iPhone finally gets copy and paste!

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?

[abrli Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:06PM]

apple finally listens... for once

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:18PM]

This wasn't the first time.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/meet-the-new-mr-jobs-he-listens-to-customers/

[LAY Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:06PM]

"iPhone finally gets copy and paste!"

Could have sworn that wasn't important.

Welcome to 1998, Apple.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:35PM]

So true

[Ravnos Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:09PM]

Prepare for the flood of comments about how great this is from people who previously posted about how they "never really needed it".

"We've been working really hard to design an easy to use interface for this on our touchscreen display." Seriously? It took over two years to figure out copy and paste?

[xCrunk Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:10PM]

OMG!!! Copy and paste!!!

Let me go clean my underoos now.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:11PM]

In 1998, I had a Nokia which didn't have copy and paste either.

[tinutapori Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:10PM]

Who did they copy it from? j/k!

[LAY Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:12PM]

"We've been working really hard to design an easy to use interface for this on our touchscreen display." Seriously? It took over two years to figure out copy and paste?"

Yeah THAT made me laugh. Apple loves to preface every statement with some grand pronouncement of how "hard" they worked on these things that existed for years, like they just invented it today.

[EGOvoruhk Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:14PM]

Looks like Engadget got copy and paste as well. They seem to be copying all the text from the live event, and pasting it into a bunch of lame mini articles

[Fanman Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:36PM]

How INNOVATIVE of them!

[LAY Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:38PM]

"11:33AM Q: Why did copy paste take so long?
A: Scott: It's not that easy. There were security issues."

WTF?

[Michael Scrip Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:52PM]

> "Looks like Engadget got copy and paste as well. They seem to be copying all the text from the live event, and pasting it into a bunch of lame mini articles"

...so we can comment on the individual features.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 3:37PM]

So many good things, but how come they can't add "mark all read" in e-mail folders? How come they won't include native voice dialing support, much like the cheaper phones include. I would much rather get lost without a GPS and arrive in one piece because I had to hand dial a call, or download a third party app that doesn't work too well.

[Anatidae Posted Mar 17th 2009 3:42PM]

My lord. After all this time I expected something that would change the way we copy and paste forever.

I bet they just hired an open source developer and had it made in a day flat.

[conscious Posted Mar 17th 2009 3:51PM]

Look_Around_You @ Mar 17th 2009 2:06PM

"iPhone finally gets copy and paste!"

Could have sworn that wasn't important.

Welcome to 1998, Apple.


- hey look at me, i'm using a feature debuting today!

[Matt314 Posted Mar 17th 2009 7:44PM]

Meh...I've been using copy/paste on my iPhone for a long time. Apple made a nice piece of hardware. The community makes better software. (What the heck is up with no background changing on a non-jailbroken iphone!)

[OneLove Posted Mar 17th 2009 5:53PM]

Change You Can Believe In

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2009 8:07AM]

The world's most elegant implementation of cut, copy, paste, undo. Kudos, Apple, you've done it again. Will the innovations never cease?

What's this talk about a Palm Pre? There is no Palm Pre. That non-product is vaporware. Palm isn't even sure it can raise the money to manufacture the Pre. Please stop referring to non-existent products for iPhone comparisons.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:11PM]

Cut too.

[KClough Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:08PM]

Paste me grateful

[MarcusMaximus Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:08PM]

woot! finally a phone that supports the island from Lost!

[Chickenatr Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:28PM]

looks like the plane crashed because of the iPhone.

[Wai Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:08PM]

Well, they finally did it because everyone wouldn't STFU about copy + paste. Now if only everyone whines more about MMS...

[bondsbw Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:15PM]

No can do that either. :)

[PGPProtector Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:22PM]

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/17/mms-finally-comes-to-apples-iphone/

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 9:02PM]

I don't care about MMS since email can perform the same function. I'd rather have video with the camera first.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 4:52PM]

And now they also have A2DP! How are we supposed to make fun of them now?!? :P

I'm going to miss those "He must have copied it" "Well then he definitely isn't and iPhone user." exchanges.

