The dark secret behind cut-and-paste for the iPhone.

Sven Rafferty provides us the Skinny on Why the iPhone Update Lacked Cut-n-Paste and Exchange Support... if you dare to read it!

Macworld was a great time last week even if nothing ground breaking happened other than a very thin and a very expensive laptop was released.

That's an interesting perspective on it. As in, oh, isn't that guy in the leotard shouting about the "gubbermint" on the street corner interesting?

In my book...

Is your book by any chance this book?

... Apple TVs update and HD movie rentals was the big news.

Uh, didn't you just say nothing groundbreaking happened other than...

You know what? Never mind. Just continue.

But what bugged me more than anything was the lack of something and that something was the missing feature of Cut-n-Paste in the iPhone.

Behold my mighty pet peeve! Bow down before it! Worship it as your one true god as I do!

I can't understand why there isn't more of an uproar about this must-have option in such a versatile device.

Make love to it! Become one with it! Belong to it in a way that it owns your very soul! Let it keep you up at night! Waste vast reams of paper writing your cut-and-paste manifesto! Let your beard grow out!

You know what? It would be cool if the iPhone had cut-and-paste. But it's not exactly the debilitating flaw Sven makes it out to be.

But, shhh. Sven's about to tell us how many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Well, I hunted someone down at Macworld to give me the answers and after a long search and pass off after pass off from Apple employee to Apple employee, I finally got an answer.

And that answer was "Please go away crazy cut-and-paste man."

The deal is, Apple is aware of the desire for this option and it is working on it in the labs as we speak. The trouble it is having is implementation.

Hey, wait a minute! That's the same thing the cold fusion guys said!

The answer Sven got for Exchange integration was equally exacting in it's detail:

"Apple's aware of the Exchange need."

He's a regular Carl Bernstein, isn't he?

While there is a slew of other unanswered features many have called for since day one, such as voice dialing, these two were my main concern and I was glad to at least get some kind of answer.

No matter how obvious and non-committal it was.

It gets even funnier in the comments where Sven ominously notes:

With recent posts from former Apple employees whom speak of the 'Fear of Steve' from leaking any information, even after leaving the company, I'm not even going to reveal my source.

"Even after leaving the company"? Is Sven suggesting Steve has had people whacked?

Yes, I can understand the difficulty in believing all of this...

Sven, we believe it, we just don't care.

... however, other sites have been sued and shutdown by Apple with little more than I've revealed.

Tell us about the people Steve Jobs had whacked, crazy cut-and-paste guy!

I stand by what I have stated here and those that know me know I would not make up anything printed here.

Right. Well, except for that last bit.

[ssteve1]

"With recent posts from former Apple employees whom speak of the 'Fear of Steve' "

Aren't you going to skewer him for the laughably pretentious misuse of the word "whom?" If you don't, I will. I can't help it, I'm a fanboy of the English language.

[ripragged]

Hey, is that the same Sven that's in the cell phone ad, annoying the crap out of that poor family? Sounds like the same guy.

I'm afraid for him, living on the edge like that. Tell him to keep an eye out for black helicopters.

Thanks, Sven, if you're still alive.

[puiz_andras]

Most of the time, you rip ******** a second *******, and they deserve it. This post, however, leaves me scratching my head.

Sure, the piece is a bit silly, what with all the secrecy and the lack of real content, but then hundreds of such posts get published each day. I'm not sure I understand why it appeared on The Macalope's radar.

I especially don't see why the need for copy and paste warrants such harsh treatment. These are truly essential features for a smartphone, and their omission is strange at best, and a dealbreaker for some. Some people rely on copy and paste; for one, I couldn't have written this comment without using them. And when a self-respecting netizen buys a smartphone, the least he wants to be able to do with it is comment on The Macalope, isn't it?!

Sure, the iPhone sells well enough with its current functionality. It's the Jesus Phone; it's not about features but implementation; it's the experience that counts, and so on... But still. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect something as trivial as copy and paste on the best phone in the world. Even the dumbest, crappiest phones let you copy and paste phone numbers.

I believe the Furry Fury has been wasted on a less than deserving subject this time around.

[Phuul]

Maybe I've been using ever dumber and crappier cell phones, but not one of them has ever had the ability to copy and paste anything. Oh I can click a button to add a new contact for a recent caller, I can even add it to an existing contact. I can also do that on my iPhone. That is not copy and paste however.

[zerofirst]

Macalope, that was a pathetic posting on your part. Seriously, it elicited pathos. Sven's short chat with an Apple employee was used as a point of departure for a worthwhile discussion of a couple of sorely lacking features. No point in giving him both antlers. Reading your post, I had no idea that the problem was how to implement cut-and-paste within the confines of the current interface, so I'm glad I read Sven's post and read about some of the proposed solutions in the comments. I love it when you bring out the hatchet, but only when it's deserved.

[howclever]

Is it just me or does the Macalope just sound like a snotty smart ass teenager?

[MATTAND]

Longtime reader, first time caller. I'm also having a hard time understanding why Sven deserves the George Ou treatment. The X-Files type delivery was a little over-the-top, but did this guy really deserve the Furry Fury, as Puiz so eloquently put it?

IMHO, this is similar to the "How dare you badmouth Apple or the iPhone" garbage that Scott Bourne was wallowing in last year on MacBreak Weekly. Yeesh...

[illegal.alias]

Sven often states the obvious. Also, I smell a sockpuppet or two...

[ATSkyWalker]

What the heck? did your 12 year old steal your login id and post this against your will?

Listening to you on MacBreak weekly, I thought you're actually intelligent, but man, if this is not a case of "my 12 year old stole my login" or a case of "I've had to much to drink, or to smoke!" I'm sure, as obvious from most of the comments so far, that a lot of people are disappointed.

What the ****???

[tyks]

I, for one, give you 2 points for the Bothan reference.

[theoxygenthief]

What the hell is a Bothan?

[Macalope]

Really? He wanders around the floor and gets a black shirted Apple employee to tell him the obvious and counts this as some kind of big score, the kind of score Apple has shut sites down for reporting? Not to mention the fact that Rafferty is a repeat offender.

The issue is not cut-and-paste. The iPhone probably *should* have cut-and-paste. It's the over-the-top dire tone and the absurd cloak-and-dagger.

Seems pretty ridiculous to the Macalope but your objections are duly noted.

[brett_x]

I appreciated this article (The Macalope's, that is).
Maybe it's because I don't have an iPhone, but I thought it was a bit of a "slow news day" story that got followed by most of the Mac sites.
This just doesn't strike me as a "wow- we got the inside scoop" story that deserves attention. I bet you could track down 100 Apple employees that would tell you essentially the same thing- nothing but the obvious: "Apple is aware of it." If he said anything else, it might have been an interesting story to cover.

I'm with you 100% when you say : "Sven, we believe it, we just don't care."

[ripragged]

I don't think I ever disparaged the interest in a feature. Cut and paste would be lovely.

I agree with the ***** one, though, that the whole "sneaking out behind the barn to tell dirty jokes" tone of the original article was unnecessary. I live in a family of drama queens. I'm qualified to comment on the genre. Sven is definitely in the genre. I hope he's okay.

[ripragged]

Note for oxygenthief (who obviously never lusted after Carrie Fisher): "Many Bothans died to bring us this information." (Star Wars VI)

[kironin]

this was a lame post. Here it is ONE YEAR LATER, a hardware update, several system software updates and still there is no system wide cut and