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Hints at iPhone Copy and Paste in Firmware 2.1?

jdechko said:
Which was exactly my point, A point lost on some people. Sure picture messaging is of limited use when you have the email capabilities of the iPhone, but if you are going to completely shun MMS, then there should at least be a way to attach files other than pictures to an email.

As for C/P, I think the loupe is a great starting point. But I'm sure that part of the reason we haven't seen it yet is that Apple want's to make it intuitive, and work really really well.
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Exactly, no one with a phone thats not the iPhone uses e-mail anyway, so we need a alternate way of sending things.
 
nutthick said:
If there are localized strings, doesn't that mean that they are going with a button approach with cut and copy written on them?

For what it's worth I posted this a while back after getting bored waiting for Apple.
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I am quite sure the iPhone doesn't support the three fingered pinch.
 
Stability

To anyone thinking of buying a new 3G iphone but are concerned about stability issues:

I have a new 3G, my gf has one, and I have 5 friends with 3Gs, and not one of us has any stability problems. We have all downloaded tons of apps from the app store and use all of the features on this phone, and the only problems we've had have been isolated to a few individual 3rd party apps we purchased from the App Store (deleting and reinstalling the app usually fixes the problem), or problems with MobileMe syncing, neither of which have anything to do with the 3G unit, or the 2.0 software itself.

Of course, people have reported issues with the phone, so there obviously are chances of having problems, but I just thought I'd share that I personally know of 7 3G phones without any problems at all.
 
But even in text messaging you can always just use an email address instead of a number. You're still limited by the SMS system, but it's a really nice work around if need be (says the man who hacked his wife's VZW Razr to bits to get an old ringtone off of the phone to the computer so he could send it to her new phone using email->MMS). Also, as my current phone (while capable of receiving MMS) has a horrible display, I had my wife send an MMS to my email to see the picture. 😱 Imagine that.
 
7on said:
I'd be surprised if people who have cells don't have email. Oh wait they do, xxxxxxxxxx@wireless.att.com

And you can email from phones, I did it all the time with my PEBL
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To all intents and purposes every person in the UK has a mobile phone. Nowhere near everyone has an email address.

You also can't email people's phone numbers. This is true for most counties in the world - phone providers long since cut this service to make people use MMS.

MMS is a growing technology, statistically. It needs to be present.

Phazer
 
elbirth said:
even when posting on forums and wanting to quote multiple people, for example.
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To quote multiple people on the forums just use the multi quote button. The button to the right of the quote button on each post can be toggled. Click that button next to all the people you want to quote and then when you are ready to post click the post button at the bottom of the page. Your post text field will then have already quoted the text from all those people you clicked the multiquote button on.
 
However cut/copy/paste gets implemented, I just hope there is an swooshy animation effect similar to email-->trash icon. That is, when you cut/copy, the selection gets "sucked" up into your finger, and when you paste it "spills" back out.

That's all I want. 😛
 
My idea of how to implement copy and paste:
Double tap and drag would select text, while a single tap and drag would move the cursor with the magnifier, just as it does now.
(Just like on a laptop–tap and drag moves the cursor, double tap and drag selects text)
Tap on highlighted text to bring up copy/cut menu (or just have copy/cut menu pop up as soon as you release your finger)
Double tap in a text field to bring up paste menu.

Simple as that, folks. No button pushing or finger gymnastics required. Am I missing something? 😕
 
jjlange said:
My idea of how to implement copy and paste:
Double tap and drag would select text, while a single tap and drag would move the cursor with the magnifier, just as it does now.
(Just like on a laptop–tap and drag moves the cursor, double tap and drag selects text)
Tap on highlighted text to bring up copy/cut menu (or just have copy/cut menu pop up as soon as you release your finger)
Double tap in a text field to bring up paste menu.

Simple as that, folks. No button pushing or finger gymnastics required. Am I missing something? 😕
Click to expand...

Not a bad idea, but I prefer the pressing-with-your-tongue option 😉
 
jjlange said:
My idea of how to implement copy and paste:
Double tap and drag would select text, while a single tap and drag would move the cursor with the magnifier, just as it does now.
(Just like on a laptop–tap and drag moves the cursor, double tap and drag selects text)
Tap on highlighted text to bring up copy/cut menu (or just have copy/cut menu pop up as soon as you release your finger)
Double tap in a text field to bring up paste menu.

Simple as that, folks. No button pushing or finger gymnastics required. Am I missing something? 😕
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Yes you are.

Double-tapping to determine a starting location is bad.

There is no way in the world that any two taps on an iPhone are in the exect same position.

So, do you use the position of the first tap. Or the second tap?

If you say the second tap, I will lay money that more times than not, your second tap does not land where you think it should land.

Do a test like this . . . type a row of periods across several lines of the notepad. Now, using your double-tap technique, try and place your second tap EXACTLY between the two period you intended.

