Honolulu has been nominated by the Trade Show Exhibitor's Association as one of 17 “;Favorite Convention Cities,”; as part of its new “;Exhibitor's Choice”; Red Diamond Awards program.

Voting is now open.

Honolulu is competing against Atlanta; Atlantic City, N.J.; Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Rosemont, Ill.; Dallas; Houston; Hershey, Pa.; Las Vegas; Miami; Orlando, Fla.; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Salt Lake City; San Francisco and Toronto.

The Hawaii Convention Center is not among the 17 nominees for Favorite Convention Center, but General Manager Joe Davis was nevertheless happy about Honolulu's nomination.

“;That speaks to the quality of the destination experience and reflects the ease of getting freight to the islands,”; he said.

“;That's been one of our points of push-back from some groups and I think it's going to feather our nest in terms of (allaying) the criticisms about the cost of shipping freight and the overall cost of the experience,”; he added. “;That really helps us.”;

The Hawaii Convention Center was named Best Convention Center and Honolulu was named Best Conference City by Business Traveler Magazine in December.

“;It was the first time that publication had a category of that nature, and we took the prize,”; Davis said.

The 17 Trade Show Exhibitor's Association convention center nominees include McCormick Place in Chicago, the Las Vegas Convention Center and others Davis described as large centers that make more money and have larger attendance.

Online voting for TSEA's favorites in categories including exhibit house, general contractor, installation and dismantling company, show manager and favorite show of 2009 continues until July 8.

The awards will be presented at a July 22 gala in Chicago.

Pehea 'oe, via text

Text messaging in 'olelo Hawai'i is one of the features of the new Apple iPhone 3GS that has not received tons of national press—but it is nevertheless possible, complete with diacritical marks.

Users no longer have to find and install custom fonts and keyboard in order to send messages with “;contemporary orthography,”; Keola Donaghy of the University of Hawaii College of Hawaiian Language said in a statement.

The new version of the iPhone operating system allows users to type in the 'okina and kahako, a macron that appears over vowels in the written form of the Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages.

“;Apple has been supporting the Hawaiian language since 1994 when they donated computers and offered support to the staff at Hale Kuamo'o, the Hawaiian Language Center at UH Hilo,”; Donaghy said.

The small size of the Hawaii market makes the company's support of the Hawaiian language counter-intuitive, “;but they continue to support us by adding functionality that assists in our efforts to take the language into the future,”; he added.

The software update also can be installed on older iPhone and iPod touch devices.