Filed under: Hardware, Portables, iPhone, Apple History
Copy and paste on the Newton
While everyone waits for Apple to implement copy and paste on the iPhone (or hacks their own), Newton users have been enjoying it for 15 years.
Here's a great video of the just how Apple pulled it off on a previous touch device. Clicking and dragging selects the text, and moving it to the side of the screen sends it to the clipboard, represented by a shortcut. You can then move multiple copies out of the clipboard and into your applications with a drag of that shortcut.
It seems like a variation of this could work for the iPhone -- drag text to an edge or corner as a clipboard. Of course, there's a lot less text manipulation on the iPhone than the Newton, which was a PDA.
Either way, I still love my Newton. Sure, people make fun of me for carrying around a PDA the size of a baby dolphin, but I don't care. At least I have copy and paste.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ryan Trevisol said 5:10PM on 9-08-2008
Mmmmm . . . baby dolphin . . . the veal of the sea.
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jax sedrin said 5:21PM on 9-08-2008
There are lots of ways Apple could do this. Personally, I think they should retain the single-tap & drag as a means of just moving the cursor around. Highlighting could be done by double-tapping and dragging over some text.
Then copying could be done either automatically when you lift your finger after highlighting, or by another gesture, such as holding with one finger and double-tapping with a second. Pasting would use a similar gesture. That way you don't have to worry about incorporating any new UI elements into existing apps.
But however they accomplish it, they need to do it soon!
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punkassjim said 5:38PM on 9-08-2008
Nice to see the Newton getting some love? Sure. Relevant? Not so much: if implemented on the iPhone, it would introduce a vagueness to the "tap-and-hold" gesture, in addition to completely conflicting with the Loupe.
If they don't implement Adam Lisagor's idea, they're missing the boat: http://www.vimeo.com/266383
...and they should pay him handsomely for doing their thinking for them.
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Eric said 5:52PM on 9-08-2008
OS X has a similar feature, where you highlight text and can then drag it. Of course, you can't drag it to the clipboard (as far as I know), but it's convenient if you want to copy something from a page to the search bar.
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Ting said 6:20PM on 9-08-2008
Anyone know where I could get a copy of the 'pring' sound the Newton (at least the earlier versions) made when started up?
I think that's a cool sound and I'd like to have it for things like incoming mail etc.
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Silversides said 6:54PM on 9-08-2008
Enough with the Newton nostalgia already! My lord. Let it go.
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mrmoo said 9:15PM on 9-08-2008
I also have a Newton. I waited with my dad on iPhone 3G release day with the screen drawn up to look like an iPhone. I also used it as a trip journal over the summer. The only things I don't like about it are it's size and it's slow compared to my iPod Touch.
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pixeluxe said 11:27PM on 9-08-2008
I'm not a developer or anything, but I wonder if the reason it hasn't been implemented isn't because of UI challenges (Adam's idea proves that), but more about application/clipboard persistence. Doesn't one app have to close fully before another opens?
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