Shownotes:
When Apple released the iPhone, the praise was consistent and so was the criticism. The praise was about the revolutionary interface and the criticism was about the lack of 3G, GPS and Copy and Paste. Apple made 3G and GPS happen, but they said Copy and Paste isn’t a priority. The first place we saw copy and paste for iPhone was on an application called MagicPad. The guy behind that app, Juviwhale, met a college student, Zac White. Zac White figured out how to implement copy and paste on any iPhone App without violating the iPhone SDK agreement.
Zac started a non-profit, open-source community project called OpenClip. When a developer adds the OpenClip framework to an iPhone app, that app gains copy and paste functionality. On Brief 410, I demo copy and paste on the iPhone using un-released versions of Twittelator, WordPress and MagicPad.
Apple forbids applications from running in the background because it would take up too much of the iPhone’s resources. Also, developers are not allowed to create plug-ins that make their apps work with other apps on the iPhone. Zac White’s Open Clip framework uses a shared space on the iPhone. Any application that includes Open Clip can then access the common area and write to it, and read from it, thereby enabling copy and paste between participating apps.
The key to making OpenClip work is adoption. Zac’s framework is non-profit. It’s open-source, and his project makes the iPhone even more useful. I recorded an audio interview with Zac so if you want to listen, it’s here. In our audio conversation, Zac talked about the ideal implementation and problems to be solved. Developers who are interested in finding out more can find the video here.
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August 19th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
wow! Finally, well almost. Looking forward to hearing more!
August 19th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Why do I get the feeling that OpenClip may end up on the famed iPhone blacklist?
August 19th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
This is huge! Perhaps all of the whining users who yearn for copy and paste will be satisfied.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Just want to confirm that this is not available to the public yet, correct?
August 19th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
This is great news GeekBrief! I’m very excited to see this implemented across future apps!
August 19th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Correct. It’ll be available as developers make updates available. I think MagicPad will be one of the first to make the update.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I’m not really sure if this is a good thing, as it takes pressure off of apple to implement it (properly). Not saying it’s not a nice/kind idea, but you have to fix the root of the problem, not just work around it.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
@zort,
I think this is definitely very much an interim solution until Apple implements something better themselves.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:25 am
Hi thanks for the note, it’s great!
Two points:
A) It’s a shame that Apple have not yet implemented Copy&Paste.
B) It’s a bigger shame that Apple doesn’t allow developers to collaborate, share … this is really “Think different ,but in the wrong way!”
Well done, I will support openclip.org
August 20th, 2008 at 4:25 am
This is hardly Copy and paste for the iphone as your title claims it to be. This only works on certain Apps and what’s more important is up to the developer to implement it. We need phone wide copy and paste so that not only 3rd party apps have this capability.
I think your title is a bit misleading and needs to reflect the fact that developer found a way to share a clipboard amongst their applications.
Love the show keep up the good work.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:08 am
hopefully there isn’t a way for a bad app to access this “shard space” presumably on the hd, and drop in some code to exploit the iPhone. Do you know if there is a way to fence off the shared space?
August 20th, 2008 at 8:18 am
haircut? looks good.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Hey, glad to see some positive feedback about OpenClip!
@Clintus
This is available publicly. We are trying to get developer feedback and come up with a version of the code that will work for everyone. If you would like to dive in and start messing with things, check out http://openclip.org/developer.php for the source code. The new API is currently in beta, but the more people try it out and report bugs, the faster we can get this into some big apps!
@zort
This is definitely an interim solution. The API I am using is very similar to what OS X uses so the hope is that Apple will be inclined to add support for the OS X API and it will be super easy for devs to transition over.
@Chris
The “shared space” isn’t exactly shared. Basically every app can write to its own application box. Each application can only write to its own application box so there is no danger of writing somewhere it shouldn’t.
Reading is another matter. Apple, right now, allows reading of other application’s boxes, so OpenClip just reads all these boxes and picks the latest paste. It is possible for ‘bad apps’ to read other pastes or to pretend to have a recent paste…but the worst that could do would be to send what you’ve copied to a server or to add some spam to your clipboard. But as it stands now, an app could send your entire address book to a remote server. The hope is Apple stops these “bad apps” through their approval process.
