If you're thinking to yourself, "Wait, it's not April." Don't worry, we know exactly what we're doing here. Everyone expects pranks in April and the days leading up. No one expects a prank in the middle of summer. Muhahahahahahaa...

Oh, and if you get fired because of one of the pranks, it's summer time. You can go to the beach. 

Disclaimer: Use the pranks below at your own risk. Mac|Life can not be held responsible if you break any hardware, or you are fired, or beat up, because of the pranks. Use common sense, and choose your victims wisely. 

 

1 - I Know Where You Are... Always

The Prank: How creepy would it be if your computer suddenly talked to you when you walked towards it? Incredibly. Especially if it said something contextually relevant, like “I can smell you from here. Go take a shower." Well, if you steal the target’s phone for 20 minutes, you will be one step closer to setting them up for the shock of their lives.

What you need:

>Access to their Bluetooth phone and Mac.
>Proximity

The Steps:

1) Find, or create, an .aiff sound that you want to play when your victim approaches their computer. The easiest way to do this is to record your voice with GarageBand, if you don’t mind them knowing you were behind the prank. Otherwise, you can convert another sound file to the .aiff file format.

2) Save the file you found, or made, in ~/Library/Sounds. Go to system preferences > Sound > Sound Effects and choose your sound under "Alert Sound"

3) Open script editor (Applications > AppleScript > Script Editor), type "beep" and then click compile. Save the script somewhere where the target can’t see it. This script will play the sound you created in step 1.

4) Download Proximity and launch it. The Proximity menu item will appear in your menu bar. in the menubar, click on Proximity>Preferences.

5) Pair their phone to Proximity by selecting "Change Device." Change the "In Range Script" location to the script you created earlier. We left our device monitoring to 60 seconds. This allowed our victim to have a seat before being hassled. 

The Result: When your target walks closer to the computer, Proximity will detect the target’s Bluetooth enabled phone. Then, it will execute the script that you made, playing a snarky and/or terrifying sound clip that will send the target into shock and/or awe.

 

 

2 - And You Thought it was Cut and Paste

The Prank: Two of the go-to keyboard shortcuts for a Mac user is Command-C and Command-V. We are going to remap the shortcuts to wreak havoc on the target’s workflow.

What you need:

>Spark
>Access to victim's Mac

The Steps:

1) Download, move to the Applications folder, and launch Spark.

2) Double click on "System." You now have Action options. We chose "Log Out," in the drop down menu for action, but you can also choose to launch an AppleScript, open a folder that show a creepy message, and many more. Try to maximize the evil.

3) Click in the "Shortcut" field and press Command-V. This remaps Command-V to launch whatever action you specified.

4) Save the settings, and exit.

The Result: Next time your target tries to paste an address into Google maps, his computer will log him out. Mwahahahaha.

 

 

3 - Oh Noes. My Desktop is Disintegrating!

The Prank: Riddle me this. If all the windows on your computer suddenly collapsed, would you A) call AppleCare, B) throw your monitor at the wall, C) fall on your knees in a dramatic pose and yell "WHY, WHYYY," or D) glare at your coworker, because he just pranked you. The correct answer is D.

What You Need:

>Newton Virus ($9.99)
>USB thumbdrive
>Access to victim's Mac

The Steps:

1) Download the Newton Virus (don’t be put off by the "virus" in the name, it is completely harmless).

2) Drag the application to an available USB stick

3) When the target leaves his computer due to the office memo you sent out saying that there were free brownies on the 2nd floor (there were no free brownies), put the USB stick into the target’s computer, open the volume, and double click the application.

4) The USB stick will eject itself, so unplug it from the computer and destroy any evidence that it ever existed. Check out the video below for what to expect. 

 

The Result: After your target returns, thinking that the IT department ate all the brownies before they got to them, they'll move their mouse, and the entire desktop will collapse. Naturally, your target will yell, pray, and do all the other wonderful things that come with being pranked, like stress eating.