Llew, just curious where are you getting the sample emojis?
I don't find anything at /var/log/syslog so apparently Maemo places that somewhere different or I would try emoji from several sources and post results. So far I have just cut/paste from the wikipedia article on emoji.
With the fix given in this thread installed do others receive emoji form other phones? I only have the two N900s in the house and no other mobile phones.