iPhone Hacking: Enable Japanese Emoticons (AKA Emojicons) [Updated with simpler method]

Last week's 2.2 software update included quite a few goodies for most iPhone owners, but one in particular is only available to those in Japan. Unbeknownst to most of us in the States, Apple's added emojicons (or Japanese emoticons), although they're only available to customers in Japan. Thankfully Steven Troughton-Smith has figured out that a simple property list edit is all that's required. For the full instructions, read on.

You'll need a jailbroken iPhone and enough knowledge to grab the correct file, edit it properly, and put it back without pulling your hair out.

From Steven's blog:

You need to edit the file /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist on the device -> whether you use a jailbreak to achieve this or merely some iTunes backup editor is up to you.

Add the following boolean key as 'true':

KeyboardEmojiEverywhere

Then merely go to the Keyboards section of the Settings app, hit Japanese, and turn on Emoji. Will work for any text field/view in the OS, including on websites, AND including the titles of items on SpringBoard (e.g. if you save a bookmark to the home screen).

If you have enough patience and know-how to follow those instructions, then enjoy your Emoji—you've earned it. For the rest of us, we're probably better off with Emoji disabled for now.

Update: As HackThatPhone points out, ispazio has released an "emoji enabler" in Cydia. Searching for "emoji" should bring up the app.

[High Caffeine Content via Gizmodo]