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Apple's Beats-based music service may come with an iOS 8 update
You might not have to wait that long to try Apple's rumored Beats-based streaming music service. Tipsters tell 9to5Mac that the folks in Cupertino are "currently considering" a launch for the all-you-can-hear offering in tandem with iOS 8.4, rather than holding off for iOS 9 or later. This new software would supposedly arrive some time after the Apple Watch release in April. That may still sound distant, but Apple just gave developers its first iOS 8.3 beta (yes, even before 8.2 has shipped) -- if 8.4 happens at all, it's on a fast track.
The owner of Helvetica and Times New Roman just bought some emoji
Monotype just bought Swyft Media. Or, a company you probably haven't heard of just bought a company you probably haven't heard of. Monotype, for the uninitiated, is a company that helped revolutionize typesetting at the latter end of the 19th century, and owns typefaces you probably see every day like Helvetica, Times New Roman and Franklin Gothic. And Swyft? It's a startup that creates stickers and emoji. Recently profiled by Fortune, it works with brands to create custom sticker packs for apps like Facebook Messenger and Line. At first glance, an emoji advertising firm and a historic type company might seem an odd couple, but given the rate that stickers are replacing our written words, perhaps it's money well spent. The deal could (according to TechCrunch) cost Monotype up to $27 million -- a small price to pay for staying relevant in our emoji-filled future.
Recommended Reading: Silicon Valley's role in government surveillance
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex by Shane Harris The NSA's surveillance tactics have been discussed at length, and will continue to be as new information comes to light. In a recent book, author Shane Harris details Silicon Valley's involvement with the government's watch, including how some companies are disclosing security flaws to US agencies before they're alerting customers. Harris also covers details like how network traffic is shared and how backdoors are intentionally left open for the authorities' prying eyes. Want to read on? You can dive in with an excerpt from the title over at Salon.
Yum, your next favorite emoji could be a delicious taco
Okay, people, you know emojis are a big deal -- so big, in fact, that there's a social network composed entirely of these virtual characters. And even though it isn't too hard to come across different kinds of emoji on the internet, there are specific guidelines to follow in order for them to be considered official. The Unicode Consortium is responsible for making the call on this -- in short, that's who you have to thank for those "praying hands" you love using. For 2015, Unicode has accepted 37 new candidates for consideration, meaning that you could end up seeing some in your smartphone's stock emoji keyboard one day in the near future.
Emoji characters are getting skin tones to reflect human diversity
Remember how companies were working with the Unicode Consortium to get more diversity into the emoji characters you use? Well, there's now a clue as to how those more accommodating characters are likely to work. A newly proposed update from Apple and Google would build a skin tone modifier into Unicode; you'd only have to add it to existing emoji to change skin color and better reflect your identity. The technique would be easy to implement on a phone (a press-and-hold button would work), and it would fall back gracefully when you're chatting with someone whose phone can't handle the new code. The Consortium still has to accept and implement the new emoji before you'll see them, but it's hard to see the organization turning down such a straightforward approach.
Bored with words? Bing now lets you search using emoji
Now that you can communicate solely in emoji and even track your daily activities that way, it stands to reason that you should get to search the web using those tiny pictures, doesn't it? Microsoft certainly thinks so. Bing's search engine now understands emoji, saving you the (admittedly pretty minor) trouble of typing out whole words. It's not just about convenience, though. The search will help you understand emoji you don't understand, and you can find Easter eggs like the Konami code if you're imaginative. So long as you're in an English-speaking country, you can try this icon-driven search today.
Pebble now displays emojis and lets you dismiss alerts from your watch
Do you hate emojis? Too bad, because they're everywhere: they've even arrived on Pebble and Pebble Steel via the smartwatches' latest firmware. The software upgrade allows emoticons to show up on Pebble's monochrome screen -- sure, they're not yellow or animated, but they're better than those blank boxes that typically take their place. More importantly for Apple users, though, this firmware brings iOS 8 compatibility and a really neat notification management feature to their watches. Now, when they dismiss an alert from their Pebbles, it also disappears from their phones' notification centers. (Hey, Android users, the company says it's working on a version for your devices, as well!) Other than these, the firmware also enables the watch's built-in compass and adds a fun Domo-kun watchface to your collection.
