no cut&paste for iPhone

July 20, 2007 9:13 PM

Any idea why Apple omitted cut&paste from the iPhone? Any idea if this will be fixed by 3rd party software? No cut&paste is debilitating for a "smartphone." :(
posted by jeffburdges to Technology (12 answers total)

There is one work-around for this.

Step one: Sell the iPhone.

Step two: Buy a PPC

Step Three: Enjoy things that "just work."


Sorry, I shouldn't be an ass. I am not saying that the iPhone is crap, but just like the first gen iPod, you need to wait for them to find out what works and what doesn't. I guarantee you that this time next year the iPhone will be 100% superior to what it is now.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 9:27 PM on July 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Um... because they hate you?

Not a question easily lending itself to an answer. They didn't add it because they didn't feel it was necessary, or didn't know a smooth way to implement, or maybe it'll be rolled out on one of the inevitable software updates.

Right now, there IS no third-party software for the phone, web aside, nor guarantee there ever will be.

So, the answer is, Dunno. Probably not, least anytime soon. It might show in a software update along with several other features. Might not. Sorry.

Though my guess is still that they hate you.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 9:28 PM on July 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

I guarantee you that this time next year the iPhone will be 100% superior to what it is now.

I guarantee, knowing Apple's statements, and their track record for rolling out free upgrades to product post-sale, that the iPhone I bought opening day will be 100% superior to what it is now by this time next year.

After all, my iPods have all had far more features by end of life than they were ever expected to do on the days I bought them.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 9:30 PM on July 20, 2007

What's a PPC?

You kids and your "hep" abbreviations.
posted by The Deej at 10:01 PM on July 20, 2007

Pocket PC.

HTC, or High Tech Computer Corp. makes some pretty nice phones. Newer models are now running Windows Mobile 6. While it is still in the Windows family, things work how you would expect them to in the full OS.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 10:13 PM on July 20, 2007

Ah, thanks. As a long-time Mac guy, anytime I hear PPC I think "PowerPC" which was an old chip they used. I knew you weren't referring to that, but it was so ingrained my brain couldn't come up with anything else.
posted by The Deej at 10:31 PM on July 20, 2007

Mostly likely that they (in their rush) had different development teams working on the phone.

First get it to market...then in 1.1 or 1.2 get copy & paste working. I mean, how are you going to make choices? Three fingers? How about cut vs. copy? Sure a 'menu' - but a menu isn't intuitive. I'm hoping they get a bug fix/features out once a month, but who knows?
posted by filmgeek at 10:52 PM on July 20, 2007

I've got an iPhone. There are some missing features that bug me sometimes. The lack of select/cut/paste is one of them. Sometimes I'm optimistic that they'll address some of these deficiencies in software updates. Then I remember how long it took them to ship a mouse for the mac with more than one "button."

Has anyone at Apple ever referred to the iPhone as a smartphone when talking to the media or assembled faithful?
posted by Good Brain at 11:07 PM on July 20, 2007

Maddox said it best. Amusingly that page actually resulted in me getting an E70 instead of an iPhone, lol! (Despite the humor, his featureset chart does make sense)
posted by wackybrit at 11:47 PM on July 20, 2007

Probably because they figured they would give you the ability to move the cursor in text entry rather than cut and paste.

Also, it would be hard to implement cut/paste in the browser without scroll bars.
posted by mphuie at 1:56 AM on July 21, 2007

I mean, how are you going to make choices? Three fingers? How about cut vs. copy?

This problem has been solved in a related interface, and the guy who was behind those devices is no longer making them precisely because Apple hired him to work on the iPhone.

the inability for SO MANY people to grasp the concept of which button to click

I'm gonna disagree with you there, The Deej, in the brotherly way of one Apple fanboy to another. It's not the users but the programmers who don't know what to do with multiple mouse buttons. Designing for one-button usability means figuring out what the user wants most to do, and putting it right out there where it's easy to see. Offer multiple mouse buttons, and they're going to start chucking them in there ad hoc and/or burying vital functionality in contextual menus. (The GIMP, anyone?) That's not to say that users aren't idiots ... but I don't believe theirs is the driving idiocy here.
posted by eritain at 3:08 AM on July 21, 2007

Response by poster: fyi, here is how I'd implement cut&paste: Add a config option "enable cut&paste using volume", but keep off by default. If enabled, the volume buttons won't work in text boxes, instead you use them select, cut & paste.

I don't mind many iPhone stupidities: no MMS, no video, etc. And I really like the phone's interface. But I can't function without cut&paste. I'll buy an N95 if Apple doesn't have it by their EU release.
posted by jeffburdges at 6:31 AM on July 21, 2007