There are a lot of excellent deals you can take advantage of this weekend, especially if you’re checking out Amazon’s best sales. We’ve gone out can collected some of our favorites, but it’s well worth checking out CNET’s gift guides for a few more bargain-hunting options.
Bayern Munich host Borussia Dortmund in this Der Klassiker match up on Saturday, knowing that nothing less than a win will do to keep alive their fading title hopes.
Bayern came into this weekend’s Bundesliga fixtures trailing league leaders Bayer Leverkusen by a seemingly insurmountable 10 points, but they’ll be boosted by the return of star striker Harry Kane, who’s been declared fit for this fixture.
Dortmund remain in pursuit of a Champions League qualification spot and will be looking to extend a run of three consecutive league wins.
Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the game live, wherever you are in the world.
Bayern Munich host Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena, on Saturday, March 30. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CET local time in Germany, making it a 5:30 p.m. GMT start in the UK, a 1:30 p.m. ET and 10:30 a.m. PT kickoff in the US and Canada, and a 4:30 a.m. AEDT start on Sunday, March 31, in Australia.
If you find yourself unable to view the game locally, you may need a different way to watch the game — that’s where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to encrypt your traffic to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day, and it’s also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.
With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. Most VPNs, like our Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.
Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.
Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.
This Bundesliga match at the Allianz Arena is streaming live in the US exclusively on ESPN Plus. Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m. ET (10:30 a.m. PT) on Saturday for viewers in the States.
Broadcast rights to show Bundesliga games live in the UK are with Sky Sports, with this match set to be shown on its Sky Sports Football channel. If you already have Sky Sports as part of your TV package, you can stream the game via its Sky Go app, but cord-cutters will want to get set up with a Now account and a Now Sports membership to stream the game.
Canadian soccer fans looking to watch this German top flight clash can view all the action live via DAZN.
Football fans Down Under can watch this big Bundesliga fixture live on BeIN Sports.
Aston Villa host Wolves on Saturday in what looks set to be be a crucial Midlands derby for the two rivals’ European football aspirations.
Villa come into this clash off the back of a slump in recent form that has seen them drop points against West Ham and top four rivals Spurs. Adding to the pressure is the fact that the hosts are winless in their last six EPL encounters against their opponents today.
Wolves will meanwhile be hoping to bounce back from their shock FA Cup exit to Coventry before the international break. That defeat has taken the shine off a recent run of four wins from the their last five games that has propelled Gary O’Neil’s men into European qualification contention.
Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the game live wherever you are in the world.
Aston Villa host Wolves at Villa Park on Saturday, March 30. Kickoff is set for 5:30 p.m. GMT, which is 1:30 p.m. ET or 10:30 a.m. PT in the US and Canada, and 4:30 a.m. AEDT on Sunday, March 31, in Australia.
If you find yourself unable to view the game locally, you may need a different way to watch the game — that’s where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic, and it’s also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.
With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. So if your internet provider or mobile carrier has stuck you with an IP address that incorrectly shows your location in a blackout zone, a VPN can correct that problem by giving you an IP address in your correct, non-blackout area. Most VPNs, like our Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.
Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.
Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.
Saturday’s Aston Villa v Wolves match is streaming on Peacock. You’ll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to catch the game live.
Premier League rights in the UK are split between Sky Sports, Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports (previously known as BT Sport). Aston Villa vs. Wolves is exclusive to Sky Sports, showing on its Sky Sports Main Event, Premier League and Ultra channels. If you already have Sky Sports as part of your TV package, you can stream the game via its Sky Go app, but cord-cutters will want to get set up with a Now account and a Now Sports membership to stream the game.
If you want to stream Aston Villa vs. Wolves live in Canada, you’ll need to subscribe to Fubo. The service has exclusive rights for this Premier League season.
Football fans Down Under can watch this EPL fixture on streaming service Optus Sport, which is showing every single Premier League game live in Australia this season.
