It’s a tech saga that’s rumbled on longer than any format war, and given Apple fans more sleepless nights than Steve Jobs’ healthcare plans, but today Apple finally confirmed the iPhone is getting cut and paste, and it’s a surprisingly elegant system too. Read on to see how Apple will end the iPhone’s most annoying flaw to date.
Cut and paste, or rather the absence of it, has long been a sticking point for anyone with an iPhone. While every smartphone from Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG can handle it, the iPhone flatly refused. Until now.
Apple has finally announced its handset will support copy and paste with the new iPhone OS 3.0. Activating it is simple, just double tap on any chunk of text and two ‘handles’ will appear, along with buttons to cut, copy and paste. Move the handles either side of the text, and hit the button to cut it, copy it, or paste over it. Simple!
If you make a mistake, just shake the iPhone and it’ll ask if you want to undo the pasting you just did. Apple’s made a good job of this, even if it’s taken a while.
The new copy and paste functions work across all applications, and if you’re copying text from a web page, SMS or chat message you won’t be bothered by options to paste, since it would be impossible in that context. It’s very smart.
So, iPhone owners can give a sigh of relief. One of the iPhone’s most niggling annoyances is about to be put to bed, for good… and that’s not all.
As an extra bonus, Apple’s adding the iPhone’s landscape keyboard to all applications. It’s a dream come true for fans of the iPhone’s e-mail system, since it allows for larger keys and easier typing.
TBC | £TBC | Apple
