macnn
07/29/2008, 9:10am, EDT
Tuesday, July 29th
MagicPad demos rough iPhone copy/paste functions
A new application demonstrates early copy and paste functions on the iPhone, its creator claims. Proximi has developed an application called MagicPad, a rich text editor similar in function to TextEdit. Unlike the built-in Notes application, users can type up documents using six fonts, five sizes and eight colors; in case text needs to be repeated, a button above the keyboard lets users select part of a document using a loop, and then copy, cut or paste. Other options include bold, italic, underline and strikethrough formatting.
As opposed to Apple's rumored update plans however, these editing functions work only within MagicPad, meaning that text cannot for instance be copied into a Safari form. The only way text can be exported is via e-mail. MagicPad is not yet available through the App Store, but is said to be waiting for approval.
Filed under: iPhone, iPhone apps
Other story tags: App Store
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Third Party Savior
In typical fashion, it takes a third party developer to come up with a solution to an Apple OS shortcoming.
When I think of all the great little third party Mac utilities that have come out over the years... everything from menu clocks to dialogue box enhancements to improved font rendering... where would Apple be without them?
Bad typist
It's hard to believe that an iPhone developer could take 4 seconds looking for the apostrophe on the keyboard…
Captcha ?
Why do you have to enter a captcha to email ?
be patient
@JeffHarris
John Gruber offers a perfectly plausible explanation for the lack of copy/paste. be patient. it will come.
http://daringfireball.net/2008/07/copyandpaste
it's got to be OS wide (technical hurdles)
you have to pick with a UI and stick with it.. forever (usability hurdles). you can't have different cut/paste implementations based on the app you're using at the time. even if the code is mostly written, you still have to think really hard about an implementation that makes sense for current and future apps - more importantly it has to be usable for all iphone users (the tech saavy to the not so much)
1.0 firmware - developers were busy making it work. no time for bells and whistles
2.0 firmware - no doubt. gimmie app store before copy/paste.
@Gee4orce - so bots don't spam?
A step but still pointles
The whole argument for having copy/paste for the iPhone/iPodTouch was that we were used to having it to copy things like files, urls, and text from APPLICATION TO APPLICATION, not so much as a text editing function.
Since Apple only lets one application truly run at a time, there isn't a real way (at least that I can think of) to have a third party come up with this kind of functionality. It's going to have to come from Apple.
Purportedly, there were rumors noising around about apple wanting to come with an alternative method for copy/paste functionality that was better suited to this touch interface/architecture.
Just think of all the $10 purchases of an upgrade they'll see whenever that comes about.