But a bomb is okay?
[doublepost=1470267735][/doublepost]
We should remove the cars as well, as they kill more Americans a year than guns.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New emoji poll
- Thread starter lancastor
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
[doublepost=1470267735][/doublepost]
The gun emoji wasn't removed. Apple simply decided to render 'gun' as a water pistol rather than a lethal weapon. They could also have rendered it as a toy gun, or a ray gun, for example. Apple is also free to render 'car' however they please, so long as the meaning is preserved.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and taste. I would, however, imagine there are more people in the world who don't care that the gun has been changed to something more light-hearted than those who want it to stay the same. Outside of the US – an area much bigger than the US – there generally aren't as many people so passionate about guns so I don't imagine as many people will complain. It doesn't mean you don't have a valid point, though.
I hope, for your sake then, that sticker packs aren't controlled to the point where gun images aren't allowed. Personally, I'd be happy if I never saw a gun or an image of a gun ever again but that's just me.
The skin colours are part of the font and the font specification is dictated by Unicode. The reason why the skin colours are there is because they are included in the font itself. Apple cannot just add a second image for this gun without modifying how the font works. They would be making a platform-specific workaround which Unicode seeks to avoid. Moreover, you cannot currently control how an emoji looks when you receive it. When someone sends you an emoji with a darker skin colour, you cannot override this with your own preference. The same would be true for the gun. You would only see your preference in the emoji picker and when you send it. There would have to be a specific workaround that makes iOS still send the proper emoji code to the recipient, so that they see it as a gun. This would mean that your text has to be changed before it is sent. In other words, it would be a very messy solution.
My guess is that the reason why Apple changed this gun despite the Unicode specification is to put pressure upon the Consortium to change the specification. They don’t agree with the standard and are probably unable to convince the others change it, so they do it unilaterally. This is unfortunately what Apple seems to be doing far too often lately. They are also very choosy so when when it comes to web standards they support.
However, Apple and Microsoft already successfully opposed the inclusion of a rifle emoji. Moreover, Microsoft used a toy gun for this particular emoji. They only changed it in the Anniversary Update that was released a few days ago. Microsoft might be inclined to reverse that change.
This is how Microsoft’s versions looked:
Last edited:
Lol, no. I hate the default UI, icons, and keyboard in iOS as is, more flat is too much. Last time I checked, Apple isn't Microsoft, and they sure as hell don't support Metro... OS X looks better than iOS right now, but it's so stupid that Apple is having such a hard time making the OSes look similar like OS X Mountain Lion, iOS 6, and TV OS.