[...] The Emojipedia website argued that the symbol could still appear as a lifelike gun in messages sent to non-iOS users. Apple made the change in the wake of a series of shootings in the US.
However, Microsoft announced this week that its toy gun symbol would be redesigned as a more realistic-looking firearm. The emoji character system allows companies to use slightly different designs of the same basic objects, signs or expressions.
"The thing is, emojis already look different on different platforms and it does cause confusion," Jeremy Burge, editor of Emojipedia, told the BBC. "When we're dealing with guns and toys as a comparison, that's a whole new level of problems that we have there."
[...] "Apple has the most prominent emoji set that people use," said Mr Burge. "I think it has a high responsibility to be a bit cautious."
There was further criticism from web users, but a columnist in the Guardian praised the move as a statement on gun control.
"It's a smart, small part in the battle - which we're presently losing - to keep Americans safe," wrote Jean Hannah Edelstein. There have been calls previously - including from a campaign called Disarm the iPhone - to remove the handgun icon from iOS devices.
[...] Both Apple and Microsoft have said they are working with the Unicode Consortium - the body that maintains lists of emojis across different platforms.
Related Stories
Business Insider is reporting that Apple is changing its implementation of the "pistol" emoji (🔫 \U0001F52B; "🔫") from a revolver to a toy water gun. According to Apple's announcement, the change will take effect with the release of iOS 10 this fall. Apple's announcement didn't explicitly mention the change or its rationale but the change is, predictably, ruffling some feathers.
The cheese on Google's version of the cheeseburger emoji is in the WRONG PLACE and that is problematic:
Responding to criticism about the placement of cheese on Google's version of the cheeseburger emoji, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he would take a look at the issue immediately. "Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday :) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this!" Pichai tweeted.
Pichai was responding to author Thomas Baekdal, who pointed out the difference in cheese placement between Apple's and Google's cheeseburger emojis. "I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, which Apple puts on top," Baekdal tweeted.
The tweet ignited a debate about where the different ingredients of a cheeseburger belong. Among all the different cheeseburger emoji variants offered by various tech companies, Google's is the only version to place the cheese below the meat, according to images of cheeseburger emojis from Apple, Google, Samsung, Facebook and others, as seen on Emojipedia. It's generally accepted that cheeseburger cheese should be placed directly on the meat patty for optimal melting.
🍔🍕🍖🍗🍟🍩 🏃💨 🇺🇸 💩🚽
Unicode 11 emoji candidates, scheduled for June 2018.
Also at Brisbane Times and New Zealand Herald.
Previously: Tweet Emoji 4 Pizza: #Epitome of #Convenience
38 New Emojis to be Introduced in 2016
Unicode Considering 67 New Emoji for 2016
Unicode 9.0 Serves up Bacon Emoji, 71 others, and Six New Scripts
Apple Urged to Rethink Gun Emoji Change
Unicode 10.0's New Emojis
Apple's New iPhone X will let You Control the Poo Emoji with Your Face
The pistol emoji ― 🔫 ― is being phasered out, or turned into a water pistol:
Google is the latest company to ditch the pistol with a new emoji update for Android users. The switch to a bright orange and yellow water gun, rolling out now, mimics changes made by Apple, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Samsung over the last few years. That leaves Microsoft as the only major platform with the realistic handgun emoji. True, Facebook still uses it, but a spokesperson for the company confirmed to Emojipedia that it would also be replacing its gun emoji with a toy water gun. The Verge has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
[...] Ironically, Microsoft initially displayed the gun emoji as a toy, but changed it to a revolver in 2016 as part of its emoji redesign project. With Google's (and Facebook's) latest move, Microsoft's gun emoji puts it at philosophical odds with the other giant tech companies based in the US where gun violence is a major concern. As we previously noted, in 2016 Apple successfully pushed to remove the rifle icon from the standardized collection of emoji.
However, later on the day The Verge's article was published, Microsoft revealed that it is jumping on the trend as well:
We are in the process of evolving our emojis to reflect our values and the feedback we've received. Here's a preview: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbqXVKBU0AAdXLk.jpg
Previously: Apple Changes "Pistol" Emoji From Revolver to Toy Water Gun
Apple Urged to Rethink Gun Emoji Change
Twitter Changes Revolver Emoji to Water Pistol Emoji
Related: Kids Are Facing Criminal Charges for Using Emoji
(Score: 5, Informative) by physicsmajor on Sunday August 07 2016, @04:39AM
Who lets facts get in the way of an agenda?
