Amazon is at the cutting edge of technology.
So much so, that the company is releasing “Petlexa,” powered by Amazon Echo. The electronic personal assistant is now able to respond to the voice commands of any of your pets.
That is, if only it were true. The release by Amazon on March 31 seems to be an elaborate hoax as part of April Fools’ Day.
Amazon says that the “Petlexa” feature allows dogs, cats and other animals to communicate with Alexa, the voice behind the Echo, just like humans do. Amazon laid out the product’s description in an email to customers.
Google’s pranks this year, the conversion of Google Maps into a functional game of Ms. Pac-Man
T-Mobile’s April Fools’ joke was the T-Mobile ONEsie — because its latest plan is called T-Mobile One and onesies allow for a semi-clever portmanteau and okay you get it. The company claims that the Onesie is a full-body wearable packed with a variety of dubious tech, including thermal charging, nanofibers, and fitness tracking, which is obviously nonsense. I’m also deducting points for the entire concept, since Microsoft beat them to the One / onesie joke by a couple of months. Still, T-Mobile is actually selling the things for $40 each (sans-fictional tech, of course), should a bright magenta T-Mobile onesie be something you desire in your life.
HULU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0ugKI_3fac
Hulu’s April Fools’ gimmick is an alleged new service called “Hu,” which promises “TV abbreviated” by cutting down shows to just eight seconds to better match people’s shortened attention spans. To that end, the company has actually put together several playlists on both its own site and YouTube (for non-subscribers) of dramatically shortened episodes of Seinfeld, Black Sails, The Mindy Project, Empire, and others to show off the idea.
LYFT
Lyft made a very weird decision this April Fools’ Day by announcing a wacky, Power Glove style gadget to summon rides by raising your hand in the air, but also made them actual, real devices that are fully functional? So, not sure this is actually a “prank,” per-say.
NETFLIX
Netflix’s marking of the day took the form of “Netflix Live,” a remarkably peaceful video of Will Arnett narrating ordinary objects. Is it a joke? Deeper satire on live video trends? Who can say.
Reddit’s April Fools’ joke is less of a joke and more of a giant social experiment, similar to last year’s The Button. This year’s project, titled Place, is a large while pixel grid that each user can place a colored pixel on every five minutes. Reddit being Reddit, the grid has quickly been overtaken by a number of semi-religious cults and several crudely drawn images of genitalia, as the site’s community once again illustrates why we can’t have nice things.
I am sure more Foolish things will occur over the weekend, if so, We will update those that we find amusing