After attempting to prank reddit for April Fool’s Day with an announcement of a Game Boy simulator case for the iPhone 6, gaming hardware company Hyperkin has taken it back - the joke that is - and decided to move the product into development .
From the company’s statement:
Meet the SmartBoy, an upcoming Game Boy-compatible device for the iPhone 6 Plus (with more compatible smartphones to follow). This concept art shows that it will attach to the iPhone 6 Plus, turning the phone into a handheld gaming device compatible with Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges.
This isn’t the first April Fool’s Joke that has fallen flat, only to rise above being a joke...we’re not sure what to call a joke that becomes real. Here are some other cool things that have come out of the worst day to read the Internets:
This Star Wars-inspired sleeping bag was first announced on April 1, 2009, as ThinkGeek’s annual April Fool’s Day product. But overwhelming demand for the fake product resulted in the product being released the following October. In this case, the April Fool’s joke wasn’t all idle fun - ThinkGeek had wanted to create the sleeping bag but hadn’t been able to get it licensed from Lucas Films, according to The New York Times . Armed with the results of the gag, the company snagged the licensing rights and rushed it into production.
ThinkGeek is either a total failure at April Fool’s Day - or craftily brilliant. The next year, their prank was the iCade, an arcade case for the iPad. The retro wooden case/stand, with an old-school joystick and large red buttons was a hit with Apple fan boys, and ION Audio snatched up the rights to product and moved it into production.
In 2009, tech website Pocket Lint pranked the world with a story about an app that addressed the dangers of texting and walking - by using phones’ back camera. While the company in the article - looflirpa, or April Fool spelled backwards - was fake, other companies jumped at the idea. TextVision, just 99 cents in the Apple AppStore, puts the view ahead as the app's background, allowing you to text, tweet or Facebook while still navigating any obstacles in your path. But you still look like a jerk, because there is no app that can save you from that.
While it started as an April Fool’s Day joke in 2006, the World Strip Poker Championship was held later that year. Irish book maker Paddy Power announced the idea in a press release on April 1, but the surge of interest led the company to take the plunge and set a Guinness World Record for largest strip poker tournament.
Apes and Apps
Britain’s Sun Tabloid ran an April Fool’s Day story about researchers giving gorillas iPads in 2011. But some zookeepers in Wisconsin saw the article and were intrigued. While the zoo’s gorillas weren’t very receptive to the idea, the zookeepers found that orangutans took to the devices with no problem. Despite the critique that it is a very unnatural activity for the apes, the keepers point out that finger painting isn’t really available in the wild either - but no one seems to mind that.