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Copy and Paste Implementation, Exchange Support for iPhone?
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A use case for Copy/Paste
I'm really curious to know what situation using the iPhone would warrant using a copy or a paste?
I've been using the iPhone for over six months and have never found myself saying, damn I wish I had copy/paste.
Note that I use my iPhone a ton and I'm not saying its a bad idea. Rather, I'd just like to know what situation brings up the need.
Thanks.
I'm really curious to know what situation using the iPhone would warrant using a copy or a paste?
I've been using the iPhone for over six months and have never found myself saying, damn I wish I had copy/paste.
Note that I use my iPhone a ton and I'm not saying its a bad idea. Rather, I'd just like to know what situation brings up the need.
Thanks.
Why not just add another button to the bottom bar that locks the page? Then dragging selects text instead of moving the page, and when text is selected a bubble pops up with options to cut/copy/paste. Just tap the lock button again when you're done and the page is unlocked. Also, why the hell is copy/paste needed that much? I don't see much use in it on a phone.
Hello Ireland. Heh, well I'm surprised more people aren't making comments like yours or mine, 2 fingers is only natural, not as natural as pressure sensitivity but the iPhone can't detect pressure so that's out.
Sebastian
I'm right there with ya. I've asked this question before myself and don't know that I've ever gotten an answer. Where is everyone missing copy/paste?
Also, from what I've read iPhone apps are "sandboxed" and run separately from the phone OS. If that's the case, copying and pasting between apps would not be possible anyway would it?
That's a good point. If you take the same metaphor of a clipboard it would assume that all of the applications can take advantage of it. If the applications are sandboxed that would create an interesting barrier.
I'm all for the technical aspects of copy/paste, but I just don't know what the real practical use is in the iPhone for it.
Copy and paste is the one major thing keeping me from purchasing an iPhone. As soon as I found out that there was no copy and paste, that ended the deal for me.
So what do I need it for? I run a major sports site that links to news from around the web. Sometimes people suggest news and I need to post it. They just submit the URL and I visit it to verify the URL and then post it to our news wire if it is a story that has not already been posted.
Now, they can submit the title of the URL as well, but some people are lazy or just type whatever they want for the title and not the actual title on the article. So I have to visit the page, copy the title and then past it into our submission form.
Or sometimes someone will post a link in our forums. I will visit the link, and then need to copy the url and title and take it over to our submission page.
Or I will read something in part of an article and want to quote that part and submit it as news with a link back to the original article.
The fact that I can't do any of this on the iPhone keeps me from doing it. I can do it on a Sidekick but not an iPhone? C'mon. Copy and paste should have been there from the beginning.
I love the fact that Apple wants to keep things simple. That's a great design philosophy and if you disagree, just look at some of the remote controls sitting on your coffee table. You know, the ones that look like miniature keyboards, half of which you'll never use.
However, having said that, I think at some point Apple has to realize that they've got a hot item on their hands and that the world has moved on since 1984. People are accustomed to this stuff now and it doesn't have to stay dead simple forever. I think there's a balance that they can strike. Keep the basic functionality (phone calls, accessing applications, iPod, browser, etc.) simple, as they've done now, but don't be afraid to offer some advanced features that might take some reading on the part of the users.
My only complaint about Apple is that they somtimes make the more advanced users suffer trying to cater to the less advanced. There's no reason in the world not to offer an advanced control panel where you can turn on various optional features that might otherwise confuse newbies. Turning on cut and paste functionality could be one of those things.
However, having said that, I think at some point Apple has to realize that they've got a hot item on their hands and that the world has moved on since 1984. People are accustomed to this stuff now and it doesn't have to stay dead simple forever. I think there's a balance that they can strike. Keep the basic functionality (phone calls, accessing applications, iPod, browser, etc.) simple, as they've done now, but don't be afraid to offer some advanced features that might take some reading on the part of the users.
My only complaint about Apple is that they somtimes make the more advanced users suffer trying to cater to the less advanced. There's no reason in the world not to offer an advanced control panel where you can turn on various optional features that might otherwise confuse newbies. Turning on cut and paste functionality could be one of those things.
Getting more enticing.
I might not be able to hold out for the next hardware revision to the iPhone.
Generation 1 seems pretty steadfast.
I might not be able to hold out for the next hardware revision to the iPhone.
Generation 1 seems pretty steadfast.
Thanks for the response, you really provide a great example of where the function is not just desired, but really a necessary requirement.
What struck me the most was how complicated things are for you from the start. I would think that if the copy/paste feature was not simple, fast, and easily accessed that you would scream bloody murder...and rightfully so.
Having used the iPhone for a while now, I'd say that the kinds of gestures being described all have their good and bad points. The biggest thing for me, is that adding some type of button would just clutter things up. Even for a power user like you.
I can see people wanting to use a double tap getting you into a select mode, however the double tap is already used. And a triple tap is just a bad idea.
Having seen the MBA set of gestures, I wonder if they could hang a double tap with multiple fingers.
For example, with two fingers a double tap would select the whole word, or sentence. Think of how the clicking of the URL in Safari goes.
The main problem I see is finger size.
If they have some good use cases like what StormyBot described then I think you'll come up with a really great implementation.
The fact that this didn't come out from the beginning I think shows that it is not a simple thing to implement.
