that whole "priority list" thing apple is shoveling is just a load of horse manure.

Jomolungma

@itchytooth: No, that's a common browser DNS hack. It just tries .com, .net, etc. until it finds a site that responds.

At any rate, I can tell you why this feature landed and copy-n-paste didn't. This feature is pretty trivial, and fits into the UI in a clear, well defined way. Already, when you hold a button on the keyboard, stuff pops up, now it's a matter of turning that into a selectable set of options. It makes intuitive sense to a user though.

How, pray tell, should copy and paste work on the touch screen? Buttons? Pulldown menu? Gestural interface? What about selecting- touch and drag? How will it tell the difference between touch-and-drag to select and touch-and-drag for other purposes?

t3knomanser

@se.blackheart:

It will 'learn' what you type over time. Words you type frequently that it tries to correct will eventually stop being corrected if you keep typing whatever it is you are trying to type. So just tap the attempted correction off when it does pop up and keep on goin.

I've also noticed just deleting one letter after a correct pops up and then retyping it the same way will make it not pop back up.

rochec

@iCarmen 2.0-Yellow Free Edition!: It just knew the suffix you had in mind?

itchytooth

I had a sidekick before my iPhone and I would be able to type in just the name of the website no www., no .com, .org, nothin and just press enter and it would take me.

iCarmen 2.0-Yellow Free Edition!

@brillionjn

It looks like it works with your localization. Mine (U.S.) shows .net .org .edu .com

gabrielm

Good to see that they are taking my suggestions seriously. I am sure I wasn't the only one to request this feature.

gabrielm

That's a nice touch, but it would be much better if you could pre-select a variety of commonly used suffixes depending on your country (.ca) or the type of websites you visit (.gov)

brillonjn

meanwhile, the auto-correct functionality in sms keeps messing up my messages. a switch to turn this off in the keyboard menu is needed.

se.blackheart

@The Magnificen7:
I agree!, it'll work. sooner or later. :-)

Lane

Faslane66

what about synchronizing notes?!!

chanmoss

And the key repeat delay is 1ns faster than the iPhone 1. Story at 11.

heroineworshipper

screenshot of 1.1.4 in english (UK) keyboard mode: [img.skitch.com]
clearly showing that the co.uk was there before the 2.0 update!

smokeonit

I think that they could use the same magnifying glass effect, just hold down two fingers to select, then a pop up menu for copy or cut. As for paste, just use magnifying glass to get to the part of the text you need to (if at all) then hold a finger (or two) down for a second, where a paste option pops up. I dunno, something like that. I'm sure Apple will eventually have a terrific solution, I'm not missing it.

The Magnificen7

@redkamel: A link from an email to an IM window.

@itchytooth: There are a few other issues. Let's say that works step by step- how about regression issues with existing applications. Do legacy apps not get copy/paste? Do all apps get copy/paste? What about apps that really shouldn't have copy paste? What about apps that trapped the gestures that copy/paste uses for some other purpose?

I'm not saying that a good copy/paste solution is impossible, but it's not so easy as some users might think.

t3knomanser

@itchytooth: Wow, that's awful.

You can kinda see why they're putting it off until they have a good solution.

t3knomanser

@CarbonatedWater: Double-tap is already assigned to the zoom/realign/zoom out function.

itchytooth

@t3knomanser: I see.

As far as the cut/paste UI, how about this:

1. initiate cut/paste. this could be done by holding down 2 fingers for a few seconds.
2. choose what you want to do from a fullscreen popup - copy, paste or cancel
during the cut paste session, a horizontal bar would come up along the bottom of the screen with the button "begin selection"
3. initiate the loupe in the normal way, in order to place the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to copy
4. press "begin selection". that button will now become "end selection"
5. repeat 3
6. press "end selection".

It's a little tedious, but I feel like it will have to step-by-step like that. The screen is too small and our fingers are too fat to make it into a more fluid, gesture-like operation.

itchytooth

@iCarmen 2.0-Yellow...: actually you can do that wit with the iPhone/Touch also. no "www" no "." anything just the name.

nappleheaded

I don't agree with the whole priority list thing but if they actually have a list and copy/cut and paste is on it then at least we know it's sorta on it's way. It's not like it's hard to implement or anything. Double tap to start selecting and then hold your finger over the selected stuff. Single tap will do exactly what it's been doing. Pretty easy if you ask me.

CarbonatedWater

the pop-up when holding was there in 1.1.4...!!! it's not new, i'm not sure if the co.uk option is new... and the edu. .org, but .com .net was there

and in the german localisation .com .de..

smokeonit

I still dont see what you would need to copy and paste. A web paragraph into an email?

redkamel

A bit off topic, but it is iPhone related, can you help?

I did a upgrade from a jailbroken 1.1.4 to 2.0 apple factory .ipsw. Then my screen kept giving me digital "noise" and the touch portion was acting erratically. AND it kept a portion of my old jailbreak because it had my custom provider name showing instead of AT&T in the upper left corner. SO, then I did another restore and everything is cool....so far. Has anyone had this screen glitch happen? I'm wondering if I need to take it in or if it was possibly a glitch between updates and may now be fixed as it's working fine now. Just want to tackle it soon if it is my screen going out before my warranty is up in Dec.

Thanks All!!

Trip.

Triplet66

nice!! Still wish there was a hold space bar and get cut, copy past or hold something to get those, but I guess not. :-(

Trip.

