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Apple proposes 13 emojis representing those with disabilities
Apple has proposed a set of new emojis representing those with vision, hearing and motor disabilities, BuzzFeed News reports. Included are emojis of guide and service dogs, people with canes, individuals signing the word "deaf," an ear with a hearing aid, people in wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs. "This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all possible depictions of disabilities, but to provide an initial starting point for greater representation for diversity within the emoji universe," Apple said in its Unicode Consortium proposal.
This year's new emoji include redheads, legs and a salt shaker
There are 157 new emoji coming this year. What made the cut? Ginger-haired people, female superheroes, dark-skinned folks with curly hair, pirate flags and... soap. There are also skin-tone options and genders for superheroes and supervillains, a test tube, salt (finally), a leg, balding people and a male and female option for white hair. Unicode says that the set is finalized and that they should start appearing on your phones and other devices as soon as August. Sure, that's still six months away, but it gives you time make a request for the next emoji set before March's deadline. For a quick visual overview of what's coming, check the video below.
Apple adds wizard, dinosaur and mermaid emoji in iOS 11.1
Hundreds more emoji are coming to your iPhone soon. Apple says it's adding "more emotive smiley faces" as well as gender-neutral icons, more food and (importantly) mythical creatures -- in time for Halloween, we hope. The series is coming to iPhone and iPad with iOS 11.1, which will launch next week, early, for developers and public beta testers. If the emoji additions sound familiar, that's because Apple had teased these back in July. It appears the company is going beyond the 56 Unicode consortium-approved emoji, but that's likely explained by skin color and hair variants -- we haven't glimpsed the entire set yet. But now that there's a gyoza emoji, all is well. Of course, for those waiting around for those animated emoji, you've still got some time on your hands: the iPhone X isn't out until November.
Apple and Microsoft reportedly vetoed a rifle emoji
Like it or not, emojis are permeating our vocabulary and fast becoming one of the primary ways people communicate. But if you were looking to convey your thoughts on rifles or hunting, you're out of luck.
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.
