Michal Ždanský Apple released updated beta versions for both of its operating systems yesterday. The second beta of iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3 comes with some interesting changes and news and of course a number of fixes, after all the list of bugs in both systems is not exactly short. While in previous beta versions we saw the first build of the application Photos (OS X), the second iteration brings new Emoji, and on iOS it's new languages for Siri.
The first big news is a new set of Emoji emoticons, or rather new variations. Already we learned earlier about Apple's plan to bring racially diverse icons to Emoji, which involved the company's engineers who are part of the Unicode Consortium. Each of the emoticons representing a person or a part of him should have the ability to be recolored to several types of races. This option is available in the new betas on both systems, just hold your finger on the given icon (or press and hold the mouse button) and five more variants will appear.
In addition to racially diverse Emoji, 32 state flags have been added, several icons in the family section that also take into account gay couples, and the appearance of some older icons has also changed. Specifically, the Computer Emoji now represents the iMac, while the Watch icon has taken the visible form of the Apple Watch. Even the iPhone's Emoji have undergone a minor change and are more reminiscent of current Apple phones.
New languages for Siri appeared in iOS 8.3. Russian, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai and Turkish were added to the existing ones. In the previous version of iOS 8.3 se signs also appeared, that Czech and Slovak could also appear among the new languages, unfortunately we will probably have to wait a little longer for that. Finally, the Photos application was also updated in OS X, which now displays recommendations for adding new people to Faces albums in the bottom bar. The bar can be scrolled vertically or completely minimized.
Among other things, Apple also mentions improvements and fixes for Wi-Fi and screen sharing. Beta versions can be updated via Settings > General Software Update (iOS) and the Mac App Store (OS X). Together with the beta versions, the second Xcode 6.3 beta and OS X Server 4.1 Developer Preview were released. In March, according to the latest information, Apple should release i iOS 8.3 public beta.
Why don't those emoji have such beautifully oversaturated garish colors like everything else in the system?
because it would be racist if brown were too brown or yellow too yellow….. :P
About a year ago, I wrote a web interface for the telescope, it showed the stream from the web camera, the current weather from the weather station, information about what the telescope is actually observing, the current image of the stars, the possibility to add another observation to the queue from the cosmic object database, or add new ones own observations... And the boss, who is an artist's right hand and advisor, at her instigation, fucked me that the background is not green and that the clear cloudless sky is not symbolized by the sun (at night???), but by the text "clear". So I'm not surprised by the news of a fantastic emoji upgrade…
I would be especially interested if you have solved the bug with the non-rotating LCD. It is embarrassing to say the least that since version 8 I have to fidget with the phone to get the display to rotate.