It will be a 50/50 proposition, at best.

Any cut/paste idea with double-tapping to determine a location is doomed.
 
ktemkin said:
Yes you are.

Double-tapping to determine a starting location is bad.

There is no way in the world that any two taps on an iPhone are in the exect same position.

So, do you use the position of the first tap. Or the second tap?

If you say the second tap, I will lay money that more times than not, your second tap does not land where you think it should land.

Do a test like this . . . type a row of periods across several lines of the notepad. Now, using your double-tap technique, try and place your second tap EXACTLY between the two period you intended.

It will be a 50/50 proposition, at best.

Any cut/paste idea with double-tapping to determine a location is doomed.
Click to expand...

Ok, I see your point. Maybe you could use the current method of moving the cursor and have the magnifier stay up for a second after you release your finger. You could tap again to begin selecting from the cursor position or leave it and it would go away. That sounds dangerously close to inconvenient, however. Oh well.
 
I believe the reason Apple hasn't implemented C/P is related to the way they co-opted the standard mouse gestures (click-drag & Double/Triple-click) and use them for navigation (scroll/flick & zoom), instead, on the iPhone.

This leaves them with no intuitive way to select content on the iPhone.

Some have suggested a modal solution where an iPhone gesture (say, press-hold) puts you in "content-select" mode, where you, then, use the loupe to select content.

While, not an ideal solution, it would prolly be OK for the iPhone.

But, here's the rub-- Apple plans/wants to introduce other MultiTouch devices (tablets, portables, desktops, etc.), presumably, with larger MT displays than the iPhone.

Say, you are using a 30" display as a light table to manipulate your photos and their titles and metadata. The iPhone implementation (touch-drag & double-tap) breaks down-- you (usually) want to select objects (or parts of objects), not the entire display.

I don't presume to know what the answer is, but I do think that touch-drag and double-tap gestures need to be consistently implemented across all MT devices.

I suspect, that Apple will need to redefine the iPhone gestures for scroll/flick and zoom to free-up touch-drag and double-tap (say using 2 fingers instead of 1?)

The best way to do this without inconveniencing the customer is to have a setting on the iPhone (current way or 2-finger way).

Then, give them a reason/incentive to change (be compatible with other MT devices).

Whew!

So, if Apple implements C/P on the iPhone, today, they must come up with some Jerry-rigged modal selection that would have to be re-implemented/unlearned later

or

Come up with the revised iPhone setting described above-- but, then they would need to explain why they are changing things...

...Apple can't do that without telegraphing their intentions for new MT devices.

What to do?

Let a few iPhone customers bitch and moan about no C/P... and ignore them (until they can do it right).

That's exactly what Apple s doing, IMO!
 
gts197 said:
Proof of concept

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXgsQhiGeag
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That's been around awhile and is completely flawed. Think it through. After you've copied something, the paste function is the same as the function to go to select mode. Just because you've copied something doesn't mean you want to go to paste it after. You might change your mind and copy something different. But in the demo, you have to paste before you can go back to copy. What if you want to paste, paste, paste, paste, etc. You'd have to copy, paste, copy, paste, etc.

So while the video is damn funny, the concept is flawed. Plus someone has to know to tap with a second finger while in loop mode.

The idea I posted was similar, except it addresses the one flaw in the youtube video.
 
Due to the nature of the touch screen, and the fact that people don't use copy/paste on every webpage they visit, it should not be immediate on the browser touch screen. Users should have to click on a button to activate copy/paste, then deactivate it when they are done. Kind of like "caps lock" on a regular computer.

...and will it be able to copy both text and photos? Will it work in all programs? Will it be able to copy URL links along with the image/text? Will you be able to copy/paste screen shots? Apple needs to think about all of this!
 
Whiners...

I don't intend to start an argument. Just wanted to say that I got a tad sick of reading people whining about the whiners at the start of this thread...

To me, copy and paste should have been a feature from kick off. Basics!
Anyway, enough said.
 
I can't believe people are clicking 'positive' on this.

It's not a positive that it's finally on the way. It's a negative that's taken so damn long.

MMS, proper bluetooth, video recording as well please Apple.

Doug
 
.:R2theT said:
How about just getting this 2.0 software to some level of stability. 2.0, as it is, should never have been released into the wild. Apple is pushing too fast and dropping the ball more and more!
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My 1st gen iPhone runs great on 2.0.
No crashes, over 30 apps, I love it and I am a power user with mobile me
and 3 computers syncing.
I'm glad it was released, I like leading edge. Why don't you stick with the old firmware/software? And leave leading edge releases alone!
 
It's pathetic this is such a big deal but, wow, I would LOVE copy & paste on my iPhone.

Nearly as much as I'd love people here to stop complaining about the lack of it 😉
 
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