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Google Allo will up your weak emoji game
According to Google's announcement for Allo's latest features, people only use three percent of all emojis available. Well, the Allo team don't want their creations to go to waste, so they've launched "Smart Smiley" to make sure you discover emojis you won't typically use. When you tap on the Smart Smiley button while you're typing a message, the chat app will conjure up a list of suggestions based on context clues. It could suggest the burger, noodles, curry or cutlery emoticons when you type the word "food," or the alligator emoji when you type "later," sort of like what happens in iOS 10's Messages app. The feature can make suggestions before you even type anything based on your conversation history.
Samsung, T-Mobile announce :), Gravity 3, and Gravity T -- yes, we said :)
After bizarre names like Rant, Corby, and Clubby, it appears the phone industry has finally buckled into a state of chaos -- a state where words no longer exist at all. Samsung has brought a new trio of midrange text-centric devices to T-Mobile today, starting on the left with the :) (we're told "Smiley" is an acceptable substitute, thank goodness) that features a portrait QWERTY slide, Exchange support, and a 1.3 megapixel camera; it goes for just $19.99 on contract. Moving up the ladder a rung, the Gravity 3 naturally replaces the Gravity 2 with both a numeric keypad and slide-out landscape QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel cam, and full HTML browsing for $49.99 on contract. Finally, the Gravity T is basically a touchscreen version of the Gravity 3 with basically identical specs other than the 2.8-inch full touchscreen; it goes for $74.99 on contract. All three are available today.
AutoSmiley uses the iSight to turn your face into an emoticon
This one's a little silly but I still really like it -- AutoSmiley is a public domain app that runs in the background while you work, quietly monitoring your iSight's camera input. Whenever it detects a smiling face on the camera (so any time you smile while working), it will send a ":)" emoticon to the keyboard. It's probably not quite practical, as there are a lot of times when you might smile but don't want to actually send an emoticon. I do like the idea that it turns emoticons into real expressions of emotion. When you actually see a ":)" or an "lol" in someone's IM or email, you never really know if they've actually smiled or laughed at what you've typed earlier, and a program like this puts a little more power behind the colon and parenthesis. As the app's description says, using it can go a little farther towards "enforcing honesty in your online communication." The app is a free download for US, UK, and NL keyboards on the Mac. The app was featured on Wednesday's TUAW TV Live, which you can watch to see AutoSmiley in action.