iPhone 2.2 Includes Hidden Japanese Emoji Icons

[beg_ne]

They put off Push to add little icons for 1 market.

Apple, get your damn priorities straight and give us a stable phone.

I hope the trade articleS RIP you a new one and your stock tanks even further for this type of irresponsibility!

Oh come on, do you really think any resources are being put into this? There is probably one graphics guy who put together the icons and probably one programmer working on this in his spare time. And you flip out like the whole damn development team dropped everything for this.

This is one tiny feature that can potentially help sell their phone to a large consumer base out of the hundreds of tweaks/additions/bug fixes that come with any update Apple puts out.

 

[plumbingandtech]

They put off Push to add little icons for 1 market.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

It is CLEAR you are not a developer as you have just shown us that you have not an iota of knowledge of the development process.

Perhaps, an Android is the better choice for you if you are so unhappy with the iphone.

 

[overanalyzer]

Oh come on, do you really think any resources are being put into this? There is probably one graphics guy who put together the icons and probably one programmer working on this in his spare time. And you flip out like the whole damn development team dropped everything for this.

This is one tiny feature that can potentially help sell their phone to a large consumer base out of the hundreds of tweaks/additions/bug fixes that come with any update Apple puts out.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

It is CLEAR you are not a developer as you have just shown us that you have not an iota of knowledge of the development process.

Perhaps, an Android is the better choice for you if you are so unhappy with the iphone.

I have roughly the same feeling whenever I see a rant about a feature being included "at the expense" of others. While that can certainly be true for features requiring extensive development work, it certainly can't be the case that the same team developing Push has dropped their work to rush emoji to completion. Apple has approximately 28,000 employees...I think they can spare one or two to work on a feature for a major market while others work on Push.

 

[MacFly123]

Ok so wouldn't these get blocked in lots of e-mails? And would you be able to use them in text as well, if so isn't that like MMS since they are little images? And would only people on iPhone be able to see them? How do these things work?

 

[MacOldTimer!]

I have roughly the same feeling whenever I see a rant about a feature being included "at the expense" of others. While that can certainly be true for features requiring extensive development work, it certainly can't be the case that the same team developing Push has dropped their work to rush emoji to completion. Apple has approximately 28,000 employees...I think they can spare one or two to work on a feature for a major market while others work on Push.

No, I'm not a programmer and neither are 99.9% of the users. I bought the iPhone 2G & then 3G with expectations that relevant useful applications would be built.

It's become a phone for gamers and toys. It is not by any means close to a Business phone that Apple claims it to be now.

The damn email doesn't even have spell check and lacks the most fundamental features of a dumb phone.

Actions like this are a large reason the stock is near a 52 week low.

Enjoy your cute little icons and watch the competition pass Apple.

52 week stock low 94.65 Friday's close $97.07. Maybe the Japanese market sales are bad because they are used to a more sophisticated smart phone market than we in the US are.

 

[timothyjay2004]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this kind of feature in text messaging signal the usage of MMS? Because obviously it isn't a simple 'text' file.

With my verizon phone, you can send the stupid hamburgers, hearts, puppy dogs, etc. in a plain text message. Someone had said that as long as the phone knows what to display, it'll show it since it's text based. I'm not sure if that is the case for verizon phones, because, I can send or receive icons that I or someone else doenst have and they will get or I will receive exactly what was sent. And it's through a txt message, not a MMS/Pix message.

 

[deannnnn]

This is sooooo cool!!! But I'm not sure that my friends without iPhones will be able to see the emoji icons in text messages.

Now they'll know how we feel about MMS =/

 

[Small White Car]

They put off Push to add little icons for 1 market.

lol - Yeah, they took the one guy working on push and assigned him to this. I'm sure that's exactly what happened.

 

[beg_ne]

No, I'm not a programmer and neither are 99.9% of the users. I bought the iPhone 2G & then 3G with expectations that relevant useful applications would be built.

It's become a phone for gamers and toys. It is not by any means close to a Business phone that Apple claims it to be now.

What exactly does it need to become a "business phone"? There can be 10,000 different expectations on what a business phone is supposed to be. Just screaming into the void "It's not a F*#&ing business phone" isn't really going to fix the problem...