The first Premier League fixture after the international break sees Newcastle host West Ham, with both teams looking to boost their chances of finishing in the top six.
Four points and three places behind their opponents today, Eddie Howe’s Magpies are beset by an injury crisis that threatens their push for European qualification.
Hammers boss David Moyes will meanwhile have rued the disruption of international week. The east Londoners were finding form following a stellar 5-0 win over Freiburg in the UEFA Europa League and a solid 1-1 draw with Aston Villa in the EPL — a result that leaves them 3 points behind sixth-place Man United.
Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the game live, wherever you are in the world.
Newcastle United host West Ham unitedat St. James’ Park on Saturday, March 30. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m. GMT local time, which is 8:30 a.m. ET or 5:30 a.m. PT in the US and Canada, and 11:30 p.m. AEDT in Australia.
If you find yourself unable to view the game locally, you may need a different way to watch the game — that’s where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic, and it’s also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.
With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. So if your internet provider or mobile carrier has stuck you with an IP address that incorrectly shows your location in a blackout zone, a VPN can correct that problem by giving you an IP address in your correct, non-blackout area. Most VPNs, like our Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.
Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.
Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.
Saturday’s Newcastle-West Ham match is streaming on USA Network, which you can access as part of your cable package or at the NBC Sports website with a valid login, and can be streamed via Sling TV and other more expensive streaming TV services.
Premier League rights in the UK are split between Sky Sports, Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports (previously known as BT Sport). The Man United vs. Everton game is exclusive to TNT Sports — showing on its TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 1 HD and TNT Sports Ultimate in 4K.
If you want to stream Newcastle vs. West Ham live in Canada, you’ll need to subscribe to Fubo. The service has exclusive rights for this Premier League season.
Football fans Down Under can watch this EPL fixture on streaming service Optus Sport, which is showing every single Premier League game live in Australia this season.
If you’re an avid TikTok user, you may have seen videos in your feed of people claiming to have TikTok buttons “burnt-in” to their phone screens. This means after they exit out of the app they use for hours at a time, they say they can still see a faint image of the app buttons on their screen while using other apps.
It was a complaint of those using the iPhone 15 Pro Max, ZDNET’s Kerry Wan reported, but you can find unverified Reddit reports of ghostly TikTok images on Android phones and other iPhone models. Apple refers to this issue as “display image persistence,” and if you think you are seeing faint images on your iPhone screen of a recently closed app, there’s an easy fix for iPhone owners — I’ll explain below. However, judging from the people who reported experiencing the screen burn-in, the problem doesn’t seem to be wide-scale.
If you’re noticing screen elements of recently closed apps sticking around, it may be because you need to update your device. Keep reading to find out more about burn-in on phones. For more, here’s why you should really update to iOS 17.4.1 right now.
The iPhone 15 devices come with an OLED screen, which we loved in our reviews. But in some situations not specific to Apple’s phones, OLED screens — with both TVs and phones — can experience burn in. Apple said burn-in can occur with its OLED screens “in more extreme cases such as when the same high-contrast image is continuously displayed at high brightness for prolonged periods of time.”
Note that none of the CNET Mobile team saw signs of burn-in while testing out the iPhone 15 Pro lineup. I checked on several iPhones as well, and fortunately saw no ghost images.
And there’s likely a reason. Burn-in is rare on OLED phone screens, and all phones I checked were running the latest iOS.
If you think you’re seeing signs of screen burn-in on your iPhone 15 check if you have the latest iOS update. Why? At the end of 2023, Apple released iOS 17, which it said included a fix for what it calls “display image persistence.”
To find out which iOS your iPhone is operating on, go to Settings > General > About and look to the right of iOS Version. The latest iOS is 17.4.1 and to update, go to Settings > General > Software Update and tap Update Now.
If you’ve updated to the latest version of iOS but you’re still having issues with burn-in on your phone, you can either report it to Apple or make an appointment at your nearest Apple Store.
