Why Apple is taking its time with cut-and-paste.

[kdarling]

It's not just copy and paste that's useful, it's also just plain Cut.

I notice a LOT of newbies around here who quote a huge post just to add one or two sentences in reply. The better option is to cut the sections you don't need. (Which is a simpler way of copy/pasting the sections you do want.) Backspacing is just too painful many times.

In either case, it's a lot easier to create decent posts with decent editing tools. I read forum posts quite a lot on my touch, but I answer them almost always on my laptop.

I have business associates who won't get an iPhone until it gets editing gestures. And no, it's not rocket science to add them, nor does it require resistive screens.

 

[dnguyen]

didn't read through all the posts, but my 3 year old razr had copy/paste!!

 

[markgamber]

Thanks for a few examples. The only one I could think of is the need to copy and paste one of those extrodinarily long website links. Maybe C/P is for some and unfortunately I think that pj rage is right about what he said about "Apple knows best"

No problem. I use copy/paste all the time without even thinking about it which is why I cited one example. Know what's gotten even older than people that complain about the lack of it? The people who think they don't need it because Apple says so. Screw Apple, what do they know?

 

[domness]

We all know that Copy & Paste is on their list of things to do, but it's just not very high up at the miniute

 

[Mikebuzzsaw]

Maybe copy and paste is a lot harder to implement in a touch screen and on the iphone software than we think.

Double tap a word to highlight... but what would you push or select to copy and paste?? How can the phone interact with two programs at once when you're trying to paste something from an email to your notepad? Didn't apple purposely make each program work independently, so it hard to get two programs to get along?

 

[trunksu]

like others have said, it sux when you "do" need to use it.

i personally don't need it often. but the times when i do, i can't help but think "damnit i can't copy and paste"

if we did have copy and paste it would "help" with checking MMS messages on our phones (and maybe lower the buttload of complaints about the lack of MMS )

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

I always thought that the Magnifier was set up the way it is perfectly for an elegant text highlight. Think of the track pads...you put one finger on for the mouse, you put two on to scroll. Now think of the iPhone. Put on finger down and hold, it brings up a magnifier for the text. Now, just put a second finger down on the screen after the magnifier is up and drag across the text. This way it isn't a single-action command that could interfere with other gestures, nor is it too hard to do. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's always made sense to me.

 

[Mikebuzzsaw]

Its a lot harder than people think. Even jailbreak people can't get copy and paste.

 

[BergerFan]

... The Apple Newton had a perfect implementation of copy and paste that worked with stylus or finger. It was elegant and powerful.

1-hold your finger down at the start of some text for a full second until you hear a chirp sound and see a little blob of 'highlight' color under your finger tip

2-drag your finger across the text you want to copy; this draws a line of colored highlighting across the text, then lift finger

3-drag the now highlighted block of text to the screen edge where it sticks as a little 'post-it' tab (this made a cool sound too)

4-go to another app, and drag the little post it tab from the screen edge to where you want to the text to go...

I could see that working a treat.

 

[ntrigue]

It CAN be simple.

Magnifying glass has the user tap and hold then drag across to place cursor properly.

Copy-and-Paste can adjust the interval so that a 5 second hold will (without moving left or right) will activate Copy-and-Paste then the user would drag. When the finger is lifted it is copied and available throughout the iPhone (at least notes, SMS, Mail, Safari).

 

[kavika411]

I just had another idea regarding why Apple is waiting on rolling out cut-and-paste. I may not use the right lingo, but it is my understanding that Apple has said that some sort of application "push" feature is coming out this month. Again, I may not be using the right lingo, but I think this feature deals with applications sending and/or receiving information so that all is not lost when the application quits.

What if this "push" feature is the lynchpin for Apple's version of cut-and-paste. Perhaps to overcome various issues that arise in trying to move information between applications, Apple thinks it can solve the problem with the "push" feature.

Hmmm.

EDIT: Below is a cut-and-paste (forgive the pun) from the MacRumors article regarding the "push" feature I keep mentioning. I'm starting to think that this feature - whatever it is - could be the missing link Apple needs/wants to roll out an effective cut-and-paste feature.

