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Emojipedia Founder. Tech media more generally.
838 followers 117 following 119 posts
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I know Skype is dead, but it’s now sending this push notification daily
Canals are closed, and I have a wedding to attend in the south of Portugal in a few weeks. So I’ve decided to take it slow and go (mostly) by train. Sadly only one sleeper in the mix (Paris to Bayonne). With a flight and a ferry later in the trip to get back to Oxfordshire via Dublin.
As Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo put it: "A city where you can get let go of your child's hand"
Reasons I forget to pack something on a trip: 1. Didn’t write it on my packing list 2. Wrote it on my packing list, but forgot to check said list
don't interrupt our firmware update, but if you do, no need to worry!! 🥺
Somehow the last music festival I attended was in 2019. So a lot has changed. What mainly blew me away wasn't just usable phone speeds, but better speeds than I've had anywhere in the UK www.mobiletechjournal.com/festival-tec...
TIL “promiscuité” has two meanings in French, and Google auto-translates to the wrong one for restaurant reviews
Would it help if I noted that this restaurant is in France?
When I see this as a top review term for a restaurant; I have to see what's going on
Worthwhile for anyone from the casually interested in emoji, to those well versed in Unicode. It’s got something for everyone 🙂↕️ shadycharacters.co.uk/books/face-w...
Just finished reading the latest from @keithhouston.bsky.social and give it my absolute recommendation as the definitive book on emoji history. Don’t let the huge set of references and citations fool you, it’s an easy and interesting read. Goes deep where it needs to, without going off the deep end
Happy to assist with some emoji lore, and wishing a pleasant World Emoji Day to you 🫡 🧀
Cheese came with one of the first emoji updates where completely “original” ideas were entertained. Updates before then were mostly for compatibility with Japan and/or Windings. The planning doc had a clip art image, and I don’t think much more discussion went into it! 🧀 it was a simpler time
Impressed at the dedication to World Emoji Day from this Wikipedia editor
Also, a place called Hertingfordbury is apparently a real English village and not hallucinated by AI
Full list and details via @emojipedia.org iOS 18.4 Emoji Changelog blog.emojipedia.org/apple-ios-18...
Counting the days until radish becomes a sex emoji
Something fun about Hertford is that Hertford East station is north of Hertford North station
The stronghold that Lotus Biscoff has over the UK is immense. What do they know.
Will no doubt cross paths on the waterways at some stage!
not a great year for new emojis tbh
New Clockwise episode with @amanda.omg.lol and @jeremyburge.bsky.social!
Thank you! Posted this on my way out of town. Had a lovely few days passing through. Oodi was a highlight.
Grabbing a coffee or wine at the Helsinki Library (Oodi); so calm. What a lovely space for adults and kids alike.
Someone panicked while making up a British sounding name
Half the minibuses in Hong Kong don’t have seatbelts. The other half have this friendly reminder.
If you were up early, you might have caught me featured live as part of the Aus Open morning show
App Store reviews for the Australian Open app are filled with elderly people leaving feedback about the tournament itself
thanks to everyone who has sent me this
new alter ego just dropped
one of my first appearances on the BBC and this was the image they put up behind me #tbt
haven't had the star in Mario Kart in forever
I can feel the STRESS in the person typing this (and the typo in the apology 😅)
A list of apps that should not require setup of a PIN in addition to username/password + FaceID: - all of them
POV: my laptop in December 2016
Hey that was me, and I wasn’t even at the meeting to talk about the pocket park, but was so incensed by the lack of vision and that no one had mentioned or considered just also filtering Elm Grove to avoid traffic displacement there. Truly depressing scenes.
Banking and government apps: security is our #1 priority Also banking and gov apps: please now bypass your randomised, autosaved password with a four digit PIN!! oh no, we won’t save this one. So make it easy to remember. Maybe like your phone or card PIN. We love security.
Short of having public forum mods proactively wielding the ban-hammer, this is the next best thing 💪
Full two part episode here, where Alie asks all the things you might have wanted to know about emoji history, approvals, and some behind the scenes goss. Sorry to have you learning, but I promise it’s also fun www.alieward.com/ologies/curi...
In honour of @ologies.bsky.social figuring out her Bsky login again, here is a bit of our chat from last year’s Curiology (emoji) episode vm.tiktok.com/ZGd29Lo4J/
impressively, every sentence in this email makes me more nauseous than the last
you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me
I hope this email finds you holding space for the lyrics of defying gravity 👉🤏
I don't think we need messaging apps to have a Memories feature (and we definitely don't need notifications about them)
We need to teach the older generation that group chats are a future commitment. A burden. Not to be created lightly.
kids returning to Tumblr and phpbb forums in 2025
via Greens' Tram Plan for Melbourne 2014 greens.org.au/sites/greens...
Let's get on with some of these??
doesn't miss
bit rude of this group to exclude my mum so thoroughly
@anelf3.me I didn’t know about your pro brutalism views, but I’ll let it slide
from the corner of Albert and Lansdowne in East Melb maps.app.goo.gl/4YD1m9mN8CvX...
and of course the more obvious part: too many motor vehicle lanes. IMO hook turns would work well here, allowing a single straight ahead lane, and a combined turning left/right lane more like the CBD grid. The turning radius for bikes to keep going straight here is far too tight.
