- Google relaunches its map service... in the style of retro Nintendo graphics
- Alex Ferguson drives MUFC lorry behind City boss Robeto Mancini
- Britain's Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon joins Olympic fencing team
- Grocery firm Ocado launches online auction... for livestock
- Richards Branson takes on latest mission drilling to centre of the earth
- Simon Cowell and David Walliams frolic in a swan-shaped pedalo
- Conan O'Brien takes over Mashable
- Hungry Hungry Hippos makes a comeback as an iPad app
By Pamela Owen
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Green tax on chilled bubbly? The average bottle of champers would have risen by more than ?3
A new 'green' tax on chilled champagne, Simon Cowell and David Walliams sharing a picnic in central London, while Richard Branson makes plans to journey to the centre of a volcano with Academy Award winning actor Tom Hanks in tow.
The world must be going crazy. Or it could be a bunch of pranksters trying to get you all worked up on April Fools day.
With all the fuss over pastygate and now the chippies launching legal action against HM Revenue & Customs to try and stop paying VAT, the Mail on Sunday decided to get in on the action.
It reported how the Government planned to mitigate the damage caused by adding VAT to pasties by introducing a new 'green' tax on chilled champagne.
Written by reporter Pru Cremier, it explained how the average price of a bottle sold in a restaurant would rise from ?37.50 to ?40.86 if introduced.
'A Green Paper leaked today proposes a ?Thermal Reduction Initiative (Champagne)? that would add a nine per cent duty to all chilled champagne sold in public places,' said the paper.
But fear not bubbly lovers, it was all an elaborate joke and you will not have to fork out the extra for a chilled bottle of your favourite champers.
Simon Cowell and David Walliams also took their relationship to the next level, according to the Sunday Mirror.
Pictures of the two Britain's Got Talent judges supposedly frolicking in a London park were released.
There have been rumours music mogul Cowell is less than impressed with Walliams who has made a number of homosexual jibes towards him in recent weeks.
But the pictures show how the pair managed to put their differences aside while spending an afternoon chatting, drinking champagne and taking a ride in a giant swan-shaped pedalo.
Italian photographer Aprile Sciocco told the Sunday Mirror: 'They had a great heart-to-heart about women, cars, clothes and how they like their steaks cooked - it was a proper blokey afternoon out.'
'It was so good to see the chemistry between them works just as well off screen.'
Full on bromance: Simon Cowell and David Walliams frolick in a London park
Best of friends: The two men enjoyed a ride on a Swan shaped pedalo
Just the two of us: Walliams has been teasing Cowell about his sexuality of late but this proves how far the friendship has gone
Richard Branson also proved he has a sense of humour by announcing the launch of Virgin Volcanic, in which he plans to journey to the core of an active volcano.
But with quests like Virgin Galactic, a service operating space flights, and planned trips into the depths of the ocean, the revelation by the businessman does not seem all that far-fetched.
On his website he said he would be taking Hollywood actor Tom Hanks along for the ride as a specially-made drill makes its way down.
'Only 500 people have been to space, only three people have been to the bottom of the ocean, but no one has ever attempted to journey to the core of an active volcano. Until now,' he said.
'Using patented carbon-carbon materials pioneered for deep space exploration, Virgin is proud to announce a revolutionary new vehicle, VVS1, which will be capable of plunging three people into the molten lava core of an active volcano.'
Richard Branson announced Virgin Volcanic and said he plans to take Hollywood actor Tom Hanks along for the ride for deep space exploration by three people into the molten lava core of an active volcano
Another Britain's Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon found out this morning that she had sensationally qualified for the British Olympic fencing team, reported the Daily Star on Sunday.
Alesha, 33, picked up a foil - the name for the sport's weapons - for the first time in February when she took part in a Sport Relief fundraising event in Bognor Regis.
Speaking exclusively to the newspaper about her latest achievement, she said: 'It's all a bit of a blur.
'One minute I was fighting Claire from Steps and Howard off the Halifax ads in a charity contest, not knowing which way round to hold the foil, and the next I'm an Olympic athlete. I can't take it in, it's unbelievable,' she said.
Britain's Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon kitted out in her Olympic gear
Roberto Mancini can't stop Sir Alex Ferguson in his big red machine
Online supermarket Ocado also set feathers ruffling after it announced a new web ?Livestock-Shop?.
'Proving that fresh really is best' it said the new delivery service would provide customers with live farm animals to produce their own milk and eggs, all available to order on April 1.
The retailer joked that it was offering chickens for ?25 and cows for up to ?2,000. People buying them would of course have the animals delivered to their doors.
A picture of Roberto Mancini riding a bicycle and being chased by Sir Alex Ferguson in a big red lorry was also doing its rounds.
Ocado announced it will be selling livestock for those wanting 'the good life'
Livestock shipped to your door: Ocada announced the launch of their new online venture
Google also announced an early April Fool?s Day joke that put the fun back into map reading.
The technology giant released its latest feat ? a version of Google Maps for the ?long neglected? Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
The game features old school pixelated graphics, synonymous with the original games consoles.
