The 72 new emoji characters for Unicode 9.0 are now final.

This one, I like:

(source)

I am neither for or against this specific rendering of this Unicode character, but I am really surprised about the discussion around it. The question how to render this character have been around since the introduction of Unicode 6.0 (2010), but now the squirt gun rendition is suddenly wrong because Apple does it? And has anyone who feels so strongly about this ever checked the rest of the 1000+ Emoji for their supposed accurateness regarding the Unicode character name or the user expectation?

 

10 hours ago, Ralf Herrmann said:

I am neither for or against this specific rendering of this Unicode character, but I am really surprised about the discussion around it.

I think we have now to aknowledge that emojis are no longer “just Unicode characters”. Likewise, the discussion around them isn’t the preserve of type cognoscenti anymore.

You should also consider the usual level of the debate on the internet (and those who exploit it), especially in the USA on themes like guns, political correctness, and Apple.

That isn’t to say that I will not shudder when I read someone writing that emojis (and the Unicode Consortium) are inherently racist because of the names of U+263A and U+263B. But I will understand that a lack of knowledge is more often than not paired with a sense of entitlement.

 

P.S.: I’m pretty sure that Microsoft’s old design is a zap gun, not a squirt gun 

13 hours ago, Riccardo Sartori said:

P.S.: I’m pretty sure that Microsoft’s old design is a zap gun, not a squirt gun 

Could be. Hard to say for sure I guess, since squirt guns will often take on such a design as well. 
But it wouldn’t change my argument anyway. If people now suddenly come to the conclusion, that squirt gun and “regular” gun need different emoji, than a zap gun emoji would be wrong in the same way. 

The Emoji “gender correction update” for iOS and MacOS. Some made me laugh, so I share it here for your pleasure.  

 

🦁 is sad because there’s still no lioness...

Unicode 10 emoji candidates with images:

http://unicode.org/emoji/charts-beta/emoji-candidates.html

Once you opened Pandora’s box …

Quote

Redheads are on the agenda at the next Unicode Technical Committee meeting, hosted by Apple next week.

A new proposal (PDF)1 from the Emoji Subcommittee seeks to clarify which approach Unicode would prefer to take when it comes to implementing a redhead emoji.

http://blog.emojipedia.org/redhead-emoji-update/

I wonder if they intentionally took this kind of infinite patches route just to appear busy and justify a regular schedule of meetings…

 

https://xkcd.com/1953/

On 4/5/2015 at 11:31 AM, Riccardo Sartori said:

just add a colour wheel already!

They could very well do that soon:

http://blog.unicode.org/2019/07/unicode-technical-committee-considers.html

 

From the latest Unicode update:

Yet still no lioness…