WEBVTT - April Fools' in 2023 Was Pretty Quiet 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.239 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:16.040 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.000 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:25.360 are you? So? April first, April Fools Day fell on 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.680 this past Saturday. So falling on a Saturday, I didn't 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.400 see quite the same amount of shenanigan's within the tech 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:38.200 sector that usually pop up that time of year. And 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:43.320 of course, since the pandemic, things have been relatively calm 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.720 as far as April Fools gags go. It seemed like 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.360 it was in bad taste to do it when the 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.320 pandemic first began back in twenty twenty, and generally speaking, 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.520 I think companies have sort of cooled off a bit 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.480 on going hard on April Fools. But I figured we 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.840 could take a look at a few jests, japes and 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.160 outright lies that various brands and cities and whatnot presented 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:14.560 this year. But keep in mind, it was pretty quiet. 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.200 I mean, I looked around a lot, and I saw 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.639 some stuff that was probably not even worth talking about, 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:26.360 like jokes that we're so lame that even I couldn't 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.680 get behind them. That's saying something because I am like 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:33.080 a dad joke connoisseur type person. But I think a 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.640 lot of companies in general have decided to back off 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.000 on foolishness for the time being, maybe due to the 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.920 fact that, you know, economic uncertain DA has created a 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.760 lot of anxiety in the public and we're also seeing 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:50.639 companies holding wide layoffs in the tech sector. Doesn't quite 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.800 come across as the perfect time to be josh and around, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:59.440 but we still saw some and you know, as a rule, 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:05.160 tech journalists hate April Fools. Some of them look at 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.760 it as its amateur hour, you know, when various PR 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.440 departments and tech companies are doing their best to appear 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:19.760 to be spontaneous and original and you know, wacky and buzzworthy, 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.760 but frequently they fall well short of those goals and 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.840 it becomes you know, what the kids like to call cringe. 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.320 Other folks say, it's just irritating to have to cover 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.360 news when the stories you're coming across are likely to 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.160 be fake. You know, as much as we talk about 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:42.720 fake news, journalists don't typically like covering a story that 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.840 turns out not to be real because you put in 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:50.520 real work when you're a journalist, right, real research, real effort. 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.920 You're putting words to paper or words to a screen, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.000 as the case may be, and it is not much 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.640 fun to go through all of that and then find 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:02.960 out that the story you just filed turned out to 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.560 be a joke and not an actual story, and then 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:08.800 you have to go back and write a whole new 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.959 take or just scrap it and get rid of the 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.680 work you've just done. That is frustrating. It stinks, and 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.120 I get it, and it can be hard. Like sometimes 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.480 it's very clear that it's a joke and everyone's in 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.400 on it, it's fine. You know. You could argue that 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.119 it's a waste of time and that the company could 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.400 be spending its time doing something else, but otherwise, no harm, 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:35.600 no foul. In other cases, the quote unquote joke might 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.920 be structured so poorly that it comes across as a legitimate, 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:45.040 you know, pr announcement. And while you would think that 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.040 people would be able to tell a joke from reality, 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:53.440 the truth is companies do such crazy stuff occasionally that 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:57.960 you can't be sure about that. So yeah, it's hard 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.280 to craft a really good April Fools prank. Ideally, you 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:05.040 want something fun and cheeky, but not too misleading. You know, 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.080 you would like your audience to say, wait, is this 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.040 real and then say no, it can't be. And you 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.280 don't want to cause genuine confusion or upset folks ideally, 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.320 and hitting that ideal is challenging personally. I actually like 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.080 at least some April Fools gags. I've found some of 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.479 them to be funny, not all of them, but some. 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.799 Google has done a lot that I actually enjoyed where 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.680 they had some April Fools gags that I thought were 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:36.080 just fun or distracting. Google did one where you could 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.040 find Pokemon on Google Maps. There was another one that 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:43.360 turned Google Maps into Pacman, like you could play pac 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:48.400 Man on the streets of downtown Atlanta, for example. Those 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.520 I thought were really cool. I even liked stuff like 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:54.440 Google Knows in osc where Google was claiming that you 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.360 could use like an Android phone to identify Sense, kind 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.960 of like how other other apps can identify a song 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.840 by just listening in for a few seconds. This app 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.680 would supposedly identify a smell that you encountered, or it 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.520 could actually generate smells. So if you were doing a 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.360 search on something, you could hit a little button and 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.919 it would generate a smell from whatever that thing is, 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.960 so search carefully. Obviously, that was a joke too, and 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:24.920 I think most people got it. I just thought, Oh, 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.800 it's just people being creative and being silly, and I 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:33.080 think that sort of thing should be celebrated, not condemned. However, 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.320 if I were covering the news and I was getting 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:42.039 just total junk on April first, I guess I would 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:46.440 find it a little frustrating as well. Anyway, let's start 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:50.080 off with what was my favorite April Fool's joke this year. 