Actions like this are a large reason the stock is near a 52 week low.

No... the entire US economy going down the ******* is a large reason the stock is so low.

Enjoy your cute little icons and watch the competition pass Apple.

Yeah, thats sure happening now...

Maybe the Japanese market sales are bad because they are used to a more sophisticated smart phone market than we in the US are.

Actually they aren't that bad, I'm sure they could be better though. And taking away simple pain points (like lack of Emoji) will help. I only have an iPod Touch, i've been asked a few times if its an iPhone or not by various Japanese people, and they've all been very impressed when they've seen it and played around with it.

But of the phones i've seen they aren't really more "sophisticated" in Japan, sure some have more features, but they are just as much a clusterf&*$ as your typical cell phone anywhere else in the world.

The top 5 things I see Japanese people doing here (in order of highest use to lowest):

1. Using it as a clock
2. Using Email
3. Talking on the Phone.
4. Playing games on the train
5. Taking Photos

(SPECIAL BONUS ITEM: 6. Using it as a Pasmo card)

I would say the lack of Emoji and the lack of a place for their phone strap are more pressing than missing 1seg tv and QR Code scanning.

Regarding pasmo, most people still tend to buy the train tickets the old school way, after that most people just have their pasmo card in their wallet and pass the wallet over the scanner. After that are the people who use their phone as a pasmo.

I would guess someone might be able to sell quite a few iPhone cases that simply had a pocket to put in a standard pasmo card on the back of their iPhone.

 

[(L)]

OK...so?

I can appreciate the whole emoji thing as it would certainly help sales somewhat, but it is rather upsetting to think that if development relied solely on capturing market share, we might never see very substantial fixes or improvements, just new features (useless or not).

 

[MacOldTimer!]

Microsoft 52 Week High = 37.50
52 Week Low = 23.50
Close on Friday = $26.32

Microsofts stock wouldn't drop 50% if Balmer or Gate died tomorrow.

Steve has made Apple too reliant on every business decision that he has become Apple.

This is a basic market fundamental flaw for any company.

Friday's rumor shows how fragile Apple really is and what would happen if the story were true.

 

[beg_ne]

Microsoft 52 Week High = 37.50
52 Week Low = 23.50
Close on Friday = $26.32

Microsofts stock wouldn't drop 50% if Balmer or Gate died tomorrow.

Steve has made Apple too reliant on every business decision that he has become Apple.

This is a basic market fundamental flaw for any company.

Friday's rumor shows how fragile Apple really is and what would happen if the story were true.

Jobs is very important to Apple, definately. Much more so than someone like Ballmer...hell Microsoft stock might actually go up if he died.

But Apple's stock didn't dive 50% from the fake heartattack news. It only dropped by about 11%. I'm not sure how we got from "WTFBBQ! Emoji will be the downfall of Apple!" to this though.

I have Apple stock too, and it sucks that its dropped so low, I just can't realistically place the blame minor missing features from one product or delayed developer features.

 

[ilfn143]

uhmmm... copy/paste, push, ability to disable predictive text input, video recording...?

 

[NewSc2]

Jobs is very important to Apple, definately. Much more so than someone like Ballmer...hell Microsoft stock might actually go up if he died.

But Apple's stock didn't dive 50% from the fake heartattack news. It only dropped by about 11%. I'm not sure how we got from "WTFBBQ! Emoji will be the downfall of Apple!" to this though.

I have Apple stock too, and it sucks that its dropped so low, I just can't realistically place the blame minor missing features from one product or delayed developer features.

It dropped 11% off a rumor that he had a heart attack. Imagine how far it'd drop if he actually (God-forbid) had one, or worse. I could see it tumbling 25% or more in 1 day.

 

[Timjo124]

2.2?

When will we get the firmware update here in the U.S.?


MacBook 2.4ghz 160 HD 4gb ram
iPhone 3g 8 gb
iPhone 1st gen. 8gb
MacBook Pro 2.2 ghz 100 HD
30 gb iPod 5th gen.