Read up, make your own conclusions about if we're losing anything even close to a "battle to keep Americans safe": http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/12/foghorn/guns-violence-united-states-numbers/ [thetruthaboutguns.com]
What I see supported by robust data is exactly the opposite, which happens to be very inconvenient to a particular emotion-based policy position.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday August 07 2016, @05:08AM
Even more inane is this argument about a caricature of a gun somehowhaving an effect on actual safety at any level.
It makes everyone involved look ridiculous.
When Apple want's to make a statement about anythingi in the future, everyone will point to this and assume it's more of the same.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @06:42AM
But this is less about safety than Apple's image, especially as advertising to a certain segment.
I'm actually okay with Apple going this route. It makes clear to me whose business they want, little different than the little fishes that adorn certain businesses.
The bit that bothers me is people not cynical enough to call it out for what it is: a marketing ploy. It consumerism now down to marketable stances, as if Apple wouldn't do an about face if there was real money involved.
(Score: 3, Funny) by davester666 on Sunday August 07 2016, @07:32AM
what's going to happen is that person A on an iOS device will input a gun emoji cuz it looks cute in a string of emojis, and send it to person B who has an Android phone, and then that person's parent will be going through their messages and see the real-looking gun and phone the police that person A just made a death threat against their child. And the police will go to person A's house and shoot them because the gun looked real to them.
(Score: 2, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday August 07 2016, @03:59PM
This is modded funny, but take a gander here: https://www.rt.com/usa/334041-student-emoji-message-charges/ [rt.com]
(Score: 1) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday August 07 2016, @11:03PM
Exactly. Whenever you think the government won't react over a cartoon caricature of a weapon, just remember this [techdirt.com]. (For those who don't want to bother with the link -- the TSA actually provided a tiny cartoon "bomb" paperweight photo that looks like something used by Wile E. Coyote as an example of an item that "looks like a real bomb" and could be prohibited by the TSA and even "can cause significant delays because the explosive detection professionals must resolve the alarm to determine the level of threat.")
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 08 2016, @12:52AM
We live in a world where babies are racist, the glaciers are sexist, and saying hello unsolicited is a hate crime. What do you expect?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @04:49AM
I think they should keep it. Nothing bothers me more than purposeful deviations from a standard. The whole point of a standard is to allow things to interoperate and that things work across platforms/programs whatever. To me, this is no different than Apple deciding to replace the glyph of "†" with "t" because the stylizing of the dagger might offend. The standard says that is supposed to be the dagger character, so changing it to something else changes the meaning, can cause confusion or whatever else when working across platform. Can't wait for someone to get shot by police when they text their friend about the water fight in the park.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @06:17AM
For at least 10 years apple has been purposefully deviating from standards. Just in case you had missed it.
By the way: my own opinion is that standardizing emoji's is a disgusting waste of resources. It's kinda like the wives meeting to discuss and decide, on the basis of serious scientific research, which lubricant is best to buy for the hubbies when they are jerking off to porn.
(Score: 5, Informative) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 07 2016, @07:12AM
I agree. No, actually I don't: I think including emojis in Unicode was not just a waste of resources, but actually harmful.
But as things currently go, I'll expect the Unicode consortium to add new modifiers (err, combining "characters"), like a "toy" modifier that specifies that the emoji should be displayed as a toy item, and a "real object" specifier that specifies that the emoji should be displayed as the real item.
At the beginning, the Unicode consortium did a great job. But nowadays I think they do more harm than good.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @05:14PM
Oh, I agree it is a total waste of resources, but then don't implement the standard at all. The selective picking and choosing of what parts to implement is a bigger problem. At least people will know it doesn't work, rather than having edge cases.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Sunday August 07 2016, @07:29AM
Yep this is exertion of control, and it obviously, as a side effect (or as the first intended consequence, we are talking about corporations who are demonstrably sociopath organizations), preps people for more.
We break the standard, for OF COURSE IMPORTANT SAFETY REASONS BECAUSE WE KNOW BETTER, and you, the user, have no say whatsoever.