Apple Watch revolutionizes emojis with live edited expressions
Apple Watch is already a groundbreaking device, but for those of you who text, there is obviously one feature that's even more important than biometrics or interactivity. We're speaking, of course, of the real-time emoji editor. With Apple Watch you'll be able to edit your emoji's expressions in real time using your finger to match exactly what your mood is. Maybe you want an emoji that's half furious anger, half explosive with joy? Just swipe your finger a few times to create the perfect mashup of your emotions. There's no word yet on if you'll be able to manipulate more than just the traditional yellow smily face emoji, but considering the breadth of emoji options Apple offers, we can't wait until the day every emoji can be manipulated. Yes. Even this one.
Love emoji-only messaging? Try logging activities with the tiny pictures
Hey you guys, I love messaging with just emojis. It's the best. They let people know how I really feel when tone is so hard to convey in a text or email. Those quick notes are great, but I really want the cute pics to be in my life more, so I've started logging my location and activities with Steven. It's a new app built by former Twitter Chief Scientist Abdur Chowdhury that tracks where I go in the background on my iPhone and records the appropriate icon. Don't worry, it's not creepy or anything -- it's totally cool. Coffee shops get a coffee cup, drowning my sorrows gets a beer mug, etc... It's pretty great. I can also assign my smartphone snapshots to those places and all my pals can give emjoi-based comments on the burrito I had for lunch. I mean, it's named after a cat. What's not to love?
imojiapp spices up your messages with custom stickers created from your photos
emoji are a wonderful way to communicate without saying a word. If you want to get creative with your stickers and move beyond the default set that ships with iOS, then you should check out imojiapp. imojiapp lets you take any image on your iPhone and turn it into a textable sticker. Imojioapp is easy to use, just snap a photo, use the crop and eraser tools to remove the part of image you don't want and the app will turn the remaining shot into a bordered sticker. You then can use iMojiapp to drop it into your iMessage and send it along to your friends and family. Like most creative tools, imojiapp allows you to organize your images for your own usage and for sharing with others. The app has a growing community of user-created emojis that you can browse and then use in your own messages. imojiapp is available for free from the iOS App Store. It is compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS iOS 7.
Apple emoji take on life-like roles in "Emoji Among Us" mockumentary
Apple emoji are among the best in its class, created with an attention to detail that is unrivaled on other platforms. It's not surprising that stock footage company Dissolve chose to use Apple Color emoji in its recent "Emoji Among Us" mockumentary about the explosion of these special characters into our daily lives. The short clip uses 68 emoji and creatively places them in everyday situations. Can you recognize them all? [Via The Awesomer]
Don't think you want Seinfeld emojis? You better think again, Mojambo!
Strap on your urban sombrero and say "Hellooooooooooo" to your new favorite app. Everyone's favorite show about nothing is still very much something in the cultural zeitgeist, and now Jerry and his band of neurotic misfits might be headed to an emoji keyboard near you. A small team including Jason Richards (creator of the @Seinfeld2000 parody Twitter account), designer Kevin McCauley, and BuzzFeed's Shahruz Shaukat, have submitted Seinfeld Emoji to the App Store and is currently waiting for Apple to declare it sponge-worthy. It's like Festivus in July! These ridiculously high-quality emojis are almost too great to look at. Looking at them is like looking at the sun. You don't stare at them. It's too risky. You get a sense of them and then you look away. Along with the primary cast of characters, now rendered in glorious cartoony flair, there are some slightly more obscure emojis included in the package that are episode-specific, like salty pretzels, Junior Mints, and a loaf of marble rye. I'm speechless. I have no speech. There are also some Seinfeld2000 inside jokes included in the emoji lineup, like a Galaxy S5 smartphone... not that there's anything wrong with that. If you're interested in the app -- and of course you are -- keep an eye on the Seinfeld2000 Twitter account for word on its App Store debut. That is, assuming Apple -- which denies apps like it's a bodily function -- approves it for sale.