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:55.599 It's not that tech related. It does call out artificial intelligence, 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.280 but that is literally just a gag. There's no actual 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.920 AI involved at all. So NPR had a little radio 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.719 piece that reported that archaeology students had uncovered an ancient 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:13.919 Roman scroll that was filled with dad jokes or potter iokus, 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.760 as the piece claims. And the piece claimed that during 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:22.000 gladiatorial displays, a comedian would have to come out, you know, 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.240 after one gladiator strikes down another, the comedian would be 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.599 sent out to keep the crowd entertained, while custodians would 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:30.839 come out and you know, dispose of the body or 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.760 body parts or what have you and cart them out 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.480 of the way for the next clash to begin. And 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.560 I just love that image. I just this idea of 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.600 like a toga clad character coming out right after Russell 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.600 Crowe has struck down an enemy and thesays, how about that, 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:51.800 folks give him a hand, but not the one on 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.520 the ground. We gotta throw that one away. Say you 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:59.360 ever noticed how galls walk like this while Romans walk 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:04.039 like this? You know, I like, you'd really get behind that. 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.760 I'm surprised if that's not in History the World Part 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.479 two it should be. I wouldn't know. I haven't watched 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:15.160 it yet. Anyway, there is one little bit of fake 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:19.520 tech involved in this NPR joke, and the piece claims 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.440 that the research students were somehow able to identify the 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:29.720 author of the jokes as a Roman named Clownius Bozolius, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:34.600 so Bozo the Clown, and further that they were able 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:39.880 to somehow create an AI recreation of this otherwise forgotten 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.800 giant of history. Of course, it's all a gag. There 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:48.680 is no AI generated comedian based off an ancient Roman, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:54.680 and the supposed AI generated Clownius is just as goofy 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.080 or cringey as you would imagine him to be. He 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:02.000 actually did sound a little bit modern day comedian Lewis Black. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.559 I don't know who they got to do the voice 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:09.320 for Clounius Bozolius. It was not Ai though. Anyway, the 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.920 NPR bit was obviously a joke, and it was very 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:17.640 silly and harmless and had some truly truly atrocious puns 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.040 in it, So I give it a thumbs up. You 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.000 can actually find that audio online if you want to 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.800 hear it. It's called archaeology Students found Dad Jokes from 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.720 Ancient Rome, And yeah, I mean it's short, it's like 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:33.960 six minutes. It's a cute, little fluffy joke piece, and 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.120 there's nothing wrong with that. All right. Now, let's turn 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.360 our attention to the tech world for real zs. So 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:44.320 first up, it's Tender, the dating slash hook up app 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.840 that I am really glad did not exist back when 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.560 I was single. Now that's not me throwing shade at Tender. 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.520 It's not throwing shade at the folks who use Tender. 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.560 It's more that I think I would have been thoroughly 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.480 unsuited or that app it would have I would have 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.040 had the worst time in the world in an environment 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.160 where Tinder was like a major way for people to 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.480 meet one another and get to know each other. So 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:17.480 I'm glad that my dating life predates Tender. But anyway, 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.000 Tender had its own April Fools gag this year, and 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.800 it had to do with photos. Photos that featured something that, 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.959 as of April first, would be against Tender's policies. I am, 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:33.800 of course talking about fish picks. Yeah, Tender announced it 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:38.880 was actively flagging and deleting fish picks. Tender posted on 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:42.200 Instagram that the app would be fish free within twenty 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.720 four hours. No, obviously, this is both a joke and 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:50.600 a sly reference to the fact that some prospective mates 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:55.640 have used Tender to send pictures of you know, their 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:02.480 nude forms or their downstairs business. You might say to people, which, y'all, 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:05.480 if no one asked for that, then, for goodness sakes, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:10.360 just don't do it. It's terrible. Anyway, it was a 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.400 goofy little joke that is delicately perched on top of 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:19.319 an actual serious problem. In fact, reportedly, guys at one 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.760 point were so eager to send unsolicited nude photos to 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.199 Tender matches the Tender actually saw a decline in women 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.280 users because, honestly, I mean, who wants that kind of thing, 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:35.400 So yeah, fun to joke about it again. If someone 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.800 asks and you are amenable to sending it, that's one thing, 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.160 But unsolicited sending of nude photos is just that's a 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:49.239 bad idea. All around the city of Miami, or more specifically, 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:53.959 Mayor Francis Suarez, joke that Twitter would be relocating its 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:59.480 headquarters to Miami, Florida. I'm not really sure what prompted 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:01.959 the joke. This seemed like one of those jokes that 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:07.600 just was kind of random, and maybe there's some local 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.240 news and local politics type stuff going on that I'm 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.640 just not familiar with because I don't live in Miami. 