📱 HOW TO BECOME AN EMOJI: A LONG, WEIRD JOURNEY 🥕🎭🔍 Ever wonder how a humble root vegetable or a sleep-deprived face gets the honor of joining the emoji keyboard? It’s not as simple as slapping a doodle into your iPhone—emoji must petition for inclusion, endure bureaucratic emoji purgatory, and finally pass the test of the Unicode Consortium before they’re deemed worthy of our texts. 🏛️
The latest batch of emoji—rolling out in the iOS 18.4 beta—includes such highly anticipated icons as:
🥕 Root vegetable
😩 Face with bags under eyes (relatable)
🛠️ Shovel (for digging yourself out of bad texts)
🎵 Harp (because… why not?)
💦 Splatter (art or crime scene? You decide.)
🌳 Leafless tree (bleak, but poetic)
🇸🇦 Flag of Sark (which now we want to visit)
🔍 Fingerprint (finally, we can text about crime shows properly)
—> A WORLDWIDE EMOJI BUREAUCRACY: These emoji first applied for citizenship in May 2024, passing the emoji citizenship test (aka approval from the Unicode Consortium) later that year. But approval isn’t enough—Apple then redesigns them in-house, ensuring maximum aesthetic appeal. Only now, nearly a year later, can they grace our group chats. 📆 🌍
—> WHAT IS THE UNICODE CONSORTIUM? Think of it as the Supreme Court of Emoji. The Unicode Consortium is a nonprofit that decides which emoji make it into our keyboards, ensuring every approved character is compatible across different devices. Their job? To review emoji proposals, weigh their cultural significance, and make sure they’re not too redundant (sorry, no third taco emoji 🌮). Want a new emoji? You can petition for one, but be ready for a long wait and a lot of paperwork. 🏛
MORE ON THE WAY… IN 2026?! 💥 The Emoji Hunger Games continues—164 more emoji are currently in proposal mode, including:
🐳 Orca whale
🦶 Bigfoot (at last)
😵💫 Distorted face (for existential crises)
🩰 Ballet dancer
🍎 Apple core
🌊 Landslide
🎺 Trombone (for jazzing up your convos)
If all goes well, these hopeful little icons will make their emoji keyboard debut in iOS 19, probably sometime next year—because apparently, it takes two years to bring us an emoji of Bigfoot. 👀
📲 Want to use them now? You’ll need to install the iOS 18.4 beta—otherwise, prepare for your friends to text you a mystical box with a question mark when they try to send you a splatter. 💦❓
Source: AppleInsider.
hello, future. it’s me, kev.
…and this is a dispatch from the digital frontier. It’s time to meet the future NOW — with the latest on markets, tech, and freedom. The day is 64. The year is 2025. The planet is Earth. My name is Kevin Cirilli —> LinkedIn. Spotify. Sign-up to receive the future in your inbox here.
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FUTURES
MARKETS BOUNCE BACK AS TRUMP PAUSES AUTO TARIFFS 🚗📈 Stocks rallied Wednesday after Trump hit pause on some tariffs, giving Wall Street hope that the trade war won’t spiral out of control. The S&P 500 rebounded 1.1%, the Dow surged 485 points, and the Nasdaq jumped 1.5% as investors breathed a sigh of relief.
—> WHAT HAPPENED? Trump granted a one-month exemption for U.S. automakers on his new tariffs for Mexico and Canada after talking with Ford, GM, and Stellantis. Automakers, which rely on cross-border production, would have taken a major hit.
—> THE TRUMP BUMP RETURNS? The move reversed Tuesday’s losses, which had wiped out all market gains since Election Day. Ford and GM stocks jumped 5%, fueling a broad rally.
—> WHAT’S NEXT? The exemption is temporary, meaning Wall Street is still on edge. Will Trump extend the relief—or are bigger tariff battles still ahead? 💰🔥
CRYPTO
TRUMP WANTS A U.S. BITCOIN RESERVE—BUT CONGRESS ISN’T SOLD 💰 Trump’s push for a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve is getting some support from crypto-friendly lawmakers—but Congress isn’t there yet. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, a longtime Bitcoin advocate, introduced the bill, but even some Republicans are hitting pause on the idea.
—> WHAT’S THE HOLDUP? Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott reportedly told Lummis that Congress needs to "put a pin in it" for now—suggesting the proposal lacks broad political support.
—> TRUMP MOVES MARKETS Despite the hurdles, Trump doubled down over the weekend, saying his administration would push forward with a crypto reserve including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano—and markets immediately reacted. 🚀📈
—> WHAT’S NEXT? While the political fight continues, Bitcoin and altcoins surged after Trump’s announcement. But without congressional backing, the plan remains more hype than reality.
Source: Investor’s Business Daily.
SPACE
HYPERSONIC HYPE OR HYPER-EXPENSIVE NIGHTMARE? The Boom Overture jet is set to slash transatlantic flight times in half, but here’s the catch—it guzzles fuel 5 to 7 times faster than regular jets. That means supersonic speed comes with a supersonic price tag, both in dollars and environmental impact.
—> WHY IT MATTERS: Boom promises to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), but at this burn rate, ticket prices could be sky-high—turning these flights into a luxury only the ultra-rich can afford.
—> THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT: United and American Airlines are betting big on a supersonic comeback, but regulators, environmentalists, and fuel costs could clip Overture’s wings before it even takes off.
Source: Luxury Launches
QUANTUM // ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
THE AI PEN THAT DOES IT ALL—EXCEPT WRITE FOR YOU: A ballpoint pen that translates, records, and chats with ChatGPT? That’s the idea behind The One Smart AI Pen, launched on Kickstarter by engineer Zakwan Ahmad. At first glance, it looks like an ordinary pen, but it’s secretly packing a battery, microphone, Bluetooth connectivity, and AI smarts—all designed to sync with HearIt.AI and ChatGPT-4.0-Mini.
—> WHAT CAN IT DO?: Translate speech in 52+ languages 🌍, convert handwriting into digital text ✍️➡️📱, dictate notes and set reminders 🎙️🗓️, record lectures & meetings with built-in MicroSD storage 🎤, and even chat with AI (because why not?) 🤖. Charge it for 1 hour and get 30 hours of use at 10 meters from your phone, thanks to Bluetooth 5.2 and a steel/plastic build.
—> AI-OPTIONAL? YES. Not into AI? No problem. The handwriting-to-digital conversion feature doesn’t even rely on ChatGPT, making this a flexible tool for screen-free writing.
—> COMING SOON? Still in Kickstarter mode, but if this smart pen delivers on its promises, it might just replace your notebook, recorder, and translation app—all in one. 🚀
Source: Tom’s Hardware.
ONE MORE THING
🏈⚽ MEET THE FUTURE OF SPORTS BARS: Cosm's immersive venues offer fans a futuristic way to experience live sports, combining state-of-the-art visuals with the energy of a live crowd. Cosm has already raised more than $1 billion as it plans to expand.
—> MEET THE FUTURE: Cosm's venues feature massive LED domes that broadcast live sports in ultra-high definition, creating an experience that rivals being at the game.
—> OLD MEETS NEW: Cosm's expansion into cities like Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta signals a shift in how we experience live events, blending cutting-edge technology with the communal aspects of traditional sports viewing.
With gratitude,
Kev
ABOUT mtf.tv’s meet the future: mtf.tv’s meet the future is a cutting-edge platform focused on addressing key challenges at the intersection of national security, technology, and business. With a mission to embrace freedom to meet the future’s challenges and opportunities, mtf.tv offers forward-thinking media offerings and forums.
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