Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

I love being able to send cute little smilies to friends who are also using an iPhone. Using Emoji is fun and is simple to do. Once you’ve installed Emoji, it will tell you exactly what you need to do to get started. After enabling Emoji, anyone who has an iPhone will be able to see all of the cute little symbols you send via email, IM and text.

There are more than 460 different icons to choose from at this time with categories that include people, animals, places, food and general silliness. They work pretty much anywhere you may want to type text.

The icons will sadly only show up on an iPhone or iPod Touch. That is a limitation found with any Emoji application – including ones you pay for. All Emoji apps have the exact same icons, so don’t be fooled into paying for a “premium” Emoji app. They’re all the same thing! The apps simply enable the Emoji keyboard that’s normally hidden from you on your device.

If you have an iPhone (or iPod Touch) and aren’t using this application, what the heck are you waiting for?

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NSAmoMq0raA"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NSAmoMq0raA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

Emoji on the iPhone

Word on the street is that Best Buy is now requiring applicants to not only be on Twitter – but to have at least 250 followers, as well. When I read this, my mouth hit the floor. In effect, the company thinks that hiring people with a large Twitter following will garner more business for them. How ludicrous is this? It’s not up to an employee to send out tweets and bring in business to a company like Best Buy. For one thing, what if a person chooses not to have that many followers? Not everyone is on Twitter to see if they can win the race for having the most followers. Some people actually use it only to follow interesting people and entities themselves, not caring whether others follow them back. Some of those same people never even update their own timeline. They choose, instead, to simply use Twitter to read the latest news, and keep up with what’s hot in the marketplace.

I cannot begin to understand why a company would – or can even be allowed to – require something like this. If a person’s job were going to be something along the lines of “Social Media Director”, I might be able to see the need for the applicant to already have some sort of following, establishing them as “social media savvy”. Beyond that – I’m just lost.

What are your thoughts? Is this going to become an eerie new trend in the job hunting process? Do you feel that this is just totally off the wall? Let’s hear your thoughts!

• Windows 7 pre-order copies sold out in under nine hours in the UK.
• Google Adsense: Who said easy money isn’t real?
• Have you checked into Spiceworks yet? If so, what are your thoughts?
• If you want emoticons for your iPhone, look for Emoji’s!
• A new Apple netbook is on the way.
• Could a BSOD actually be a good thing?
• Chris Pirillo vs Lockergnome Logos – would you buy a “Pirrilow”?
• Researchers are finding that new treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease are very promising.
• How much of your computer time is spent on the web?
• What are some good, free fonts available for designers to use?

Can a Company Take Social Networking too Far?

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

Looking at my iPhone, you can see the SMS window. I was texting Ponzi, but I wasn’t sending her text. I was sending some little graphics. I enabled this feature, and you can too! The emoticons are called Emoji’s, which are Japanese smilies or emoticons.

If you want to enable these on your iPhone, you’re more than welcome to. You don’t have to jailbreak it, honestly. The first thing you need to do is download this application to your iPhone. It’s only 99 cents, and it’s well worth it. You can use these little graphics throughout all of your iPhone applications, not just SMS.

Open up the App, and browse through it a bit. You don’t have to actually try to read what it says! Once you’re done, exit out of it, and go into your Settings. Scroll to the “General” area, and then to “International”. Go to “Keyboards”, and then scroll to “Japanese”. Once you’re there, turn on Emoji. Once you’ve done this, it’s enabled and you can use it within anything you’re doing!

I’ve noticed that the more of these I send out, the more people are freaking out and have to have it, as well. They’re just so much fun. You know you want to send your friends a smiling piece of poo! As long as you and your friend both have an iPhone, you can send each other Emoji all day long!

Update!

Ryan sent me the following email, that you definitely should read if you’re considering getting this App for yourself:

Just wanted to let you know that the new iPhone firmware (2.2.1) breaks the Emoji App. It still works fine if you installed it previously, like you did. However, if you buy the App today and try to enable it, it will not work. The developers updated the App description to say that they are working on a new version that addresses this issue.

Just wanted to let you know before you post that video you recorded up to YouTube, may save you about 500 emails.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-hRVuuHeAG0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-hRVuuHeAG0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

How to Get Graphical Emoticons on the iPhone

Hat tip to iJustine (and Brent for letting me know):

1. Buy http://go.tagjag.com/emoji in iTunes (.99c)
2. Install and click through any story in the app.
3. Go navigate through the iPhone’s Settings: General | International | Keyboards | Japanese | toggle Emoji to on
4. SMS emoji graphics to anyone else who uses an iPhone – just click the globe symbol that should now appear in the SMS keyboard!

There’s also a way to do this for free (but in my estimation, it’s easier to just spend .99c on the app that’ll do it for you automatically).

How to Get Emoji Emoticons in iPhone SMS Messages Easily