Apple’s latest iPhone 2.2 firmware has a bundle of new features built in, but they’re hidden from view, and have only been unearthed by intrepid developers.

The first is the inclusion of Japanese icons known as emoji. You can see them in the screenshot here. They’re cutesy, and hugely popular in the Far East. It’s likely Apple included them to chivvy along sales in Japan. There are 461 emoji characters in total, used to liven up sentences, or send soppy un-written messages to friends.

There’s also evidence of support for Street View for Google Maps, letting the iPhone compete with Android phones when it comes to ground-level navigation.

Lastly, a new option to turn off the iPhone keyboard’s auto-correction has been added. It’ll come as a relief to anyone having difficulty with its predictive typing, although we’ve always found it a pretty neat feature.

TBC | £TBC | Apple (via MacRumors)