*By Conor White*
Apple has done Snapchat one better with the introduction of its "Memojis," animated self-styled avatars users can send to friends, according to the editor of Emojipedia.
Jeremy Burge, who runs the online encyclopedia of all things emoji, said the filters created by Snapchat have been the prevailing standard in animated selfies, but Apple offers something a little new.
"You want to send something to someone but don't want to send yourself, maybe you feel awkward or whatever, and you want something kind of fun," said Burge in an interview Monday June 4 with Cheddar's Hope King, hours after Apple unveiled its new feature at its annual developers conference, WWDC
"I've tried some other similar things," he said. "It's sort of like Bitmoji, or Samsung has something similar, but this one's sort of super customizable, lets you make it look however you want, and it's fun."
Apple's Memojis won't give your friends the heebie-jeebies, either, according to Burge.
"I've seen some that look pretty creepy," he said.
Memojis will be available with iOS 12, likely to be released in September.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/memoji-myself-and-i).
China has a $137 billion robot strategy and installs 9x more robots than America. Now this New York startup is fighting to bring manufacturing back home.
From dire wolves to new species targets, scientists at Colossal Biosciences are using gene editing to revive extinction and reshape biodiversity as we know it.
AEVEX CEO Roger Wells joins to discuss the company's IPO and what it means for the future of autonomous defense systems in an era of rapid military innovation.
Dominick Passanante of Panasonic Connect breaks down the innovations behind TOUGHBOOK and why rugged tech is more relevant than ever in today's mobile workforce
Colonel Chris Hadfield, astronaut and best-selling author, breaks down Artemis II and why NASA’s next crewed mission is key to returning humans to the Moon.