Today an emoji, tomorrow a system setting.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday August 07 2016, @01:08PM
Well at least this time they're not deviating from standards purely to screw people over for more money and lock-in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @03:55PM
Check out the difference in turd emojis. No real standardization even now.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday August 07 2016, @08:54PM
It seems like I'm not the only one who saw this serious problem (although my comment was rated Funny for some reason): https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=14819&cid=383490 [soylentnews.org]
Really, you'd think no on at Apple has a brain.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 07 2016, @04:59AM
This entire discussion is just a metaphor for transforming society from a potent force, into a wimpy dream.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday August 07 2016, @05:17AM
Change the gun emoji to a penis. That would change it from an X-rated symbol to a mere R-rated sym--- wait, the penis is the X-rated one? Isn't that backwards?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @05:44AM
"Isn't that backwards?"
As far as I know, human penises have always been forwards.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday August 07 2016, @02:17PM
You did not get the memo?
Zardoz: Zardoz speaks to you, His chosen ones.
Exterminators: We are the chosen ones!
Zardoz: You have been raised up from Brutality, to kill the Brutals who multiply, and are legion. To this end, Zardoz your God gave you the gift of the Gun. The Gun is good!
Exterminators: The Gun is good!
Zardoz: The Penis is evil! The Penis shoots Seeds, and makes new Life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the Gun shoots Death and purifies the Earth of the filth of Brutals. Go forth, and kill! Zardoz has spoken.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by ShadowSystems on Sunday August 07 2016, @05:43AM
I've always wondered what's a meta for...
*Runs away before you can whack me with a dead fish*
=-D
(Score: 2) by ticho on Sunday August 07 2016, @08:11AM
I'm not sure, but I think that emoji is built around the mIRC desktop icon.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday August 07 2016, @06:36AM
Your choice of words is so very, very revealing. Fear of "impotence," I see. What kind of dream, precisely, a wet dream?
For the record I think Apple is being idiotic, but I'm almost tempted to support them in this now JUST because it gives people like you ridiculous conniption fits.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @07:59AM
Your choice of words is so very, very revealing.
Sounds worse than pseudoscience.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday August 07 2016, @09:28AM
In my lexicon, "wimp" is quite a bit different to "limp", you know?
I wonder how telling is dragging that word into sexual context? (ummm... "telling about what" is another legit question)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday August 07 2016, @06:57PM
Look at his post history; words like "emasculate" come up in conversations that nothing whatsoever to do with, for example, neutering pets. I've always been amused by how a certain type of man--it's ALWAYS a man!--sees everything on the national and societal level through the lens of macho, Iron-Age sexual "values." To me, this speaks of 1) deep personal anxiety and 2) a frankly dangerous, one-sided view of sexuality.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 07 2016, @09:42PM
It is a common, if not universal, aspect of fascism to worry about the alleged loss of masculinity. From Heidegger to Yukio Mishima, there is a constant complaint that men are being femininized. Mishima reported that in Chinese medicine it used to be possible to differentiate the gender of a person from the pulse alone, but now-a-days men and women have the same pulse. And probably use the same emojis!
The fascist worship of the military is probably a part of this. But the whole "manly men" usually takes a decidedly homoerotic turn rather quickly, and becomes misogynist. Mussolini's masculine ideal fits right in here.
on the one side the cowardly, the soft, the hysterical, the effeminate, the cry-babies, the mommy's boys; on the other the strong, the aware, the idealists, the mystics of danger, those who triumph over fear and those who are courageous by nature, the hot-blooded heroes and the heroes of the will."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_of_masculinity_under_fascist_Italy
So the "wimp" and "limp" distinction is not significant for fascists and their fellow travellers, the gamergaters, Sad Puppies, Orson Scott Card and Scott Adams.
And if any Americans are reading this, more interesting words from the Italian Fascists!
As per issues involving masculinity, fascist rhetoric advocated for misogynistic, homophobic, and virilistic values in their campaign during the 1920s and made direct references as to the accepted and unaccepted gender codes, as explained in this passage:
"The deviant male was above all a bourgeois, egoistic and unpatriotic as well as scarcely virile (because he was unfit or reluctant to repeatedly impregnate the female); the deviant female was the too 'modern' woman, Americanized, independent and masculinized. The social damages provoked by these two converging deviants were most serious: a widespread and 'excessive loosening of family hierarchical relations, a decline in the main of that robust virility that fascism, with much love and perseverance, pursues in other ways"
opere citato
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday August 07 2016, @11:58PM
Half-godwining the thread, are you?
However, you are most sinning against the logic. "Fascists promoted masculinity, A is nostalgic about masculinity, therefore A is fascist", is that what you are saying in great lengths with opera citato? Really, magister?
