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CopyPaste posts

iPhone finally gets copy and paste!

by Nilay Patel posted Mar 17th 2009 @ 12:50PM

No surprises here: Apple just announced that iPhone OS 3.0 will support copy and paste. A double-tap auto-selects the text you want with movable "grab points," and a pop-up edit bar display buttons for cut, copy, and paste. Finally! It works in every major app, including SMS and Safari, and what's more, there's also "shake to undo," which is exactly what it sounds like: a quick shake brings up a box that allows you to undo and redo c/p actions. It's a pretty nifty implementation, sure, but it's a little silly we've had to wait this long for it, don't you think?

New copy / paste paradigm in the works for Storm?

by Chris Ziegler posted Feb 26th 2009 @ 3:49PM

Storm firmwares have been leaking out of Waterloo at a positively breakneck pace for a couple months now -- and naturally, new builds of the operating system are liable to bring along new functionality every once in a while. Here's a particularly interesting one: it seems like RIM might have some sort of new clipboard action in store for an upcoming release, adding a visible box around text that you want to select -- just drag the handles on each side to make your selection. Considering that fingers tend to be a little fatter than your average line of text, it seems like a solid plan, but so far, there's no word on when we might see this in a leaked build -- let alone a build officially released by a carrier.

[Via BlackBerryNews]

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

by Chris Ziegler posted Jan 20th 2009 @ 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]

OpenClip says iPhone firmware 2.1 breaks it

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 1st 2008 @ 2:42PM

Anyone getting used to the cross-app clipboard framework for the iPhone wrought by OpenClip, heads up: your party might be drawing to an end. The organization says that apps no longer have access to the common storage areas of other apps in the latest beta of firmware 2.1, which basically puts the kibosh on the very reason OpenClip is able to do what it does. They're throwing around a couple ideas -- one of which would involve creating a funky-looking contact in your address book to marshal data between apps, while another would see data get pushed to a server, a move that Apple would effectively be unable to stop. Then again, with rumors still fresh that real copy / paste is coming in 2.1, maybe these guys want to hold off for just a bit to see what happens.

[Via AppleInsider]

Third-party clipboard framework for iPhone in the works

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 24th 2008 @ 2:40PM

Developers are mad as hell about the copy / paste situation on the iPhone, and they're not gonna take it anymore. Despite rumblings of the long-overdue feature making an appearance in version 2.1, a grass-roots effort has been started in the form of OpenClip.org to implement a totally independent, third-party clipboard solution that apparently manages to remain entirely within the bounds of Apple's airtight SDK agreement that significantly limits what App Store apps can and cannot do. Some eleven apps are already listed as having pledged support for the OpenClip standard, which will inevitably be wiped out if Apple decides to do something official -- which, let's be real, should've happened ages ago. Follow the break for a video demo of OpenClip in action.

[Via MacRumors]

Continue reading Third-party clipboard framework for iPhone in the works

Copy / paste app for iPhone is meaningless, has no bearing on anything

by Chris Ziegler posted Jul 30th 2008 @ 7:16AM

What's the sound of a tree falling when no one's around to hear it? What's the sound of one hand clapping? And perhaps most importantly, what's the purpose of a clipboard when only one app can use it? Development shop Proximi is making a pretty big stink about its MagicPad app for the iPhone, touting its homegrown copy / paste functionality as part of a rich text-editing package to help shore up the handset's weak sauce (read: non-existent) office app suite. That's all well and good -- the app looks well-executed and provides a core function that should've been present across the entire iPhone to start -- but without buy-in from Apple, the clipboard's stuck in the MagicPad sandbox. Cool? Yes. Should Apple be paying attention? Yes. Useful? At this point, barely.

[Via MacRumors]