Here’s What Tech Companies Cooked Up for April Fools

April fools’ day in the tech world usually means a litany of fake products being announced to mess with consumers. This year, as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc across the globe, the dedicated prank day got off to a slow start.

However, this doesn’t mean having a little fun in these testing times is bad. Humor can bring a welcome moment of frivolity since the ongoing situation has brought us no end of tragedies this past month.

Where most brands and companies have canceled pranks and jokes this year, some are still trying to lift the spirits of housebound masses with their light-hearted jokes.

Here are some of the April Fool’s day jokes from your favorite tech companies around the world (don’t forget none of these are real products).

Huawei NeuralHub, AI Working Paper and Animal Language Translation Collar

This year, the Chinese Tech Giant has made three announcements.

The first prank by Huawei is a series of TV-like devices dubbed NeuralHub, NeuralHub S, NeuralHub Pro. The devices will use neural networks to translate human brain signals into actions and will be available by 17^th April. According to the poster, it will come with a hefty price tag of $141000.

The next is Huawei AI Paper series of manuals that will work by eating, pasting, and folding papers to obtain the information written on them. The base variant of the manual will cost as much as $845. Definitely, it’s too good to be true.

Last is the Animal Language Translation Collar that uses AI to translate animal’s speech to words. It will even transmit the translations to your phone. This is the ultimate pet parent dream, too bad its only a prank.

Oppo Ace Infinity freeVOOC air charging technology

As its April Fool’s day prank, Oppo has announced a smartphone called the Oppo Ace Infinity that will come with freeVOOC air-recharging technology. As the name suggests, the smartphone will be able to draw power from the charger even at a distance of 10 meters.

To explain the technology used, Oppo even released a small teaser video.

According to the video, the smartphone will come with a Free VOOC coil embedded in its rim. The coil features three layers:

• An absorption layer,
• A conversion layer,
• A conductive material

Together they will keep the smartphone charged at all time. This may come true some day in the future, but that day definitely isn’t today.

Xiaomi Mi 6 Classic Edition

Early morning today, Xiaomi floated the news that it was going to revive the 2018 fan-favorite Xiaomi Mi 6 Classic Edition, that too, with monster specifications. As much as the fans loved this idea, it was a big April Fool’s day joke.

The poster suggests:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage.
• 5.99″ Samsung display with 2K resolution, 90 Hz refresh rate, support for HDR10+, 545 PPI pixel density.
• Rear camera system featuring 108 MP primary sensor with OIS 5x optical zoom, digital zoom 30x.
• 4070 mAh with wired charging 65W, 30W wireless charging, and 10W reverse charging.

The smartphone will be available for sale on 28^th April and will cost $521 (don’t forget it’s a joke).

Meizu 16T Daylight Orange with support for solar charging

Meizu, not staying behind on April fool’s day, used its existing Meizu 16T and the upcoming Meizu 17 to prank its fans.

The smartphone maker announced the daylight orange variant of its previously launched Meizu 16T that will support solar charging. The company says, “you need not worry about the battery on this phone as long as there is sunlight.”

The second prank was posted by Meizu’s Flyme OS Weibo account, where it claimed that its Aicy AI voice assistant had evolved enough to leak devices itself. The post urged users to ask ‘When Meizu 17 will be released?’ to which the assistant gave sarcastic answers without revealing anything.

Realme’s phone charging technology

Realme, as a part of its April fool’s day prank, has announced that users will be able to use Realme phones in ways that they can only dream. To charge their phones, all they have to do is think of the percentage, and the phone’s battery level will bump up to the desired level.

If you want to go on a trip, just open your phone, choose a location and you will be transported there. Oh! How we wish that was the case, but it’s just another prank.

Police announced remote arrests

Even though this one doesn’t directly come from a tech company, it is one of the best ones yet. Police in Cambridgeshire, England, has announced that they will be working from home as well, and while working remotely, they will send out drones to arrest people amid the coronavirus outbreak.

This announcement was made via a tweet today.

In an effort to keep officers and the public safe in these unusual times we will be making arrests remotely from now on. Offenders will be asked at a distance to stand still while our latest invention applies cuffs. #RCAT @UKCopHumour #AprilFoolsDay #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/wKMcobSjGU

— Cambs Rural Cops 🚜🚮🏰🦊🦇 (@CambsRuralCops) April 1, 2020

Don’t miss out on the drone carrying the handcuffs.

Conclusion

Over the past few years April Fools’ Day has become a day of brands becoming pranksters. This year was not as fun as every other year, as most of the biggest pranksters, including Google, decided to forgo its annual ritual of sharing April Fools’ Day jokes out of respect for those fighting COVID-19.

The main reason behind this is to curb the spread of  fraud and misinformation regarding the novel coronavirus.