day and companies ranging from Google to ThinkGeek are looking to bamboozle you with bizarre and just barely believable pranks.

We're prowling the internet for the funniest and weirdest jokes out there, whether it's talking to a chatty tulip or ordering up a glittery meal kit.

Google Maps snake game

The Google Maps app turned into an old-school video game with the addition of a "Play Snake" feature. Tap on the snake icon, hit play and choose from a selection of destinations, including San Fracisco, Tokyo and Cairo. It puts you in control of a red double-decker bus, street car or other city-appropriate mode of transportation. You then have to snake around and pick up passengers. It's a fun bit of retro entertainment.

Google says the interactive joke will stay live for about a week, though you can head over to a special Google Maps Snake website to play after the app prank is over.

Google also released a video introducing Screen Cleaner in the Files app, a fake feature that is supposed to magically clean the outside of your phone from the inside.

Google Tulip

Google Netherlands offered up a very earnest video for Google Tulip, a new way to talk to the famous flower (and have it talk back). "Thanks to great advancements in artificial intelligence, Google Assistant on phones and Google Home is now able to understand tulips, allowing translation between Tulipish and dozens of human languages," says Google.

It turns out tulips aren't great conversationalists.

SodaStreamMe recruits an astronaut

Retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly teamed up with SodaStream to introduce SodaStreamMe, a burp-powered fizzy-drink maker. The ad plays on the difficulty astronauts have in space with ingesting carbon dioxide. There's a reason astronauts aren't chugging root beer in orbit.

ThinkGeek unveils oddball products

Geeky gear retailer ThinkGeek is infamous for its April Fools' fake products, some of which become real. For 2019, ThinkGeek went nuts with a lineup that includes a Banksy Toaster that burns the artist's prints onto bread, a Thor Mighty Mjolnir Mailbox, a Bean Bag onesie (yes, it's attached to your butt) and a Captain Marvel Universal Pager.

HelloFresh's Unicorn Box

Meal delivery service HelloFresh encourages you to "eat like a mythical creature with a box full of farm-fresh rainbows, smiles and joy right at your doorstep." The company's glittery Unicorn Box meal kit sounds magically delicious. It's full of colorful frosting, gummy candies and, of course, rainbow sprinkles. Just don't ask if it's healthy.

T-Mobile Phone BoothE

T-Mobile's John Legere got April Fools' rolling early with the unveiling of the Phone BoothE on Friday. The pink booths are supposedly soundproof and meant to help mobile phone users have a private conversation on a busy urban street. Kind of like a modern Cone of Silence.

T-Mobile furthered the joke on April 1 by introducing the even-more-absurd Mobile EditionE (MEE), a portable version of the bigger booth.

Duolingo Push

Language-learning app Duolingo knows it's just too easy to dismiss its daily practice notifications, so for April Fools' Day, it's rolling out Push, a much pushier reminder system. Push involves a giant Duolingo owl mascot that follows you around and registers its encouragement or disappointment, depending on your preferences.

Contiki goes Dogtiki

A lot of April Fools' jokes focus on providing dog versions of services for humans. Travel-tour specialists Contiki unveiled a particularly nice take on this genre with Dogtiki, a coach tour vacation that's just for dogs.

"Now he can go on his own with dogs around his age, experience the world, get local sniffs, taste the food of different cultures and just come back with so many friends," says one enthusiastic dog owner. The best parts involve the tour guide trying to get the vacationing pups to interact with him.

Litter-Robot's The Cat Sheet

Automatic litter box maker Litter-Robot naturally turned to the feline side for its timely prank. Read More – Source

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