Everyone should check out the links to previous years on that page. They're all so thorough and well done. They strike such a good balance of being a joke, being a unique concept, and actual execution of the idea.
i believe this may be possible due to the different culture in japan. if you watch japanese tv you will see a lot of ridiculous (to us) game shows and other very entertaining productions.
and while japan does have a culture of obedience, it only takes the top japanese executives to say that japanese culture is different and so they should be allowed to continue.
stopping those fun projects elsewhere in google is a bit harder to understand but i guess that while the other regions have less of an obedience culture, i think at least the west has more of a "work is not a joke" culture, and so those that don't like these jokes are probably just a majority or even a strong enough minority with support by higher ups at various levels of the hierarchy that pushed out the fun parts with at least some support at any level.
As if one joke is going to undo hundreds of cancelled products, declining quality of search results, dictating web standards by fiat, capricious monetization and account suspension decisions…
Today is October 1st, right?
Yes , today is October 1st!
What day is it today ?
When I was considering a suitable day to announce the keyboard , I noticed that a type with 101 keys called a 101 keyboard is commonly used . Therefore, we published it on October 1st in honor of the 101 Keyboard .
The video is full of silly puns using the Japanese words for “head,” “hat,” etc. Such puns can be impossible to translate, but the translator of the YouTube subtitles did an excellent job of matching similar English expressions to them. For example [1]:
ウェアラブルなおかげでキーボードの中でのおしゃれ度は頭一つ抜けてますね。
Wearaburu na okage de kībōdo no naka de no osharedo wa atama hitotsu nuketemasu ne.
Awkward direct translation: Thanks to its wearability, its fashionability among keyboards sticks out by one head [≈ atama hitotsu nuketemasu].
YouTube subtitle: The fact that it’s wearable makes it head and shoulders above the rest.
I assume that the translator of those subtitles was human. But GPT-4 does a respectable job of handling that pun, too [2].
Good question. I gave GPT-4 the transcript of the video as well as three screenshots and asked it to characterize both the product and the language used. You can see the full exchange here:
It does pretty well overall, and it notes the use of “puns and wordplay.” However, its explanations of several of the jokes are wrong. For example, the last one, about the word 帽子 (hat), has nothing to do with the sound of the word まぁ (well). Rather, it is a play on two meanings of the verb kaburu, which appears in the previous line.
In previous tests of GPT-4’s language competence, I have often seen it hallucinate about how words are pronounced. It’s very good explaining the meanings of words, but spelling and pronunciation—probably because of its token-based training—are weaknesses.
The long-neglected Windows/macOS version of Google Japanese Input (with the macOS version still not supporting Apple Silicon!) has left users feeling apathetic, even when Google Japan releases a new Japanese input hat.
Is this the GBoard on Android? (can't load the website in a useful state, too much google tracking and bs) This must be the worst keyboard on mobile phones. Laggy (I can write faster than it lets the characters appear) and crashing (when I type too much ahead of what it can make appear).
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 89.8 ms ] threadIs the old Google returning?
and while japan does have a culture of obedience, it only takes the top japanese executives to say that japanese culture is different and so they should be allowed to continue.
stopping those fun projects elsewhere in google is a bit harder to understand but i guess that while the other regions have less of an obedience culture, i think at least the west has more of a "work is not a joke" culture, and so those that don't like these jokes are probably just a majority or even a strong enough minority with support by higher ups at various levels of the hierarchy that pushed out the fun parts with at least some support at any level.
ウェアラブルなおかげでキーボードの中でのおしゃれ度は頭一つ抜けてますね。
Wearaburu na okage de kībōdo no naka de no osharedo wa atama hitotsu nuketemasu ne.
Awkward direct translation: Thanks to its wearability, its fashionability among keyboards sticks out by one head [≈ atama hitotsu nuketemasu].
YouTube subtitle: The fact that it’s wearable makes it head and shoulders above the rest.
I assume that the translator of those subtitles was human. But GPT-4 does a respectable job of handling that pun, too [2].
[1] https://youtu.be/6vib77CUxNM?si=sWTiZvSuP5L7LBfT&t=83
[2] https://gally.net//temp/20231006gptpuntranslation/index.html
https://gally.net//temp/20231006gptpuntranslation/index2.htm...
It does pretty well overall, and it notes the use of “puns and wordplay.” However, its explanations of several of the jokes are wrong. For example, the last one, about the word 帽子 (hat), has nothing to do with the sound of the word まぁ (well). Rather, it is a play on two meanings of the verb kaburu, which appears in the previous line.
In previous tests of GPT-4’s language competence, I have often seen it hallucinate about how words are pronounced. It’s very good explaining the meanings of words, but spelling and pronunciation—probably because of its token-based training—are weaknesses.
Kudos to whoever went the extra mile and extended the joke to "smaller" languages.
https://github.com/google/mozc-devices/tree/master/mozc-caps
and 2021, a teacup-shaped one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20pC05yisRM
Google open-sourced a hat shaped like a giant keycap—and it actually types
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/google-open-sourced-...