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.600 But yeah, that was a joke that happened this past weekend, 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:25.439 and no, Twitter is not relocating to Miami. Tesla, another 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:32.400 Elon Musk related company, was tweeting out a video that 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.840 was supposed to show the Cybertruck, the long delayed cyber 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:42.520 truck product from Tesla, and show its crash test results. 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:46.560 Only if you play the video, the cybertruck never actually 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.000 gets to the point where it hits the crash barrier. 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.839 The video is edited in such a way that has 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.120 lots of cuts and loops, and it'll go into slow 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.920 motion and reaction shots and use other tricks to feel 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.280 like it's leading up to the collision that you are 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:06.880 going to see this cybertruck collide with a barrier wall, 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.640 but the collision never actually happens. It's kind of like saying, 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.440 if you were to start walking towards your front door, 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.760 but with every step you are going at half the 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.000 distance you did with the step before, you would never 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:24.320 actually reach your door, because you'd always just be approaching it, 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:26.560 but you would never actually reach it. That's kind of 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:31.560 what this video feels like. And I don't know, I 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.920 just found it frustrating. It's kind of like those videos 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.640 where people do things wrong on purpose to just get 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.360 to have a reaction. It felt like that, and maybe 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.440 that was That's probably the point. But I also noticed 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.920 that because Tesla posted this on Twitter, they had a 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:50.560 gold checked verification mark on their account, and I am 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.080 curious if Tesla had to pay the same fee that 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.920 Musk is demanding other businesses cough up if they want 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:01.400 to stay verified. I suspect Tesla is an exception to 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:07.199 that rule. Okay, we've got some more tech based jokes. 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.319 We'll put those in air quotes. But first, let's take 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:23.400 a quick break. We're back. So there were a couple 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.640 of jokes that I saw in the tech space that 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.960 I actually thought were kind of cute and clever. Our 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.680 roast Benelux, and I have no idea if I'm saying 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:35.160 that company's name correctly. Anyway, this company posted a joke 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.280 for serious PC desktop owners, like you know, your power 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:44.920 gamers who buy those high end desktop gaming rigs, who 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:49.840 also happen to have one or more housecats. Because we 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:56.120 know kitty cats like to perch on elevated surfaces, particularly 0:13:56.160 --> 0:14:00.360 if that surface is a warm one. So you think, oh, 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.480 if you have a desktop, like it's a wide desktop 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:07.560 computer and it's getting nice and toasty, then obviously a 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.560 cat's gonna want to perch on top of it. But 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.560 that's a problem, right because, like you've got a device 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:17.120 that doesn't really react well if dust and fur and 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.880 that sort of stuff gets into it. Plus, if you 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.040 got a cat laying across the top of your desktop computer, 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:25.880 it might be on top of some vents which will 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:30.000 have a serious impact on airflow. So this company introduced 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:35.240 the cat Master. It's meant to fit on top of 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:40.400 a desktop tower. PC, and it's essentially a cat hammock, 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.800 and it gives the cat the ability to lounge in 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.440 a hammock perched above the computer itself, still enjoying the 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.960 warmth being given off by the gaming rig. Plus the 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:58.080 cat master itself has integrated r GB LEDs. This is 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.320 obviously just a joke, but I do know a few 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.240 gamers who are also cat owners, and I suspect they 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.760 would really PLoP down some cash for a cat bed 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.920 with RGB lighting, particularly if they could synchronize the lighting 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:17.360 of the cat bed with their PCs fan lights and 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.680 internal lights so that you know, if it's going from 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.920 red to green to blue, then so would the cat bed. 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.200 So maybe one day this will actually become a thing, 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.240 because that's actually a long tradition in tech. April fools 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.920 gags as well. Sometimes a company will float an idea 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.160 as a joke, but they're also keeping an eye out 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.000 to see if there's enough interest to actually make the 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.440 thing and go from joke to real product. See also 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:48.160 the ton Ton sleeping bag that Think Geek teased many 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.520 many years ago and then turned into a real product. 