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If youre tired of embarrassing Auto Correct errors or composing emoticons based on punctuation marks that only make sense if you tilt your head sideways, theres a somewhat hidden iOS 5 feature youll like: Emoji.
Popular in Asia and likely added to enhance the iPhone and iPads global appeal, emoji icons are accessible via the general menu in your iOS 5 settings, under keyboard. There you can see a prompt for international keyboards and then emoji.
Adding emoji greatly expands your texting options. There are hundreds of illustrated icons that depict everything from watermelons to bikinis to frogs to skyscrapers. Instead of texting something like my plane just landed, you can just send a plane emoji. Instead of Lets meet for a burger, you can just show a picture of a burger.
In Japan, where the pictographs orginated, emoji have evolved to present a palette of options relevant to that culture including a bowing businessman and sushi. Until now, though, they have been confined mostly to that country. Yet the trend may go international fast. Realizing this, Apple and Google got behind a program to standardize emoji in 2009. There are now 722 symbols recognized under that standard. You can check out some of them in the gallery below.
What do you think of emoji? Will you use them? Did you already? Let us know in the comments.
Click here to view this gallery.
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