*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).
The Biden administration and major consumer technology players on Tuesday launched an effort to put a nationwide cybersecurity certification and labeling program in place to help consumers choose smart devices that are less vulnerable to hacking.
Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half. In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”
A First Amendment group sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott and others on Thursday over the state’s TikTok ban on official devices, arguing the prohibition – which extends to public universities – is unconstitutional and impedes academic freedom.