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.920 Also rip Think Geek, I still miss you. Speaking of 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.800 computer accessories, I got a couple more jokes that are 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.120 in that line. So Razor a company that's known for 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:08.200 creating various tech equipment, including stuff like like gaming laptops, 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.800 gaming desktops, keyboards, mice, that sort of stuff. They announced 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.600 their own April Fools product this past April Fools. It 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:21.640 is the Razor Razor, a computer gaming mouse that doubles 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:26.640 as an electric razor. Now. Razor published a video showing 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:30.760 this supposed new product in use as a scruffy nerve 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.760 herder of a gamer use the mouse to trim and 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:38.200 shape facial hair, including some truly outrageous eyebrows. The company 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.200 said that beta testers were wanted and included a sign 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:44.440 up form which I think actually puts you in the 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:48.760 running for like a little sweepstakes giveaway of Razor products. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.640 But Razor said the shaving mouse works at three hundred 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:58.600 sixty fps. FPS in this case refers to follicles per second, 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.960 And yeah, very silly joke. Obviously a gag. This is 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.159 the kind where I feel like the joke is obvious 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.960 from the get go, and it's still pretty entertaining, particularly 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.440 when you know that Razor is a company that has 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.760 made all sorts of gear ranging from pretty cool stuff 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.400 to why would I ever need that kind of stuff? 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.400 And I think this one was just outside of being 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.879 credible based on the kinds of products we've seen from Razor. 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.960 This includes stuff like vaporware products that were shown off 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:36.480 at CES but they never actually made it into production. 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.320 I've had that happened a few times, where I saw 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:45.440 a really cool Razor concept that never became reality. Then 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.280 there was a new product from be Quiet, which is 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:53.119 a company known for producing computer gear that is no 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:58.040 big surprise here, meant to minimize superfluous noise. You'll often 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:02.960 hear gamers talk about how they'll build this crazy computer 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.560 rig and in an effort to keep it operating at 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.240 the right temperature, they'll have these fans that are going 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.399 on full blast and they create a lot of noise. 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.399 So it ends up being kind of a downside to 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.880 those sorts of rigs. Be Quiet makes cases and fans 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.040 and that kind of stuff meant to create the minimum 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.040 amount of noise while still being effective. Well, the company 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.720 claimed to be launching a bladeless computer fan, and in 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:35.160 the video these fans look like just a little white 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.879 square frame made out of plastic and there's a round 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.400 opening where a fan would normally go. You know, it's 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.879 essentially the housing for a fan, but there's nothing in 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.639 the middle. It's just a hole, right, there's no fan 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.200 sitting there, And I said, well, this is the bladeless 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.720 fan that'll move air through your computer case. Be Quiet 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.240 also said that these fanless fans would use a purpose 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:03.000 built artificial inteligence to control airflow, which would be super 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.320 interesting if that were true. The name of the AI 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.480 was Fanos, of course, which makes it sort of a 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:15.080 gladdose kind of reference from the Portal Games. And while 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.800 the thought of an AI directed ventilation system is really neat, 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.200 I mean, imagine you've got a computer system that could 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.320 actually identify hot spots in the case and then direct 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.439 airflow to try and pull some of that heat away 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.840 and do that dynamically, so instead of just having an 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.480 overall cooling system, you would have a reactive one that 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.840 would be able to optimize performance. That would be really 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.600 awesome if it were true. The video is actually a 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.320 very fun one to watch. You can check it out. 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.919 The spokesperson demonstrates the fan at one point holding it 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.640 in front of his face, and it subsequently is powerful 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:58.280 enough to blow his hat off. Sure, the top of 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:01.440 his hat is suspiciously out of frame, so you can't 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.520 see that. Something is probably attached to it to pull 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.400 the hat off at on Q. But if you can't 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.480 trust a video, whom can you trust. And of course 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.760 the circumference of the fanless fan is a ring of 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.720 RGB lights, because let's not be silly about these things. 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.080 You still have to have it light up, because that's 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.600 like part of the big deal with these gaming rigs. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:25.320 When I was last thinking about building a gaming rig 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:29.480 for myself, I was the crazy person looking at just 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.240 regular fans. I didn't care about the RGB stuff because 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.040 in my mind, the cool thing is what is going 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:41.040 on on the screen, not the lights emanating from my 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:45.640 computer case. Now, blameless fans really are a thing. I'm 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.880 sure most of you have seen them. You've probably seen 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:52.240 Dyson's example. That's sort of the flagship of that particular 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:54.639 type of product. Dyson, as far as I know, was 0:20:54.680 --> 0:21:00.080 the company that really made that design popular since and 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.800 I've seen other companies kind of jump on that bandwagon. 