Triplet66

I'm I the only one asking why Giz is going to Butts.edu in the pic lol? Oh well.

ncomputerm4

Most letters (not all) have different options like this not just the .com button.

smayton

@t3knomanser: Okay, okay, I think I've got it now. How about some sort of peripheral add-on...

itchytooth

I don't have this feature in 1.1.4 on my iPod Touch, is it iPhone only?

zmjjmz

shut up already about cut and paste and get your fingers off their asses and type for god sakes. how hard is it seriously. i have not needed to or wanted to copy and paste yet.

graphx

I don't think the problem they face implementing copy and paste is UI related. They would have to have a background process running all the time to implement it. Usually, when you use an app on the iPhone, it closes all of the other apps (except iPod playback). This would be different because you'd always have to have copy and paste running. I'm no computer scientist by any means, but I imagine this is why (correct me please if my logic is wrong). They're probably trying to find the most efficient way of implementing it instead of forking over some half-assed attempt.

That being said, what the hell is taking them so long?? I don't need copy and paste regularly, but it sure could come in handy sometimes. This should be priority numero uno now that they've got the uphill part of 2.0 mostly ironed out.

We're waiting, Apple!

ACDlite

Nice catch, Gizmodo!

As for the cut and paste comment, I'm assuming you are being facetious-obviously adding multiple choice on a keyboard keypad is about 300x easier programming wise than adding cut and paste to a touchscreen UI, don't you agree?

I personally look forward to cut/copy/paste at some point on the iPhone. But its lack certainly doesn't make the iPhone unusable. Just hope they take the time to do it right.

Totorototoro

Butts.edu. hehehe. And this is sweet, I should have known this for certain inevitable reasons but I didn't. Thanks Giz!

CultofMac

@iCarmen 2.0-Yellow Free Edition!: Maybe it works the same way as Firefox, which takes you to the first page listed in a Google search? A+ if the iphone has this feature.

Maybe they should offer .mobi in their list? Sure it's fun waiting 15-40 seconds for a normal webpage to load so you can then zoom in and out as you slowly pans across the ad-laden, image-intensive, flash- and java-heavy content, but sometimes it's nice to use a mobile site, which loads in seconds and puts the most important content right in front of your face.

coketown

@itchytooth I have no idea how the web browser was built but all i typed in was Yahoo and it took me there, typed in snopes-snopes.com
it just knew

iCarmen 2.0-Yellow Free Edition!

@Totorototoro: you should read gizmodo more often: [gizmodo.com]

Paradise

what about saving pictures on safari? no one is talking about that trick

just click and hold the desired picture you want to save from a website..

you will be prompt to save or not... click save boom picture from the web right to your photos..

rexfrmgr

It sounds like it's not that they don't "care" about copy/paste, just that it's hard to implement in touchscreen UI.

science vs romance

Yeah, I get .com/.org/.edu/.net. I'd much rather have .co.nz than .edu, and my location is set to New Zealand..

Repton

I think, iPhone has a long way to go before it reaches a level that is equivalent to today's smart phones. It's still evolving and some important things are still missing. Adding GPS and 3G was a good move, but lacking turn by turn navigaiton! Similarly the ability of using third party bluetooth headsets, A2DP and ability to transfer files etc through bluetooth is still missing.

Slowly, but surely Apple iPhone will get there by perhaps V4 or V5 in years to come will be the one that meets maximum user requirements of today.

CPFReviews

CPFReviews.com

@rexfrmgr:
Thanks for the tip.

willyboy

Clearly the haters here have never developed software. I'm sure this feature came at very little cost development-wise. I have thrown in a feature that was low-priority because it took all of 10 minutes to work up.

But your comparing this to the complexity of solving the copy-paste problem and it shows a complete lack of understanding of software. Some things are really easy to do in software, other things are hard.

Copy and Paste involve clipboards, which involved various clipboard formats, it is essentially an inter-application data transport. Then you have the entire UI issue (how do you mark a selection? Double-tap (which is usually zoom in/out)? No that won't work. Pinch/Stretch, oops that's used too. And that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure with some indepth research, there are many other issues involved.

I think that the folks on this blog will never be happy, no matter what Apple offers them. They'll always want more, more, more.

mmeister

I think we can have a UI solution....

Like keeping 4 hot corners (similar to hotspots on mousepad on a laptop) the top left denotes function double tapping pops up a copy paste menu...

Nokia has implemented copy paste very intuitively even without the dedicated 'pencil' key ... for instance N82 uses # Key ... you press and hold the # key while in text writing mode and the two dynamic buttons change to copy/paste

Similarly Apple can implement using Press & Hold option on screen hotspots or corners....

CPFReviews.com

Did they ever make it so you can type an e-mail or sms in landscape or not? Because if not than that may still be a bit of a deterrent for me, well that and the copy/paste function which would be so damn easy to implement but nooooo two of THE most needed features but they wont add them on because their too damn lazy.

SirNirian

correction did not survive testing. Few not fewws

pepethedog

I have to agree with mmeiser. Cut and paste is more difficult than it looks. Also I admire their restraint. If you read this blog you know that Apple has patented several unused gestures. They have probably tested them out with non techy users like they did with the original Mac. If you read the accounts of the early Mac developers, many preconceived notions did survive testing. I wonder if the same approach was used by key board designers from the typewriter to the standard PC keyboard how much easier life would be. Most annoying standards are haphapard and poorly designed. Taking a a feew extra months may be a good thing. I'm typing this from an iPod and Gizmoso has a huge annoying pop up so I can't see what I'm typing.

pepethedog

I'm all for adding features, but it seriously takes longer to wait for the .edu, .net, .org, .com box than it does to quickly type ".edu" on the keypad. Apple needs to fix the ridiculously sluggish UI. Let''s move that to the top of the so called priority list.

tmac3

I'm all about adding features and improving the OS, but it seriously takes longer to wait for the .edu, .net, .org, .com box to come up, than it does to just quickly type ".edu". The ridiculous lag with the UI should go to the top of this so called priority list.

tmac3