Windows Phone 7 Series won't have copy and paste
By Chris Ziegler 
posted March 16th 2010 5:37PM
posted March 16th 2010 5:37PM
Ready for another long, drawn-out copy and paste controversy to overtake your every waking moment for a year or two? Good: Microsoft just mentioned in a Q&A session here at MIX10 in no uncertain terms that clipboard operations won't be supported on Windows Phone 7 Series... so that's that. Kind of ironic considering that the WinMo of old has been enjoying the functionality since time immemorial, isn't it? Of course, anything is possible going forward -- they've said on several occasions in different talks and sessions this week that they're already looking at a number of enhancements that were scoped out of the initial release of the platform -- but for the phones you buy this holiday season, don't expect to be copying anything between apps.Update: We just super-double-ultra-plus-confirmed this with Microsoft -- Windows Phone 7 Series will not have copy and paste functionality. There is a data-detection service built into the text-handling API that will recognize phone numbers and addresses, but Microsoft says most users, including Office users, don't really need clipboard functionality. We... respectfully disagree? Sure, let's leave it at that.
WP7S Sux!
I want to express my sincere condolences for future WP7S users.
GO ANDROID!
HD2 XDAed/dual booted with ANDROID FTW!
Not trying to bash Windows Phone 7 Series because I like what I have seen so far but seriously?
Welcome to 2010 Microsoft?
Nah they are just pulling your leg its going to start of looking like they have the same problems as Apple but come shipping all those things will have gone away and there will be a couple of nice surprises. I don't believe for one minute that they would fall into the same pitfalls as a Apple when they were so readily identified and documented on engadget.
@treats Lol, Android cut and paste barely works either. I can think of like 3 apps it actually works on. And don't get me started about *selecting* text. Ugh.
@Wesley I was looking forward to seeing a real competitor in the smartphone market come out, especially from the corporate giant like Microsoft, until I saw this. This was the pin that popped the balloon.
@Wesley
I don't think "WP7 Sux!", but this announcement reassured me that ordering my AT&T Nexus One instead of waiting till WP7 came out was a good idea.
@Evster88 I've yet to see 1 app where copy and paste doesn't work with Android. Sure, are significantly harder (or impossible) to select the text to copy, but all the input boxes support both the copy and the paste methods. So I've never noticed any failure of it to work (Using Android for 2 years)...
@Wesley
You've got to be Sh*ting me!!
Talk about a regression.. id love to see some MS fanboys try to defend this one!?
@ircmaxell Input boxes only? Dear god. Say what you will about apple's copy and paste being late, but it's still the best and most useful copy and paste implementation on any smartphone platform to date.
@Wesley
I think they mean GENERAL cut and paste, as to select any kind of text and being able to copy it...
I think for some text boxes applications we will definitively see copy and paste... plus pretty much all you need copy and paste is for sms, internet explorer and file directories... i think we will see that in WP7
@Evster88
I didn't mention Android, I'm talking about a OS written from the ground up after seeing what the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm OS. Symbian, and Nokia can do.
I can't imagine how the MS developers missed the 093093903 posts a day about OMG NO IPHONE COPY/PASTE LOL.
@UberAdept
I guess that would be those "pitfalls" that are helping Apple make gobs of money. Yeah, I'm sure MS will want to avoid those at all costs.
@Wesley
... and it was all going so well.
@Wesley
Hardly. It's mystifying and a bad annoying though.
Mind you, I guess the iPhone's sales pre C&P showed just how little anyone cares about it.
Don't worry, this is Engadget. The Microsoft Defense Force will be here soon - en masse (and they'll start with my downranking).
@Wesley
Yeah ... my contract is almost up with AT&T. I was planning on getting this phone for the compatibility with the 360, but now ... no full multitasking, no copy/paste, no open software ... what next?
I know that many if not all of these could be resolved with software updates, but ... what the heck? Is this Apple from two years ago?
Google Android is looking better and better to me every day...
@Wesley
Who cares? Android 2.1 is far superior newayz... Loving my nexus~!!!
@treats
I highly doubt they'd leave this out just seems like a big duh feature.
@techlife
this is a very stupid mistake for MS to make (considering the iphone situation) none of us have used the UI so its hard to say exactly how terrible and life ending this will be. as far as competition goes i do not see this being as big a deal as the tech community will make it out to be. the fact that multiple hardware as well as multiple carriers will be launching these phones at a range of device price points and a wide variety of service plan options already (almost) guarantees this platform a substantial marketshare. the average consumer will not walk into the store play with a device and ask if it can copy and paste. they will play with the ui and look at the camera quality and slider keyboards and what not and say i want this phone for whatever reason
@HerbieDerb
Now people are bragging about dual-booting PHONES? Jesus, where have I been? Dual-booting computers is stupid enough, dual-booting a phone is just mind-bendingly pointless.
Find something that works for you.
Use it.
There ya go, more functionality than you'll ever get with "hang on, I gotta shut down all my crap, reboot, and start all over again!"
@beckhams777 I agree. I can't see how they won't allow copy and paste in something like a text message or copying a URL. And seeing as how this is more of a blurb (who at Microsoft confirmed it? What was the direct quote?) we can only conjecture as to what they mean by no supporting copy and paste and what these enhancements mean.
