Apple Releases iOS 8.3 with 300 New Emoji

iOS 8.3 Software Update of 300 New Emoji

Apple has recently released new software update iOS 8.3for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, with the addition of over 300 new emoji characters together with a redesigned keyboard which means the emoji like the face, hands and bodies character for the first time, are in a range of six skin tone. The new keyboard features a scrolling UI to accommodate the variety of emoji available in the update. On tapping the desired emoji and holding down will provide the skin tone options.

Apple at first had unveiled the new emoji which was created in partnership with Unicode Consortium last in February and the skin tones are considered to have been modelled on the Fitzpatricks scale which is a recognized standard used by several dermatologists.

Unicode had stated last November that `people all over the world want to have emoji which reflect more human diversity especially for skin tone and the Unicode emoji characters for people and body part are meant to be generic yet following the precedents set by the original Japanese carrier images, they are often shown with a light skin tone instead of a more generic appearance like yellow/orange colour or a silhouette’.

EE’s WiFi Calling Features

The emoji which had been developed for use in Japanese SMS messages have become immensely popular for sending text, tweets as well as other messages with colourful icons that tend to depict a range of emotions, animals and food. Additional 32 new country flag emoji characters have also been included in the emoji range of collection.

Moreover, the latest update also provides iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 5s and 5c users to utilise EE’s WiFi Calling features which was broadcasted recently and once activated, the feature uses a WiFi connection to push voice calls as well as text to a user’s phone to evade weak or no mobile reception in the workplace, home or on the underground.

It has been informed by Apple that iOS 8.3 has improved performance for app launch as well as sensitivity, fixes issues with WiFi, Bluetooth and rotation and orientation. Besides this there is additional language and another new feature, country support for Siri in English - New Zealand, India, Danish - Denmark, Dutch – Netherlands, Portuguese – Brazil, Russian – Russia, Swedish – Sweden, Thai – Thailand and Turkish – Turkey. Besides this there is additional dictation language in Arabic – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Hebrew – Israel.

Redesigned Emoji Keyboard

The interesting feature of update is the redesigned emoji keyboard wherein one can select from the 300 new characters with several new skin tone option and the diversity in the earlier emoji keyboard version was lacking since there was only an Asian man wearing a gua pi mao cap and an Indian with a turban though there were no black people portrayed.

Apple has now added several more relationship as well as gadget related emojis, for instance there are now same sex relationship emojis such as families with two mothers and two fathers while some of the gadget emojis tend to have been added inclusive of a representation of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch.

Besides flags there are also options for sports and Apple is striving hard to strengthen iOS 8s’ reliability since the company is preparing to move its focus to the next model - iOS 9 which will probably be unveiled in June.

Apple Intending to Update its Library of Emojis

Apple, Google and Microsoft together with other tech firms design their own versions of their 800 basic emoji characters and how they ought to appear. Apple it was reported has vowed that it will now update its library of emoticons and smileys called emojis to fill the diversity gap after the complaints of celebrities about the cartoon emoticons lacking diversity which was conveyed through email by MTV Act blogger Joey Parker to Apple CEO Tim Cook and received a reply from Katie Cotton, Apple’s Vice President of worldwide corporate communication, stating that their emoji characters were based on the Unicode standard which was necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms with a need of more diversity in the emoji character set and that they have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update their standard’. Cotton though did not make a mention on when Apple intends to update its emojis.

More Ethnic Diversity in Range of Emoji

Apple it was said wants more ethnic diversity in the basic range of emoji that are available to text messaging apps, adding that it was operating the body responsible in deciding the range of standard graphic symbols which could be added to text messages. Presently the characters have dozens of faces of people which appear white though only two of the symbols are said to be Asian and none are black. A list had been developed and maintained since 2010 by the Unicode Consortium, a Silicon Valley based nonprofit organization consisting of major computer firms, software producers, user groups and several others to ensure that different devices and mobile carriers can altogether share a basic set. Emojis which are based on a Unicode character set allow them to be displayed across platforms where the changes or any type of addition to these characters need to go through the Unicode Consortium.

Emojis – Text with Expressive Power

Apple’s emojis depict a variety of objects, moods together with people including art for LGNT couples some of which was included in its last update. Several users have observed lack of diversity with regards to emojis especially African-Americans. The fact that emoji had become popular first in Japan; the current list of Unicode has only two Asian people; a man with a turban and a man with Gua Pi Mao which is a type of a Chinese hat. Broadcaster had approached the company after the petition had been posted informing Apple to increase the ethnic diversity which was found within its emojis keyboard. It was stated that the keyboard has already offered a graphic which shows a same sex couple and informed the company to present people with skin tone on a wider range. An Oxford University research, Bernie Hogan has been studying the use of emoji as a part of his research on how the users represent themselves on the internet. According to him it seemed to be a trivial problem since many device owners were now more reliant on the tool stating the emoji existed first and foremost as a purpose to augment text with expressive power and if they restrict the sort of people who are used in the images it may restrict the expressive power of the user and would not feel that emoji speak for them.