One of Melbourne's few dutch style intersections is close, but misses in two ways: 1. Splits the small-ish bike lane into straight and left arrows on approach. Makes it feel fiddlier than necessary 2. On approach, a red light means no movement for bikes. Should allow left turn (w priority to peds)
Thanks to friends’ parents, I always know when I appear in print
IYKYK ☹️
Listed as a low priority in 2019, most of the other skin tone issues have since been addressed, so 2025-2026 seems about right for this implementation. (yes this is back when I was vice chair of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee a mere half decade ago) www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/191...
Today in 'clearing up old Unicode oversights'...Unicode 17 is due to add skin tone support to 👯👯♀️👯♂️ and 🤼🤼♀️🤼♂️ in 2025. Total of 150 new sequences required. blog.emojipedia.org/draft-emoji-...
Decent bus stop bypass in Melbourne by ANZAC station. The use of colour leading up to the crossing helps flag a change in pace, and the printed instructions are clear. IMO the crossing itself could have been wider, but that's fairly minor given the decent sight lines. More of these please.
speak for yourself
is also iOS not macOS?
I believe
The full range!
The iPhone app also runs on the Mac but is...tiny. I'm using the PWA from the dock on macOS. Is fine enough. Am I missing a better option?
Sorry for the noob question but...Bluesky Mac App?
I solemnly swear 🫡
It’s simple, we just haven’t decided how to implement the age check, or the consequences for ignoring it, or what tourists do when visiting, or what to do with existing users, or which apps this even applies to. But other than that it is very clear and serious and definitely real and going to happen
Rare Burnley group stopping patterns just to keep the morning interesting
Trying a new social network, take three: Mastodon: wanted to like the most, didn’t capture enough of my mutuals. Should have have a default server IMO Threads: I’m there posting like it’s Twitter, randos are replying like it the community NIMBY group of Facebook Bluesky: 🤞😬 here’s hoping
remembering the time I published an article about Windows being the only OS to have support for this emoji – 🖕 and their internal teams accidentally CCing me in discussions about what their press response should be
pleased to report that this Genmoji issue has been fixed but a bit sad, because it was funny
oh hey Pruter fancy seeing you here
works as much as Personal Hotspot for me. Great mostly, then some weeks decides it's just not gonna happen
hello new followers, here is me next to a giant emoji, and also me next to my narrowboat I'm not sure what else you could want from me
iPhone Mirroring is the greatest new feature to hit macOS this year when it works 🥴
Use our desktop app, it crashes less! is…a choice
did Murray Hewitt create this list
I'm a passionate observer of country select menus. They give so much insight into a company, without ever meaning to
please enjoy
A few of my friends have been bugging me about the supposed need for a 'dog with sunglasses' emoji for years. Genmoji fixes that
Despite saying Genmoji isn't useful (it's mostly not), the category of "person doing X or Y" is very functional and it's fun. In a sticker way more than an emoji way. I offered to pick up my niece from a train station, she sent a ✌️ emoji to me, and I sent this back. Useful? No. Fun? Kind of!
I tried so hard to give Genmoji a fair shot www.mobiletechjournal.com/genmoji-has-...
Thought I’d try “long boat” in case that resulted in a narrowboat Genmoji, but instead it put my friend in a boat 🫣
Third screenshot is as close as I can get to a narrowboat in Genmoji so far, trying all different terms. Barge has the right concept historically I guess. Don’t worry I know I’m the only person searching for this.
My first few Genmoji prompts for niche things I like but don’t yet exist as emojis have missed (thinks a cargo bike is a bike with a little basket, doesn’t even attempt narrowboat)
My time has arrived
- someone pointed out on Threads: mostly the category icons are the first emoji in the group, which always helps with navigation
other changes: - No category headings – good: they're arbitrary anyway - larger emojis – worse for emojis (wasted space, see fewer on screen at a time), better for stickers, Memoji and paving the way for Genmoji < iOS 18.0 | iOS 18.1 >
Symbols category Clear win. Hearts are some of the most used emojis, so hiding them under '🔣' (symbol for symbols) did them a disservice. Yes it's less obvious now where to find 🆖 or 📳 or 💮, but that's fine because no one uses those anyway 10/10 change, long overdue < before | after >
Objects Forget what I said before about being nice to match an existing emoji, this is an ugly light bulb. I guess it's modern because the old one was incandescent, and the new could be LED. Bring back the more rounded shape from before. Was much more pleasing. 💡 < before | after >
Travel & Places The old icon better indicated the two main items in this group (buildings and vehicles), so I miss that I see the vision of only choosing existing emojis, and the car isn't a bad choice here (as bike has a complex relationship being cross-category w sport). 🚗 < before | after >
Sports+ activities As with others, this now matches an existing Apple emoji but uses the monochrome version, which I believe is a font within Apple. Also used for AirPods engraving No better or worse, but kind of nice having it match the emoji rather than a diff illustration ⚽️ < before | after >
Food and drink category The old icon wasn't even an emoji, showing soda and a burger. One of the arguments for adding U+1F964 CUP WITH STRAW in 2017 was its existence on Apple's emoji keyboard. 🍔🥤 New: Apple. Iconic. Universal. Better. 🍏 < before | after >
Animals (and nature) category Think of an animal. What's the first one that comes into your head? Possibly a dog. Definitely not a bear. was: bear 🐻 now: dog 🐶 Better all around. < before | after >
rating the changes on the iOS 18.1 emoji keyboard
ooh this is nice
iOS 18.2 summaries of emails from my Grandma really cut to the chase
🔜
