April Fools Day is always a fun day in the tech world. Major tech companies all over the US create April Fools jokes by releasing fake stories that have some sense of believability. If you are a tech writer like myself, you always must be aware of the date when scanning the latest tech stories.
Someone, and I can’t remember who, almost got me last year with a story that was so believable and fantastic I almost posted it here in this blog. Then it hit me what day it was. Saved by my brain.
This year produced a plethora of fake stories…my favorite being Google’s latest update to Gmail…the so-called “Gmail Blue.” They even put out a video announcing this new product. Of course, it didn’t take much to figure out it was a fake…but one has to laugh at Google’s attempt to make fun of Microsoft Blue.
But Microsoft returned the favor by making their Bing search page look identical to Google’s search page. That was cute. My top two stories relate the best of this year’s jokes as well as the best jokes from the past. Just enjoy them for what they are.
However, today, April 2, I thought Microsoft continued the joke with the release of their Outlook.com calendar…after 8 months of waiting. I was looking for something new and exciting in their calendar program. Turns out all they really did was change the colors on my color-coded entries. Now, I have those god-awful Metro colors on my calendar.
We waited eight months for this? Oh, they did change a few things on their entry screen, but nothing worth writing about. And PS: Since they made their change, I have not received one e-mail in the last 7 hours. Not good, especially as I did send myself 3 messages with stories for this edition. If I could afford it, I would go all Apple right now. AGRHHHHH!
(see follow-up on my adventures with MY Outlook.com account below)
There are some other interesting stories here as well as some good tips…so let’s get to it. –JCR
The Best April Fools' Day 2013 Tech Pranks
From Gmail Blue to the Toshiba Shibasphere, here are some of tech's best April Fools' gags.
10 best techy April Fools' pranks through the ages
Don't worry, you won't see any April Fools' jokes here, but there have been some crackers over the years. Here's just a few.
The genie is out of the bottle: Aereo's court victory and what it means for the TV business
A major appeals court ruling says that Aereo - which lets users watch and record live TV to mobile devices - doesn't violate copyright law. The decision is the biggest blow yet to the existing TV business.
Outlook.com Finally Gets a Modern Calendar Experience
We may never know what took so long, but Microsoft today finally announced that it is transitioning the Outlook.com Calendar to the modern experience that has graced the service’s other components—Mail, People, and SkyDrive—since last year.
Five reasons why the Windows desktop isn't going away
The speculation on the next version of Windows (code-named Blue) is getting out of hand. Based on a few screenshots and one offhand remark from a prominent Windows blogger, one of my colleagues is convinced that the Windows desktop is an endangered species. Nope. Not gonna happen.
Storage wars heat up, as Amazon syncs Cloud Drive
Amazon offers 5GB of free Cloud Drive storage with additional storage available at tiered price plans that start at 20GB for $10 a year.
This Is Not The Cloud Computing We Should Have
Even though I was never a big Google Reader user, its death has got me thinking about online services quite a bit lately -- and really reminded me that we've done the cloud wrong. Rather than build true cloud computing, we've built a bunch of lockboxes.
Get Organized: Change Your Wi-Fi Name and Password
When guests arrive, do you fumble to find that secret slip of paper with random numbers and letters that is your Wi-Fi password? Get organized, and change your Wi-Fi network name and password.
The malware wars: How you can fight it
Malware most often embeds itself with our unwitting help, but even when we have our defenses fully up, malware can still climb aboard. Nevertheless, there are practical and effective ways to defeat it — or clean it out after the fact.
As Mozilla turns 15, Firefox 20 debuts with new privacy
Firefox includes a new enhancement to private browsing that allows you to open a new private browsing window without closing or changing your current browsing session
Tax time! We name the best PC-based solutions for filing your returns
The race is on. As procrastinators gather their W-2 forms and receipts, small-fry tax sites and apps battle with three full-fledged software programs—H&R Block at Home, TaxAct, and TurboTax—for your last-minute filing business.
PS: A follow-up on my Outlook.com mail account. Just as I finished this blog, I got one e-mail. Then I started checking…I found out I did get all my e-mail for the last 7 hours, including mail from me to me…it all came in as trash and was sent to the junk mail box. Must be a new Metro feature.
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