To report your iPhone issue, follow these steps.
1. Go to www.apple.com/feedback/iphone/ and enter your information.
2. Under Feedback Type, select Bug Report.
3. Be detailed in the comments section regarding what’s going on with your phone (screen burn-in) and how you’ve tried to fix it with the most recent update.
4. Finish filling out the form and click Submit.
Apple notes that it’s “unable to respond to each submission individually,” so it could take a while before you hear something back.
For more information, here’s why you may want to disable Journal Suggestions on your iPhone.
Apple released iOS 17.4.1 on March 21, more than two weeks after the company released iOS 17.4. The iOS 17.4 release brought fresh features to your iPhone, like new Stolen Device Protection options and transcripts in Podcasts. The iOS 17.4.1 update patches two zero-day vulnerabilities on your iPhone. A zero-day vulnerability is a security flaw that can be used to access vulnerable systems in software or hardware, according to IBM.
To download the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update, tap Update Now and follow the onscreen prompts.
“This update provides important bug fixes and security updates and is recommended for all users,” Apple wrote in the update’s description.
Apple wrote in the update’s CVE entry — which stands for common vulnerabilities and exposures — that iOS 17.4.1 addresses two issues that could lead to arbitrary code execution. According to the IT services company Okta, arbitrary code execution could allow a third party to steal your data or hack your device for other nefarious purposes. Apple didn’t say these issues were actively exploited, but these issues could be exploited without this update.
According to Apple, both issues were uncovered by Google’s Project Zero, a team of security analysts who research and report zero-day vulnerabilities in hardware and software.
For more on iOS 17, here are all the iPhone features included with iOS 17.4 and iOS 17.3. You can also check out our iOS 17 cheat sheet.
Apple announced that this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 10. We expect to see early looks at iOS 18 and updates for other device software like MacOS, iPadOS and even VisionOS — as well as potential news on generative AI coming to Apple devices.
Apple’s been tight-lipped about any new AI features coming to its mobile and computer lineups, but its annual developers show is the place where we’ll likely see hints of anything coming later this year. Competitors from Samsung to Intel have promoted AI capabilities in this year’s hardware and software, so the pressure is on for Apple to set a new course with generative AI in its devices.
Read more: Best iPhone to buy for 2024
Multiple reports suggest Apple is in talks with Google to bring its Gemini AI model to iPhones, which could help the devices keep up with generative AI on other mobile devices. Whether Apple has plans to use other generative AI solutions (or its own), the rumors indicate more attention on AI than we’ve seen from the company before.
While Apple still didn’t mention AI in its WWDC press release, it did note that the event will spotlight upgrades coming to VisionOS, the software powering Apple Vision Pro. Apple first revealed its mixed reality headset at last year’s WWDC 2023 and released it earlier this year. While the headset pushed the limits of AR and VR, the device’s hefty $3,500 price led some consumers to wait to see how the device will develop, so any new features revealed for the device at WWDC 2024 could lead to greater adoption.
Apple is once again holding WWDC 2024 in-person at Apple Park, and aspiring attendees who don’t score an invite or can’t make it will also be able to watch online. The event starts on June 10 with, if tradition holds, a keynote by Apple CEO Tim Cook, followed by days of specialized sessions targeted at developers building software across Apple’s ecosystem, which will wrap up on June 14.
The WWDC 2024 announcement comes on the heels of a massive antitrust lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice against Apple, accusing the tech giant of practices that hinder fair competition. The agency, along with 16 state attorneys general, focused on the ways Apple has used the iPhone to control the app ecosystem and downgrade connections with non-Apple phones (e.g., the “green bubble” experience when texting Android devices).
“We allege that Apple has consolidated its monopoly power, not by making its own products better, but by making other products worse,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news conference last week.
Apple has denied the lawsuit’s accusations, saying in a statement that it threatens the company’s identity and principles that set its products apart from others. If the lawsuit succeeds, it would “set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology.”