Tatsuo Nomura, a Google software engineer, wrote in a post on Google's official Maps blog: ?With Google Maps 8-bit, you can do all the things you already do on regular Google Maps.
?Search for famous landmarks and sites around the world. Take an epic journey with 8-bit Street View. Get detailed directions to avoid dangerous paths, and battle your way through a world of powerful monsters and mystic treasures.?
As he points out, it will be the first NES cartridge to be released in almost 18 years, with a Game Boy version already in the pipeline.
And the fun isn?t only for console owners ? clicking on a ?Quest? button in the right-hand corner of the Maps homepage will transform even the dullest of landscapes into a fanciful, brightly coloured scene.
In a promotional video Google employees introduced Google Maps Quest, a retro 8-bit version of its mapping tool built for the ?long neglected? Nintendo Entertainment System, advising users to ?blow on the cartridge to fix bugs?. The quirky video is complete 8-bit dragon-warrior music and jerky graphics.
United Kingdom, Nintendo style: The British Isles are still recognisable, despite being heavily pixilated, while close-ups of Buckingham Palace have a similarly retro style
Back to the future: Google proved it has a sense of humour with an early April Fool?s Day joke that puts the fun back into map reading
The retro maps was not Google's only April Fool they also created Chrome Multitask Mode.
The system, described as a comical 'ambinavigation revolution', would allow users to surf the web with both hands by using more than once mouse on the same computer or allow two people to use the computer at the same time.
Designer Glen Murphy also gave users a step-by-step guide on how to use the new tool in a tutorial.
Playing on their well-publicized foray into self-driving cars, Google announced a partnership between the search ending giant and NASCAR as they work 'to help self-driving vehicles compete in the world of stock car racing'.
The back of the race car has the tagline 'I'm steering lucky' painted on it.
No hands! Google announced a partnership between the search ending giant and NASCAR as they work 'to help self-driving vehicles compete in the world of stock car racing'
Google has had a long history of April Fool's gags.
In 2007, the company announced TiSP, the Toilet Internet Service Provider, ?a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system?.
Last year, the search giant released ?Gmail Motion?, which allowed users to use hand signals to perform tasks in Gmail. And when users searched for ?Helvetica?, Google returned results in Comic Sans.
Double the ability: Google Chrome 'launched' a fake service today that would allow people to use two mice at one time
NPR put out a joke headline that would scare Twitter addicts, as they said that Tweets would be capped at 133 characters.
Though the admitted their prank in the short text of the blog post, anyone just skimming the the page may have been threatened by the 7-space shortening.
The radio giant also added that among the other options that had been tossed around the office were the prospect of Ford cars being outfitted with air bags for cats and dogs, or the possibility of one of their bloggers winning the Mega Millions jackpot.?
In hopes of bringing a smile to the faces of LOLcats fans, Adblock replaced its typical ads with pictures of the company's founder's duplicitous cat.
Comedian Conan O'Brien waded into the joke-filled holiday by announcing that he bought technology blog Mashable, and that he fired the company's CEO and founder Pete Cashmore.
Internet executive? conan O'Brien announced that he had taken over Mashable and ousted the CEO
Bringing back the past: A fake iPad version of popular '80s game Hungry Hungry Hippos is being sold today
'I?m sick and tired of scanning the Internet looking for any news about technology: Devices, gadgets, what?s coming up, maybe even a rating system for gadgets that are out there. It doesn?t exist on the web and it?s high time it did,' O'Brien said in the announcement.
The top of the site was bright orange, like the comedian's trademark ginger hair, and read 'Powered by Conan O'Brien'.
Technology enthusiasts also joked about bringing back the popular '80s game Hungry Hungry Hippos for the iPad generation.
A website called ThinkGeek.com released a prank gadget which puts a set of the plastic hippos on top of the user's iPad and allows them to go back to their childhood while staying tech-smart.
'All four hippos are present and hungry, except this time, the hippos fit over your iPad and the game board is an app!' they said in the press release for the supposed $29.99 app.
YouTube also showed yearnings for an earlier time, as they launched The YouTube Collection, taking the site off the internet and bringing it into users' living rooms.
The internet offline: The YouTube Collection puts all of the website's videos on DVD for your viewing pleaasure
Large shipment: All of the DVDs would be sent in 175 trucks and shrink-wrapped boxes
'Our latest innovation gives you a way to literally hold YouTube in your hand,' the gag promo reel says.
In the scheme, users would be shipped shrink-wrapped boxes of all of the DVDs that it takes store the information held by the video-sharing website. The first instalment would come via 175 moving vans, and then get additional updates every week as more videos are posted to the site.
'It's the complete YouTube experience completely offline.'
They even came up with a way to keep the interactivity alive in the old-school version, though snail mail goes a bit slower than the click of a button.
A more sinister threat by hacking group Anonymous may have been a long-planned hoax, as they announced 'Operation Global Blackout' which was scheduled to take place on April 1.
Though they announced the plan six weeks ago, they said their attack on the domain name system that controls website names would take place today.
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