"Only one feature that was originally promised for a September release has not yet been delivered: "Push" notifications. These notifications would allow dormant 3rd party applications to process and display background events. Apple removed the feature from late iPhone 2.1 developer releases and has given no indication when it would be reintroduced. "

 

[icewing]

Magnifying glass has the user tap and hold then drag across to place cursor properly.

Copy-and-Paste can adjust the interval so that a 5 second hold will (without moving left or right) will activate Copy-and-Paste then the user would drag. When the finger is lifted it is copied and available throughout the iPhone (at least notes, SMS, Mail, Safari).

Here's another possibility. Tap to get the magnifying glass up and drag to position where you want it. Now simply tap and hold with another finger anywere else on the screen - this kicks it into "selection" mode. Now if you drag your first finger, the text will be highlighted.

Next, when you release either finger (or maybe the second, releasing the first would cancel), you get a little dialog that has buttons for Cut/Copy/Paste/Cancel. Paste will be disabled if you haven't previously copied something.

They could even give you a little clipboard with the last 10 things copied or cut, and even the possiblity to have favorites. For example, I'm forever typing my email address...it would be great to have that as a favorite rather than typing it each time.

 

[actorkid]

I don't get it.....the solution just seems so simple to me.

a one finger tap brings up the magnifying glass to scroll through text.

just have it to that a two finger tap also brings up the magnifying glass, except highlights the text instead of scrolling through it.


From here you could go in a bunch of directions.


I kinda like the way it worked on the Newton where you dragged the text to the side and it stuck there until you wanted to insert it somewhere else.

But another way of doing things.

once you lift your two fingers after you finish highlighting, a menu comes up with 3 buttons.

-cut
-copy
-cancel

You then go to the place you want to insert the text. A quick two finger tap brings up a menu with two buttons

-paste
-cancel


woooooooo! not that hard and works with the UI like a charm! Do it Apple!

 

[t0mat0]

What if this "push" feature is the lynchpin for Apple's version of cut-and-paste.

Then you couldn't cut (push) and paste if you were in a place with no signal.
They'd have to be pushing it to the cloud to really be needing push notification.

Who'd want there copied or cut text to pass through Apple servers unneccessarily?

However, i'd say that Push notification was behind the furore about Apple telling Podcaster to go take a hike. I'd imagine it will find itself in a lot more places, once they've got it sorted.

 

[kdarling]

There are a lot of ways to implement it, and Apple has even put some in their patent apps. So no, folks, it's not because it's hard to do on a touchscreen or anything like that.

And it can't be because they worry about UI confusion, since the UI already has so many anomalies. Heck, just think how many thousands of people out there are still wondering why their icons wiggle sometimes.

Clearly there are other reasons. Perhaps it'll slow down the system too much to keep a background copy. Or they're actually against the idea (although I don't believe that). I'd tend to think it's just way down on the list of things to add.

 

[mcdj]

The title of this thread assumes there will be cut/paste. Why would anyone assume that? Haven't we already figured out that with Apple you can assume nothing?

The phone has been out for a year. My guess is if we haven't seen it yet, we ain't gonna see it...like all the iPod owners out there, desperately waiting for crossfading, since 2001. Crossfading would be a nice feature, not too hard to implement, etc. We still don't have it and may never get it.

It's like the dog who went to the train station every day to meet his dead owner...

 

[Compile 'em all]

The title of this thread assumes there will be cut/paste. Why would anyone assume that? Haven't we already figured out that with Apple you can assume nothing?

You mean like the ability to install third party native applications?

 

[mcnicks]

The main reason I want copy and paste is so that I can delete the quoted content that gets added when I reply to emails. To be honest, I would probably settle for a "do not quote original email when replying to emails" switch in the Mail settings page.

 

[Eso]

Copy paste with nothing but the touch screen is never going to work. You may think you have these bright ideas about how "easy" it is, but if it actually worked you would soon realize it is awkward. It would probably activate and times you didn't want it to either, like trying to zoom in or scroll on a web page.

