Remind me again? Why no copy/paste?

[Mad Mac Maniac]

Sorry. I know this issue has been bitched about more than anything else over the past year (except maybe mms), but the argument still remains. In fact, it is stronger than ever! After all the software updates and now here comes the big 2.0 and STILL they don't have such a simple feature that have been on all of their mac products for who knows how many years!

You would think it would basically be like an on/off switch for them right now. just "copy and paste" the code from their existing mac software (Yes, I know it's not as simple as that, but I couldn't imagine it being miles more complicated).

As far as I know practically every other smartphone has them and this (along with mms) is really starting to make a laughing-stock out of the iphone.

I can kinda understand why they don't include mms. I mean Apple is known for not including common things for unknown reasons (like radio in ipods). Jobs claims it is 'outdated technology' and we should be moving into an email only area. And in a way that makes sense, but why is he trying to speed up this learning curve so much? Everybody still uses mms! Sorry, ranting.. BUT copy and paste?! There is no rational reason to NOT include it. If anything copy and paste is becoming the FUTURE of the cell phone industry not the PAST!

And now I am starting to believe that Apple will NEVER include copy and paste.. just to prove their idiotic point.. whatever that may be..

Bad form Apple... Bad form...

 

[TwinCities Dan]

I dunno...

But I agree there really is no reason for copy/paste to not be there...

 

[guru_ck]

We should all go protest at the Apple Campus

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

We should all go protest at the Apple Campus

apple campus??...

 

[guru_ck]

apple campus??...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

Headquarters
Apple Inc.'s world corporate headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley, at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. This Apple campus has six buildings which total 850,000 sq ft (79,000 m²). and was built in 1993 by Sobrato Development Cos.[55]

In 2006, Apple announced its intention to build a second campus on 50 acres assembled from various contiguous plots. The new campus, also in Cupertino, will be about one mile east of the current campus.[56]

 

[Lukeric101]

Sorry. I know this issue has been bitched about more than anything else over the past year (except maybe mms), but the argument still remains. In fact, it is stronger than ever! After all the software updates and now here comes the big 2.0 and STILL they don't have such a simple feature that have been on all of their mac products for who knows how many years!

You would think it would basically be like an on/off switch for them right now. just "copy and paste" the code from their existing mac software (Yes, I know it's not as simple as that, but I couldn't imagine it being miles more complicated).

As far as I know practically every other smartphone has them and this (along with mms) is really starting to make a laughing-stock out of the iphone.

I can kinda understand why they don't include mms. I mean Apple is known for not including common things for unknown reasons (like radio in ipods). Jobs claims it is 'outdated technology' and we should be moving into an email only area. And in a way that makes sense, but why is he trying to speed up this learning curve so much? Everybody still uses mms! Sorry, ranting.. BUT copy and paste?! There is no rational reason to NOT include it. If anything copy and paste is becoming the FUTURE of the cell phone industry not the PAST!

And now I am starting to believe that Apple will NEVER include copy and paste.. just to prove their idiotic point.. whatever that may be..

Bad form Apple... Bad form...

haha i couldn't agree more
but i think they will some time or another put copy and paste because with Enterprise and everything it is clear that apple is trying to compeat with Windows Mobile and is trying to get the iPhone into more buisnesses and companys.
why do u think the Blackberry is making so much money??
i don't see every1 waiting in line to be the firsts to get a blackberry bold...
its because they sell most of their phones to buisness and apple is trying to get the iPhone into buisnesses and the comsumer...

I think that apple will eventually have to add the copy and paste feature to the iPhone to really sell in both markets...
idonno maby its one of the things they added in the 2.0 software update that we still dont know about

 

[MojoWill]

its a software thing so im sure if people keep moaning about it it will come eventually

 

[flyinmac]

Remind me again? Why no copy/paste?

remember, we are talking about Apple here. Doesn't matter what we want. They'll give us what they want. If you want Apple, you'll buy whatever they feel like giving you.

 

[Nykwil]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and just assume that apple wanted its users to shift away from doing those types of heavy editing type features on the phone. One of the reason why they dont offer you the ability to edit your word, excel PowerPoint or keynote is that the user experience is just not good enough to warrant implementing it.

Yes other more adept phones have these features from the beginning.

i can only speak for myself but I personally wouldn't care to edit a document on my phone, I'm on the go I'm in a rush ill delegate the work over the phone or email and just see the end results sent back to me. Editing things and copy pasting just seems to labor intensive for me to care to do.

Granted something like copy/paste is helpful, but I think what apple wanted to do is to give users a different experience on a mobile phone that could complement the PC and not completely replace it. They want you to use the multitouch.

When computers were just keyboards only copying something was a command line

when they introduced the mouse and the gui they had to get people to shift away from command lines into a far different experience, and i think this is the same with the iphone

 

[11800506]

I think one of the main reasons there isn't copy and paste on the iPhone is because of the logistics of it on the iPhone OS. Because the iPhone doesn't really have menus, there really isn't a very natural way to implement it.

