Google Fakes Own Pixel 4a Leak With Unfinished ‘Lorem Ipsum’ Site To Pick Apart
Screenshot via Google
Among smartphone greats, Google seems to suffer the most laughable leaks, with suspected prototypes appearing in retail stores and the back of a Lyft cab. The company is being an amazing sport about it, even going so far as to jump on this notoriety to tease the Pixel 4a.
To announce the upcoming launch, the tech giant updated the cover photos in its Pixel social media channels with an image of colored blanked-out boxes in between the words “Introducing… The Google” and “Phone.” The top left of the graphic features a hole-punch in reference to the phone’s front-facing camera.
The social media accounts also direct followers to a goo.gle/lorem-ipsum link, leading them to a hilarious landing page.
Screenshot via Google
Taking a jab at the numerous leaks it has suffered, Google created a seemingly half-finished webpage with “lorem ipsum” filler text—casually peppered with phrases like “lowlightena capturum,” “Ac megapixelum,” “blurtutate bokehus,” and “longlastingis batterum”—as well as a “transparent” PNG mockup shaped like a smartphone.
And that’s not even the fun part. It turns out that the web design is far from incomplete—it’s been meticulously constructed so you can investigate for details and make your own deductions about the next unveiling, somewhat like how tech leakers prod around for clues.
If you’d like to get your hands dirty and look for the clues yourself, you can explore the webpage by opening the card below:
From Chrome on your desktop browser, try hitting the Inspect Element tool (via View > Developer > Developer Tools) and exploring the new Inspect Element window. If you’re on Safari, you can find a similar feature under Develop > Show Web Inspector (though you’ll first need to activate the Develop menu by heading over to Safari > Preferences > Advanced and ticking “Show Develop menu in menu bar).
You’ll then discover a tongue-in-cheek header title that reads, “What are you looking at,” and hovering your cursor on the blanks in the page will reveal where else to investigate, leading you to the message, “Just What You’ve Been Waiting For.”
As pointed out by SlashGear, the intended way of unraveling the hidden message is by clicking on the boxes in the page—which will in turn change color—according to the sequence hinted on social media: blue, red, yellow, blue, green, and red.
Posted by Made by Google on Thursday, July 30, 2020
This will prompt the tagline to appear on the page—before unlocking the most important detail in the ad: the 3 August launch date.
Although a roundabout ploy to hype people up, Google’s puzzle is admittedly effective. If you weren’t curious about the launch before, you’d be by now.
[via SlashGear, screenshots via Google]
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