How to easily create quality images on Threads 🆕  14 July 2023

You can look forward to using these new emojis: New Emojis in 2023-2024

The blog post from Emojipedia discusses the new emojis that are candidates for approval by Unicode in September 2023. Some of the notable emojis include a Lime, a Head Shaking Vertically, and a Phoenix Bird emoji. There are also a selection of new direction-based people emojis.

The draft list for Emoji 15.1 includes these emojis along with four new gender-neutral family emojis, which are intended to be represented via silhouettes like the current Bust in Silhouette and Busts in Silhouette emojis.

The new emojis are expected to be constructed via zero-width joiner (ZWJ) sequences, utilizing previously-existing emojis to construct a new design and concept. For example, the Phoenix Bird will appear as the Bird and Fire emojis placed side-by-side, while the Lime will show as a Green Square placed after the Lemon emoji.

The Emoji 15.1 candidate list also contains directional versions of six different types of person emojis, which will result in a total of 108 new emojis when you include skin tone modifier and gender variants. These new direction-specifying emojis are all versions of pre-existing people emojis (e.g., Person Running), but with the addition of explicitly-stated directionality (e.g., Person Running Facing Right).

It's important to note that these are draft emojis and are subject to change prior to final approval in September 2023. However, changes to the final draft list have not occurred in recent years.

The blog post also discusses the potential implications of these new emojis, including the semantic difficulties posed by the Head Shaking Horizontally and Head Shaking Vertically emojis, which can have inverted meanings in different cultures.

The post concludes with an estimated timeline for the approval and release of these new emojis across major emoji vendors, with some companies expected to come out with early emoji support in late 2023, and the majority of updates to take place in the first half of 2024.

emojipedia.org  

Fake THREADS App Climbs to Number 1 Spot on Apple Store in Europe 🧵

The article from HackRead reports that Apple has removed a fake version of the popular Threads app from its European App Store. This fraudulent app, developed by SocialKit LTD, had climbed to the top of the most downloaded apps until it was reported and subsequently taken down on July 11, 2023. Other apps created by SocialKit LTD, including ChatGP, SelfMe: Selfie AI Face Editor, and Remove Background Eraser, were also removed.

The fake Threads app had gained significant popularity, especially in Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, where it had claimed the number one position in the App Store rankings. The original Threads app, launched by Meta as a competitor to Twitter, has garnered more than 100 million downloads worldwide since its release earlier in the month. However, it has not been made available in the European Union due to the region's stringent privacy laws.

This absence created an opportunity for cybercriminals to capitalize on the demand by producing counterfeit apps and employing over 700 phoney domain names in a single day. Cybersecurity firm Mysk, which exposed the fraudulent app, highlighted the concerning statistics regarding the genuine app’s absence in the European market.

Cybersecurity analyst Veriti warns users, especially those in Europe, to exercise caution when downloading knock-off versions of Threads, as they often serve as conduits for malware or phishing attacks. It is crucial to obtain the app from trusted sources and exercise due diligence at all times.

While the fraudulent Threads app has been removed from the European App Store, similar bogus apps have also been detected on other platforms. Before the official launch of Instagram’s Threads on July 6, several impersonating apps were circulating on the Google Play Store, prompting Google to eventually remove them.

hackread.com