Unofficial copy / paste comes to the iPhone... again

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 20th 2009 at 11:43AM

There have been several efforts to bring some semblance of a clipboard to the iPhone since Apple has stubbornly, steadfastly refused to do so. So far, they've been somewhat meaningless and unhelpful (though totally well intentioned) largely because they've only worked with apps specifically designed to take advantage of them, when in reality, probably 80 percent of the stuff you want to copy from (or paste to) is in the iPhone's built-in apps. Enter Clippy, which attaches to the standard keyboard and adds true copy / paste to the out-of-the-box apps plus a smattering of third-party ones. The catch? It only works on jailbroken handsets -- this is about as far from making it to the App Store as anything you can imagine. It's still under development and bugs are still being ironed out, but for those of you who've gone ahead and pwned your phones, check Cydia for the goods.

[Thanks, Cody]

Filed under: Software, Apple, iPhone OS

Tags: apple, clipboard, clippy, copy paste, CopyPaste, cydia, iphone, jailbreak

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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xnifex @ Jan 20th 2009 12:06PM

damn i cant wait for redsn0w to come out

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xnifex @ Jan 20th 2009 3:06PM

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/01/20/the-top-10-things-we-hate-about-the-iphone/

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Joe K. @ Jan 20th 2009 1:19PM

Why do I find this ongoing saga so hilarious?

Every time a co-worker of mine that bought an iPhone holds theirs next to my phone and says something like, "I just have to do ___ on my iPhone and its done" All I do is remind them that they are missing one of the most basic functions of computing/emailing. The look on their face alters from smug-cockiness to one of all-faith-is-lost in seconds. It's like they expect everyone to perceive it as a superior phone and that they are therefore superior by proxy. It must be difficult to keep you balance on such a shaky pedestal.

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Keith @ Jan 21st 2009 9:04AM

yeah I know! Next time get someone to send you and them a picture message (mms). That will show two flaws in one demo. First they can't receive the picture, second when they get the stupid text from ATT with a random username/password to view the picture they can't copy and paste them into the web browser.

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Joe K. @ Jan 21st 2009 9:39AM

Good Call!

Highly Ranked

bernardino @ Jan 20th 2009 2:06PM

You know how when you hold down your finger on text, and the zoom window pops up? The best copy paste would be to do that, then put your other finger on the screen and have another zoom window pop up, then have your two fingers surround the text you wish to copy, one on the left and one on the right, and when you lift up either it copies the text inbetween. Pasting could be as simple as bringing up the zoom window with one finger, and then tapping with another finger to paste into the position you are currently at.

Doesn't seem hard to me, and it seems a lot better than having to tap and drag to select text, that could potentially take forever and be a pain in the ass to correct if you mess up.

Well, I just installed this app and it works great! Just hold down your finger to bring up the zoom window, drag to select your text, release and tap "copy". The text appears to the right of the Paste button. Move your cursor to where you want to paste and tap the "Paste" button as many times as you like and Viola, now you can add annoying repeating LOL comments to Digg on your iPhone!

+1 for Jailbroken iPhones.

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