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Global Unicode computer standard gets 'the finger'
Soon, smileys for computers and mobile phones could get a lot more expressive—and a lot less wholesome.
Unveiled on June 16, version 7.0 of the Unicode Standard—a worldwide computing industry specification for the encoding and representation of various kinds of text—contains 2,834 new characters, including "the finger."
In a blog post, the Unicode Consortium said the new characters also include the new currency symbols for the Russian ruble and Azerbaijani manat, and 23 new lesser-used and historic scripts, and character additions to many scripts.
The Unicode Consortium seeks to let people use computers in any language via freely-available specifications and data for major operating systems, search engines, applications, and the World Wide Web.
Emojipedia.org gives a sneak peek of what the new emoji will look like (http://emojipedia.org/new-emoji/), including the finger (http://emojipedia.org/reversed-hand-with-middle-finger-extended/).
Meanwhile, a separate article on The Verge said it will be up to the makers of Unicode member platforms like Apple's iOS and Google's Android to implement the new standard.
"(F)or those who rely on emoji to quickly get their feelings across, there is much here to get excited about. Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended, you cannot get here soon enough," it noted. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News
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