 

[ChristoRogers]

The "emoji" is actually, I feel, a critical feature that is missing for the Japanese market, so I'm glad that Apple is recognizing some need to market customization. (I can imagine the horror of someone realizing they can't read other people's emoji (perhaps) or send any themselves.) The other critical feature missing would be QR codes that people here use to pull up web sites on their phone, which could just be implemented with a software upgrade. If someone were to release a 1-seg receiver you plug into the dock port (I can't see how Apple would release a special iPhone just for one market), or an IC adaptor for Mobile Suica or something, then those would probably be the final lacking features for the Japanese market, besides the ones common to all markets like video recording, etc.

 

[wheelhot]

Lol, I thought americans dont like emos? Anyway, great move, my friend own an iPhone and she asked me if there is any emos for the iPhone.

Well if Im not mistaken, if the emo sent to a normal phone which do not have that graphics, it will be converted to text like = :.) (remove the .)

 

[eff pc]

WOW Seriously, Apple you are really ignorant ppl right now. You put that on the iphone but you wont make SMS and Mail use the Accelerometer to turn them into landscape mode to help people actually read there messages. I mean come on really, you guys put it on the calculator..... You know from a person that is carrying about 2500 shares of AAPL, you would think you would listen to me and the other that share the same common interest.

ADD THE Accelerometer to the SMS and MAIL!!!!!!!! If you want to make someones life easier than start with that. Thanks

From a Share holders thoughts to your hands apple.

Brian

wow, 2500 shares? well if u were invested that heavily into apple, why would u be a macrumors "newbie" member since aug. 2008. i would think you would pay close attention to apples every move if u had that much money in them. and ur all complaining about these icons really? everything does revolve around the US (and i am from the US). yeah i want horizontal SMS and Mail and MMS but i realized they have to make it a global product first then refine it later.

 

[SpinThis!]

Damn, 2.2 is not even released yet, let alone finalized or rumored to drop soon and everybody flips out on what the phone doesn't have.

The damn email doesn't even have spell check...

Doesn't a smart, auto-correcting keyboard count as spell check? You know the errors you don't make in the first place—or the ones that are auto-corrected easily right away—are far better than having to go in and do a manual spell check later. Or that's at least the way the virtual keyboard is supposed to work.

 

[Tackie]

Emojis are not designed by Apple in California

I see some are mistaken about this.
Those emojin sets are designed by SoftBank, the third popular carrier in Japan.

With carriers ruling the phone development process, each carrier owns their own taste of design. Docomo's are minimalistic - I'd say they share some DNA with GMail. au's are cute, and SoftBank got them redesigned several months ago so they stand out in comparison.

It'd be interesting to see Japanese emoji circulating around worldwide. We are always curious about reputation of our own culture, to speak a la Chrysanthemum-and-the-Swords.

 

[james.w.lane]

Much more so than someone like Ballmer...hell Microsoft stock might actually go up if he died.

So funny, yet so true!

 

[Johnathan]

No, I'm not a programmer and neither are 99.9% of the users. I bought the iPhone 2G & then 3G with expectations that relevant useful applications would be built.

Actions like this are a large reason the stock is near a 52 week low.

Enjoy your cute little icons and watch the competition pass Apple.

52 week stock low 94.65 Friday's close $97.07. Maybe the Japanese market sales are bad because they are used to a more sophisticated smart phone market than we in the US are.

so... if we are making a list of the things that you obviously don't understand....

- software development
- the way the Apple operates
- economics

-j

 

[infernohellion]

The thing is simple.

More Features = more sales.
Fixing or improving stability = more satisfaction.

But satisfaction doesn't give the sales, market share or money. That's why new features = higher priority.

 

[MacTraveller]

They put off Push to add little icons for 1 market.

Apple, get your damn priorities straight and give us a stable phone.

I hope the trade articleS RIP you a new one and your stock tanks even further for this type of irresponsibility!

Spoken like a true drama queen.

Apple won't divert too much resources adding some Jap 'emoticons' on the iPhone. That is something a couple of Apple's nerdier anime-watching programmers will do in their spare time, probably done in a few days. In doing so, they could add a minor and easily-implemented feature that would result in a disproportionately large attraction in (Japanese) sales. That's called maximizing effort.

 

[gilbert1020]

I Hope Apple did not spend alot of their resources on this,
the Iphone has lot of missing features that other phones have,
and Apples priorities should be getting those missing features onto
the Iphone.