Emojli is a social network composed entirely of emoji
Social networks love emoji. And those better-than-real-words icons love social networks right back. Emojli is possibly the next step in that blossoming relationship: a social network with "no words, no spam, just emoji." It hasn't launched yet, but the iOS-bound network already polices a rigorous picture-only username system. (Apologies, "Monkey Train", "Fireball" and "Kitty Penguin Space Invader" have already been taken.) According to its Twitter feed, registrations passed 10,000 earlier today -- and for folks worried about the service running out of emoji, over 250,000 two-icon combinations are available, as are even longer usernames. Pointless time-waster, a nonsensical joke, or the future of this connected life? Almost certainly one of the former, but if you want that single emoji that truly sums you up, you'd best rush along to that registration page immediately.
New iOS emoji might include a Middle Finger and a "Man In Business Suit Levitating"
The Unicode Standard that governs the types of emoji that appear on mobile messaging platforms was recently updated with a plethora of new options. As initially relayed by The Verge, it's now up to Apple to pick which of the new 250 emoji icons it'd like to toss into the iOS emoji alphabet. Some of the new items Apple can now choose from include a smattering of intriguing possibilities, including but not limited to the following: Man In Business Suit Levitating Derelict House Building Chipmunk Sleuth Or Spy Black Skull And Crossbones Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended Ah, yes. Apple now has the option of tossing a middle finger into the emoji mix. How fun an addition would that be? GetEmoji.com recently provided a mockup of what that might look like. Below is a partial snapshot of what some of the baseline icons look like as put together by the Unicode Consortium. Keep in mind, though, that the final icon design is entirely up to Apple. As we've prevoiusly highlighted, the same emoji can look entirely different across varying platforms. Still, these figures help provide an idea of what Apple might decide to implement. In this shot below, we can see the middle finger icon, the spy, and the bizarrely fun levitating business man. So what say you TUAW readers? Do you think Apple will implement the middle finger emoji or might that be a bit too risqué? Before you answer, consider this: who would have ever guessed that Apple would make a joke about "OS X weed" at WWDC?
Apple emojis are best in class, and some were designed in less than 30 minutes
Once Apple added Emoji keyboard support back in iOS 5, messaging for iPhone users was forever changed. Forget old-fashioned emoticons, Apple's emoji characters let iOS users send all sorts of quirky, helpful, and flat out weird icons with just a few taps. But what may not be readily apparent to iOS users is that emojis sent to non-iOS devices typically look different than they do on iPhones and iPads. You see, emoji designs are rooted in text descriptions laid out by the Unicode Consortium. But the manner in which those descriptions are brought to life by artists are anything but uniform. Bianca Bosker of the Huffington Post recently took a look at how common emoji templates differ across varying companies. In one example, Bosker directs us to Unicode Character U+1F48 which encapsulates a picture of a dancer. I suppose it's much easier to appreciate Apple's own emoji set once one sees what the competitive landscape looks like. It's hard to dispute that Apple's offerings are more elegant and artistic than what's available from Google and Twitter. Of course, Apple has a long history of rich and detail-oriented icons. Case in point, below is a closer look at how emoji icons vary across different platforms, courtesy of Emojipedia. A full comparison of every iOS emoji and its Android counterpart can be seen here. Interestingly, Bosker was able to get in touch with Willem Van Lancker, a former designer at Apple who helped craft many of the icons in Apple's emoji set. Willem Van Lancker, a former Apple employee who designed hundreds of emoji for the iPhone, said he was dismayed to find that on Android devices, his icons' counterparts "almost [seem] to mean a different emotion." "It's a lot like spoken languages," he said. "Things are lost in translation." Van Lancker further explained that in coming up with Apple's set of emojis, designers at times took a look to Japanese emojis (where the trend first began) for inspiration and reference points. But with so many emojis in play, some designs were impressively whipped together in a half hour. Van Lancker said Apple consulted the Japanese originals, but the look of each emoji was ultimately up to its designer. "To be honest," he said, "when there are hundreds of these to be made, some of them were made in 30 minutes." Make sure to check out Bosker's full piece at the Huffington Post as it's full of interesting tidbits regarding all things emoji.
