Be more Japanese I always say.
Here’s a guide to enjoy those emoji icons shipped in the iPhone which are only activated in Japan. This is not a hack, we are simply running an application that activates that built in feature of the iPhone.
Step 1: Check Your iPhone Software Version
If your version is less than 2.2.1 skip to Step 2. If you performed the iPhone 2.2.1 software update that was released a couple of days ago you can you need to temporarily downgrade to the previews version, activate emoti icons and then upgrade again to 2.2.1. Nothing is lost in this process, except for precious time.
To downgrade, press the option key while hitting the Restore button on iTunes. This should bring up a window with available software updates. In my case, I chose the last update, version 2.2_5g77. Run the restore action and perform the initial sync.
Step 2: Download and Install FrostyPlace
From the iTunes Store, download and install the FrostyPlace, a free chinese RSS reader. This can be performed from your computer or the iPhone.
[update] FrostyPlace is now charging but according to Eric Hust, the iPhone application Spell Number will accomplish the same and it is free.
Step 3: Read some chinese stories
Launch the application on the iPhone and just read some news. No kidding. Read for a minute or so and press them buttons. At some point for whatever reason, the app will activate emoji icons globally on the phone.
Step 4: Activate Emoji Icons
Go back to the iPhone spring board and select Settings. Then go to General > International > Keyboards > Japanese and activate Emoji. You might need to repeat Step 3 several times before Emoji shows up in this panel. I had to do it twice.
Once Emoji icons are activated they can become available in any application by clicking on the International Globe icon to the left of the keyboard. You can use it in SMS, Mail, Notes and anything you can type into. And best of all Emoji does not need to be activated on someone else’s iPhone for them to receive your cool new icons. But you can’t expect for non iPhones to get your cool new icons of course.
Hello, I am Melvin Rivera; creator of 
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Great article, thanks. When I option-click Restore, it doesn’t go the available updates. Probably because it’s a new computer so I don’t have any previous versions, but I couldn’t Spotlight it in my previous computer, either.
Do you have the path that you can share?
Thanks!
oh cool! it works!
i never kept a local copy of the iPhone update files, i had to go to this site:
http://www.macgeekblog.com/blog/archive/2008/11/23/iphone-firmware-22-jailbreak-and-unlock.html
to pull down a 2.2_5g77.ipsw file.
thanks! i thought frostplace was 99¢…
Thanks a lot for another great trick. Just wanted to ad that FrostyPlace is now worth 0,79€ at the App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=290116587&mt=8).
I’m running 2.2.1 version, are you sure that this tip will not work on it ?
Pierro. I was running on 2.2.1 and had to downgrade myself.
Hey Melvin, what are the chances of posting 2.2_5g77.ipsw? I downloaded it from MacGeekBlog, but have no idea what to do with it now. It’s just three dmgs (which won’t open), and some other foreign files. iTunes won’t do anything with the folder.
Thanks!
Oh, scratch that last message. The way to do it is to not have it automatically unzip, then just remove the .zip suffix from the end.
But I still get errors trying to restore it down to 2.2. Guess it wasn’t meant to be for me. Maybe the next version will open emoji for us all :)
It seems the frosty people caught on and started charging for the app. Oh well.
Does anyone know if you need to leave the frosty app installed to continue to access these icons?
Hello !
Alister Scott > No it seems you can quit this app and have emoji in all your application because it’s an iPhone built-in tools.
You can delete this app after the manip’ and emoji always be her.
bye.
when trying to restore im not offered any software updates so i downloaded the above link from macgeek but this did not do any thing, is there something i need to do with the download or something im missing.any help would be great thanks
just stumbled across this here http://www.waterworld.com.hk/spell_number_easter_egg
the app Water Lou Spell Number – Emoji for Free (iTunes URL http://tinyurl.com/cwusht) offers with a secret digit 9876543.21 an easter egg that enables emoji from the japanese keyboard.