Read more: The US Lawsuit Against Apple Raises Questions About iPhone and Android’s Future
Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.
Belgium’s biggest and arguably toughest race of the UCI World Tour calendar is upon us, as the riders take on the cobbles of the Tour of Flanders this Saturday.
The men’s race follows a scenic 271-kilometer route between Antwerp and Oudenaarde that features 17 calf-shredding climbs.
The women’s race meanwhile includes 12 bergs, culminating with the grueling double whammy of Kwaremont and Paterberg’s ascents.
Highly fancied contender Wout van Aert misses the men’s race after sustaining injuries in a pile-up during Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, while last year’s champ Tadej Pogacar has opted to skip the Ronde this year to focus on his preparations for the upcoming Giro d’Italia., leaving Mathieu van der Poel as the clear prerace favorite.
The women’s race could meanwhile see reigning world champion Lotte Kopecky aiming to win her third consecutive Flanders title.
Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the Tour of Flanders live wherever you are in the world.
The 2024 Tour of Flanders takes place on Saturday, March 30. The Men’s race starts at 10 a.m. CEST local time in Belgium, which is 9 a.m. GMT in the UK, 5 a.m. ET or 2 a.m. PT in the US and 8 p.m. AEDT in Australia.
The women’s race follows a little later at 1:25 p.m. CEST (2:25 p.m. GMT in the UK, 10:25 a.m. ET /7:25 a.m. PT in the US and 1:25 a.m. AEDT in Australia in the early hours of Sunday morning).
If you find yourself unable to view the race locally, you may need a different way to watch — that’s where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds by encrypting your traffic, and it’s also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.
With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to what you want to watch. If your internet provider or mobile carrier has stuck you with an IP address that incorrectly shows your location in a blackout zone, a VPN can correct that problem by giving you an IP address in your correct, non-blackout area. Most VPNs, like our Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.
Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.
Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.
US cycling fans can watch all the action live from Belgium via dedicated cycling streaming service FloBikes.
Viewers in the UK will need to subscribe to Eurosport or the streaming service Discovery Plus to watch this year’s action from Belgium live.
It’s good news for cycling fans Down Under, with the 2024 Tour of Flanders set to be broadcast for free in Australia on SBS.
As with the US, dedicated cycling streaming service FloBikes is the place to watch live coverage of this year’s race in Canada.
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Beyoncé has a brand-new album. Her eighth full-length release, Cowboy Carter, is the second part of a three-part project that began with 2022’s house music-inflected Renaissance.
In characteristic fashion, Bey announced the massive, 27-song effort in a major way: via a Verizon commercial that aired during the Super Bowl. She released two singles that same night, Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages, and they both hit the Top 10 on the country charts.
It’s an encouraging response to a project that was born out of a negative experience in which she performed with the artists formerly known as the Dixie Chicks (now just the Chicks) at the Country Music Awards in 2016 and felt unwelcome in the world of country music. Cowboy Carter is her strong musical plea for musicians to shatter genre boundaries when performing music, and for fans to do the same when listening.
Beyoncé insists that Cowboy Carter isn’t a country album, even though country icons Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson are among its many surprising guests. Here’s what you need to know about how to stream what may prove to be Queen Bey’s best album — along with info on the track list and how to spot Easter eggs.
Read more: I Scored Floor Seats for Beyoncė’s Renaissance Tour Thanks to My Sinking Fund. Here’s How
Beyoncé’s eighth album, Cowboy Carter, is available to stream in full on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal.
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter features 27 tracks, with their titles including the occasional star symbol:
Beyoncé worked with known legends and future stars on Cowboy Carter, including 90-year-old Willie Nelson and Bey’s 6-year-old daughter Rumi Carter. Here’s a closer look at the major players:
Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer: Beyoncé chose four Black female artists to collaborate with her on a cover of The Beatles’ 1968 song Blackbird, here stylized as Blackbiird. The song honors her young guests, who are all forging ahead and innovating in the still-divisive country music world.
