Emoji

This will be brief as I'm at work on my iPhone.

I was listening to a Mac Break Weekly today and one of the topics was about how to unlock the emoji on your iPhone. I had never heard of emoji and was intriuged to find out it was the Japanese phone version of our emotes, but with many icons, not just the smiley face types we have.

I went to the app store, typed emoji and lo and behold, some apps appeared which unlocked the feature on the iPhone keyboard! For only $.99, I bought an app and now I can use emoji! The downside is that I only iPhone users and cells in Japan can see the emoji. That means everyone needs to get an iPhone!

However, there's a rumor that Apple wants to disable emoji. Why? No clue. But since everyone in Japan uses emoji, that doesn't seem like a good idea. And if it's only to do it to U.S. iPhones, why kill our fun? Makes no sense. I hope that rumor isn't true.

Update: Ok, so it was a MacBreak Weekly from February that I just got around to hearing and yes, at the start of March/end of Feb, Apple did issue a shut down order to all apps that were created with the emoji functionality. So until the new ROM, my emoji will work! I love Apple, but what a killjoy they can be sometimes! Big thumbs down for that silly shutdown that had no impact on them whatsoever.

Update to my update: I have no idea if emoji will be disabled or not now. After reading several sites, some say it's over but those posts were early March, while others have comments that iPhone 3.0 actually has it included without using any app, just part of the normal function starting with 3.0. 3.0 is still in the beta but being released soon, but as of a few days ago, emoji was still functioning on the beta as part of the normal operation of the iPhone, no app needed. And as of right now, there are still some apps in the store that enable emoji. I guess we'll see what happens, but I for one love the emoji and hope it stays!

Hotmail

I've been meaning to send this link to Rob but perhaps it might be helpful for someone else. Automagic Software makes a nice free utility called HTTPMail Plugin that allows you to integrate your Hotmail account with Apple Mail.

It has some limitations like the inability to add contacts or modify Hotmail junk mail filters but its a lot better than having to use your web browser to check your email or worse yet, having to run Microsoft Entourage. Oh the horror!

Mac Pro Finale

Yesterday, Apple announced the latest major revision of the long overdue Mac Pro along with the iMac and Mac mini. According to an old blog post, my interest in purchasing a Mac Pro runs as far back as 2005. Since that time, I have commented on the Mac Pro's major refreshes in 2006 and 2008.

Keeping the tradition alive, here's my summary of the 2009 revision: I'm officially out of the Apple Pro workstation market! The lack of an external case redesign aside, the Pro systems have essentially increased in price by $500, not a trivial amount considering that these systems start at $2500 on upwards. I'm sure modo rendering will scream with these machines but my current iMac 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo is doing just fine.

Members of the Macrumor forums have pointed out that there isn't a Nvidia Quadro FX solution available anymore as well as the need to purchase two graphic cards to drive two Apple LCD displays using the Mini DisplayPort. Personally those issues wouldn't affect me but I still don't like the fact that an AirPort Extreme card isn't standard. I do love the beautifully redesigned interior though, definitely the best in the industry. Mabey if I get back into computer graphics as a career I'll reconsider the workstation market but for now I'll move on.

As a final sendoff, here's my dream config if I were to buy one today:

• Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• 8GB (4x2GB)
• 640GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
• One 18x SuperDrive
• Apple Mighty Mouse
• Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (English) and User's Guide
• AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi Card with 802.11n
• Apple LED Cinema Display (24" flat panel)

Total: $4,548.00