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.

 

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4 - WTF, I Don’t Speak Tagalog.

The Prank: Unless your target is proficient in 200 languages, this prank will work. Change the language of both the OS and the keyboard input to make your target think that his coffee break bent the space time continuum and left him on a different continent.

What You Need:

>Access to victim's Mac

The Steps:

1) Go to System Preferences > international

Click to Embiggen

2) Click the Language tab, and drag the esoteric language of your choice to the top (above English).

3) Then, go to the input menu tab, select an input language by checking it, and make sure "Show Input Menu in Menubar" is selected

4) In the menubar, click the flag, and select the language you just installed.

5) Go back to the input menu, and deselect "Show Input Menu in Menubar," making sure the target will have to navigate System Preferences in Swedish before he can change it back.

The Result: Not only will the target not be able to read what he is typing, but won’t be able to read solutions to fix the situation. If you feel really evil, we suggest making the input language Dvorak. This will still be English, but will be a completely different keyboard map, so the target will merely think someone spilled soda on their keyboard.

 

5 - RickRolled

The Prank: No prank list would be complete without some reference to Rick Astley's infamous "Never Gonna Give You Up." OS X makes it simple to cause lasting psychological damage to the target, solely by modifying the list of startup items.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac
>Link to your favorite irritating video

The Steps:

1) Go to System Preferences > Users

2) On the target’s username, click Login Items. Then click the plus button to add a new startup item.

3) Add Safari to the list of Login Items.

4) Open Safari, and go to Safari > Preferences

5) Change the home page to the url of the RickRoll on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI), or, if you are particularly demonic, www.smouch.net/lol. Of course, If you're tired of Rick, you can always use our new favorite, Play him off Keyboard Cat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ

The Result: Every time your victim logs in or opens Safari, they will be RickRolled. Note: This works with any browser.

 

6 - OMG I Hope I Saved My Work

The Prank: While OS X doesn’t have a Blue Screen of Death, the Kernel panic screen is equally intimidating. Make your target think their computer has crashed, when really, it's a screensaver.

What You Need: 

>Access to victim's Mac
>Download Kernel Panic Screensaver

The Steps:

1) Install the Kernel Panic Screensaver. Then, choose it in System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver

2) Under the Screen Saver tab, slide the "Start Screen Saver" bar to one minute.

3) Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver, and set "Turn Display Off" to never.

The Result: If the target leaves the computer unattended for a minute, it will Kernel panic. Or at least appear to Kernel panic. Hilarity ensues when the target actually holds down the power button as instructed, and then finds out it was just a screen saver.

 

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7 - The colors, THE COLORS!!!

The Prank: Using Universal Access features for evil may seem morally suspect, but can result in some of the best pranks yet. Turn certain features on to befuddle the target.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac

The Steps:

1) Go to System Preferences >Universal Access. Turn Zoom on. 

2) Press Command-Option-+. Keep pressing until you get the desired amount of zoom.

Click to embiggen

3) Press Command-Option-Control-8. This will invert the colors on the screen.

4) Run away. This prank is fairly difficult to hide.

The Result: Navigating OS X while both of the settings are enabled is incredibly difficult. Watch them struggle for a while, restart and find out the settings are still enabled, and finally give up in frustration and pay you to fix it. The last part isn’t very likely. We wouldn’t bet on you getting paid. Unless you were being paid in punches.

 

8 - I’m Clicking Dammit

The Prank: Upon returning to his computer after a coffee break, the target will find his desktop un-clickable. This is almost more fun than the desktop collapsing, because the possibilities of causality for this prank are endless. Broken mouse, slow computer, angry God(s) could all be reasons why the desktop stops working. Only thing is, it’s still working. The target just doesn’t know that.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac

The Steps:

1) Take a screenshot of the full desktop. The keyboard shortcut is Command-Shift-3

2) Move the dock to another side of the screen, and auto-hide it.

3) Open the screenshot in Preview, and go to View > Slideshow.

4) Move the bezel to the far bottom right of the screen so it is virtually invisible.

*For a more permanent solution. Set the screenshot as the desktop image via System Preferences. 

The Result: The desktop shall be unclickable, and there will be no legitimate reason why. Set a timer for how long it takes for the target to figure this one out.

 

9 - NOOOO It’s My Worst Nightmare

The Prank: Safari is no longer Safari. Now it’s Internet Explorer. Dun dun dun.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac
>Square Internet Explorer image

The Steps:

1) Go to the Applications folder and single click on Safari. Press Command-I to "Get Info."

2) Click on the application icon in the top left of the Info Window

3) Find a suitable icon replacement, and make sure it is perfectly square. Crop it if it isn’t. Here is the image search result for Internet Explorer. 

4) Open the file, select all, and copy it to the clipboard.

5) Go back to the inspector window, Edit > Paste.

6) Relaunch Finder (Apple > Force Quit > Finder)

The Result: While you can’t make it an exact replica, because there is no way to make Safari substantially slower, the dock icon and application name for Safari will suddenly become Internet Explorer. It might not cause the target any physical pain, but will definitely cause confusion.

 

10 - AOL Hasn’t Been Relevant Since 1998!

The Prank: It was a long time ago, but we can still remember how that mail notification used to make us die a little inside. When AOL dominated the email space, the ubiquitous 'You’ve got mail' haunted dial up customers everywhere. Now, the target shall relive their worst nightmare.

What You Need: 

>Access to Victim's Mac
>Download "You've Got Mail" sound

The Steps:

1) Put a .aiff sound file in the ~/Library/Sounds folder (we found the "You’ve Got Mail" one at www.entourage.mvps.org/rules/sounds.html scroll to the bottom to find it.)

2) Go to Mail > Preferences > General

3) Click the drop down menu for "New Mail Sound." Click Add/Remove.

5) Choose the file you added in the Mail file chooser.

6) Select your new sound it in the drop down menu.

The Result: The next time the target gets a new mail, he will be greeted to the wonderful sound that you have prepared for them. Chances are, they won’t know how to fix it either.

 

Got a devious prank? Tell us about it in the comments.