Rumi Carter: Beyoncé’s 6-year-old daughter appears at the beginning of Protector.
Miley Cyrus: The hitmaking Disney actress turned pop star, whose godmother is Dolly Parton, joins Beyoncé for II Most Wanted, a country smoker’s track that somehow still evokes 2Pac and Snoop Dogg’s Amerikaz Most Wanted duet.
Rhiannon Giddens: Playing on Beyoncé’s No. 1 pop and country music hit Texas Hold ‘Em is just the latest huge move from the Grammy-, Pulitzer- and MacArthur “genius grant”-winning folk musician.
Willie Jones: Jones released the country and hip-hop hybrid album Something to Dance to in 2023. He’s Beyoncé’s guest on the actually somber song Just for Fun.
Post Malone: The track Levii’s Jeans finds Beyoncé getting a bit saucy in a surprising collaboration with Post Malone, the affable pop-rap star known more for modulating his voice digitally than singing without added effects.
Linda Martell: The first Black woman soloist to appear at the Grand Ole Opry, Martell also appeared on the old country comedy TV show Hee Haw. On the track Spaghettii, she questions the need for music genres, and she returns to introduce a track during an interlude called The Linda Martell Show, an encouragement for fans to dig into Martell’s career.
Willie Nelson: The country legend plays a radio DJ for fictional station KNTRY on Smoke Hour ★Willie Nelson and Smoke Hour II. Nelson can be heard inhaling and delivering the central lesson of the album: that genres don’t matter and sometimes you just need someone you trust to turn you on to the “good shit.”
Dolly Parton: Country’s enduring icon, whose most recent album is called Rockstar, pops in to commiserate over stolen men on Dolly P, an interlude which leads into Beyoncé’s cover of Parton’s 1973 hit Jolene. Parton returns uncredited at the beginning of a naughty song called Tyrant.
Shaboozey: The rising Nigerian-American singer and rapper appears on two Cowboy Carter songs, Spaghettii and Sweet ★ Honey ★ Buckiin. His new album, set for a May release, is called Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going.
Various producers: Beyoncé also worked with several producers who are successful artists in their own right and have worked with her multiple times, such as Raphael Saadiq, The-Dream, Pharrell Williams, Ryan Tedder and Swizz Beatz.
Read more: Beyoncé Owns a Lamborghini LM002, We Continue to Stan
Beyoncé loves to hide Easter eggs in her albums, and Cowboy Carter delivers in that respect. Here are some to look out or listen for:
Lots of IIs: Because Cowboy Carter is “act II” of a three-act project that began with her previous album, 2022’s Renaissance, many song titles have “II” or “ii” in them, such as the duets II Most Wanted with Miley Cyrus and Levii’s Jeans with Post Malone.
Samples: Cowboy Carter is structured like a fantasy radio station with the call letters KNTRY, and if you listen closely, you’ll hear the use of samples in various songs. Interestingly, the late Chuck Berry appears twice on the album: first with a bit of his 1955 hit Maybellene on Smoke Hour ★Willie Nelson, an interlude featuring Nelson assuming his old role as a radio DJ, and later with a slowed-down bit of 1971’s Oh Louisiana in a new Beyoncé song of the same name.
Interpolations: Distinct from sampling, interpolation is the term for when an artist replays or re-sings part of another song instead of directly lifting the work. Cowboy Carter contains interpolations of songs like Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys and Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ by Nancy Sinatra (on Ya Ya); Patsy Cline’s I Fall to Pieces (on Sweet ★ Honey ★ Buckiin); and even Tommaso Giordani’s 18th century Italian aria Caro Mio Ben, which Beyoncé sings on Daughter.
