iPhone 3.0 a cut-and-paste win for Twitter
The ability, with iPhone OS 3.0, to cut and paste content across applications will mean a huge boost in traffic for Twitter.
(Credit: Apple)The iPhone world is rejoicing over the "it's about time" cut-and-paste feature in the just-released 3.0 version of the device's operating system. But I'm willing to bet that another group breaking open the champagne right now is the team at Twitter.
Not to mention the makers of Twitter iPhone apps.
And why?
Everyone knows that the reason that cut-and-paste was the most-heralded new feature in iPhone OS 3.0 was that for the first time, it would allow people to move content around between applications, be it between a browser and a note, or from a weather app to a text message and so on. Clearly, then, being able to paste content into Twitter means that for the first time, using the service on an iPhone will approximate the depth of using it on a computer.
(Credit:
Twitter)
And that means that just as global Twitter awareness is going through the roof because of its role as the primary communications platform for rapid fire news developments from and related to post-election Iran, the service is going to get another massive boost from what I'm predicting will be a new huge influx of iPhone users.
Think about the tens of millions of first-gen or iPhone 3G owners, not to mention iPod Touch users, who are going to migrate to OS 3.0. And then add all the iPhone virgins whose first experiences with the device will be on a $99 iPhone 3G with OS 3.0. Or who will go straight to the 3G S.
I would argue that many of those people either have never used Twitter before or have had limited exposure to it, either on their existing iPhones or other mobile devices, or online. Now, with what is sure to be a rush of attention to the fact that it will offer never-before-seen possibilities to someone using an iPhone to participate fully on Twitter--meaning sharing ideas, copying URLs and so forth--I think Twitter is about to see a giant spike in usage.
To be sure, many people will move their already significant Twitter use from their computers to their iPhones. And already, many people are using Twitter on their iPhones every day. But adding the element of being able to paste content into your average Twitter app from elsewhere on the iPhone is going to make the service one of the biggest winners of all.
People may argue that Twitter has yet to reveal a business model, but they certainly can't argue its growth. No one knows how many new users the Iran election has brought, or will bring, Twitter. But with OS 3.0 coming hard on the heels of the turmoil in the Middle East, it's hard to imagine any one service going through two such potentially game-changing events in such a short period time.
No one, of course, could have predicted the situation in Iran. But the release on Wednesday of iPhone OS 3.0 was on everyone's radar. So I wonder if, when the Twitter team blogged about the "significantly increased" network capacity that came as a result of Tuesday's now famous server maintenance-related downtime--famous because the U.S. State Department asked Twitter to postpone the downtime in order to facilitate continued #IranElection posts--they were really hinting at the service's ability to handle any iPhone 3.0-related rush of traffic and new users.
Of course, even as Evan Williams and Biz Stone, et al., are toasting Twitter's latest good fortunes, one would imagine they're also praying to the god of server stability.
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Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
BTW Dan, you need a better proof-reader.
The new OS for me has taken it from a 'great phone' to an 'almost everything I need' phone. So waiting a year (while still using a great phone) for copy and paste is now in the past and the future is bright.
Although my twitter app on the iPhone has gone bad, so it will not be on of the first apps I use for copy and paste.
Also I have been thinking. It looks like the apps need to add this function, I wonder if some of them will not, i.e. e-book readers may not want to for fear of copyright holders coming after them...
you feel sorry for iphone users because they got a free update of a new O.S
that adds a lot of new features to a already good smartphone
and the funny part the developers have yet to take advantage of all the APIs
S it'll only get better !
@aMUSICsite & seven7dust: I feel sorry for iPhone users because they've had to put up with a half-baked device for the past two years. I personally think it's ridiculous that so-called "smartphone" would be missing such a basic feature as copy & past when their competitors have had it for years. Oh, and free OS updates aren't new. I know for a fact that Windows Mobile has been doing it for years, and I think that palm OS phones did as well back in the day. As an example, my first WM phone had an update back in 2003 (and it had cut & past, landscape keyboard, MMS, video, search straight out of the box - but I digress).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a (complete) iPhone hater. I think the iPhone is brilliant in many regards, and I agree with aMUSICsite that the future is bright. But the topic here is cut & paste and on that note, the fact is that the iPhone was years behind its competition.
You must have known what the story was about from the headline, so do you not find it also a little sad that you have taken the trouble click and respond?
Not sure that a missing copy-and-paste function qualifies as fifty percent broken although if this were true then you'd have to agree that this must be a very important update.
I see where you are coming from but try to remember that apple have been in the smartphone business for just a short amount of time compared their competition. So for a fair comparison you'd need to take a look at how other phones shook up the market early on.
Anyway, I can see the value of Twitter outside of the purely social aspect of chattering/twittering away about all and sundry. Important messages to a work group or crew, breaking news (important stuff not Octomom updates), that sort of stuff.
I heard a report the other day that 90% of all Twitter messages are made by a small percentage of people. I don't know if that is true or not or if the percentage is that high, but it sounds plausible.
if you use it like a social network to keep up with friends then yeah! it's a time waste
I use you IMs/facebook for that
But Twitter is a great way to get information you want immediately
thx to it I'm always up to date with all the stuff that interest me ,
and it luckily it works on phones too !
since when did you need to run multiple apps for copy and paste to work
plus multi-tasking on the iPhone works
it's just not available for third party apps like twitter apps/AIM etc.
but with Push notifications I would think that Some of the Needs might be taken care of !
is safari tweaks now you can open links on web sites in a new page
something that has bugged me so much that I and bought 10$ worth of third party browsers with this feature ,unfortunately none of them Worked well !
it's a must have feature for twitter, face book google search and RSS feeds or just about any website actually !
Oh well ! atleast we can finally do it now
Last year I bought a voice memo recorder app. I now like the one that comes with OS 3.0 much better than the 3rd party one. Of course that doesn't mean the developer couldn't improve on the Apple voice memo app, but the point is that some 3rd party apps may now be obsolete.
you need to tap and hold just in case you're wondering
"Cut, copy, and paste words and photos, even between applications. Copy and paste images and content from the web, too."
- by CupertinoBill June 18, 2009 3:03 PM PDT
- @mouseclick
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(22 Comments)You most certainly copy from Safari web pages, of course you can not paste into a web page unless it is into a form on the page. But you can copy, and very elegant copy feature it is. Then you can paste it anywhere. You just pick a word on the page, touch it, when the magnifier appears, let up and viola there is the copy command, the word selected with handles on front and back. Just drag the handles for the content you want and there is your copy. I have never seen a better method on any blackberry. Much better than the Pre in fact.