Gizmodo: firmware 2.2

Simple Hack Enables Roughly One Gazillion Japanese Emoticons On Any iPhone

John Herrman — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:54:45 EST

Emoji: if you've never heard of it, that's because you're probably not living in Japan, 12 years old, and a highly social schoolgirl. An emoticon standard that is widely used in the country, it was included in the iPhone 2.2 firmware on the SoftBank network, but not for anyone else. Apparently fed up with his lack of ability to graphically express his numerous LOLs, a developer has figured out a simple tweak to enable these icons system-wide, no matter which carrier you're with. Naturally, to show anything other than unintelligible strings of Unicode the recipient's phone has to support Emoji emoticons, but apparently all 2.2 iPhones, hacked or not, can display the icons. The patching process, after the jump, isn't terribly complicated.

You need to edit the file /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist on the device -> whether you use a jailbreak to achieve this or merely some iTunes backup editor is up to you.

Add the following boolean key as ‘true’: KeyboardEmojiEverywhere

Then merely go to the Keyboards section of the Settings app, hit Japanese, and turn on Emoji. Will work for any text field/view in the OS, including on websites, AND including the titles of items on SpringBoard (e.g. if you save a bookmark to the home screen).

The easiest way to do with will probably be to run your iPhone as an SFTP server, which is as easy as installing a package or two on your jailbroken phone. After that it's just a matter of editing the config file and emoting to your friends, again and again, via creepy little icons. [Steve Troughton-Smith via MacBlogz, Image from MacRumors]

iPod Touch Denied Street View, Other Google Maps Upgrades in Firmware 2.2

John Herrman — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:01:50 EST

Our testing has confirmed that iPod Touch users do not get updates to their Google Maps app with firmware 2.2, which, at least on the iPhone, includes the addition of Street View as well as public transit and walking directions. The updated browser interface, podcast downloading and assorted other tweaks are all there, as was the requisite sacrificing of any jailbreak apps. Of course there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, but until that's given, Apple, it's all pitchforks and torches. Or iPods and forums posts, I guess. [MobileCrunch]

Rumor Smashed: No Blu-ray-to-PSP Transfers in New PS3 Firmware

matt buchanan — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:50:21 EDT

Turns out that the upcoming 2.2 firmware update for the PS3, which'll make it the best Blu-ray player on the block—isn't coming with the magic ability to transfer Blu-ray copies to the PSP, as PC World had reported. Sony told our garlicky cousins at Kotaku that Portable Copy (catchy name!) won't be included in the 2.2 update. Cross your fingers for 2.3. [Kotaku]