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.040 But I thought maybe I'd take a quick moment to 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:10.159 explain how bladeless fans actually work. Because the way they 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:15.240 work means it would be impossible for the computer fan 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:20.800 version to work. So, first off, a bladeless fan isn't 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:25.399 really bladeless. It actually does have blades mounted on a rotor. 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.520 It's just these blades aren't visible because they are inside 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.840 the pedestal for the fan. Like if you look at 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:37.159 these bladeless fans, you'll see that they are standing fans 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.919 and they have a pedestal underneath them. You would not 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.280 really be able to design an effective computer fan that 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:46.119 was bladeless because you would have nowhere to house the 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:51.119 actual blade components. Right, the frame is too thin to 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:57.480 have an effective way of pulling air through. So in 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:04.160 a bladeless fan, the pedestal houses this blade device, this 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.960 rotor of blades, and it has vents inside the pedestal 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:12.119 so that an electric motor starts to rotate the rotor 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:14.680 with the blades on it, the blades start to pull 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:18.359 air into the pedestal that then gets pushed out the 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:24.040 front of the face of the fan. Now, if that 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:26.720 were all it were, then you would just have like 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.840 a light fan blowing you. But because of physics and 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:33.879 fluid dynamics, there's a little bit more going on. That 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:38.120 the bladeless fans able to take advantage of. There's inducement. 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:43.040 This is when air behind the fan starts to get 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:46.360 pulled along with the air that's being pushed forward through 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:48.879 the front of the fan. So if you think of 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:52.320 the fan as just a circle with no blades in it, 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:57.560 the motor inside the pedestal is turning a bladed fan 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:01.639 inside the pedestal that's pushing air through the front of 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.840 that circle. The air that's actually behind the circle gets 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:08.400 pulled along with it. That's inducement, and then the air 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:12.639 that's around the edge of the fan also gets pulled along, 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:17.119 but that's called entrainment. These are two similar concepts and 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:20.960 fluid dynamics, they're just slightly slightly different. So through inducement 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:23.439 and entrainment, you get a lot more air, or at 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:26.200 least a little more air push towards you than you 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:29.439 would if it were just from the little bladed fans 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.000 inside the pestle by itself. So Dyson calls that air 0:23:33.119 --> 0:23:37.359 multiplication that you're getting way more air than you would 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:41.840 just through the blades because of the physics involved. Anyway, 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:44.760 for these bladeless fans to work, you still need somewhere 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:47.399 to house the electric motor and the bladed rotor to 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:49.800 get things going in the first place. And without that, 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:53.959 there's just no mechanism that would force air through the 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:58.280 hole either in or out of this computer case. And 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.840 since be quiet claimed there bladeless fans have no moving 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:05.560 parts at all, there's really just no way it would 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:07.800 be possible to do. But it was still a fun 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:12.399 little goofy video. I imagine if you did have bladeless 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:15.119 fans attached to your computer, you would have a dickens 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:18.520 of a time keeping debris out of your computer, particularly 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:20.679 if you installed one of those cat hammocks that were 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:23.920 sitting on top of it. You would just be sucking 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:26.399 that stuff into the computer case because there'd be like 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:30.480 no mesh or anything blocking it. So while it was 0:24:30.520 --> 0:24:34.880 a neat concept and and a fun little joke, once 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:37.920 you start applying critical thinking to it, you realize, oh, yeah, no, 0:24:38.000 --> 0:24:40.360 there are a lot of problems with that particular design. 0:24:40.840 --> 0:24:43.960 Though the AI component is really interesting. If there were 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:45.800 a way to do such a thing where you could 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:50.439 have more directed air so it's not just just a 0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:54.600 standard airflow through the computer, then that would be really cool. Obviously, 0:24:54.640 --> 0:24:58.640 there are water cooling systems that use more specific targeting 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:01.920 for cooling for stuf of like you know, really high 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:06.080 powered CPUs or GPUs. But it would be neat if 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:08.800 you could do that. It's just we're not not at 0:25:08.840 --> 0:25:13.439 that point. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break. When 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:16.120 we come back, we'll wrap up some of the jokes 0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:18.560 that the tech sector, you know, try to pull on 0:25:18.680 --> 0:25:31.040 us this past weekend. I think some of my favorite 0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:33.960 April Fools gags come from companies that are otherwise known 0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:38.960 for creating stuff that's undeniably useful, but not exactly fun 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:43.960 or whimsical. Maybe it's utilitarian. I think that's the case 0:25:44.080 --> 0:25:47.800 with Obsidian. Obsidian the software company. So this is a 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:51.120 company that makes productivity tools that help you do things 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:54.879 like create links between ideas, similar to the way how 0:25:55.119 --> 0:25:59.080 web pages use links to connect different documents to one another. 0:25:59.640 --> 0:26:03.919