emoji posts

With the release of iPhone OS 3.0, I was wondering if emoji icons still worked (they do), and then it finally dawned on me: why not iChat? A quick search turned up exactly what I was looking for: Emoji for iChat. This free downloadable icon pack basically adds the iPhone Emoji icons to iChat, accessible from the standard smiley-face dropdown menu. For it to work, however, both sides have to have it installed; if your recipient does not use the tool, all they'll see is gibberish.

Emoji for iChat is a free download from Einar Andersson & Tor Rauden Källstigen. The download includes an installer which will require you to restart iChat.

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

Emoji, Japanese for "picture" + "letter," is a set of picture characters used in Japan much in the same way as emoticons here in the US. The Emoji pictographs, however, offer a wider variety of images than emoticons which are typically limited to just expressing an emotion or facial expression such as winking.

Emoji pictographs include the usual suspects from the emoticon gang as well as many others. Such gems as the top hat, a diamond ring for "txting" your wedding proposal, and also some holiday goodies like Santa, and a ghost are all part of the fun! For the majority of cell phones, Emoji is a Japanese-focused feature that is not implemented much in the US. Some, however, have already enabled the use of Emoji through a process that requires jailbreaking the iPhone.

There is a simpler way, however. We touched on the enabling of Emoji in a recent iPhone 101 article. This post over at MacTalk provides a very detailed step-by-step walkthrough for enabling Emoji on iPhones with firmware 2.2. Justine also covered this procedure for enabling Emoji over at her site.

The process involves purchasing and briefly using an application called FrostySpace ($0.99, iTunes link). The result is that a new international keyboard, "Emoji," is available for your use. Please note: FrostySpace is a Japanese-languageTaiwanese RSS feed reader that may be of limited utility for some users.

If you get this working (or don't) we'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

Thanks to Chris Pirillo and others for sending this in!

According to iPhoneHellas.gr, version 2.2 of the iPhone firmware will be made available on November 21. The site says that the tipster is "reliable" but offered few details. Gizmodo calls the site "consistently reliable."

The tipster did say, however, that the update will not contain Greek keyboard support. Rumor has it that the update will contain:

• Street View, public transportation and walking directions for Maps
• An always-visible search field in Safari
• A rating request before you delete an app
• The ability to download podcasts directly to your handset
• Location sharing via email
• Support for Emoji icons
• An option to turn off auto-correction

There is still no word, of course, about the most requested and elusive of options: copy and paste. Gizmodo seems to think that -- if the release date is indeed on the 21st -- the major features of the update have been frozen. Looks like we'll have to wait until 2.3.

[Via O'Grady's PowerPage.]

MacRumors hears news of some interesting new features that may see the light of day in the next iteration of iPhone firmware.

The Maps application will apparently have support for Google Street View. It remains to be seen if the integration will be as impressive as that of Google Android, which used GPS compass data to dynamically change the street view depending on which way you're actually pointed.

Also included is support for Japanese emoji icons: 461 popular pictures that can be added to text messages and emails. Emoji support is popular on Japanese phones, and including it on the iPhone might give a boost to sales there (described as less-than-stellar by the WSJ).

In a move sure to be popular with non-English users using the English keyboard, the new firmware will also let you turn off auto-correction.

It's not clear when the new firmware will be generally available. Developers received version 2.2, beta 1 on September 25.