iOS 10 Beta 4 Introduces New Emoji

Apple:

More than one hundred new and redesigned emoji characters will be available to iPhone and iPad users this Fall with iOS 10. This exciting update brings more gender options to existing characters, including new female athletes and professionals, adds beautiful redesigns of popular emoji, a new rainbow flag and more family options.

Also notable: the “pistol” emoji is now a toy squirt gun.

Update: Intriguingly, Microsoft is switching their pistol emoji from a toy sci-fi ray guy to a realistic revolver. And Ben Sandofsky argues that the new emoji should be a variant, not a replacement, to avoid the ambiguity of the glyph conveying a very different meaning depending on the recipient’s OS. And, with this change, Apple’s pistol now points to the right; their previous pistol, and those of all other vendors, points to the left. I don’t know why CNN is showing the new water pistol pointing right, but it actually still points left.

★ Monday, 1 August 2016