Personally, I believe if Apple does implement copy/paste it will be through the use of an external button. The next iPhone model will have two additional physical buttons, positioned elegantly on either side of the home button.

 

[mcdj]

The next iPhone model will have two additional physical buttons, positioned elegantly on either side of the home button.

I hope you're kidding. "Two additional buttons" and "elegantly" should not even be in the same sentence. You are describing a Samsung/Nokia/Sony, not an iPhone.

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.1 PWNed): 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)

Apple will never add copy and paste.

Just for posterity.

 

[kdarling]

I hope you're kidding. "Two additional buttons" and "elegantly" should not even be in the same sentence.

Oh for goodness' sake. I guess we should be glad that Apple put hardware buttons on for volume, sleep, ringer and Home page. Otherwise people would object to them being added later.

It's already incongruent that an "all touch" phone has a hardware menu button.

Personally, I think the iPhone would benefit from having actual answer/hangup buttons. It would benefit even more from a hardware "back" button so a person can actually keep some context.

Nothing worse than clicking on say, a map link in an app, and having no way to go back to what you were doing except via the home page and launching the app again. Talk about inelegant !!

 

[milani]

I'm not sure why everyone is in a mass hysteria about copy and paste. I am honestly curious to know what people need to copy and paste on a daily basis that they can not complete any other way.

The more I use my phone, the more I find it is a feature that I really need. For instance, I was getting my phone setup on my school's network, so I needed to copy my wi-fi address to the website's setup page. I had the address written as a note, stored in my phone. Since I didn't have copy and paste, however, there was no way to copy that address into Mobile Safari to set it up on the website. So I had to open notes, find a pen and paper, write down the file, then go to Safari.

Another example: I wrote a long, explanatory text message to a friend of mine, and upon sending I realized that I had sent it to the wrong phone number (their work number - which wouldn't receive the message). As opposed to being able to quickly copy the message I had typed and then paste it into a new text message window to send to the correct number, I had to painfully retype the whole message.

The list really goes on and on and on. Sure, the things I have listed are hardly classified as an inconvenience. However, the fact that you can't do simple multi-tasking - tasks we've all become accustomed to doing on a computer and indeed on many conventional mobile devices - undoubtedly causes a lot of people a great deal of irritation.

And please, don't try to tell me that a simple copy/paste scheme would be difficult to implement, or confusing to users. Please... If you can copy and paste on the ancient OS of a RAZR, there is no reason that the iPhone OS can't be made to do it - and a lot better, I'm sure!

 

[StingerT125]

I could have used copy and paste today.

I got an email with a UPS tracking number that I had to write down on a piece of paper in order to transfer it to the UPS site to do the tracking look up.

 

[t0mat0]

Oh for goodness' sake. I guess we should be glad that Apple put hardware buttons on for volume, sleep, ringer and Home page. Otherwise people would object to them being added later.

It's already incongruent that an "all touch" phone has a hardware menu button.

Personally, I think the iPhone would benefit from having actual answer/hangup buttons. It would benefit even more from a hardware "back" button so a person can actually keep some context.

Nothing worse than clicking on say, a map link in an app, and having no way to go back to what you were doing except via the home page and launching the app again. Talk about inelegant !!

Buttons. More buttons...

I can't quite see why an answe or hangup buttom would be useful. They're far bigger and clearer (e.g. in the dark) using the screen rather than a fixed button taking up space. A back button - that's bad/inelegant app design. I agree with the map quandry - It's the price paid for 1 app at a time. Something like the Ctrl-Tab or Mac equivalent, to short cut back springs to mind. But how many times do you click on a map link in an app?
If Apple deems cut and paste as less relevant than other stuff, that's fine by me. Don't most people kinda think Apple has a decent prioritisation of things to do for the iPhone? Cut and paste above battery life improvements, or decreasing call dropping, or solving the time it takes to backup?

Some things from 2.1
- Significantly better battery life
- Fewer call drops
- Bug fixes
- Faster backups to iTunes
- No App crashes

Apple could easily sit on C&P till 3.0/v3 iPhone. It's a non-urgent, but fairly important though not life threatening feature.