 

[jettoblack]

The whole point of Multitouch was supposed to be that you would have lots of different 1- or 2-finger gestures for common functions, instead of having to navigate through a maze of confusing menus or buttons.

Multitouch had a lot of promise, but what did we get? I think the only 2-finger gesture on the whole iPhone is the pinch for photo/map zooming. Just off the top of my head, I can think of five simple, intuitive, 2-finger gestures which could be used for copy/paste. Don't the new multitouch MBPs have some gesture for copy/paste anyway?

There is simply no excuse to not have it... the only reason I can think of is that Jobs had some traumatic experience with copy/paste on some cellphone, and has thrown a temper tantrum insisting that "that copy/paste crap doesn't go on MY PHONE!"

Edit: P.S. The reason I'm so disappointed is because copy/paste is something I use many times a day on my Japanese celphone. Not for heavy editing of documents, but for very simple things such as copying an address or info from a website to email to someone, or re-arranging some sentences I wrote in a short email to make it more coherent.

 

[iPhonedHome]

I think one of the main reasons there isn't copy and paste on the iPhone is because of the logistics of it on the iPhone OS. Because the iPhone doesn't really have menus, there really isn't a very natural way to implement it.

Hammer meets nail!

Implementation I believe is the main reason we haven't seen it. Could they do it? Sure they could. But with no menu type system and only the touch screen for interface, there aren't too many ways to do it and from the ways that would make it possible, it might not be worth the effort.

Just my 2 cents to add to 11800506's 5

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

but I have faith that apple could find an easy, intuitive way to incorporate copy/paste.

At the very least apple could put an icon in some corner which pops up a menu for copy-like features

 

[MathiasMag]

Hammer meets nail!

Implementation I believe is the main reason we haven't seen it. Could they do it? Sure they could. But with no menu type system and only the touch screen for interface, there aren't too many ways to do it and from the ways that would make it possible, it might not be worth the effort.

Just my 2 cents to add to 11800506's 5

Marking the text on a touchscreen cannot be very hard. Wouldn't the copy and paste then be something that multi touch was essentially invented for? I'd rather think they have not made it a top priority and as such are not yet happy with the current ideas for how it would be implemented as a user-interface.

 

[flyinmac]

but I have faith that apple could find an easy, intuitive way to incorporate copy/paste.

At the very least apple could put an icon in some corner which pops up a menu for copy-like features

Would be pretty simple. Especially with multi-touch.

Display what you want on the screen. Slide your finger across the text to highlight what you want. Place your two fingers on opposite sides like you're picking it up and motion like you're pulling it away.

Then, open what you want to place it in, and put your fingers where you want it to go, spread them slightly like you were setting something down and letting go.

Quite easy. Now, where's my royalty check?

Quite simply, Apple could implement it without much trouble. But, Apple has spent the last several years telling us what we want rather than giving us what we ask.

 

[Rojo]

I know this sounds crazy, but is it possible Apple maybe IS finally including copy & paste in 2.0, but we just don't know about it yet (or no one's stumbled upon it)? Think about it. It wouldn't necessarily be something they would have proudly advertised -- either in the keynote or the website -- because it's such a basic, no-brainer thing for a phone to have. Mentioning it would be like advertising that the phone can vibrate! (Remember -- Apple never mentioned the phone had a vibrate function before its release, causing many of us to speculate that they just didn't bother to include it. When the reality was, it was such a silly thing to have to tell us).

I'm sure when 2.0 comes out, there will be the usual explanatory video for it on their site. Maybe, just maybe, we'll see a quick aside in the middle of the video explaining a multi-touch gesture for copy & paste?? Or is that just complete wishful thinking on my part -- and it's too late to implement something like that this late in the game?

 

[newyorksole]

I honestly don't think copy/paste will be implemented until probably next year. It just seems like the folks at Apple are concerned with other things besides basic functionality. It's a shame though, that something so simple is being left out.

 

[dejo]

See Daring Fireball's Clipboard and Text Selection : iPhone :: Arrow Keys : Original Macintosh.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

I know this sounds crazy, but is it possible Apple maybe IS finally including copy & paste in 2.0, but we just don't know about it yet (or no one's stumbled upon it)? Think about it. It wouldn't necessarily be something they would have proudly advertised -- either in the keynote or the website -- because it's such a basic, no-brainer thing for a phone to have. Mentioning it would be like advertising that the phone can vibrate! (Remember -- Apple never mentioned the phone had a vibrate function before its release, causing many of us to speculate that they just didn't bother to include it. When the reality was, it was such a silly thing to have to tell us).

