Clippy
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Clippy will return as an emoji in some Microsoft apps
Twenty years after being unceremoniously dumped from Microsoft Office, Clippy is ready to make a triumphant return.
Microsoft revived and killed Clippy in a single day
The dream of the '90s was alive in Microsoft Teams this week when Microsoft's old office assistant, Clippy, showed up. If you used Microsoft Office between 1997 and 2001, you likely remember Clippy as the animated paperclip that popped up and offered tips for using the software. Microsoft did away with Clippy in 2001, so people were surprised to see Clippy stickers appear in Microsoft Teams this week. And they were even more surprised when, just a day later, Microsoft offed the little guy again.
It's Clippy! Back as a Mac App Store utility
It may not be Microsoft Bob, but boy am I happy that I installed Clippy (US$0.99 in the Mac App Store) on my Mac. No, Clippy isn't that annoying "It looks like you are writing a letter" implementation from years past, but something far more helpful. The new Clippy, the better Clippy, the Macintosh Clippy allows your Mac to remember previous pasteboard entries for those always awkward times when you have to copy not one but two or more separate items after another. You can pull items as you need them directly from the menu bar at the top of Finder. That's brilliant. Clippy is, at the current time, text only -- so you're not going to be able to store images, sound snippets and the like. Also, it doesn't seem to store text formatting along with the core text, which is either a disappointment or the Best Thing Ever, depending on your use case and viewpoint. I'm really happy with my $0.99 purchase -- and if you do a lot of copy and pasting you may be, too. Clippy was created by Naheed Kausar of Faw_zz. Commenters also suggest the non-App Store (and free!) options of JumpCut or ClipMenu, both of which are listed as still under development. There's another tool that's both open source and for sale in the Mac App Store: Clyppan, which costs $10 in the store (version 1.1) but is also apparently downloadable to build yourself in Xcode (version 1.0).
MIT's Affective Intelligent Driving Agent is KITT and Clippy's lovechild (video)
If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times, stop trying to make robots into "friendly companions!" MIT must have some hubris stuck in its ears, as its labs are back at it with what looks like Clippy gone 3D, with an extra dash of Knight Rider-inspired personality. What we're talking about here is a dashboard-mounted AI system that collects environmental data, such as local events, traffic and gas stations, and combines it with a careful analysis of your driving habits and style to make helpful suggestions and note points of interest. By careful analysis we mean it snoops on your every move, and by helpful suggestions we mean it probably nags you to death (its own death). Then again, the thing's been designed to communicate with those big Audi eyes, making even our hardened hearts warm just a little. Video after the break. %Gallery-76874%
Microsoft's office of the future features interactive walls and Surface but, sadly, no Clippy
You know, Microsoft Research isn't just about prototype tablets and the occasional multitouch mouse. No sir, it's also about designing work environments that are so impractical that you can bet you'll never see one in real life. For today's example we have a sort of Microsoft Office: no, not the productivity suite, rather a room that integrates interactive wall displays, Surface, and video conferencing. There is even an assistant / avatar for issuing voice commands, and while this demo has it played by a human being we have hopes that Clippy might be making a comeback. Ready to check it out yourself? Of course you are! The video is after the break.[Thanks, Chris]
DARPA's CALO project, the militaristic Clippy, set to invade iPhones this year
Microsoft's little Clippy, the uppity paperclip who just wanted to help, never got a lick of respect in the ten years he graced the Office suite. He's long-since gone, but his legacy lives on through a DARPA project called CALO: the Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes. It's intended for use to streamline tedious activities by military personnel, like scheduling meetings and prioritizing e-mails, but there are a few non-com spin-offs intended as well, like an iPhone app called Siri due to hit the App Store sometime this year. Siri will have more of a consumer angle, helping to find product reviews and make reservations, but we're hoping a taste of its military upbringing shines through. [Via Slashdot]
A funny Microsoft ad? Yes
I'm not a big fan of Microsoft marketing and promotion. The Seinfield/Gates ads left my scratching my head, and the Laptop Hunter ads really irritated me.Now Microsoft has released a really clever marketing video, but apparently had to leave their regular (Mac loving) agency behind.The video, called Microsoft Office 2010-The Movie (YouTube link) was made by Dennis Liu of Traffik Filmworks (we interviewed him last year). He had a free hand and a big checkbook, and the video that resulted is hip, clever, and fun to watch. We even get a quick glance of Clippy's grave.I was beginning to think that Microsoft was suffering from a complete humor bypass, but this shot at building expectations and mindshare for Office 2010 is a sure winner. And remember that Microsoft will offer a free, web based stripped down version sometime next year that supports the Mac on Safari or on FireFox.Now what happened to Microsoft Bob?
Unofficial copy / paste comes to the iPhone... again
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]
Clippy brings copy/paste to jailbroken iPhones
Those with jailbroken iPhones who use the Cydia package manager discovered a new add-on in the past day or so -- Clippy, from iSpazio, which introduces a method for copy and paste to the iPhone.According to users, the add-on inserts two buttons into the system keyboard -- one for copying and another for pasting. Those who have tried it out say that it only accepts user-entered text and copies over one line at a time, which can get cumbersome.Sebastien over at the iPhone Download Blog gives a detailed overview of how the application works. "After installing the application, type any text you want and simply hit the "123″ button on your keyboard to show the copy/paste buttons. Tap "copy" and start selecting the text you want to copy. Tap "copy" again to end the selection. Then tap "paste" to paste this text where you want it to be." This implementation isn't up to Apple's standards for grace and ease, but it seems workable.My iPhone isn't jailbroken, so I haven't had the chance to try out Clippy. If you've downloaded and had a chance to try out the app, please let us know your impression in the comments.Thanks to all who submitted this!
Microsoft Clippy, RIP: 1997 - 2007
Not too long after MobileESPN breathed new life, now we've got the unfortunate duty of informing the world that Microsoft finally axed the most annoying aspect of Office has decided to leave "Clippy" behind in Office 2007. We suspected something was brewing when the iconic figure started donning a 3D skirt in Japan, but a brief interview with Office's group program manager revealed that the clip is indeed dead. While it had been fading for awhile due to an apparent lack of mass fanfare, and was even turned off by default in Office 2003, it seems that Clippy fans will be forced to stick with now-antiquated versions of the Office suite in order to keep their darling on screen. But don't fret too much, as the countdown until someone crafts a freeware app re-instilling a Clippy rendition into Office begins... now.[Via ChipChick]
