Video: Wil Wheaton’s New Show!

Here’s a trailer for Wil Wheaton’s (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Stand By Me”) new YouTube show “Tabletop”.  The show will feature Wheaton playing board games with a wide range of guests.  This will be part of the “Geek & Sundry” YouTube channel.  One of the new YouTube channels funded by Google.  The show will air biweekly, beginning on April 2, 2012.

Google Celebrates First Man in Space

With the doodle above Google celebrates the first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

And we’ve added some nifty Gagarin vids after the jump …

This Year’s Best April Fools Jokes!

The origins of April Fools Day remain somewhat hazy.   But its popularity seems to be growing year by year.  Now not only does it lead to school yard and office pranks, but the largest companies get in on the act.  Companies like the BBC, Google, Disney and others have regularly been involved in large scale April fools jokes.  And the Internet has embraced the holiday, creating some of the best April Fools Jokes in recent memory.

Here’s some of this year’s better April fools jokes.

Gmail Motion.  Google loves April Fools Day and always goes the extra mile to produce some good jokes.  This one has some great deadpan video which is likely to fool more than a few people.

Helvetica Gag.  This another one from Google.  Type “helvetica” in a Google search window.  And let the fun begin.  We don’t want to spoil this one.  It’s quite clever.

True Mobile Wallet Service.  Mobile Industry News offers this breathless take on tech acquisitions.  Will this fool anyone?  Who knows.  But it’s pretty funny for people who have read stuff like this every day.  Like us.

Do You Know Groucho?  Linkedin offers some easier to spot fun with offers for links to profiles for Grouch Marx and Robin hood.

We’re Just Sooo Excited.  The Guardian has favorite so far.  A “live blog” for the Royal Wedding.  Still 29 days away.

Would You Like this Dance? Our pals at Dread Central have rebranded their site for the day (above).

We’ll update this post throughout the day and into tomorrow as we encounter more jokes we feel worthy of mentioning.  If you see any worthy ones that we’ve missed, list the in the comments section.  We can’t be everywhere!

Google Celebrates Will Eisner’s Birthday!

Today Google is celebrating the birthday of Will Eisner with the doodle (above) on their homepage.  Will Eisner is a comic book pioneer.  He invented many of the forms conventions, and created one of it’s most iconic characters … the Spirit.  That’s the dude with mask (above).  This is another example of Google choosing to celebrate some geekier figures and ideas through their special doodles.

Audio: RED DWARF Sat Nav!

Here’s audio of Robert Llwellyn as “Red Dwarf‘s” android Kryten (above) giving Sat Nav instructions.  Enjoy!

Audio and Video: “The Flintstones” Turns 50!

“The Flintstones” turned 50 this week, and here’s what NPR had to say about it:

After the jump we offer some of favorite moments from the series …

Make Google “Talk Like a Pirate”

Celebrate national “Talk Like a Pirate Day” by changing your Google language to pirate.  It’s easy.  Just go to the settings page, and change your language to “pirate”!

Google Comments on WORLD OF WARCRAFT Users

For other funny Google results click here.

Google in Talks to Allow Movie Rentals Over YouTube!

According to the Financial Times:

Google YouTube video site is in negotiations with Hollywood’s leading movie studios to launch a global pay-per-view video service by the end of 2010, putting it head-to-head with Apple in the race to dominate the digital distribution of film and television content.

This is a major play for the tech giant.  And another sign of the future of movie consumption.  We’re sure there’s going to be a lot more about this in the hours and days ahead.

Philip K. Dick’s Estate Zaps Google

According to Locus Online, Philip K. Dick’s estate has launch a cease and desist order against Google for the use of the name “Nexus One” for their new smart phone.

The family claims that the name Nexus One is a “clear infringement of our intellectual property rights,” referencing the Nexus 6 replicants in Bladerunner, the movie based on PKD’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The letter, a possible presage to a lawsuit, demands that Google cease using the name and requests that the company turn over relevant documents within ten days.

Google fired back claiming:

… the name has nothing to do with Dick’s work, and that it was simply using the word in its original sense – as a place where things converge. In 2009, Verizon Wireless licensed the Droid name from “Star Wars” creator George Lucas for use with the Motorola phone. However, unlike George Lucas and the Droid trademark, Dick’s estate does not have a trademark on the Nexus name.

We’re not lawyers, so Google may be in the clear on this.  But Google’s obsession with all things Science Fiction has been pretty clear for some time.  So we doubt that the “Nexus 6″ reference didn’t play a role in the naming of the phone.