I'm sure when 2.0 comes out, there will be the usual explanatory video for it on their site. Maybe, just maybe, we'll see a quick aside in the middle of the video explaining a multi-touch gesture for copy & paste?? Or is that just complete wishful thinking on my part -- and it's too late to implement something like that this late in the game?

You know that actually has crossed my mind. But then I quickly dismissed it so as not to get my hopes up. That way if they do include it all the more excited and no room for disappointment!

 

[sassenach74]

.......As far as I know practically every other smartphone has them and this (along with mms) is really starting to make a laughing-stock out of the iphone.

I can kinda understand why they don't include mms. I mean Apple is known for not including common things for unknown reasons (like radio in ipods). Jobs claims it is 'outdated technology' and we should be moving into an email only area. And in a way that makes sense, but why is he trying to speed up this learning curve so much? Everybody still uses mms! Sorry, ranting.. BUT copy and paste?! There is no rational reason to NOT include it. If anything copy and paste is becoming the FUTURE of the cell phone industry not the PAST!

And now I am starting to believe that Apple will NEVER include copy and paste.. just to prove their idiotic point.. whatever that may be..

Bad form Apple... Bad form...

Since when has the iPhone been a laughing stock??

Everybody uses MMS?? I dont know anybody that does, I know some people probably do...but everybody??

You seriously think they're leaving it out to "prove an idiotic point"??

Wake up! *Slap*

 

[Project]

Would be pretty simple. Especially with multi-touch.

Display what you want on the screen. Slide your finger across the text to highlight what you want. Place your two fingers on opposite sides like you're picking it up and motion like you're pulling it away.

Then, open what you want to place it in, and put your fingers where you want it to go, spread them slightly like you were setting something down and letting go.

This doesn't hold up.

Say you are on a web page. Sliding your finger across the screen moves the page. Using two fingers zooms in and out. So how do you highlight the text in the first place? There needs to be a way of distinguishing between navigation and text selection. Perhaps a button to toggle text selection on and off.

 

[flyinmac]

This doesn't hold up.

Say you are on a web page. Sliding your finger across the screen moves the page. Using two fingers zooms in and out. So how do you highlight the text in the first place? There needs to be a way of distinguishing between navigation and text selection. Perhaps a button to toggle text selection on and off.

Or, perhaps a 3 finger thing. Hold your pinky finger at a specified spot while you perform the other motions to distinguish the difference.

The point was not so much the specific motions. Just illustrating that it would be simple to implement.

With a gestures environment, the options are nearly limitless.

 

[ihabime]

I think it may be fallout from Apple trying to distance the iPhone from the newton. Which is a really a shame because the newton had all kinds of cool little touches like that. Dates and addresses in text could be automatically added to you calendar/address book too, just like Mail in Leopard. Maybe Apple fired all the newton engineers and no one could figure out the source code

 

[Project]

Or, perhaps a 3 finger thing. Hold your pinky finger at a specified spot while you perform the other motions to distinguish the difference.

The point was not so much the specific motions. Just illustrating that it would be simple to implement.

With a gestures environment, the options are nearly limitless.

of course it would be simple to implement in any old fashion. But you don't want to make it complicated for the user. Gestures can be abused. I see people talking about triple tapping the screen, using three fingers etc. Those are not elegant solutions.

We have to consider the gestures that are already in place...

- pinch
- double tap to zoom
- hold to zoom in with magnifying glass
- hold on link to show URL
- swipe to delete
- a bunch of gestures they may be playing with but haven't yet been implemented, yet still need to be considered

....and then implement cut/paste in that context. you don't want people to trigger one gesture when they wanted to do something else. I have enough trouble as it is putting a cursor in place in keyboard mode when there is a conflict between moving the page and placing the cursor.

The fact is that there is no established convention for mapping all desktop based commands over to a touch only interface. What Apple decides to do would effectively set in stone how it works going forward. So it HAS to be right.

 

[zub3qin]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

The apple excuse probably is "cut and paste will decrease battery life" Isn't that their excuse for every missing feature?

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I honestly don't think copy/paste will be implemented until probably next year. It just seems like the folks at Apple are concerned with other things besides basic functionality. It's a shame though, that something so simple is being left out.

apple can't make money off of cut and paste. Things like appstore get all of apples energy. Very big brother, no?

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Would be pretty simple. Especially with multi-touch.

Display what you want on the screen. Slide your finger across the text to highlight what you want. Place your two fingers on opposite sides like you're picking it up and motion like you're pulling it away.

Then, open what you want to place it in, and put your fingers where you want it to go, spread them slightly like you were setting something down and letting go.

This doesn't hold up.

Say you are on a web page. Sliding your finger across the screen moves the page. Using two fingers zooms in and out. So how do you highlight the text in the first place? There needs to be a way of distinguishing between navigation and text selection. Perhaps a button to toggle text selection on and off.

hold your finger on the screen for 3 seconds and a popup menu comes up allowing you to cut or select text.