Happy Friday everybody, and let’s get you set for the weekend with the big news: that’s right, Apple is rolling out new… emojis. No less than the New York Times has the story plastered all over its site, so you know this is a big story. So what new tiny cartoons can you now annoy people with? How about some broccoli, or a curling stone, a red sled, some Chinese food leftovers, and a happy blue dinosaur.
Apple first announced the new slate of emoticons back in July on World Emoji Day and they’re rolling out to devices worldwide next week, so get ready to get your mermaid, hedgehog and Be Quiet face on.
Just to be safe, we want you to know that all the new characters have been approved by the Unicode Consortium, an august body of tech regulators featuring bigwigs from Apple, Google, and other firms with large investments in making sure emojis adhere to strict guidelines. Yeah, we wish we were making that up, but we’re not. Check out all the emoji news fit to print.
And it’s not pride that’s swelling up
Looks like battery problems continue to be problems for cell phone makers, and that now includes Apple. Several reports have surfaced about new iPhone 8 handsets that have cracked open because their batteries have swollen up. To be clear, none of the phones have exploded, caught fire or injured anyone, they just swelled up a bit.
CNET has been sifting the web for reports of swollen iPhones and have found six examples so far, and Apple is reportedly looking into the matter. Considering the tiny number of phones with the problem versus the hundreds of thousands units sold, it’s clearly not a crisis, but following the disaster Samsung had on it’s hands with the flammable Note 7, you can bet Apple – and every phone maker – will be taking no chances in finding the cause of the problem.
So crazy it just might work
Believe it or not, it’s been four years since Amazon.com first floated the idea of delivering goods by drone, and today, we’re still waiting for the skies to be filled with buzzing aerogliders deftly delivering our latest tech toys. Someday, we hope. But in the meantime, other outfits are still dreaming of drone delivery, including these guys, who have put a clever and effective spin on the idea by winching your package down to you pretty much wherever you are.
Called “Delivair,” the UK-based team at Cambridge Consultants have cobbled up an eight-rotor drone that deftly drops your delivery right to you, using the GPS system on your smartphone to track you down. Then the Delivair drone slowly lowers your precious package right into your hand. Now that is the drone delivery system of the future. The company says the tech is pretty much ready to go, and is only limited by drone regulations.
We’ve got more news on our Facebook page and YouTube channel, and be sure to tune in to this week’s DT podcasts: Close to the Metal (computers and such) on Tuesday, Trends with Benefits (general tech shenanigans) on Thursdays, and Between the Streams (movie and TV topics) every Friday.
