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Apple: Copy and Paste Now Working Between Safari and Mail

A

aznkid25

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 15, 2007
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http://gizmodo.com/5107138/iphone-copy-and-paste-now-working-between-safari-and-mail

http://pastebud.com/

Youtube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ybh573ZASc&fmt=18

Finally, someone has conceived a way to copy and paste text from Safari to Mail, and between web pages, transparently. And this time, it doesn't require any software installation and it's completely legal:

Unlike other approaches, it works with the two apps that matter most, Mail and Safari, and gets around Apple's onerous App Store terms through a clever combination of javascript bookmarks and web services.

In fact, it doesn't require anything to be installed, so it avoids the Apple Store and the iPhone app development agreement altogether.

As you can see in the video, Pastebud—as the service is called—works using two bookmarks in Safari. One prepares and loads the page you are viewing, ready to select text at the touch of a finger. From there, you can copy any text you want and create a new mail message with that text in it. In addition to that, you will be able to copy and paste in the text field of a different web page.

While this is not full copy and paste capabilities, I, for one, welcome the ability do exactly this, which is basically what I want to do 95% of the time. According to Jed Schmidt, creator of Pastebud, they have been testing it for about a week and they are now "putting the finishing touches on the web site before launch".
 
aznkid25 said:
Finally, someone has conceived a way to copy and paste text from Safari to Mail, and between web pages, transparently. And this time, it doesn't require any software installation and it's completely legal:
Click to expand...
Because Copy and paste is usually illegal?

Anyway, this is neat.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (white): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

TuffLuffJimmy said:
aznkid25 said:
Finally, someone has conceived a way to copy and paste text from Safari to Mail, and between web pages, transparently. And this time, it doesn't require any software installation and it's completely legal:
Click to expand...
Because Copy and paste is usually illegal?

Anyway, this is neat.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the OP was referring to the fact that this method does not require jailbreaking (which is not actuall illegal, of course, but does technically void your warranty) ... ;)
 
The original article was from Gizmodo. I've included the link to the article and video. So check those out for a better understanding.
 
This is amazing.

Apple should be embarrassed--considering it takes a work-around like this to do something so simple. Unreal.
 
orrelse44 said:
This is amazing.

Apple should be embarrassed--considering it takes a work-around like this to do something so simple. Unreal.
Click to expand...

The only innovation that is occurring with the iPhone is from not Apple, but from its customers. People have been coming up with amazing and creative work-arounds to accomplish simple tasks Apple has refused to develop.
 
This would actually be a good way to implement it officially, but a little different, i.e. you swipe over the text to mark directly and then hold down on it and select an option 'copy' then hold down again on the spot you want to paste and select 'paste' from a pop-up option, instead of this loading of different web pages and clicking links =)

The 'pop-up' menu I refer to is kind of the same when you hold down on a link (the black little info thing).

But this is great anyhow. I will definitely try it out when it's released.
 
The fact that it took a third party to add this function is pretty sad. Apple has been hearing since iPhone 1.0 that copy/paste was needed.
 
Why do I have the feeling that Apple has a little giggle when they see things like this? Almost as if they're not implementing copy/paste just because mommy and daddy "said so".
 
quick5pnt0 said:
Why do I have the feeling that Apple has a little giggle when they see things like this? Almost as if they're not implementing copy/paste just because mommy and daddy "said so".
Click to expand...

Yeah, it may have turned into a power thing by now. Or, may Apple is keeping the iPhone/touch crippled enough so that is doesn't become a laptop replacement, as this would cannabilize their laptop sales. When it comes to Apple, you just have to follow the money trail to understand their decisions. People want to label this behavior as The Way of the Future or Innovative (aka you just can't follow Steve's complex way of thinking). But, no, every decision they make is with money in mind, not the consumer.
 
I have no problem with Apple not developing this. In fact, I wouldn't mind them taking a hands off approach and just fixing bugs and functionality.

With that in mind, they need to open up the phone a little more so that developers can make apps such as copy and paste that can work from any application.

Edit: If their 'approval process' is as top notch as they said it would be then why not give access? If someone can create a mail search tool then put it right into mail, as long as it has Apple's stamp that it's not going to destroy the phone (leads me to believe their approval process is not top notch).
 
Just so we're clear. This isn't the first time text has been able to be copied and pasted from within Safari. We knew has been done before with Bookmarklets... in fact I still have the copy and paste Bookmarklet... All this person did is provide a way to transfer the copied text to mail by using the mailto tag. Those are the only 2 apps that will be able to do this. Don't expect anything else until Apple themselves makes copy and paste a reality.

I've been using copy and paste in Safari for a year now. This isn't breaking news to me, sorry.

Okay... maybe not a WHOLE year: But, this was done a WHILE ago: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/12/icopy-brings-rudimentary-copy-and-paste-to-iphone-safari/
 
TheSpaz said:
Just so we're clear. This isn't the first time text has been able to be copied and pasted from within Safari. We knew has been done before with Bookmarklets... in fact I still have the copy and paste Bookmarklet... All this person did is provide a way to transfer the copied text to mail by using the mailto tag. Those are the only 2 apps that will be able to do this. Don't expect anything else until Apple themselves makes copy and paste a reality.

I've been using copy and paste in Safari for a year now. This isn't breaking news to me, sorry.
Click to expand...

Very true.

And the title of this thread is very inaccurate. Apple has nothing to do with this, as the title suggests.
 
By the way... where can we get this bookmarklet? It's just a video right now? Lame.
 
kas23 said:
Yeah, it may have turned into a power thing by now. Or, may Apple is keeping the iPhone/touch crippled enough so that is doesn't become a laptop replacement, as this would cannabilize their laptop sales.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you use your laptop for, but I use mine for a whole lot more than listening to music and viewing photos. You can't seriously think the thing that's holding the iPhone back from replacing laptops is lack of copy and paste? What about the lack of a real keyboard, the 3.5" screen, and the slow processor? No - iPhone as laptop replacements is a pipe dream. An iPhone could conceivably fill a middle ground, maybe even replace a Netbook if you could get a real keyboard, but replace a MacBook? Keep dreaming.

:rolleyes:
 
This is how easy it is to forward text. This is through bitesms and it uses my own AT&T text messages. When you want to forward a text all you do is swipe your finger across it as if you were trying to delete it and it highlights it in blue and gives you the forward option. Also you can text in landscape mode with bitesms. This is just another feature that the iphone is capable of that APPLE (CASTRO) wont give is.
 

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kas23 said:
every decision they make is with money in mind, not the consumer.
Click to expand...

So very true, but isn't this the same with most successful businesses.

It's been a long time since the consumer was able to "have it their way".

Have you tried to customize you cell phone plan lately or customize your TV programming packages. Every time you do, it ends up costing you, the consumer more and more. These same companies even charge fees for downgrade services.

ALL of the consumer's options are geared towards increasing revenue for the company. Apples no different in their choices.
 
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