Read more: Beyoncé and Her Music Arrive on TikTok
If Cowboy Carter whets your appetite for more Beyoncé, you’re in luck. Some, but not all, of Beyoncé’s musical films are currently available to stream:
Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (2019): Watch highlights and behind the scenes material from Bey’s historic and large-scale performances at Coachella in 2018 on Netflix.
Black Is King (2020): Disney Plus convinced a lot of the Beyhive to subscribe in order to watch a “visual album” that accompanied her release The Lion King: The Gift, for the 2019 reboot of The Lion King.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (2023): The movie based on her most recent tour has left theaters in the US, leaving fans to wonder whether it will eventually air on Netflix.
Beyoncé’s acting roles: Beyoncé has also acted in music movies such as Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001), Dreamgirls (2006) and Cadillac Records (2008), all of which are available to watch on various streaming services if you have a premium subscription.
Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages: You can watch the music videos for her first two songs released from Cowboy Carter on YouTube, as well as the lyric videos for her other songs on the new album.
Do we really need another day of hoaxes? After all, isn’t the internet trying to fool users pretty much every other day of the year too? Regardless, April Fools’ Day is here again, so it’s worth saying: Everything you read on Monday that seems even the least bit weird is possibly false. And this year, the astrological movement known as Mercury Retrograde, which some people believe brings bad luck, begins on April 1. So if you believe in that, get ready for extra weirdness.
Have you ever read the Wikipedia entry for April Fools’? We can’t even trace the origins of this holiday, like we can with Mother’s Day or Earth Day. There might be a connection to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, or to Noah’s Ark, but then again maybe not. It’s perhaps the weirdest — or the most foolish — holiday we have.
The best tip is simply to be suspicious. If a company picks April Fools’ Day, or the days leading up to it, to release or announce a product that sounds too odd to be true, don’t be quick to believe in the offering.
Fact-check anything that looks suspicious — especially before spending any money. Make sure you’re on the company’s own site, for one thing. Google the name of the product, or information about the item, to see if anyone has called out the product as a prank. Usually, fake products will offer a page to click to, and that page may simply say APRIL FOOL.
Some of the biggest companies out there have created joke products for the holiday, but not all the shams and hoaxes are corporate jokes. Don’t fall for April Fools’ pranks from random tricksters. It’s easy to spread falsehoods and misinformation on Reddit, Facebook, TikTok or Instagram, where everyone is a publisher and not everyone can be trusted.
And not all pranks are products. Be very wary of “news reports” you see on sites that aren’t real publications. Check the URL. The New York Times doesn’t misspell its own name in its URL, but joke sites may pick a very similarly named web address to try to trick you.
Here’s a look at some of the bigger April Fools’ pranks circulating this year. I’ll add to this roundup as new jokes come out. Note that I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if some of these companies actually release a small number of these products just for laughs. So even if they’re joke-inspired, they could come to life.
Hot dog water, aka the water you cook hot dogs in, has to be one of the nastier liquids out there. (There’s even a Scooby-Doo character called Hot Dog Water, yeesh.) Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is touting a new flavor of sparkling water named for the hot dogs it sells, Big Bite Hot Dog Sparkling Water. “More details on the availability of this flavor will be revealed on April 1,” the press release says. Hmm…
Adidas makes shoes. Shoes come in boxes. So this year, the company is putting forth not a shoebox, but a box shoe — a fake (we hope) shoe shaped like a box. It’s shown on Adidas’ Confirmed app, and shoes are so extreme these days, who knows? It could be real one day.
Del Taco is a fast-food chain with nearly 600 locations. It offers hot sauces for its Mexican-inspired food in mild, Del Scorcho and Del Inferno flavors, and it sent out a press release touting Tic Tac mints in those three hot sauce flavors. Writing as someone who’s been sent actual samples of curry-flavored and Hidden Valley Ranch-flavored lip balms before, I guess this isn’t so tough to believe. But don’t try to buy these mints — it’s a hot prank.
Again, we’ll update this list as more pranks roll out.
