Ever since the launch of the iPhone, its users have been whining vociferously about the fact that there's no built-in copy and paste function. When we all started using PCs or Macs, the simple act of getting a chunk of text from one place to another was among the first shortcuts we learned - and the slightly non-intuitive ctrl+V or command+V for dropping copied text into its new destination became second nature to us all. But with the launch of the iPhone, Apple deemed it, well, not particularly important. T-Mobile's forthcoming G1, which I was lucky enough to have a play with over the weekend, doesn't have copy and paste either. [EDIT: I was wrong about this - see video at the bottom of the post.] Which got me wondering: what on earth is the problem, here? And why, if these devices are being trumpeted as the ultimate interface between humans and the internet, don't they let us move text about, rather than having to key it all in for a second time?
It's not as if copy and paste on a handheld device is rocket science, or even pocket science. You won't hear Blackberry users even mentioning it, because they take it for granted. And Apple actually implemented copy and paste on their handheld Newton devices some 15 years ago, as this popular YouTube vid demonstrates:
Apple product head Greg Joswiak's line on the matter is simply that other features take priority - developing GPS functionality and so on. Apple no doubt figure that the way the iPhone identifies potential pieces of information that we need to interact with (email addresses, phone numbers, hyperlinks) and automatically does what we want with them, somehow removes the need for a copy and paste function. But it certainly restricts the device's usefulness as, say, a blogging tool.
The Newton, of course, had a stylus, which made it easier to pinpoint the position of a text cursor than using a podgy index finger; that's why the Newton solution wouldn't really work on an iPhone. Third-party solutions such as iCopy offer a slightly inelegant solution to the problem, while other people have come up with ideas how Apple - and, presumably, Google - could implement it in the future. One sign emerged recently that Apple haven't completely forgotten about it; a request checklist from AT&T kindly asks iPhone users in the USA what features they most miss. Copy and paste is on there. But who knows how long it'll be before it finds itself at the top of the list.
EDIT: Here's the proof that G1 does have copy and paste, after all. Strange that T-Mobile assured me that it didn't...
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Even my now aging touchscreenless Nokia 6500 Classic can do cut-and-paste - slightly clunky, admittedly, with the keypad, but still easier than retyping.
Posted by: Jerry Bakewell | Tuesday, 28 October 2008 at 10:15 AM
You should check your facts more carefully and publish a correction - Android most certainly HAS copy+paste functionality built in, you just didn't find it. A long tap on a text field brings up a menu with copy, cut, and paste; it's trivial to copy and paste between different applications.
I own a G1 and I make use of copy+paste constantly - it's actually a very well-implemented feature.
Posted by: Chris | Wednesday, 29 October 2008 at 09:13 PM
Sorry, Chris. I even spoke to T-Mobile's head office to check this; they got back to me and said sheepishly that no, there was no copy and paste facility. Weird.
Posted by: Rhodri Marsden | Friday, 14 November 2008 at 10:48 AM