New emojis let you throw shade with a single symbol
Someone once said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so a smiling, yellow face is probably worth at least 160 characters. If you ever found the current run of emoji a little too stifling, some 250 new ones could be en route to help recreate the rest of your favorite album covers. But don't check your Android or iOS device for shiny turds and other icons just yet, because, as The Verge points out, it's up to those platforms to implement the Unicode Consortium's new symbols on their own. Given Apple's push for more diversity in emoji, that could happen sooner than you think. Just what new glyphs are there, though? Alongside some slightly more aggressive icons, a printer, trackball and "old personal computer" are among the lengthy list over on Emojipedia. You know, technology that teenagers know all about. Once you start seeing the likes of those (and the Vulcan split-finger greeting) popping up in Snapchat and elsewhere on your phone, you'll know who to thank.
Iconic album covers reimagined with the help of emoji
Some folks like to pass the time with a playlist or TV show while getting a treadmill workout in, but for musician Wesley Stace, it was the perfect time to recreate highly-recognizable album covers. Using his emoji library, Stace has since created over 50 such works that range from The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Springsteen's Born in the USA. He tells Fast Company that what started as a way to pass the time turned into a guessing game of sorts, so he decided to beam them to Twitter. If you ask me, the emoji version of Nirvana's Nevermind is quite stellar.
You may be accidentally sending friends a hairy heart emoji
This morning Matt Boch, the creative director for Fantasia Games, uncovered of possibly terrifying reality for iOS emoji addicts; you may accidentally be sending your friends an emoji of a hairy heart. It turns out when iOS users send a yellow emoji heart to the phone of a friend (or enemy I suppose) the emoji may show up as a hairy heart. Naturally we felt compelled to test this reality. Our very own Mike Wehner tested it out by messaging his beloved HTC One from his iPhone and was unable to replicate the results. The theory was seemingly debunked, until we got the results of our back up experiment. Behold. It turns out on some Android devices iOS emoji don't show up as they're intended. Ultimately this shouldn't cause people too many problems, unless you're in a really complicated relationship where a hairy heart has some form of symbolism we're missing out on. That doesn't mean unknowingly sending the wrong emoji isn't slightly annoying. Apparently Matt Boch was also wondering about this issue, so he did a little research with the phone he initially discovered the quirk in. He found a number of iOS emojis that showed up differently on his Android device, though none of them are quite as different as the yellow heart to hairy heart conversion. So use caution dear readers. We're living in a scary new world, one where we cannot trust that emoji we're sending is truly the emoji that will be delivered. If you're worried there's really only one solution: Go back to using words.
You can now search Yelp on mobile using emojis
Are your Twitter friends jumping down your throat for flooding them with emojis? Well, you might want to let off some emoji-filled steam on Yelp instead, because the business directory app now lets users search for establishments with the popular ideograms. Yes, it's just what it sounds like -- on mobile, the app parses any emoji you put in the search box (even if it's that smiling turd icon, as you can see after the break) and returns relevant results. It's fun, but unless you've memorized the symbols on your phone or tablet, it's not any more convenient or faster than typing in words. So, if you're scratching your head wondering why Yelp's developers would even bother adding the feature, the answer is, well, they don't exactly have a reason. A spokesperson told us that the app's engineers came up with the crazy idea during a recent company hackathon, and guess what? Yelp's higher-ups ended up loving it so much, they officially added it to the app.