[jhoff80 Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:08PM]

And to think, I was worried about it catching up to the Pre. Copy/paste, push notifications (aka fake multitasking with what seems to be really annoying notifications), game micro-transactions (who the hell wants to be nickel and dimed for a cell-phone game to buy weapons in it), what's next, finally MMS?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:13PM]

AGREED! Who the hell is going to pay 99 cents to buy one missle for their crappy cell phone game? Micro transactions are companies ways of milking more money out of the clueless consumer. I can see it for some things, such as the city guide where you purchase cities...but still even that's pushing it. If one of their big new things for the SDK is micro transactions, they are thinking wrong. I can see myself easily sticking to only downloading the free apps as I do now. Most of the stuff on the App store is just crap, most--not all, but most

[quotaPop Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:15PM]

TADA!!

[tastypotato Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:56PM]

I'm quite appalled at that too, but hey, they spent a couple hundred for a phone they surly won't mind another .99 cents for some rocket launchers right? -__-

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 3:11PM]

"And to think, I was worried about it catching up to the Pre."

Wow. Unless you directly profit from Palm's success that's without question, the lamest, most fan-boyish comment on here. Why the hell would you be against progression from ANY company, on any device? I mean seriously.. pathetic.

If you can't appreciate what Apple did for themselves, which is understandable, at least appreciate the kick in the ass they provided for every other manufacturer out there. The current landscape of phones looks like it does because of the iPhone and the progression in user interface that it brought to the table.

[jhoff80 Posted Mar 17th 2009 4:07PM]

If it caught up with the Pre especially with actual real multitasking, I'd be stuck considering a device with no hardware keyboard just based on the sheer number of apps. I would highly prefer a device with a hardware keyboard. Therefore, yes, it is a good thing for me that this update leaves Apple still way behind Palm. I have no stock in Palm, don't work for them, or anything like that.

I appreciate what Apple did for web browsing and interface on a phone (iPhone's interface to me was second to none until the Pre), but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

[hey buddy Posted Mar 18th 2009 4:24PM]

I guess you're all pretending the Pre is actually available.

[rhcpcjg Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:11PM]

that the flight number from LOST lol nice

[retarded commenter Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:14PM]

Cut and paste only works on the ISLAND

[LAY Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:19PM]

Before today, only the Others had it.

[EGOvoruhk Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:09PM]

Is this not included in 3.0? If so, why am I reading about it in a separate article?..

[superhobo Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:14PM]

Groundbreaking...nascent...innovation...awesome...feature...new

etc

[Eleazar Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:29PM]

And don't forget to stay tunned for the iPhone OS 3.0 round up kids!.

[Decoy Posted Mar 17th 2009 5:13PM]

And iPhone 3.0: One Week On
And How would you change iPhone 3.0?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:11PM]

I've had copy and paste for ages! Clippy FTW!

[Decoy Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:53PM]

Pfft, my dumbphone had it for years.

[superhobo Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:11PM]

What an innovation!

[Ethan Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:12PM]

It's gone past ridiculous, funny and is now almost cute the the time Apple took to get around to this.

[Decoy Posted Mar 17th 2009 5:15PM]

Chinese Democracy
Copy/Paste iPhone
pending: Duke Nukem forever

[Ravnos Posted Mar 17th 2009 2:14PM]

Seriously, if I were the guy doing the presentation, I would have just left this out entirely. Not the feature, because it's basic stuff that's long overdue, but the announcement. The fact that it *is* such basic stuff makes it embarrassing that it hasn't shown up yet, and if I were them, I would have just put it in and pretended it was there all along. The RDF would have taken care of the rest. "The iPhone has always had copy and paste."

[TomSawyer Posted Mar 17th 2009 3:53PM]

you people are never happy. You wanted C n' P? Now you got it, so shut up and be happy. If they gave it to us in 2.0 you'd still be bitching it took too long. You're all disgusting.

[victorstuber Posted Mar 17th 2009 4:05PM]

uhm the only reason people are mad, is because apple refuses to listen to customers. They play it off after this long and say "it was security reasons" BULL