Well, next weekend it’s Easter. And (as you might expect) there is excitement in the Wakeling household.
After all, with two small boys, the chance of Easter eggs causes quite a bit of excitement.
But it’s not just them (and I don’t just mean because I like chocolate too).
I’m not just excited – but curious.
Curious to see if Google will release any new Easter eggs.
I know, it sounds odd. Google are known for search engines, making ANdroid, maps and so on, not for chocolate creations.
But Easter Egg also means something to do with technology. It’s a word for special features that the makers have deliberately hidden away – so hunting for them is like an Easter egg hunt.
Some of them can be useful, most are just amusing.
Anyway, here are a few that you can access by going to the google search webpage and typing something in… I don’t know if all of them will work on all devices – they were generally designed to work on PCs but I know some of them work on other devices.
- Type in Askew to get a different slant on your search results (ahem)
- Type in Barrell roll and it should do one.
- Type in conway’s game of life to see an example of this mathematical model of cell growth, division and so on running over on the right.
- If you go to Google images and type in Atari breakout you can play a version of this old game.
- This might be more useful – type Flip a coin into google and it will
- Similarly with Roll a dice
- You can also type in play solitaire – handy if you like solitaire and don’t have it on your computer.
- You can type in tic tac toe to play naughts and crosses… or if you type in terni lapilli you’ll get the same game (that’s the Latin name for it – the Romans invented it apparently)
- And if you type in pac-man you can play that.
As I say, they’re not all useful but they can be amusing and it shows what the techies who develop all this stuff are really thinking about all day!
There’s just time
Incidentally, as I say it’s Easter next weekend and if you order the new smartphone photography books now we can post them out today so there’s just time so that you should get them before Easter. That way if you’re seeing friends or family or going somewhere for Easter, you’ll have them in time to check how to get the best photos of whatever you’re up to!
(Here’s where you can order your set or find out more)