Last night Apple began seeding iPhone firmware 2.1 and SDK Beta 1 to registered developer program members (those who paid the $99 fee and were accepted, and have App Store uploading privileged’s). Word came in early about new features in CoreLocation and Notification Server APIs. Now Engadget is adding the nigh-mythical holy grail of basic smartphone functionality to the list of maybes: Cut, Copy, and Paste!
Another bit which may or may not make it into 2.1 is copy/paste. We’re still both hopeful and skeptical, but supposedly in the new version of the WebKit framework exists commands for “plugins,” “copy,” “paste,” “cut,” and some others. We can’t confirm if these really exist (and if they do, we don’t know how they’ve actually been there, or if they’re simply holdovers from the desktop WebKit frameworks), so don’t hold your breath.
Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple’s head of iPod and iPhone marketing has previously stated that cut, copy, and paste is on the future feature list, but with limited time and resources, Apple didn’t get to it for 2.0. Will 2.1 be different?
What do you think? Any breath holding on your end?
Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple’s head of iPod and iPhone marketing shed some light on the iPhone 3G/2.0 and some of its highly requested, yet still missing functionality, like where’s our ability to select text, cut it or copy it, and paste it?
Apple has a priority list of features, and they got as far as they could down that list with this model
Why isn’t there a constant yet ever-so-slightly-disappointed voice telling us we missed our last ten exists and threatening to “re-calculate”?
[T]here are some murky “complicated issues” preventing driving directions apps at the moment. “It will evolve. I think our developers will amaze us.”
Like TomTom?
With regards to David Pogue’s claim that Apple said the iPhone 3G GPS antenna was too small for turn-by-turn?
Find his answer after the jump!
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Mike and I mentioned this in the podcast, briefly, and so here’s the full skinny. Apple has filed a patent for basically all the weird and wacky things you might want to do with a multitouch trackpad (of the kind found on the MacBook Air). Basically, the idea is you slap a certain number of fingers down to go into certain modes - 1 finger for standard stuff, 2 fingers for scrolling (plus some switching around for Exposé features), and so on.
The juicy one, though, is the “Thumb plus 2 fingers” section, which shows how you could switch from scrolling around to go into an “Edit” mode — one where you could select text, copy it, paste it, and so on. Exactly what the doctor ordered for the iPhone.
Also noted on the podcast, but I’ll repeat it here: Once Apple manages to add system-level select, cut, and paste to the iPhone, can document editing be far behind?
AppleInsider | Apple filing spills details of advanced multi-touch pads for Macs
