Filed under: Open Source, iPhone, App Store, SDK
Emoji on its way out of the App Store
For the past month or so, developers have been taking advantage of an opening in the iPhone SDK to enable Emoji emoticons on non-Japanese iPhones, without having to resort to jailbreaking. While I was a little taken aback by the fascination and little mini-market that sprouted up around Emoji activation, it's clear that the public likes its icons.Unfortunately, the Emoji free for all may be over. Gary, from Typing Genius, e-mailed us this morning and he let us know that Apple is cracking down on Emoji activation outside of Japan. According to Gary, Apple is forbidding Emoji-only apps (Emotifun and iEmoji have both been removed from the App Store) and requiring developers for apps that do more than just Emoji (like Typing Genius -- iTunes link) to provide an Emoji-free update immediately.
In regards to Typing Genius, Gary says that:
* Existing Typing Genius users who have already unlocked emoji will not be affected when Apple remove apps from the App Store
* Emoji unlock will remain intact for users who upgrade to a newer version of Typing Genius (without the unlock) later on
So if you want to get your Emoji on, it's probably best to act sooner rather than later. Pictographs have been removed from the App Store. Oh, the humanity!
Thanks Gary
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
KomputarGuy said 2:32PM on 2-27-2009
Yeah, heaven forbid we get emoji icons. At least I can have as many iFart apps as I can handle! The first few times it was kinda neat to have the Emoji, it wore off pretty quick, plus anyone without an iPhone can't see them.
Apple knows whats best.....for everyone...
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Bent said 2:33PM on 2-27-2009
Too bad... If you want emoji icons in ichat, check this out: http://emojiforichat.com
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Jon said 2:52PM on 2-27-2009
I'm sure Apple has genuine reasons for doing things like this but they really should explain them publicly. Otherwise with no explanation from them, it just seems draconian.
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FSM129 said 9:43AM on 2-28-2009
I think apple did give a reason. It was that only people in japan got emoji. :'(
mark said 2:54PM on 2-27-2009
Yet another reason to jailbreak. Emoji is free on Cydia. App Store you are digging your own grave, one restriction at a time....
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Avinash Vakil said 3:08PM on 2-27-2009
Fortunately, if the App Store fails and because absolutely nothing more than a repository for tip calculators and fart app, because apple couldn't instill confidence in developers of good apps that their apps would actually be accepted (look at South Park or Netshare, all those wasted development resources); we still have Jailbreak to fall back to for a community that can be sure that any apps its developers program will be published.
Alex said 2:59PM on 2-27-2009
Umm there is no "genius" reason for this. Wake up.
This is yet again more proof that Apple has needs to pull their head out of their ar*e.
not having an open SDK is ridiculous enough. but not enabling users to have icons that are ALREADY ON THE PHONE, but because it's like "ooh it's only for Japanese iPhones" is as superficial and stupid as you can get.
I mean I would LOVE to hear something more inane that Apple could complain about, if anyone can come up with it. I challenge you to tell me.
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bob said 3:25PM on 2-27-2009
except non japanese networks probably dont want these on their networks, hence no other phones outside of japan allowing it either, oh and to the guy that said the app store is just for fart apps, well i find it useful for my vnc (over internet) reading books, gps tracking of my running, gaming, and voip, but no, just fart apps
shawndc said 3:11PM on 2-27-2009
I can't for the life of me figure out why Apple even cares?
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Rob said 3:13PM on 2-27-2009
Did you think about the possibility of Gary making this story (about the crackdown) up so that he could sell more copies of this "Typing Genius" app?
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Gary Fung said 3:43PM on 2-27-2009
Rob: No, descriptions are asked to be removed RIGHT NOW (which I have done so already). Making the story up and then removing the description and screenshots about emoji would be counter productive.
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colouroflight said 4:23PM on 2-27-2009
reasons_to_jailbreak++;
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Mike O'Connor said 5:23PM on 2-27-2009
My guess is a technical reason. Apple's Emoji characters are currently mapped into the Unicode space at a private-use place. This is surely temporary. Unicode is going to standardize the positions of Emoji characters soon, but as of now different companies use different positions in the font, making interchange very difficult right now. Apple is probably trying not to spread Emoji widely until its position is standardized.
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Ruben Tijerina said 5:40PM on 2-27-2009
but if we downloaded the typing genius app say, today, will it still work? and will it be undone later?
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Erik Abele said 5:50PM on 2-27-2009
The reason for this is probably just technical: the emoji stuff implemented by Apple is totally incompatible with western text message standards and simply causes issues for the operators (and users!). According to a bug in Radar it is even inconsistent with the original NTT Docomo implementation so...
Here are the details:
The truth about iPhone Emoji — http://inner.geek.nz/archives/2009/02/06/the-truth-about-iphone-emoji/
iPhone implements Emoji incompatibly (rdar://6402446) — http://openradar.appspot.com/6402446
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Kento Ito said 7:06PM on 2-27-2009
Well, that's the first step.
But I got a bad feeling that there's a firmware update that removes emoji from already enabled iPhones and iPod touch, along with updated KILL SWITCH!
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Marc said 7:17PM on 2-27-2009
I think it has to do with the app reviews. So many people are tricking them out lately with EMOJI and it does not translate to itunes(on pc) reviews. That could be a reason. It is the only logical reason to me!
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Kento Ito said 7:34PM on 2-27-2009
That, and that at&t has no resource to support emoji currently (although I know a friend who works at at&t is saying that they are releasing a new phones that support emoji on SMS, to better expand their texting phone capabilities, which is good.)
DerFlash said 7:35PM on 2-27-2009
Luckily so far my IRC chat app 'Rooms' has been overlooked by Apple! ... I mean ... *yey* *g* *smile*
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/ba5mjp
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Fritz Laurel said 11:37PM on 2-27-2009
I honestly don't understand either side of this.
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