Is this since last week's announcement that AT&T would now allow corporate accounts? Curious if your experience is pre or post that.
most of the times that i've found myself missing the copy/paste feature (and even just a text selection feature) are while i'm using the mail application. i've often wanted to select sections of text for deletion (holding the delete button down for multiple lines of text becomes quite tedious). i also like to quote bits and pieces of emails when i'm corresponding with clients - to avoid confusion when i'm answering questions and such. quite a headache without copy/paste. i can think of a handful of other times i've wished for that functionality as well.
the questions about cross application copying/pasting are very intriguing. it would be very disappointing if it wasn't possible. i can think of a few times when i wanted to copy info from a text message to be used in an email. hopefully
is 2 steps ahead on that issue. hopefully.That was the position of AT&T back in July. I must have missed that announcement by AT&T. Now I wonder if I can merge my personal account? Probably out of luck there.
most of the times that i've found myself missing the copy/paste feature (and even just a text selection feature) are while i'm using the mail application. i've often wanted to select sections of text for deletion (holding the delete button down for multiple lines of text becomes quite tedious). i also like to quote bits and pieces of emails when i'm corresponding with clients - to avoid confusion when i'm answering questions and such. quite a headache without copy/paste. i can think of a handful of other times i've wished for that functionality as well.
the questions about cross application copying/pasting are very intriguing. it would be very disappointing if it wasn't possible. i can think of a few times when i wanted to copy info from a text message to be used in an email. hopefully
Yea, I can see how it would be a nice here as well. Thanks for the info.
That was the position of AT&T back in July. I must have missed that announcement by AT&T. Now I wonder if I can merge my personal account? Probably out of luck there.
Well, it actually may have been more on the rumor side of the ledger, but seems I heard something more concrete than this...
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/17/rumor_iphone_for_corporate_accounts_coming_soon.html
In any event, yeah, you're probably SOL if you signed up for a personal account.
I decided to just get the touch and wait for V2 to link my corporate number.
I'll have to buy the hardware myself in any event.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)
Sure copying and pasting between sandboxed apps would be possible. They all communicate with the main operating system. It would be a locked out, only user initiated copy command to an allocated memory area, which could be sandboxed from the main system as well and only allowed access by the signed (apple approved) programs.
Think about it...right now google maps hands off info to safari, your contacts, etc. Safari hands off data to the email apps when you click an email address, and even hands off phone numbers to the phone "app". SMS texts with addresses hand off the URL to safari. The clock app tells the iPod app when to go to sleep. Safari opens youtube videos in the special app. The photo app hands off images to email. I could keep going on, but I think you get the point. Its been a few years since I took a programming class, but if all these apps can pass around all this data then I'm sure its possible.
Also...what about copying and pasting images on the web into, say, email? Everyone keeps talking about text!
Darth.Titan said:
Sure copying and pasting between sandboxed apps would be possible. They all communicate with the main operating system. It would be a locked out, only user initiated copy command to an allocated memory area, which could be sandboxed from the main system as well and only allowed access by the signed (apple approved) programs.
Think about it...right now google maps hands off info to safari, your contacts, etc. Safari hands off data to the email apps when you click an email address, and even hands off phone numbers to the phone "app". SMS texts with addresses hand off the URL to safari. The clock app tells the iPod app when to go to sleep. Safari opens youtube videos in the special app. The photo app hands off images to email. I could keep going on, but I think you get the point. Its been a few years since I took a programming class, but if all these apps can pass around all this data then I'm sure its possible.
Also...what about copying and pasting images on the web into, say, email? Everyone keeps talking about text!
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)
how about a button next to Next/previous at the top of the keyboard called 'select'. When pressed it changes the cursor so that you set the start point with the magnifying glass and then move to the end point to highlight the text in between. They keyboard changes context, and has copy, cut and paste buttons. Select copy and the keyboard and cursor mode returns to normal, with the text saved to the clipboard.
how about a button next to Next/previous at the top of the keyboard called 'select'. When pressed it changes the cursor so that you set the start point with the magnifying glass and then move to the end point to highlight the text in between. They keyboard changes context, and has copy, cut and paste buttons. Select copy and the keyboard and cursor mode returns to normal, with the text saved to the clipboard.
gestures...
iv said it before and il say it again...can the iphone not recognize gestures, so how about clockwise for copy and anti-clockwise for paste or something like that.
pretty simple is what i think..!!
iv said it before and il say it again...can the iphone not recognize gestures, so how about clockwise for copy and anti-clockwise for paste or something like that.
pretty simple is what i think..!!
notes sync anyone...??!!
n please please please notes sync......its 2008!!!
so many other phones can sync in a better way with my macbook than the iphone. i had the nokia n73 (b.s phone) with tiger and i used to sync it over bluetooth using isync. so obviously tiger had no notes support but when i upgraded to leopard, believe it or not, i saw all my notes in mail..!!! n i had changed my fone long back..!!
so please gimme the notes sync...it would never be as useful w.o sync!!
n please please please notes sync......its 2008!!!
so many other phones can sync in a better way with my macbook than the iphone. i had the nokia n73 (b.s phone) with tiger and i used to sync it over bluetooth using isync. so obviously tiger had no notes support but when i upgraded to leopard, believe it or not, i saw all my notes in mail..!!! n i had changed my fone long back..!!
so please gimme the notes sync...it would never be as useful w.o sync!!