---
As it happens, I have the entire collection of Bond movies. Pop culture, especially movies, is a great way to assess the evolution of morals over time.
Let me offer you some citations [youtube.com] about the era. By your measure, wasn't America fascist in this era?
You know? This era [youtube.com].
An era which the women needed to fight dirty [wikipedia.org] their way, or work physical demanding jobs to support herself to dance in a style which exposes every bits of her femininity [youtube.com] (safe for work, kids)
The first movie series I remember in which the protagonist had a woman as his boss and lost every fist fight was "Moonlighting" - yes, the "Die hard" Bruce Willis character took it at least one in every episode -'twas second half of the '80-ies, folks.
Finally, everybody grows old, you can choose how to do it, though [wikipedia.org]. Make sure you remember it when you have no country [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday August 07 2016, @10:36PM
Factor into this the use of Internet... you know?.... the place where men are men, women are men and children are FBI agents.
The same place where Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory applies.
Seems the two should increase the error bars in your analysis.
(besides, let a man grieve over his prostatitis, there will come a time he'll accept it...
... grin... large grin...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday August 07 2016, @07:39AM
Consider the world as a single system, since it already is.
The system has pulled a systemd and rendered society an interdependent mess, so that population is under control. You want to secede? good luck with starving into irrelevancy, in a way that makes north korea look a tourist resort. Now be good and obey your new transnational directives.
It is the same system who pushed for communism, fascism, the '68, mind you. First they use ideals to destroy now they do not need any ideal to rebuild. Since we are under control, we should now accept the system and behave like good sheeple. Atomized families and of course new tech. "Your son, which you two insisted on having with dangerous natural means which put your health at risk, displays terrorist character traits. Under the new directives we have edited them out, whose account can we charge?"
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @09:19AM
This entire discussion is just a metaphor for transforming society from a potent force, into a wimpy dream.
I had a dream. It was a dream where I had a potent force, and Runaway was trying to run away, but I caught him in a metaphor and he was all wimpy in my dream. Then I woke up. But there was an ammosexual emoji lying next to me in the bed! ARGGGHHHHH! I will never be able to get those images out of my head, or the emoji stains out of the sheets.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday August 07 2016, @09:32AM
You can always cut and discard the tainted part, no?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @06:09AM
u must whip it
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Sunday August 07 2016, @09:25AM
u must whip it
Devo! How could anyone mod this offtopic, no matter what the topic was?
Now whip it
Into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
It's not too late
To whip it
Whip it good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QLzthSkfM [youtube.com]
Ride'em, Cowboy!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday August 07 2016, @09:44AM
Failure to mention the "good" qualifier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday August 07 2016, @07:11PM
I'm upset no one mentioned Winamp as the best player to use to play Devo music on...
The fact that the media center was removed from win10 would give it a sort of de-evolutionary feel, too.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by theluggage on Sunday August 07 2016, @12:58PM
Seriously? Which way do you want to look at this?
The idea that the easy availability of guns and the legal right for everybody to carry them might result in more shootings is, at the very least, a hypothesis worthy of debate.
The idea that the availability or otherwise of "realistic" gun Emoji might have any practical effect - not so much.
OK, so you think the image of a gun should be treated as unacceptable and you want to reject "gun culture". I can respect that position. So you delete the gun Emoji and leave a blank - right? Er, no, you replace it with a picture of a toy in the shape of a gun. What? That's the most self-contradictory idea since vegetarian bacon! If you don't approve of guns to the extent that you don't want pictures of them then why the flying fuck would toy guns be somehow OK? That's before you engage braincell #2 and realise the consequence that, in emoj-talk, a message saying "I'm going to humorously squirt water at you" in Emoji-speak sent from an iPhone will come out as "I'm gonna pop a cap in your ass" on Android.
Honestly - makes me feel like squirting water in my ear (written on a Mac).
But then, censorship knows no logic: I remember, even as a kid, wondering how the A-Team got away with R-rated levels of violence by simply making a point of showing people getting up and walking away from shootouts, explosions and crashes that should have left them maimed and crippled. Seriously - if you don't want to glorify violence, don't make it look like fun.
(Score: 2) by gidds on Tuesday August 09 2016, @12:26PM
I know!
Why don't we ban the word 'gun'!
If we prevent anyone using the letters 'g', 'u', and 'n' together, then we'll all be safer, right?!
Because if people can't talk about guns, then they won't use them, either!
...Eh? Sorry? What do you mean, 'It doesn't work like that'???
[sig redacted]