@Wesley
Something tells me this is not true and that somebody is pulling an early April Fools joke... I mean really, this phone will be getting office and there is no way in hell they won't include copy and paste. You could take this as a marketing strategy cause nothing get's people commenting more and talking about it then something like this.
@Wesley Wait, No C&P, rumors of no multitasking... Just what else did MS decide to leave out? Video recording as well?
@HerbieDerb Can this be done? If so, I'm going to get the HD2
@Tsing Tao
-1 I think the HD2 has the best copy-paste system. It has a great text selection tool and winmo 6.5 can copy-paste from any app to any other app.
@UnixSystemsEngineer *Shrug* I use Windows for pretty much everything except for Android development, for which I use Ubuntu. Most stuff just seems to work better in Windows(plus, there's XNA development...) but I'd rather not have to deal with cygwin for using the Android NDK.
@Evster88
Perhaps HTC port the text selection (and all other useful bits) tool from the HD2 to android, now that they have no reason whatsoever to keep supporting microsoft.
@Tsing Tao Please. My old Palm Zire 72 did copy and paste better then my iPhone 3G.
@iCello Yeah, Palm OS' copy and paste implementation is the best I've seen on a mobile platform... shame WebOS doesn't seem to meet the same level.
@Wesley
Absolutely absurd. PERIOD.
How do you take THAT OUT!?
@iCello After I hot used to it, I like the copy and paste for iPhone, but I think it could be a littele bit more responsive.
O
@dennyengster It can be done on the HTC TP2, but poorly. Despite what you read on these comment pages, porting an operating system to a phone that wasn't designed for it is extremely difficult. Yes, that includes a WP7 "upgrade" for HD2.
@Wesley
No Copy & Paste? No Deal!
Simple as that...
We're straying too far into non-PDA territory.
@Wesley How can this be possible ? WTf? Why can the user highlight text in the browser ass seen in this screenshot?: http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010/03/16/no-copy-paste-on-windows-phone-7-series/
@Wesley
I felt a great disturbance in the Net, as if millions of geeks suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
@EpsilonNot I think that the WebOS implementation of copy and paste is actually superior to Android's (you can actually easily select single words for instance). But I do agree that robust copy and paste isn't something that has really made it to the touchscreen world yet.
@Mack Stone
Reading three posts above yours would have saved you a lame troll.
@Tsing Tao
copy and paste on my old N95 runs circles around c&p on my iphone 3GS. perhaps the one thing that symbian got really right
@HerbieDerb Where's the forum on how to do this on the HD2?
@Tsing Tao
It was 'late' because it wasn't a 'really important feature'
Devs prioritize features because their time/resources are limited.
@UberAdept It's not like Apple or Microsoft don't or didn't know how to implement copy/paste. In the case of the iPhone, it was partly security, partly how to do it right.
Security, because all apps run in a sandbox, and are prevented from accessing other apps, making copy/paste impossible until a secure way of allowing inter-app communication is implemented. Not to mention that the content of the clipboard could create a security issue.
The good news is that Microsoft seems to be thinking about UI and security.
FAIL. The gloss has worn off, and now WP7S is turning into a complete farce.
No multi-tasking. No copy-paste. Ballmer must approve all your apps to make sure you have no naughty ones. Nobody will want WP7S.
wait for the 2nd Generation confirmed
@LAY
I wonder who idea it was to leave it out. That person should be fired.
It seems Engadget was wrong: http://twitter.com/thurrott/statuses/10593003663
"Not definitely, but that they were looking at adding this before RTM" doesn't sound like "in no uncertain terms".
@Wesley Symbian rules!
@Mack Stone
It's not gone. WinMo 6.5 still owns my iPod Touch.
That said, as an avid WinMo supporter I am extremely disappointed about (1) The Marketplace (2) Copy and Paste and (3) Multi-tasking. However, it is clear that Microsoft is not catering to me. They are going after the masses that want a cute phone with cool animations.
So it sucks for me that MS is going in this direction, but from a business perspective I fully understand it. I was just hoping that they would take what's great about WP7 and give users the ability to unlock certain features (like multi-tasking).
@Tekky
"I wonder who idea it was to leave it out. That person should be fired."
Likely the same jackass that that thought side loading was just tooo "techie" and no one really needed multi-tasking.
God I'm sick to death of this "Geek vs. Grandma" philosophy that has infected the tech world.
Since when did dumbing down devices to make them easier for gray-hairs that cant operate their damn remote become a goal to strive for?
MS had better get shit in order while these devices are not on store shelves.
@Tsing Tao
Amen. I think you have to qualify that by saying "touchscreen only smartphones".
WinMo didn't add Cut/Paste to its touchscreen OS until early 2007, but even then... it required hitting "menu" buttons and adeptly using your stylus. Now that we're moving quickly into REAL stylus-free touchscreen usage, we're in a completely new area. The iPhone OS cut/copy/paste took long because its in that new class. Android, WebOS, and others simply do not have as useful or dependable an implementation for this feature because of the new expectations Apple has created. If WinMo rushed the feature out, they'd botch it. They only switched over to delivering the new UI in what, the last year? Previously, WinMo 7 looked much different.