Creating copy and paste on iPhone is difficult. Without any 'hard' keys, copy and pasting must be done using either gestures or on-screen buttons. (To save space, 'petting' will now be used in place of 'copy and paste'.)
The difficulty with using gestures for petting is that the obvious ones are already taken. Sliding your finger across text in entry pops up a loupe, and in a Mail or Safari web view, it scrolls the page. The problem with a petting 'button' or 'edit mode' is that it can clutter up the UI and could annoy users that aren't trying to pet.
Petting must exist subtly on the iPhone. Like on a computer, it should be there, but shouldn't scream its presence out.
Also, copy and paste must work across all applications with text, not only in text entry fields where the keyboard pops up. A
Here's my take!
The first thing I thought about was that when you're scrubbing through text with the loupe, you're not using the keyboard. That's about 40% of the UI that could be useful! So, I decided that when using the loupe, the keyboard should disappear. Now it's easy to select text, because the unnecessary keyboard isn't hogging screen real estate! This is a great idea, even if my petting implementation doesn't work!
Then, let's say that you want to do some petting. What do you do? Well, the keyboard doesn't just disappear, but it gets replaced with a small bar at the bottom of the screen. While holding the loupe with your pointer, use your thumb to press Cut, Copy, or Paste!
How do you select text? Simple-- first position the loupe with the tip of your pointer finger. To begin highlighting, flatten your pointer and drag. Use the fattest part of your finger. The iPhone can recognize the change and will begin highlighting. Isn't that intuitive?
But what if you're in a web view? Easy! Hold your pointer over text for one second, to pop up the loupe and petting bar.
Am I on to something?
By the way, the 'fat finger drag' would be used system-wide for text selection. Dragging over text like this would always select it.
The difficulty with using gestures for petting is that the obvious ones are already taken. Sliding your finger across text in entry pops up a loupe, and in a Mail or Safari web view, it scrolls the page. The problem with a petting 'button' or 'edit mode' is that it can clutter up the UI and could annoy users that aren't trying to pet.
Petting must exist subtly on the iPhone. Like on a computer, it should be there, but shouldn't scream its presence out.
Also, copy and paste must work across all applications with text, not only in text entry fields where the keyboard pops up. A
Here's my take!
The first thing I thought about was that when you're scrubbing through text with the loupe, you're not using the keyboard. That's about 40% of the UI that could be useful! So, I decided that when using the loupe, the keyboard should disappear. Now it's easy to select text, because the unnecessary keyboard isn't hogging screen real estate! This is a great idea, even if my petting implementation doesn't work!
Then, let's say that you want to do some petting. What do you do? Well, the keyboard doesn't just disappear, but it gets replaced with a small bar at the bottom of the screen. While holding the loupe with your pointer, use your thumb to press Cut, Copy, or Paste!

How do you select text? Simple-- first position the loupe with the tip of your pointer finger. To begin highlighting, flatten your pointer and drag. Use the fattest part of your finger. The iPhone can recognize the change and will begin highlighting. Isn't that intuitive?
But what if you're in a web view? Easy! Hold your pointer over text for one second, to pop up the loupe and petting bar.


Am I on to something?
By the way, the 'fat finger drag' would be used system-wide for text selection. Dragging over text like this would always select it.