Following up on the earlier post about OpenClip, the new open-source framework for implementing a shared (i.e. cross-application) clipboard for the iPhone, the video above highlights developer Zac White’s presentation at iPhoneDevCamp2. Not enough for you? Okay, TiPb had another chance to talk with the innovative folks at Proximi (makers of MagicPad, the original proof-of-concept for this functionality), who were kind enough to share a few more details with our readers.
I originally bought my first Palm V so I could take some writing with me on the road. I “upgraded” later to a WinMob device in hopes Pocket Office would be a more robust solution, and then again to a Palm Treo, trying a couple high profile “Office” apps out. Confession: none of them really worked. They stripped out style sheets. They converted files to HTML and mangled format, and the feature sets just were never there. I abandoned them shortly after they abandoned me. Mobile editing just isn’t there yet.
While I wait for a next generation document editor to (hope beyond hope) prove me wrong, FileMagnet from Magnatism is proving to me the value of the iPhone’s built in, format-respectful, Quickview and Quicktime viewers, and added the previously missing — and tremendously useful — ability to transfer supported files effortlessly via WiFi, straight from your Mac (with Windows support already in development).
How does this wireless drive-mode, doc viewer hybrid work out? Read on!
While Apple waits on manpower/priority celestial alignment to someday enable the long requested cut, copy, and paste functionality in the iPhone OS, Proximi’s MagicPad has decided to take multi-touch into their own hands, and provided something far more than what they describe as a proof of concept: a rich text editor which, a few limitations aside, brings Apple’s OS future very much into the App Store present.
Text Selection
Apple provides a user experience for insertion point placement that involves tapping and holding your finger down until a magnifying loupe pops up and lets you more accurately position the curser. To zoom in on a photo or fill the screen with a web element, Apple gives you the double tap. Many have wondered what an interface for text selection (the pre-requisite for Rich Text formatting and cut, copy, and paste) could or would look like — and some have even wondered if getting it “right” was what was delaying the functionality.
MagicPad combined the insertion point placement tap-and-hold with the zoom double-tap, to text select via double-tap-and-hold. And while it may not be what Apple will ultimately term “right”, could it be “right now”?