If anyone would like to learn more, feel free to email me at zac [a t] openclip.org. Thanks!
August 20th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Great job on this!
Now all Apple has to do is incorporate it internally!
August 20th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Am I missing something? I don’t see any info on “selection technique” It would seem the real challenge for copy and paste on an OS that has no keyboard is the gestures to do the seletion. Being able to copy a whole web page of data and past it is of marginal value. You would spend more time deleting the excess data than it would be worth.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I have never heard a more annoying and obviously uninterested speaker in my entire life. That was just freaking painful.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
what is this zero punctuation?
slow down when you talk.
your acting is so unnatural.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Apple got wrong priority’s, copy paste is very important!
August 20th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
GEEZ ! TAKE THE TIME TO BREATH!!!!!!!!! YOU SCARE ME.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Excellent program! Easy to follow, excellent examples, excellent voice, excellent graphics. Very well done!
August 20th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
If it’s not an Apple priority, then surely it can be released later anyway, especially now they’ve seen it done by a 3rd party?
August 20th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
—-
Reading is another matter. Apple, right now, allows reading of other application’s boxes, so OpenClip just reads all these boxes and picks the latest paste.
—-
This is clearly a bug on Apple’s part and it will be reported and fixed – it breaks the sandbox totally. No serious app developer for the iPhone wants other apps trolling in their Documents directory.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I think A LOT of people have been waiting for something like this. ;-)
August 20th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
How I wish I could have copied and pasted the presenter out of the screen to real life :)
August 21st, 2008 at 6:02 am
Oooh Oooh oohh!I likee.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am
You should talk slower. Super fast talking like that gives the impression you are just reading words and don’t know what they mean like a model at a car show giving a car’s specs. I realize you are tech savvy, but your delivery makes it sound like you aren’t.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:14 pm
awesome… works amazing. thnx alot.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:22 pm
You speak so fast it sounds like you are just reading copy the meaning of which is lost on you.If you slow down you will sound like you know what you are talking about which I’m sure you do.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Sorry for the double post if there is a double post. I thought my first one wasn’t posted. Delete this or any of the others as you wish to make it look reasonable.
August 21st, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Oh come on, framework….. that’s a bit strong for what it really is.
App A saves a clipboard file in a certain format (probably xml). Then App B simply reads said file. If it’s in xml format the app can use whatever bits it needs and happily ignore anything it doesn’t like.
Don’t get me wrong it’s a fantastically clever way around Apple policy, but calling it a framework is a stretch.
August 24th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Relax girl, & slow down…
A.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I really enjoyed audio only for the GeekBrief radio interview. I think audio is a better format for interviews. Video requires something that’s visually more entertaining. I also thought your audio side of the interview was the best I’ve ever heard on any podcast, great job!
September 20th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Wow… sound great… I will take a look and give openclip a try… ;-)
October 10th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Since I switched to iphone form windows mobile phone, I’ve lost the ability to: 1. listen to my voice mail…
2. usually, my prospects responding to my ad will leave their phone number, so… at the same time I’ll open up a notepad and key in the phone number…..
3. highlight and copy the number within the notepad………
4. open the phone dialer……
5. then paste this on the pad then make the call!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please someone help me accomplish this on the iphone if at all possible. I have an unlocked and unjailbroken ihpone now!
Cheers,
Soul
December 5th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
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March 13th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Interesting article, i have bookmarked your blog for future referrence
March 13th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
@JDvB http://tinyurl.com/5arr3e
March 16th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Copy and paste coming to the iPhone. Finally. http://is.gd/1Leb
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:27 am
I just love your weblog! Very nice post! Still you can do many things to improve it.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Thanks for the update! Copy and Paste for the iPhone, what next? Cut and Paste? Haha.
December 24th, 2009 at 1:41 am
Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?
December 24th, 2009 at 3:17 am
Excellent info. Thanks for sharing, Cali!
December 24th, 2009 at 3:19 am
A bit quick and have to concentrate to follow. But very informative. Thx
January 29th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
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