April Fools’ Day was during this week, so no one in the tech industry — or the news media for that matter — got any work done. There was hardly any real news in the tech world, so Ray, Sean and Tom share their favorite April Fools Pranks from around the web. It’s all dragons, puppies, kittens and fine, hand-crafted selfie sticks on this week’s episode of Deemable Tech.

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This Week’s Run Down

April Fools Day Roundup

Nature.com released an academic paper Wednesday verifying the existence of dragons. The paper warns that global warming may usher in a new resurgence in the creatures population.

RedBox announced new PetBox rental machines exclusively for our furry friends. RedBox said these new, smaller boxes will carry “the latest movies & games your pet will want to sit and stay for.” They also created parody posters for new releases at PetBox, including “Gone Squirrel,” “Pig Hero 6,” “Fifty Shades of Greyhound,” and… “Fox Catcher”.

Microsoft released a new operating system for its mobile phone division, MS-DOS. According to the press release, the new operating system brings with it “the much-loved C:\ prompt.” Microsoft also released an accompanying app which includes the standard MS-DOS boot up screens and allows the user to type such legendary commands as “format c:”.

Jimmy Johns announced on Twitter they are launching drone delivery of subs.

CERN researchers confirm the existence of the Force. Although researchers at the Large Hadron Collider have already detected four fundamental forces, Wednesday they announced that they have evidence to support the existence of the Force. In true academic nerd/ Star Wars Geek style, they made a ridiculous number of references to Star Wars characters, making it completely unbelievable that they had discovered a mystical, magical power that binds the universe.

Motorola has had big hits recently with its customizable Moto X line of Android smartphones, so what could be more natural than a hand-crafted Moto selfie-stick, available in either wood or leather? Motorola released a slickly produced video with a bearded craftsman extolling its virtues:

Netflix warns about the dangers of binge watching. If you watched more than two consecutive episodes of a show, Netflix would play a 30-second PSA video about the dangers of binge watching. These videos featured some of the actors from Netflix’s original programming like “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards” imploring you to stop and do your homework or take a shower.

Google’s April Fools Day Pranks

Google has been known for going all out on April Fools Day, and this year was no exception. Here are a few of our favorite April Fools’ Day pranks from Google.

Google introduced the self-browsing Chromebook extension. Google introduced a fake extension for Chromebooks that surf the web for you. They promised that these self-browsing Chromebooks would do everything from automatically writing emails to your relatives, buying flowers for your significant other and penning a best-selling novel.

Google Maps added PAC-MAN mode. The new feature allows you to eat pac-dots and power pellets and chase down the ghosts Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde on the streets of the real world. The game is going to be available on the website for a short time.

YouTube took a page from the trolls that lurk their comments section for their April Fools Day prank. It’s been a running joke on YouTube for a few years that whenever someone asks what the background music of a video is, someone will inevitably respond with the song “Sandstorm” by the Finnish electronic artist Darude. No matter what you searched for on Wednesday, YouTube suggested “Did you mean ‘Sandstorm by Darude’?”. They didn’t stop there, though: they also added a music icon button to their player that would just play the song over and over again when you clicked it.

BGR did a great article with all of Google Pranks for 2015.

Microsoft’s Google competitor Bing introduced the Bing “Cute Cloud” which is sort of like Google Image Search for cute animals. It was actually pretty functional, and this journalist spent a good ten minutes browsing kittens.

Amazon went retro, changing its homepage to Amazon.com circa 1999.

And finally, in — apparently — real news:

Amazon Unveils Dash Button, People Think It’s an April Fools Joke

Amazon was at great pains to point out that it announced the Amazon Dash Button on March 31st, but that still wasn’t enough to convince some people that its newly announced product wasn’t a hoax. The Dash Button is a small button that can be placed next to household staples like paper towels, keurigs and other things that need to be frequently restocked. Once the button is connected to your Amazon account you simply press it when you are running low and an order will be sent to Amazon to automatically restock it. Depending on who you ask, and I include in that statement the people sitting in this studio, this idea is either stupid, genius or a prank.

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