Emoji coming with iPhone 2.2 firmware update?

According to MacRumors, the latest iPhone 2.2 firmware, just seeded to developpers, contains 461 emoji characters.

It is unclear if these will be made available on this firmware release or for a following one. It is also yet unknown if Softbank participated in the creation process, allowing the iPhone not only to send, but also receive emoji from other Japanese carriers on the i.softbank.jp e-mail address. 

Currently, sending emoji through the iPhone is only possible through a webapp.

Sending emoji through your iPhone

As reported many times, the lack of emojis is one reason for a kinda slow iPhone intrusion into the japanese market.

Someone clever created a little nifty gateway to allow for such a send on the japanese carrier networks.

Just point your iPhone to https://www.utilz.jp/x2/mail.jsp 

The trick -and a potentially dangerous one- ? You need a Gmail account and the site wants both your userID and password.

As it’s a send-only tool, this won’t resolve the fact that the iPhone is unable to receive such emoji, transcoding them instead into strange ASCII characters.

For those who don’t speak a word of Japanese, Jared on the iphoneinjapan.com forums offers this translation:

送信先メールアドレス recipient address
件名 subject
本文 body
クリックで編集 click to edit
アカウント account
パスワード password

Have tons of fun and comment if you decide to try it.

[Original source: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ryoji02260209/56693673.html]

[UPDATE: possible introduction of official emoji with next firmware update: read more]